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JAPAN
Sep 28, 1999

New WTO chief to visit Tokyo next week

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 28, 1999

Asian Y2K experts conclude confab with vigilance vow

Asian policy coordinators for the Y2K problem concluded their two-day meeting Tuesday in Tokyo with a pledge to continue efforts to accelerate their preparations for contingencies that the millennium glitch might trigger at the turn of the century.
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Sep 28, 1999

Afrobeat lights up the dance floors

Strange how music trends seem to go around in circles. Since spearheading the world music boom at the end of the '80s, African music sales have been on a downward spiral for much of this decade. Now in the form of Afrobeat, the music is making a strong comeback and sweeping dance floors around the world....
JAPAN
Sep 28, 1999

IOC members head for Osaka despite travel-ban proposal

OSAKA -- Although an advisory panel to the International Olympic Committee recommended this past weekend that IOC members be banned from traveling to candidate cities, at least 11 members are expected to visit Osaka next month for a meeting of top-level sports executives.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 1999

Amnesty International fetes the Year of Child

Amnesty will stage its annual Tokyo charity concert Oct. 3 with one of Tokyo's longest-running bands, the Howling Loochie Brothers, providing music to get people up and dancing.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 1999

Japan, Laos to sign aid agreement

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 27, 1999

Nissan lends Hypermini for transport system tests

Nissan Motor Co. will put its Hypermini electric car through its paces in two experimental transportation projects before the car's expected debut in February, the automaker announced Monday.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 1999

Storm-delayed MOX ship docks amid tight security

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 27, 1999

MOX ships said prone to attack, accident

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 27, 1999

Top Iranian official to begin six-day visit next week

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 27, 1999

Groups finagle free flights home for Taiwan students

A Kobe-based group of volunteers said Monday they will support and encourage Taiwanese exchange students in Japan with financial difficulties to return to Taiwan so that they can assist with the recovery from last Tuesday's earthquake there.
EDITORIALS
Sep 25, 1999

Cold War leftovers

"There's no such thing as retirement, really," John le Carre's secret pilgrim muses in the 1991 spy novel of that name. A few old spies in Britain and the United States have been sharply reminded of the truth of that aphorism this month following sensational revelations that the Cold War espionage web...
JAPAN
Sep 24, 1999

Toyota unveils remodeled Crown series

In an attempt to stimulate the market for large passenger cars, Toyota Motor Corp. on Friday launched a fully remodeled lineup of its flagship luxury sedan, the Crown.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 1999

Finance officials, entrepreneurs hit it off in rare meeting

It could have been an odd combination: Financial Ministry officials -- who are often criticized for mismanaged economic policy -- and the nation's leading entrepreneurs like Softbank Corp.'s Masayoshi Son -- who don't want government intervention.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 1999

PC giants to merge monitor operations

In a move to compete against Taiwanese and South Korean rivals, NEC Corp. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. will merge their domestic and overseas computer monitor operations next January, officials of the two firms announced Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 1999

MOX ships may dock next week

International Greenpeace activists and local antinuclear groups said Friday that two British ships carrying mixed uranium-plutonium fuel for nuclear power plants would likely dock at their offloading points on Sept. 27 and Sept. 30.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 1999

Typhoon season rattles Chubu

For many residents of the Chubu region, the typhoon season brings with it a sense of trepidation.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 1999

Pyongyang thaw tied to missile freeze

Japan is ready to lift sanctions against North Korea once Pyongyang clarifies its moratorium on missile tests, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi reiterated Friday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 1999

No mandate for Mr. Obuchi

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi has been re-elected president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party by warding off the challenge from former LDP Secretary General Koichi Kato and former LDP policy chief Taku Yamasaki. Many LDP Diet members have been quick to see his impressive victory as a vote of confidence...
JAPAN
Sep 23, 1999

Man held in theft of 3.5 million yen

Tokyo police on Thursday arrested a 36-year-old man for allegedly using a stolen bank card to withdraw around 3.5 million yen from a stranger's savings account.
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Sep 23, 1999

Chill out with the right white

With Japan's summer still parching throats as it turns its muggy-hot head toward autumn, let's turn our thoughts, and our thirsts, to wines for refreshment as the heat lingers on.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 23, 1999

Translator bridges Japan-Spain gap

SEVILLE, Spain -- Seville in the summer is so hot, they say, that even the dogs don't go outside. The athletes didn't at the recent World Championships, at least from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. The white walls of the city reflect the southern Spanish sun down the narrow corridors that resemble wintry Alpine passes...
JAPAN
Sep 23, 1999

'Tako-yaki' tentacles grip Kanto region

OSAKA -- "Tako-yaki," the dumplings with octopus chunks that many people consider a traditional Kansai treat, are gaining popularity in other parts of the country, including the Kanto region, according to Osaka-based Zojirushi Corp.
COMMUNITY
Sep 23, 1999

Tenure in bronze for Todai's foreign professors

The number of outdoor statues of foreigners (five) on the campus of the University of Tokyo might seem unusually high for a Japanese institution.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Sep 23, 1999

Osaka still has reasons to be proud of its brewing culture

Osaka has long been a great center of commerce and activity, but likely doesn't stand out as a major brewing center in the minds of most people. True, it has never been nearly as significant as its Kansai cousins -- Kyoto, Hyogo and Nara -- but the sake brewing culture was, and still is, strong there....
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 23, 1999

Through the lens of kyogen

Mansai Nomura gave his first kyogen performance at age 4, appeared in Akira Kurosawa's "Ran" at age 17 and began lecturing in aesthetics at Tokyo University when he was 25. No wonder he hadn't much time for my tardiness.
COMMUNITY
Sep 23, 1999

A woman on the narrow road

One might not imagine that Lesley Downer -- author of books on Basho's travels, Japan's richest family and now geisha -- started out in the culinary arena.
JAPAN
Sep 22, 1999

Nonaka says he won't join the next Cabinet

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka on Wednesday told Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi that he intends to resign when the new Cabinet is formed.
JAPAN
Sep 22, 1999

High waves hamper MOX fuel delivery

Staff writer
JAPAN
Sep 22, 1999

Obuchi talks of a mandate for coalition

One day after winning re-election in a sweeping victory as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi said he is confident that his plan to form a new tripartite coalition with the Liberal Party and New Komeito has been endorsed by his party colleagues.

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’