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COMMUNITY
Jun 18, 2000

So, uh, what century did you say this is?

Whisper it softly but these are bad times we live in, literally.
COMMUNITY
Jun 18, 2000

Learn a new language (and how!) in two weeks

Setsuko Iki may have retired in 1998 as a professor at Sanno Junior College in Tokyo, but she has not stopped working. As the leading Japanese authority on Suggestopaedia-Desuggestopaedia, systems of intensive language teaching initiated by Dr. Georgi Lozonov in Bulgaria in the 1960s and then developed...
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2000

Nissin targeted in 5 million yen extortion bid

OSAKA — Nissin Food Products Co., a leading food maker based in Osaka, received an extortion letter Wednesday containing a threat to put needles in its products unless the company pays 5 million yen, police sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2000

Yokohama sin tax prompts cries of no fair

YOKOHAMA — After Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara announced his controversial plan to impose a local tax on the city's banks earlier this year, other local governments have been searching for new revenue sources to replenish coffers drained by recession.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 18, 2000

All in the Phish phamily

At first, I felt sorry for the Americans who followed Phish across the Pacific for the band's Japan tour. I live here, and even I find the prices intolerable and the infrastructure unforgiving.
CULTURE / Art
Jun 18, 2000

Japan's premier graphic designer revisited

One of the most striking aspects of city life in Japan is the bold use of graphics: Posters and magazines continually shout for our attention on busy trains and streets. Artistically, we see the good, the bad and the ugly, but the work of Japan's first great graphic designer was consistently impressive....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 18, 2000

Three weeks is a lifetime for pet crickets

Welcome to Japan's rainy season, also known as the Insect Season. Although I live in an old Japanese house with generations of insects going back as far as the Heian Period, I also live with the comfort of knowing I'll never starve to death. "Getemono," the Japanese word for "gross things to eat," includes...
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2000

Pyongyang is 'willing' to improve Japan ties

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il indicated at this week's first-ever inter-Korean summit that he is willing to work toward normalizing ties with Japan, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official quoted South Korean President Kim Dae Jung as saying Saturday.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2000

Australian Rules militia invades Japan

Speak to an Englishman and football can only mean soccer. An American immediately dreams of the pigskin and the glory of the Super Bowl. For a Kiwi, of course, it's the scream of the Haka and the mighty All Blacks of Rugby Union fame. But to an Australian sports fan, the word can mean only one thing...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 18, 2000

Fuse burning on the Mideast powder keg

LONDON -- Ignore all the empty chatter about the future of a "Middle East peace process" that died months ago, and waste no time in futile speculation about the character of Syria's new president, mild-mannered ophthalmologist Dr. Bashar Assad. The regime that was run for the past 30 years by Bashar's...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jun 18, 2000

The end for Kim Jong Il?

My trip to North Korea 11 years ago was one of the most depressing times in my whole life. I have never seen a sadder country. It was not simply an issue of appalling poverty: In 1989, the shelves of stores in Moscow were also barren, and Beijing still sported a maze of miniature slums -- the notorious...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 18, 2000

Toshio Sugihara

Recently the College Women's Association of Japan held an anniversary celebration. "Music and Tea" was an afternoon program commemorating 25 years of the activities of Volunteers for Blind Students, a group that is part of CWAJ's education program. "In April, The Japan Vocational Development Center for...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jun 18, 2000

Never too long

I have perhaps the world's longest list of You have been here too long if. . . It is often easy to see oneself in such lists, recognizing a trait you have absorbed since living here. It has become an automatic reflex, unnoticed until you return home and realize that no one else does it. My moment of...
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2000

Racial storms in the South Pacific

A second coup attempt in the South Pacific has many wondering what has fouled the tropical air. The answer is simple: corruption and inefficiency. In both Fiji and the Solomon Islands, ethnic groups have used the cause of indigenous rights to shield practices that often verge on the criminal. Inept governments...
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2000

Empress Dowager dies at 97; family at her side

The Empress Dowager, the widow of Emperor Showa, died Friday afternoon, two days after she began experiencing breathing difficulties, the Imperial Household Agency said. She was 97.
BUSINESS
Jun 17, 2000

401(k)-type plans to appear online

man. Yamaguchi played a key role last September in the introduction of a new type of pension -- similar to the 401(k) plans used in the United States -- at Pasona Inc., the major temporary-staff agency in Tokyo where he works.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2000

Domestic violence law sought

Japan needs to enact a law to recognize domestic violence as a crime and keep abusive husbands away from victimized women, according to the head of HELP Asian Women's Shelter, a private organization that provides emergency refuge for abused women.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2000

30 million yen extortion forces drug recall

OSAKA — Santen Pharmaceutical Co., the nation's leading maker of eyedrops, has begun recalling its products after an extortionist threatened to contaminate its eyedrops with an undisclosed substance unless it pays some 30 million yen in cash.
CULTURE / Art
Jun 17, 2000

Putting things into perspective

Imagine a social mixer for celestial beings. A casual affair, a brunch maybe, with olives and wine and the tones of a harp wafting through the ether. Our God is there, looking good, and by way of introduction he reaches into his wallet and takes out some photographs to pass around for the other cosmic...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 17, 2000

Reconciliation on the horizon

The joint declaration signed between North Korea leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung during the latter's just-concluded visit to Pyongyang is a truly historic document. It will, and should, require a complete reassessment of what is and is not possible regarding North-South reconciliation...
CULTURE / Art
Jun 17, 2000

Sculptures that capture the mysterious rhythms of nature

The press release for the sculptor Susumu Shingu's "Wind Caravan" project opens charmingly with a quote from Christina Rossetti: "Who has seen the wind? Neither you nor I, but when the trees bow down their heads, the wind is blowing by."
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Jun 17, 2000

A tribute to Japanese world music

In two previous columns (Feb. 5 and May 20) I wrote about recently established live-music houses, WAON in Nippori and Manabiya in Yokohama, where one can hear hogaku. The familiar settings of these spaces allow for an intimate connection with the music, which ranges from relatively unknown young musicians...
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2000

Students schooled in politics, not apathy

Hiroshi Harada, a 23-year-old associate of the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management, better known as Matsushita Seikei Juku, gets up before 6 a.m. every day, does exercises to an NHK radio program and cleans up around the institute's main gate with other associates.
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2000

Microsoft, Hitachi tie on systems solutions

Major Japanese electronics maker Hitachi Ltd. and U.S. software giant Microsoft Corp. said Thursday they have agreed to cooperate in the systems solutions business.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2000

Surveillance is unnecessary as cult poses no danger, Aum leader claims

Aum Shinrikyo chief Tatsuko Muraoka testified during the first hearing of a lawsuit filed against the Public Security Examination Commission that ongoing surveillance of the cult under the anti-Aum law is unnecessary as it no longer poses a threat to society.
EDITORIALS
Jun 16, 2000

Progress in Pyongyang

It has been a historic week on the Korean Peninsula. The summit between the leaders of North and South Korea, Mr. Kim Jong Il and Mr. Kim Dae Jung, has surpassed all expectations. It is tempting to say that the two men are writing the final chapter of the Cold War, but the temptation should be resisted....
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2000

Comsn cuts jobs due to profit decline

Major home-care service provider Comsn Co. announced Thursday that it plans to cut about 1,000 jobs, or about one-quarter of its workforce, due to weaker-than-expected earnings from services covered by the newly launched public nursing-care insurance.
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2000

NTT to offer untimed Net access

Two local Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. group firms said Thursday that they will launch July 17 a full-scale flat-rate Internet connection service for integrated service digital network subscribers.
MORE SPORTS
Jun 16, 2000

Dedication the name of the game for aerobics 'queen'

OK, maybe I'm not in the best shape of my life, but does she really have to rub it in?

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’