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CULTURE / Books
Mar 7, 2000

Puppets seen through the bars

THE FUNERAL OF A GIRAFFE and Other Stories, by Tomioka Taeko. Translated by Kyoko Selden and Mizuta Noriko. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 182 pp., $21.95. Originally a poet, Taeko Tomioka turned to fiction later in her career, after the breakup of a long-term relationship and a return to her native Osaka....
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2000

Pyongyang abductees' kin hold sit-in

About 50 relatives and supporters of Japanese believed to have been abducted by Pyongyang agents and taken to North Korea staged a sit-in Monday in front of the Foreign Ministry to protest the government's plan to resume food aid to the Stalinist state.
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2000

Market ready to take off

The key Nikkei average is hovering around 20,000, shrugging off worries about corporate sales to unwind cross-shareholding ties.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 7, 2000

Wanderlust and a pair of steel wheels

MOTORCYCLE VAGABONDING IN JAPAN, by Guy De La Rupelle, contributions by Owen Stinger. North Conway, New Hampshire, U.S.: Whitehorse Press, 1999; 255 pp., $19.95. With city centers in permanent gridlock and the availability of train and bus service decreasing in direct proportion to the distance from...
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2000

Arabian Oil set to reduce Japan workforce by 45%

Arabian Oil Co., Japan's largest oil producer, announced Monday that it will cut its Japanese workforce by 45 percent as part of its operational restructuring efforts following the loss of oil drilling concessions in Saudi Arabia.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 7, 2000

Beers, cheers and sneers -- Guitar Wolf will eat you alive

Beer. Beer. Beer. And some more beer. The world of Guitar Wolf is an ocean of beer, and if there are any islands of sobriety they are small and infrequent and the chances of coming across one are slim indeed.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 7, 2000

Colorful slivers of daily life in Thailand

GULFS OF THAILAND: A Collection of Short Stories, by Michael Smithies. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books, 1999, 136 pp. (paper). This is the second collection of Thai stories by Michael Smithies. The first, "Bright of Bangkok," was published, also by Silkworm Books, in 1993. Smithies has spent many...
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2000

Ruble's demise dents used-car trade

TAKAOKA, Toyama Pref. -- The significance of this month's presidential elections in Russia and their effect on the ruble's value are not lost on Kaneo Sato.
EDITORIALS
Mar 6, 2000

Aiming at a million

It had to happen. The slick but savvy TV quiz show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?," which first took Britain by storm and then went on to conquer America, is poised to invade Japan. Fuji Television announced last month that it will begin airing a tailored-for-Japan version of the show -- to be called...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2000

U.S. left its mark on Japanese education

HONOLULU -- Japanese-U.S. cultural relations are filled with ironies. Perhaps the greatest is that many of the thousands of foreigners hired by the Japanese government during the Meiji Era (1868-1912) are far better known in Japan than they are in their own countries. A second fascinating irony is that...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2000

The risks of banking on Japan's future

SYDNEY -- The near-zero interest-rate policy pursued so doggedly by Japan's government and central bank has created an incentive structure for corporate managers that encourages bank borrowing rather than turning to security markets for investment funds. In so doing, corporate borrowers face less pressure...
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2000

Tokyo plans meeting with Beijing, Seoul

Japan intends to hold the first-ever trilateral meeting among foreign ministers of Japan, China and South Korea in Bangkok in late July, government sources said Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2000

Clinton's tightrope act in South Asia

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- U.S. President Bill Clinton's upcoming visit to South Asia is praiseworthy, but critics have raised questions concerning the presidential trip.
EDITORIALS
Mar 5, 2000

The public interest must be served

Japan's journalists, editors and broadcasters -- indeed, representatives of all of the popular media -- received a stunning surprise from the Osaka High Court last week. In a historic decision with potentially far-reaching consequences, the presiding judge overturned a lower-court ruling that had ordered...
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2000

Firms moving to push employees out

More and more firms are stepping up downsizing programs by transferring staff to subsidiaries or offering generous retirement deals, according to a survey released Saturday by Japan's largest trade union group.
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2000

Debit cards aim to break spending habits

Full-scale use of the debit card system, which allows consumers to pay for purchases with ordinary bank cards, is to begin in Japan on Monday amid hopes that it will alter the deeply ingrained habit of consumers paying in cash and also become an effective business tool.
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2000

Visaless family seeks resident status

KOBE -- For over six years, 40-year-old Peruvian Jose could enjoy his stay in Japan, where he had a stable job at a leather processing factory and his family had a peaceful life in Tatsuno, Hyogo Prefecture.
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2000

Shop plaza taps 'platinum' generation for jobs, revival

NAGAHAMA, Shiga Pref. -- Although Tamae Shibata has many hobbies to pick from to bide her time, they offer the 71-year-old little satisfaction.
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2000

Legislation sought to ban gene-based discrimination

The government should enact legislation to ban discrimination based on genes, according to a draft report compiled by a subcommittee of the Council for Science and Technology, an advisory panel to Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 5, 2000

Er, dyu know wot they mean?

My man Toshi and I discussed the new Oasis single on the way to the opening concert of the band's world tour at Yokohama Arena last Tuesday. What is Noel Gallagher telling people to "let out" in the chorus of "Go Let It Out?" I think he's talking about people's illusions of the real world, how you've...
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2000

Game fans snap up PlayStation2

More than 7,000 stores nationwide started selling at 7 a.m. Saturday an advanced version of the popular PlayStation game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
COMMUNITY
Mar 5, 2000

Researcher dives deep, flies high, blows bubbles

Minoru Yamada thinks there is something rather beautiful -- poetic even -- about the location of the headquarters of JAMSTEC (Japan Marine Science and Technology Center) in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. And this has nothing to do with being right beside the sea, with a great view across Tokyo Bay to...
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Mar 5, 2000

The arts

A woman who first came to Japan some 40 years ago remembers that in those days there were many dinner clubs that featured dancing and floor shows. One act she has never forgotten: A Chinese family sat in a row at a table with the grandmother in the middle and the youngest at the two ends. They were dressed...
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2000

IOC wining-dining ban puts Games bid in bind

OSAKA -- Enthusiasm for Osaka's 2008 Olympic bid continues to fade after the International Olympic Committee announced strict conditions on candidate cities.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 5, 2000

Dynamo Chung generates musical electricity with French National

Orchestre National de France

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji