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CULTURE / Music
Dec 19, 2000

K-beat knocking on Japan doors

Within moments of taking the stage of the Pasha Club in the downtown Tokyo district of Nishi-Azabu, Drunken Tiger, a hip-hop duo from South Korea, had the trendy club-goers dancing frantically to its beat-heavy sound.
BUSINESS
Dec 2, 2000

Jobless rate unchanged at 4.7%

Japan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 4.7 percent in October, unchanged from September, although the number of jobholders increased for the first time in 33 months from a year earlier, the Management and Coordination Agency said Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 9, 2000

Suspect in Briton's disappearance not cooperating

A Tokyo investigator in the high-profile case of missing Briton Lucie Blackman has dismissed criticism that police have detained the wrong man in trying to discover her whereabouts.
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 28, 2000

Cirque du Soleil set to dazzle Japan

There is usually a charismatic man behind any successful entertainment company, and the Canadian circus group Cirque du Soleil has Guy Laliberte to thank for its success.
JAPAN
Oct 13, 2000

Accounting practices blamed for slump in Japanese films

The chief executive of a Tokyo financial management company launched in late September hopes her new business saves Japanese films from a long slump.
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 30, 2000

Puppetry for the people

In Western countries puppetry is a form of entertainment aimed at children. From Punch and Judy to the Muppets, Western puppet theater has been small scale, emphasizing broad, slapstick humor and simple, if any, plots.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2000

Otsuka goes to beat of a different drum

Playing word association with the names of the stations along the Yamanote Line is, for the most part, quite a simple task. Akihabara -- electrical goods; Ueno -- bullet train and animals; Shibuya -- teenage fashion.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Sep 20, 2000

I want my RTV

While on vacation in the States, I found myself watching the finale of "Survivor," the climax of a summer of reality TV. I could have turned it off. I could have returned to my book. But no. I had been (blissfully) ignorant of all that had gone on before, but that didn't matter. I watched both it and...
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2000

Koreans welcome 'cultural invasion'

SEOUL -- The Japanese are coming -- but this time they're being welcomed with open arms.
OLYMPICS
Sep 13, 2000

'The Greatest Show on Earth' hits Sydney

The "Greatest Show on Earth" is back and badly in need of an image makeover.
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2000

Law targets sex industry fraud

The sex industry in Tokyo will be legally obligated to display the prices of all services rendered if a draft ordinance announced Thursday passes the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly in the fall.
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2000

Four arrested in tax evasion case

Prosecutors on Tuesday arrested two business consultants and an accountant on suspicion of illegally advising clients on how to evade taxes, as well as one of their clients on suspicion of evading over 250 million yen in corporate tax.
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2000

Detected tax evasion plummets

Tax evasion detected in fiscal 1999 was the lowest since the collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s, amounting to 31.61 billion yen, down 7.8 billion yen from the previous year, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Tax Administration.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 4, 2000

Vibrating quite a lot of wind

When we hear a musical ensemble playing with a lush sonority, exemplary balance and a pleasing tonal blend, a common comment is that it "sounds just like an organ."
CULTURE / Art
May 25, 2000

Draw the bow, ride and speak the truth

You could argue that in this age, we look to movies to preserve our traditions. But it begs the chicken and egg question: Where does the filmmaker go to authenticate the details?
COMMUNITY
Apr 27, 2000

Celebration to wash away tears

A water festival without any water may sound like a contradiction in terms, but in Tokyo that's exactly how the Myanmarese community celebrate the New Year.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Apr 23, 2000

On to Hawaii -- maybe

It is not surprising that I often become quite involved with readers and their problems. Take June Wong, who grew up in Hawaii but had to come to Japan to learn the hula. She was impressed by a group of Japanese women dancers and joined them. "I love my teacher and every one of my hula sisters," she...
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 18, 2000

Festival of fools makes its Tokyo debut

In Europe, clown and mime performances have always been acknowledged as respected forms of entertainment, with some countries even establishing national circus schools. These types of entertainment have never enjoyed the same level of recognition in Japan, however, where clowning and mime have traditionally...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 13, 2000

Tiny Qatar brings freedom of the press to the Arab world

QATAR -- On a recent visit to Qatar, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak wanted to satisfy his curiosity about something bothering him and most other Arab rulers. It was past midnight when he descended unannounced on the Jazeera TV station. His surprise was hardly less than that of staff still around at...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 29, 2000

Get Shorty

For many of us living in Japan, the Academy Awards ceremony serves as a reminder of where we are in the bigger scheme of things: behind the curve. We often haven't seen many of the nominated or winning films, some won't be here for another year, and others might not come at all. This is a distribution...
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2000

Prosecutors indict Cresvale executive over bogus securities

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office on Wednesday indicted a former executive of Cresvale International Ltd. on charges of selling customers securities that turned out to be irredeemable, prosecutors said.
COMMUNITY
Mar 19, 2000

She walks! She talks! She dances!

The Hello Kitty logo is ubiquitous. She is everywhere, on everything, from pencil cases and T-shirts to cellular phones and suitcases. Without a doubt, Hello Kitty is a globally recognized icon, but in a musical revue directed by Amon Miyamoto, she becomes more than just a logo. She is given life. She...
BUSINESS
Mar 11, 2000

Toshiba-EMI considers merging with Time Warner

Toshiba Corp. is considering merging its music software company with that of U.S. media and entertainment giant Time Warner Inc. in a deal that would create Japan's biggest music software firm, a Toshiba official said Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2000

Farm ministry searched after arrest

Police searched the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry and several dozen other places Friday in connection with charges that a former ministry official received about 500,000 yen in cash for helping an agricultural cooperative receive favors related to government-backed projects.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2000

Advisers, clients face tax fraud complaints

Tax authorities have filed complaints with prosecutors against three business consultants and three of their clients over concealment of some 1.5 billion yen in income.
COMMUNITY
Jan 30, 2000

Preaching the gospel of women's television

Those who watch the program "New Yorkers," broadcast weekly on NHK's satellite channel, will be familiar with the name Nancy Lee. But how many realize that this snappy, bright, Jewish-American from New Jersey is as much at home in Japanese as English?

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami