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LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 9, 2000

Ryohana: brilliantly competent, and proud of it

The late Jerry Garcia, former Grateful Dead lead guitarist, was once asked in an interview if he would like to be considered a great musician. With characteristic modesty, he waved the idea off as something in which he had no interest. After a moment of thought, however, he responded: "I would like to...
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2000

MOX OK with Kepco, scandal or no

OSAKA -- After five months of denial and public assurances that nothing was wrong, Kansai Electric Power Co. has admitted it failed to properly investigate charges of data falsification at a British manufacturer of uranium-plutonium mixed oxide fuel intended for use in Fukui Prefecture nuclear reactors....
EDITORIALS
Mar 8, 2000

The right connections

Market watchers worldwide are all abuzz about the "globalization of the American economic model." By that they mean the rising contribution of the information-technology sector to economic growth, the soaring valuations of Internet-related stocks and the use of those shares to finance highly leveraged...
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2000

Life of North Korean spy laid bare

When Pak Chung Sun met her former boyfriend in Seoul in January, he was no longer the reticent, tender-hearted gentleman with whom she had lived a quarter of a century ago in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2000

DaimlerChrysler, MMC mull equity, output tieup

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is negotiating with DaimlerChrysler AG about a comprehensive alliance that would give the world's fifth-largest automaker an equity stake in the Japanese carmaker, sources said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2000

Technical assistance planned to combat pollution in Iran

Japan is considering a comprehensive package of technical and financial assistance programs to help Iran fight the increasingly acute problem of air pollution, especially in Tehran, according to government sources.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 8, 2000

The check's in the e-mail

My wallet bulges, but it isn't because of money. No, it is a hefty critter because it's stuffed with train passes, metro passes, telephone cards, bank cards, credit cards, ID cards, point cards for individual stores, video store cards, meishi from people and restaurants, and random scraps of paper littered...
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2000

Toshiba, GE to link up in automation

Toshiba Corp. will set up a joint venture in October with General Electric Co. of the United States in the field of industrial automation systems, Toshiba announced on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2000

Educating girls means better lives for all

Shalina is a Bangladeshi girl who is about to finish school. But for Shalina, there will be no pre-exam jitters, no university applications, no diplomas, no career plans. There will not even be a graduation. Shalina is 13, and she is about to join 73 million school-age girls around the world who are...
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2000

Cash, cops keep officer's stalking quiet

OSAKA -- An Osaka police officer paid 1 million yen to a woman two years ago to privately settle a complaint that he harassed her by repeatedly asking her to go out with him, prefectural police revealed Tuesday.
LIFE / Travel
Mar 8, 2000

Steaming winter away in Yamagata

Water's three states converge at ground level in Yamagata Prefecture in winter: The white stuff never seems to stop falling, and the hot spring water never fails to bubble up, sending steam into the chilly air.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2000

Recovery mood to yield brisk April activity

Much of the uptrend in share prices has run out of steam as corporate investors stepped up sales to take profits and unwind cross-shareholding ties.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Mar 8, 2000

Where it counts

People would often like to take their vacations in Japan to learn more of the history and culture, but when they start checking, they discover the price is too high and end up in other Asian countries that offer multi-bargains. A reader has heard of the new low fares soon to be available within Japan...
LIFE / Travel
Mar 8, 2000

The Horai in Atami: A reputation so good it's true

The pride of Horai is Hashiri no Yu, an outdoor bath reached via a steep lantern-lit path. While the maid prepared our room for dinner, we soaked in the waters of the onsen, watching the island hills change from misty gray through pink, blue and purple to black, as the sun set over the bay.
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2000

Mother says she's sorry for killing friend's baby

A 36-year-old woman pleaded guilty Monday to killing a 2-year-old girl in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward last November and burying her body in Shizuoka Prefecture. She also apologized to the victim's family.
EDITORIALS
Mar 7, 2000

A message of peace ignored

Pope John Paul II, the most traveled pontiff in history, continues his efforts to bridge the gap between faiths. It is, many admit, an almost impossible mission. As he embarked on his most recent trip, for example, violence between Muslims and Christians exploded in Nigeria. Yet the worsening religious...
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2000

Toyota to purchase 5% stake in Yamaha's motorcycle unit

In a bid to improve cooperation in the development of engines, Toyota Motor Corp. will soon purchase from Yamaha Corp. an equity stake of about 5 percent in motorcycle maker Yamaha Motor Co.
COMMUNITY
Mar 7, 2000

Town makes returns on back of boomerang boom

TOKAMACHI, Niigata Pref. -- Uninformed visitors to Tokamachi might be forgiven for thinking the small, central Niigata Prefecture city has a problem with UFOs.
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2000

Family spending drops for fifth straight month

Japan's household spending dropped an inflation-adjusted 3.2 percent in January from a year earlier for the fifth monthly decline in a row, the Management and Coordination Agency said Monday.
COMMENTARY
Mar 7, 2000

E-nough of this e-mania

E-commerce fever has spread from the United States to Europe and Japan. New e-commerce companies are mushrooming everywhere and new issues are snapped up even if there is no prospect of profits for years. Young men and women with a bright e-commerce idea become millionaires overnight. The feverish demand...
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.

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’