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CULTURE / Music
May 5, 2000

Healing with grassroots harmony

Japanese-Jamaican-Korean fusion? Korean-flavored Japanese rock with a bit of Memphis blues thrown in? It's hard to put a label on the multiethnic multigenre sounds of the Pak Poe Band.
JAPAN
May 4, 2000

Bureaucracy had large role in political power play

Kyodo News On the night of April 2, when then Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi suffered a stroke and fell into a coma, Teijiro Furukawa was one of the few people immediately informed, and he promptly busied himself arranging for a smooth transfer of power.
JAPAN
May 4, 2000

Should Constitution lead or follow?

Wednesday marked the first time Constitution Day -- commemorating the day the document was put into effect in 1947 -- coincided with lawmakers locking horns over whether to change the sacred charter.
JAPAN
May 4, 2000

Japan targets more whale species

The Japanese government plans to expand the number of whale species it can catch, ostensibly for scientific research, to include the sperm whale and Bryde's whale, sources close to the situation said Wednesday.
LIFE / Digital
May 4, 2000

Internet radio islands floating in the stream

In a study released earlier this year, Arbitron/Edison Media Research dubbed people who listen to radio over the Internet "streamies." Bored with local programming, streamies tune in to radio stations streaming over the World Wide Web.
JAPAN
May 4, 2000

Location of leader's summit hinges on the whim of nature

OSAKA — It's billed as the Kyushu-Okinawa Summit, but if Mother Nature turns capricious, then this year's Group of Eight gathering may be forced to a different venue.
LIFE / ALTERNATIVE LUXURIES
May 4, 2000

Threads of culture weave picture of a wider world

One of the great paradoxes of world travel (especially that which is slow and makes intimate contact with the peoples of other lands) is that the traveler returns with a greater appreciation of what is valuable and troubled in her own native land. Talking with fabric artist and mother Keiko Haraguchi,...
BUSINESS
May 4, 2000

Cameras clash over digital divide

The Japanese camera market is splitting into opposite directions, with high-tech digital models catching consumers' fancy while old-fashioned range finders are staging a strong comeback.
JAPAN
May 4, 2000

Convict transfer agreement likely to be ratified in 2001

The Justice Ministry will seek Diet approval for the ratification of an international convention on prisoner transfers during an ordinary session to open early next year, it was learned Wednesday.
BUSINESS
May 4, 2000

Retailers forced to change their ways

Browsing through the array of goods -- from kitchenware to clothing -- at a new outlet in the Shinjuku branch of the Isetan department store in Tokyo, the price tags may surprise you: 900 yen for a nylon tote bag, 1,900 yen for a T-shirt, 550 yen for a ceramic mug.
LIFE / Style & Design / BEAUTY EAST AND WEST
May 4, 2000

How to hang on to luscious locks

Rakugami, kuzume: When you're happy, your hair grows; / when sad, your fingernails -- Japanese proverb
COMMENTARY
May 4, 2000

Will Clinton crumble again?

If Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's overseas foreign-policy tour this week has a theme, it is "coverup" and "damage control." Mori, known as a colorless political fixer, has been tasked with assuring foreign leaders that the July G8 summit will go forward successfully no matter what happens on the Japanese...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 4, 2000

Enough to drive a person to distraction

Is he staying or is he going? This is the question being asked ad nauseam about Japan's national soccer coach Philippe Troussier.
JAPAN / History
May 4, 2000

MacArthur pondered Showa conversion

Gen. Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander during the Allied Occupation of Japan, once considered attempting to convert Emperor Showa to Christianity, a diary of the U.S. secretary of the Navy shows.
COMMENTARY / World
May 4, 2000

Russia struggles to stem the tide of illegal Chinese immigration to Primorye region

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- Inspector Alexander Torenko is in a philosophical frame of mind as he drives toward a staging point for a raid on a compound of warehouses and makeshift apartment rooms where Chinese illegal aliens live.
JAPAN
May 3, 2000

Sexual harassment consultations up 35%

There were nearly 9,500 consultations over cases of workplace sexual harassment in Japan in fiscal 1999, up about 35 percent from the previous year, according to a Labor Ministry report released Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 3, 2000

Harmonica craze hits high note

Considering he's been out of work for over seven months, you'd expect Yusuke Ozaki's harmonica playing to hit a melancholic note.
JAPAN
May 3, 2000

Constitution writer backs limited role for SDF

A former officer of the GHQ of the Allied Forces who helped draft Japan's postwar Constitution suggested Tuesday that the nation's possession of armed forces and their roles be clearly written down in the supreme law.
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 2000

Regaining the spirit of prewar Japan

The budget committees of both Houses of the Diet met April 24 and 25 to hear Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's views on various matters facing his new Cabinet. Throughout both days, he answered questions from the opposition parties. As a result, he seems to have cleared his first hurdle as the head of government....
BUSINESS
May 3, 2000

Exchange unveils new face with opening of TSE Arrows

The Tokyo Stock Exchange unveiled the TSE Arrows information center, a new face of the stock exchange designed to enhance the exchange between investors and listed companies, during a press preview Tuesday.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 3, 2000

Eyes front

It's that time again. Time to talk about time. I'll try to be brief, since there is so little time for a chat. Or for much anything else.
BUSINESS
May 3, 2000

Financial sector recovering: S&P

Japan's financial sector is gradually recovering, thanks to the progress banks have made in dealing with asset quality issues and the prospect of better economic conditions. But recovery in the industry is expected to be slow at best, Standard & Poor's said Tuesday.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes