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COMMUNITY
Feb 23, 1999

Contest lets diplomats flex their Japanese-ness

Heard the one about the foreigner who wanted to get to Nakano and ended up in Nagano? She's actually pretty smart, and has no qualms about telling her embarrassing mishaps to complete strangers -- several hundred of them, in fact.
EDITORIALS
Feb 22, 1999

The Tokyo race is on

After weeks of scheming and squabbling, the cast now appears all set. If the Tokyo gubernatorial election were a soap opera, few people would worry too much about the script, as long as the lineup of stars passed muster. But the choice of a governor for a metropolis with a population of 11 million is...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Feb 21, 1999

Sunday afternoon

A reader writes about the Saturday edition of The Japan Times and how much she appreciates the listing of what's going on in our city. She especially enjoyed Robert Yellin's Feb. 13 article about Nezu Museum and its current exhibition revealing the elegance of traditional sake drinking, the sake cups...
COMMUNITY
Feb 21, 1999

Alley offers old fashioned swig and chat

While Tomomi Kahala hopefuls battle their way across Shibuya's Hachiko crossing to the nearest karaoke bar, those looking for a bit of live entertainment and a huge dollop of good-humored banter head straight for a cluster of rickety wooden watering holes that time seems to have forgotten.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 21, 1999

Two-legged enlightenment in land of soccer gods

Let's talk about religion. Soccer, that is. Many Americans don't like soccer because they say there's not enough action. Americans like fast action sports like American football, rugby and ice hockey. Not me. I like soccer because it's slow. I can get up, go to the bathroom, refill my beer and popcorn,...
COMMUNITY
Feb 21, 1999

Frustrated flowers are good news for you

While Yoneko Yoshida, anxiously awaits the arrival of spring, she is also bracing herself for discomfort. As a victim of hay fever, the 62-year-old Tokyo woman suffers from a scratchy throat, itchy, watery eyes and a persistently runny nose for several weeks each year from February till April.
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 1999

Haunting the high street

As the Internet insinuates itself deeper into daily life, one key facet of its future role -- electronic commerce -- continues its explosive growth. Estimates of the amount of business conducted in cyberspace vary from $30 billion annually to nearly twice that. But one thing is certain: It is increasing...
COMMENTARY
Feb 20, 1999

As Tokyo goes, so goes Japan

Utter chaos reigns in the runup to the Tokyo gubernatorial election, the most important of all local elections to be held in April. The outcome of the preliminary battle is likely to have a great influence on national politics.
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 20, 1999

Tamasaburo romances rough guys

The Kabukiza Theater in Ginza this month is featuring Tamasaburo Bando, one of Japan's foremost onnagata (women's role) actors, in three numbers: first with hislongtime partner Nizaemon Kataoka, then with Kankuro Nakamura. Other great names on the playbill are Danjuro Ichikawa, Kichiemon Nakamura, Tomijuro...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 20, 1999

Exposing the illusion of appearance

Photographer Duane Michals was born into an odd sort of duality in 1932. He was raised in McKeesport, Penn., by devoutly Catholic parents of Czech origin (much like Andy Warhol, whom he would later depict in a series of blurred portraits). Michals' mother, worked as a housekeeper for a rich family, and...
EDITORIALS
Feb 19, 1999

The Japan-U.S. performance gap

The U.S. economy has extended its sparkling performance into a ninth year, albeit attended by sentiments of rising caution on Wall Street. The contrast with Japan's decline in the 1990s is so strong that events in the United States look as though they are happening on another planet. In a global era,...
EDITORIALS
Feb 18, 1999

Europe discovers its Kurdish problem

Europe has worked hard to put considerable distance between itself and the Kurds. There have been condemnations of Turkey's violent, repressive policies toward its Kurdish minority, but sensitivities about Ankara's strategic role in European defense and concerns about the reaction of the 1 million Kurds...
EDITORIALS
Feb 17, 1999

The true meaning of the dioxin scare

Nose, a small town on the northern outskirts of Osaka, first put the fear of dioxin into nation's consciousness last year. Now, just 10 months later, another dioxin scare has hit the headlines. This time, the site is Tokorozawa, the Saitama bedroom community on the northwestern outskirts of Tokyo. The...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Feb 17, 1999

Designing for dollars

Say what you will about Jeff Bezos, president of Amazon.com, but he is a savvy guy. He and his company may not be worth the gazillions of dollars that the market is throwing at them, but he deserves credit for making the market believe in him.
EDITORIALS
Feb 13, 1999

The victims have rights, too

With all the attention now being focused by the government, police and judicial authorities, educators and the media on Japan's rapidly increasing juvenile crime rate and the escalating level of violence frequently involved, the rights of the victims of crimes in this country have often seemed of secondary...
JAPAN
Feb 12, 1999

Impact of new bond issues must be studied: Miyazawa

The government must consider the impact of newly issued government bonds on the financial market and is currently studying ways to tackle the problem, Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa reiterated Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 1999

Kobe budget priority shifts from quake to economy

The city of Kobe announced a 1999 fiscal year budget proposal Friday of just over 2.07 trillion yen, a 2.9 percent increase over the previous year's budget of 2.01 trillion yen.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 1999

War victims unite efforts to win redress from Japan

Representatives of civic groups from Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands signed an agreement Friday to cooperate in seeking compensation from the Japanese government for their sufferings during and after World War II.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 1999

Aum regrouping for Armageddon in September: PSIA

Aum Shinrikyo followers are striving to hold together to reconstruct their cult, believing Armageddon will come this year in accordance with founder Shoko Asahara's prediction, according to a report released Friday by the Public Security Investigation Agency.
EDITORIALS
Feb 11, 1999

Hope for East Timor

East Timor has never fit comfortably within the sprawling archipelago that is Indonesia. The province was a Portuguese territory from the 17th century until 1975, when a socialist government in Lisbon abandoned the country's colonial pretensions. That triggered a struggle for control of the region. The...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 1999

Akashi all but enters governor's race

Yasushi Akashi, a former U.N. undersecretary general, strongly indicated Thursday that he will run as the Liberal Democratic Party's candidate for the Tokyo gubernatorial election in April.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 1999

Viagra-hawking teen hookers lead to arrests

A 37-year-old Tokyo man has been arrested on suspicion of operating a teen prostitution ring and forcing high school girls to sell the anti-impotence drug Viagra to their customers, according to police.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 1999

Nuclear sanctions debate on India, Pakistan in disarray

Officials from the Group of Eight nations and seven other countries disagreed in Tokyo on Thursday over whether to ease international economic sanctions on India and Pakistan, with some saying that the two countries have yet to demonstrate a further commitment to joining the global regime of nuclear...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 1999

Gaming fans snatch up latest Final Fantasy

Hundreds of electronic game lovers mobbed stores in Tokyo's Akihabara Thursday to snap up the latest version of Final Fantasy, a popular PlayStation computer game that went on sale in the morning.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 1999

Mitsubishi firms eye largest leasing merger

Two leasing companies in the Mitsubishi corporate group are negotiating terms of a merger that may take place this fall, sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 1999

Immigration crackdown nets 27 Chinese

Immigration authorities on Wednesday placed 27 Chinese in custody on suspicion that they illegally entered and stayed in Japan by using fake certificates identifying them as offspring of Japanese women married to Chinese and left behind in that country after World War II, officials said.
EDITORIALS
Feb 10, 1999

Encouraging signs in South Asia

The world was shaken last May when India and then Pakistan conducted underground nuclear tests. Citizens of the two countries danced in the streets as the two governments declared themselves members of the nuclear club. Reaction elsewhere was just as heartfelt, but for entirely different reasons. The...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Feb 10, 1999

You've got e-mess!

Calling the Internet a borderless world isn't far from the truth, but try saying that every time you get an e-mail you can't read. You know, one of those buggers that is full of incomprehensible code or one that has a mysterious file attached that refuses to open no matter how hard you click it.
EDITORIALS
Feb 9, 1999

Passing on the king's torch of peace

The active rule of a king does not greatly differ from that of a dictator in the sense that his demise has such a profound impact, not only on the fortunes of his own people, but also on the relationships between his nation and other countries. Whether his rule was that of an enlightened political leader...
JAPAN
Feb 9, 1999

Mint Museum slated for 2001 move to Chuo Ward

The Mint Museum of the Finance Ministry's Mint Bureau will be moved from Osaka's Kita Ward to the old site of the Osaka Arsenal on the grounds of Osaka Castle Park in Chuo Ward.

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