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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
JAPAN
Jul 1, 1999

NTT-West hefts ax as cost-cutting option

OSAKA -- NTT-West Corp. President Kazuo Asada on Thursday said job cuts are one option for trimming costs and putting the firm's business into the black within three years.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 1, 1999

'Liberation' of birth control proves a bitter pill to swallow

On Aug. 16, the Health and Welfare Ministry announced that it had finally approved the low-dosage birth control pill, which will likely become available through prescription in the fall. Oral contraceptives for women have been available in the West for close to 40 years, but in Japan they've always been...
LIFE / Style & Design / BEAUTY EAST AND WEST
Jul 1, 1999

Be prepared to relax on summer break

It's summer, that getaway time of year when we are allowed a bit of an escape from it all. It is the time we want a break, relaxation of the deepest sort, freedom from everything by which we are ordinarily burdened. Not that I foresee any holiday for myself in the near future, but it is precisely the...
JAPAN
Jul 1, 1999

Fixed-rate ISDN service to be offered

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. announced Thursday it plans to launch fixed-rate Internet access for its ISDN users later this year.
EDITORIALS
Jun 30, 1999

Mercosur's new allure

Forty-eight heads of state from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean are holding their first summit in Rio de Janeiro this week. This long overdue meeting between two of the world's largest trade blocs -- the European Union and Mercosur -- could yet prove to be no more than a symbolic gesture, but...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jun 30, 1999

Let's digital

Let's digital. That's the message in the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications 1999 White Paper on Communications in Japan. The annual survey, released earlier this month, reveals a nation poised for the millennium, its finger firmly on the mouse, clicking its way into the 21st century
EDITORIALS
Jun 29, 1999

Getting tough on dioxin pollution

After years of neglect, politicians and bureaucrats are finally getting their acts together and addressing the issue of dioxin contamination. In March, the government announced plans to cut nationwide dioxin emissions by 90 percent of its 1997 level by 2002, and the ruling parties are poised to submit...
JAPAN
Jun 29, 1999

Japanese passports big ticket for forgers, scam artists

Staff writer
COMMENTARY
Jun 29, 1999

Japan presses Asia's agenda

In a strong warning to North Korea, the Group of Eight leaders who met in Cologne, Germany, earlier this month said in a declaration that they "are deeply concerned about recent missile flight tests and developments in missile proliferation, such as actions by North Korea."
JAPAN
Jun 29, 1999

FRC outlines control criteria for weak banks

The government will consider exerting control over banks that have received public funds if their capital adequacy ratios dip below half of the minimum requirements, the Financial Reconstruction Commission said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 1999

Diet begins deliberating flag and anthem bill

Diet debate on a government-proposed bill to recognize the Hinomaru as the national flag and "Kimigayo" as the national anthem began Tuesday with Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi telling a Lower House plenary session that legal recognition would give the Japanese people the correct understanding of the national...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jun 29, 1999

The Super Furry Animals engage in 'Guerrilla' warfare

In 1996, I began visiting another planet when an album called "Fuzzy Logic," by an unknown Welsh band called Super Furry Animals, opened up a wormhole in my mind which enabled me to cross into a weird mangalike dimension whenever I switched on my stereo. Oh, and also I got a name for this column.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 1999

Telecom Realignment: Rival carriers prepare to combat Goliath

Second in a five-part series on reorganizing the domestic telecommunications industry
CULTURE / Books
Jun 29, 1999

American haiku now holds its own

THE HAIKU ANTHOLOGY, by Cor van den Heuvel. W. W. Norton, pp. 363, $27.50. Cor van den Heuvel is the most important anthologist of haiku composed in English in North America. He has published three collections, all simply called "The Haiku Anthology" and all through prominent commercial houses: Doubleday,...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 29, 1999

A century after emancipation, buraku issue still haunts Japan

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BURAKU ISSUE: Questions and Answers, by Suehiro Kitaguchi. Translation and introduction by Alastair McLauchlan. Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library, 1999, pp. 211, 35 British pounds (cloth). This is the translation of a number of important articles by Suehiro Kitaguchi in which he...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 29, 1999

Meet Dr. Doom, Asia's most interesting analyst

RIDING THE MILLENNIAL STORM: Marc Faber's Path to Profit in the New Financial Markets, by Nury Vittachi. John Wiley & Sons, 1998, pp. 241, $29.95 (cloth). Great combination. Hyperkinetic Hong Kong scribe Nury Vittachi, author of 10 books and countless newspaper and magazine columns, and Marc Faber,...
EDITORIALS
Jun 28, 1999

Staring at the abyss in Northern Ireland

Though more than a year has passed since politicians in Northern Ireland signed the historic Good Friday peace accord, the document has remained a dead letter due to a dispute over the disarmament of the Irish Republican Army. Now the agreement is unraveling, posing a real danger that dialogue will once...
JAPAN
Jun 28, 1999

New Komeito role weighed as LDP, Liberals huddle

The Liberal Democratic Party on Monday began moving aggressively to expand its coalition government to include New Komeito — and secure a majority in the Diet's Upper House.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 1999

Toyota mulls expanded U.S. presence

Fujio Cho, the new president of Toyota Motor Corp., said Monday that the possibility is high that Toyota will establish a new auto assembly base in North America to cope with increasing demand in the United States.
EDITORIALS
Jun 26, 1999

Cracks in the wall of silence

Physicians in this country seem so confident of their group strength that they can afford to ignore public opinion. So, at least, say critics of the powerful medical establishment in the wake of this week's failure by a subcommittee of the government's medical reform council to agree on a proposal to...

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