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JAPAN
Dec 7, 1999

Property appraisals to trigger drop in land taxes

Appraisal prices of commercial and residential land -- a basis for calculating the next fiscal year's property taxes -- are an average of 5.9 percent lower than those for this year, according to the Home Affairs Ministry. Based on the new evaluation, it is now expected that the nation's residential...
JAPAN
Dec 7, 1999

Isuzu nears agreement on China bus venture

Staff writer GUANGZHOU, China -- Isuzu Motor Co., a Japanese truck and bus maker, will reach a basic agreement with local authorities, possibly by the end of the month, over a joint venture to produce large buses here, a local government official said Tuesday. Zhang Guang-nin, deputy mayor of Guangzhou,...
JAPAN
Dec 7, 1999

Waterway quality still stagnant, EPA report shows

A survey of water quality in the nation's rivers, coastal areas and lakes showed little change in fiscal 1998 compared with the year before, according to a report released by the Environment Agency on Tuesday. In one portion of the annual study, 7,290 locations were checked to see whether water met...
JAPAN
Dec 6, 1999

Mori floats moratorium on banning corporate donations

Yoshiro Mori, the Liberal Democratic Party's No. 2 man, proposed on Monday a three-month moratorium on the planned ban on corporate donations to individual politicians, but denied speculation the move is designed to cause a rush to collect funds before a Lower House election. The revised Political Funds...
JAPAN
Dec 6, 1999

Shinagawa parents take chance on new schools

About 13 percent of parents in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward have decided to send their children to schools outside of their conventional districts next year under a unique system that starts in April, officials said Monday. Under the system, the first of its kind in the country, children scheduled to attend...
JAPAN
Dec 6, 1999

Pearl Harbor: Memo sheds light on Japan's failure to make a 'declaration' of war

It is popularly believed in Japan that the country would have been spared the disgrace of carrying out a "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor if Tokyo's final memorandum to U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull in Washington had been delivered prior to its launch as planned. But a former diplomat says he has...
EDITORIALS
Dec 5, 1999

Aum's surprise expression of 'regret'

Never able to stay out of the news for long, the Aum Shinrikyo cult made headlines last week, but this time with deliberate intent. The unprecedented formal admission by its current acting leader, Ms. Tatsuko Muraoka, that some of the cult's members were indeed involved in the series of crimes of which...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Dec 5, 1999

New entry

I have long relationships with some of my readers. One contacted me first with a challenging project -- teaching her cat to use a scratch post -- and moved on through a wedding at a shrine and later a divorce, and finally the establishment of her own business. We have never met but we are friends so...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 5, 1999

Fantasy, drama: visions of a blind artist

When Carter's, the biggest children's clothes maker in the U.S., chose to use blind artist Emu Namae's pastel drawings on their children's line, new doors opened in Namae's life.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 5, 1999

Born to fail the Japanese proficiency test

Today at this very moment, while you are reading this newspaper, myself, as well as thousands of other foreigners in Japan, are failing the Japanese Proficiency Test.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 5, 1999

Down Under music with Asian flair

The renowned Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe vividly recalls gifts he received as a young boy growing up in 1930s rural Tasmania, given to him by family friends on return from Japan. One gift was a much-thumbed children's version of the "Tale of Genji," the other a cardboard-cutout castle.
EDITORIALS
Dec 4, 1999

An empty place at the Washington Zoo

People in Washington were saddened this week by the death of a local favorite. By all accounts, so were people much farther afield -- as far away even as China, where the deceased was born 28 years ago. If that sounds young, it wasn't: This was no scion of an American dynasty, no rising political star,...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 1999

In Britain now, 'tis the season to be silly

Not with a bang but a whimper, last month Britain's hereditary lords slid out of their ermine robes and off the scarlet-padded benches and retired to their country seats. A line of continuity from feudalism has finally been broken.
CULTURE / Art
Dec 4, 1999

Folk painting from roadside to museum

The world of the minga, "folk painting," is one of subtle beauty created by the countless unknown artists who draw on rich crafts traditions for inspiration. The end result of these unknown artists is refreshingly simple, unaffected works of art. Opportunities to view the work of these unheralded artists...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Dec 4, 1999

The buzz in Washington: New Millennium parties and would-be new presidents

WASHINGTON -- I experienced some interesting feelings as I typed in the date on this piece. We writers and pundits will have an emotional ride during the next few weeks as we put pen to paper -- or fingers to keyboard -- for the last time in this century and millennium. The temptations are rife: to be...
CULTURE / Art / ARTS AND ARTISANS
Dec 4, 1999

Drumming up business for 300 years

The first musical instruments humans ever invented were believed to be those of percussion. The oldest drum, discovered in Moravia, dates back to 6000 B.C.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Dec 4, 1999

Innovative star takes the stage

Those who appreciate the finest koto and shamisen music will be familiar with the name of Satomi Fukami. Fukami is considered to be one of the most innovative of all mid-career hogaku performers. She developed a highly disciplined style based on classics combined with a modern sensibility. This enables...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 4, 1999

Exorcising demons of relentlessly passing time

Miyako Ishiuchi underwent an experience in her late 20s that was, if not entirely unique, certainly highly unusual: She became entranced with photography because of its smell.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 1999

Delegation urges resumption of talks with Pyongyang

Representatives of a nonpartisan mission that returned from a trip to North Korea on Friday urged Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi to work toward a quick resumption of normalization talks with the Stalinist country. Former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, who headed the delegation, and two other representatives...
JAPAN
Dec 3, 1999

Health bureaucrats' investment prowess questioned

Staff writer One of the world's largest institutional investors with pension assets worth 140 trillion yen will come into being if a package of pension reform bills currently under deliberation is approved by the Diet. The main pillar of the pension reforms, being pushed by the ruling coalition in...
COMMENTARY
Dec 3, 1999

Bully politics back in vogue

Many important bills are pending in the current extraordinary Diet session that closes Dec. 15, and the government and the ruling tripartite coalition no doubt are considering an extension of the session. The three opposition parties, meanwhile, are gearing up to quash the bills and present a no-confidence...
JAPAN
Dec 3, 1999

Neon no aurora for flyboy cabby

Staff writer Tokyo's nighttime neon casts a flickering rainbow through Masaharu Satoh's taxi -- a poor substitute for his former life, but it will do for now. Putting on his sunglasses and cap, with a tug of the steering wheel, Satoh takes off into the clouds, the hustle and bustle and high-rises reduced...
EDITORIALS
Dec 2, 1999

Citizen 'subversives' in our midst?

One person's definition of public security will not be the same as another's. Concepts of what constitutes the peace, safety and order of society -- and perhaps more importantly, what endangers them -- also change at different periods of history. With the Cold War long over, however, most unbiased observers...
JAPAN
Dec 2, 1999

Y2K poll finds homes wary but unprepared

Roughly two out of three households responding to a recent survey said they were unconcerned about possible computer problems related to the start of 2000 and nearly 50 percent said they would not stock up on food and water as suggested by the government. With less than a month to go before the fated...
JAPAN
Dec 2, 1999

Filipino teen recalls sexploitation, Japanese tricks

KAWASAKI -- A 15-year-old Filipino girl told a group of Japanese high school students of her experiences of being sexually exploited by foreign travelers and called for a world in which children's rights are not abused. Raised by poor relatives, of whom she only remembers "shouting and slapping," after...
JAPAN
Dec 2, 1999

DPJ giving up its 'well mannered' style

Staff writer In an effort to turn itself from a "well-mannered" party into an "aggressive" force, the Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition party, is beginning to square up to the ruling coalition. "We used to work hard to provide counterproposals (to the ruling alliance) because we thought...
EDITORIALS
Dec 1, 1999

ASEAN's confidence returns

Southeast Asia is back. That is the message sent by leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations last weekend after their annual two-day summit. With member economies set to expand between 2 and 3 percent this year and looking forward to "higher and sustainable growth" in the future, the heads...
JAPAN
Dec 1, 1999

Beethoven concert to fete students' wartime sendoff

Staff writer
JAPAN
Dec 1, 1999

Grocers' group aids family businesses

Staff writer
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Dec 1, 1999

The top of the world

Tengboche Monastery is the oldest Buddhist monastery in Nepal. Founded in 1916 by Lama Gulu, the building itself has been destroyed and rebuilt twice. Today it is home to 50 monks and hosts about 22,000 visitors each year

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’