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JAPAN
Jul 5, 1999

Corporate pessimism on wane, latest 'tankan' shows

Japan's corporations have become more optimistic in the past three months, logging an improvement in business confidence for the second time in a row, the Bank of Japan's latest "tankan" business sentiment survey shows.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 1999

Ambassador gives India's side of Kashmir story

India is ready to talk only after Pakistan withdraws its troops from Kashmir, Indian Ambassador to Japan Siddharth Singh said Monday.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 1999

Parents unprepared for child seat law

Staff writer
JAPAN
Jul 5, 1999

Concrete chunk falls from bullet train bridge

OSAKA -- A chunk of concrete measuring 6 cm by 12 cm and weighing roughly 200 grams was found broken off an elevated bridge supporting a portion of the Sanyo Shinkansen track between Himeji and Aioi in Hyogo Prefecture, West Japan Railway Co. officials said Monday.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 1999

Rengo seeks 14 trillion yen supplementary budget

The Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) on Monday urged the government to compile a 14 trillion yen supplementary budget for fiscal 1999 to create more jobs and to rejuvenate the nation's economy, Rengo officials said Monday.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 1999

Extra budget to be submitted Thursday

The government on Thursday will submit a fiscal 1999 supplementary budget to the Diet after having it approved by Cabinet ministers the same day, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 1999

A paler shade of Green hurts Germany

The German Green party is in the midst of a major identity crisis -- struggling between the ideals that have been the motor of its very existence and the pragmatism required of a junior coalition partner of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's (barely) left of center government. A new generation of Greens,...
EDITORIALS
Jul 4, 1999

Stone the crows!

Tokyo, Scene 1: A man is waiting patiently for a bus in Roppongi, thinking about nothing, minding his own business. Suddenly, out of a clear blue sky, a bomber-shaped bird watching from atop an adjacent building delivers its payload. Splat! Dabbing at the white mess dripping down his jacket, the victim...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 1999

Promise of autonomy fades in Hong Kong

HONG KONG -- Right from the start, the current legal and political case concerning "right of abode" in Hong Kong has been a journalist's nightmare. Highly complex, profoundly nuanced, and containing contradictory strands, the case was impervious to easy simplification. Both sides to the dispute could...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 4, 1999

Slurp noodles right with the lip-o-suction method

Japanese people can eat a bowl of noodles in just five minutes. That's because they don't chew. Real noodle connoisseurs know that the taste of the noodle is felt in the throat, not the tongue, so to appreciate the true flavor of noodles, you must swallow them whole. I wonder how the stomach feels about...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jul 4, 1999

Happy holiday

The U.S. celebration of independence does not always fall on a column day and even when it does, I rarely write about it. There are some 153 diplomatic missions represented in Tokyo and they all have national days that could be noted. But then, once in a while I do. Once I wrote how Japan had honored...
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1999

Pair arrested over Net-based sales scam

OSAKA -- Two men were arrested here Friday on suspicion of posting false advertisements to sell computers and watches on an Internet Web site and swindling money out of potential customers, police said.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1999

State posts '98 surplus despite revenue shortfall

State tax revenues for fiscal 1998 totaled 49.42 trillion yen, falling 747.1 billion yen short of estimates and slipping below 50 trillion yen for the first time in 11 years, the Finance Ministry said Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1999

Telecom Realignment: Newcomers may have edge on NTT

Last in a series
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 2, 1999

Teshigawara gets down to 'Absolute Zero'

It's hard to imagine Saburo Teshigawara ever coming up with a solo to rival "Absolute Zero," his work currently in production at Setagaya Public Theater.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1999

401(K): Principal seeks market entry, potential partner

Staff writer
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1999

Police grill suspect in abduction of girl, 8

Police are questioning a man in connection with the suspected abduction Saturday of an 8-year-old girl who was found safe Thursday in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward, they said Friday. Further information about the man was not provided.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1999

Economy, nice weather bring lower carbon dioxide levels

Japan's emissions of greenhouse gases decreased marginally in fiscal 1997, according to an Environment Agency report presented Friday to the Cabinet.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 2, 1999

Sleater-Kinney rocks solid, but dig that crazy backbeat

Is Janet Weiss the best rock drummer in the world? That question crossed my mind last January when I saw her and her ex-husband Sam Coomes, collectively known as Quasi, open for Elliott Smith. Though Coomes is the focus of the duo since he writes and sings almost all the songs, Weiss's contribution was...
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1999

NTT ordered to probe allegations of customer data leak

Executives of the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone group were asked Friday to investigate allegations that more than 10 of its employees released private data on NTT subscribers, officials of the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry said.
EDITORIALS
Jul 1, 1999

Serving justice in Turkey

To no one's surprise, a Turkish court earlier this week found Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan guilty of murder and treason and sentenced him to hang. The 14-year war waged by Kurdish separatists has claimed more than 30,000 lives; the measures taken by the Turkish government to combat the insurgency...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 1999

East Timorese exile recounts the horrors of Indonesia's quarter-century occupation

Special to The Japan Times When Bella Galhos packed up her Indonesian military youth-corps uniform and shipped it off to the Indonesian government from Canada, she was saying goodbye to a dangerous double life and was beginning her crusade to inform people about a genocide that has largely been hidden...
JAPAN
Jul 1, 1999

NTT now holding company, three carriers

Monolithic NTT Corp. reorganized Thursday in a step being watched by a rapidly transforming telecom industry eager to learn whether the move will foster competition or make the giant even stronger.
JAPAN
Jul 1, 1999

Japan, U.S. settle procurement row with voluntary rules

SAN FRANCISCO -- Japan and the United States on Wednesday concluded talks here on equipment procurement procedures for Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., agreeing to allow the Japanese telecom giant to introduce voluntary procurement rules.
JAPAN
Jul 1, 1999

MITI knocks latest U.S. dumping charge

Vice trade minister Osamu Watanabe expressed deep regret Thursday about the latest dumping charge filed by U.S. steelmakers against Japanese imports.
JAPAN
Jul 1, 1999

Yamaichi bankruptcy lawyers may sue former auditor

The head of a team of lawyers assigned with liquidating assets of failed Yamaichi Securities Co. hinted Thursday that they may sue the brokerage's former auditor, Chuo Audit Corp.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 1, 1999

Wood blocks carved from nostalgia

Tsuzen Nakajima's woodblock prints trigger memories in the same way certain melodies or particular scenes may whisk us back to pleasant moments of the past. Nakajima depicts the landscapes of Japan and often uses geta, Japanese umbrellas or tatami rooms as his subjects, complementing those backgrounds...
COMMUNITY
Jul 1, 1999

No sacrifice made in taste of new low-malt beers

A high tax rate is to blame for remarkably expensive beer in Japan. Current taxation is 222 yen per liter, pushing the price of an ordinary 350-ml can of beer to 225 yen.
COMMUNITY
Jul 1, 1999

The Hunt for ultimate beauty is on

Makeup artist Maggie Hunt is a wanted woman.
JAPAN
Jul 1, 1999

Temporary housing closed to quake victims

Staff writer

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