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JAPAN
Jun 25, 2000

MRA law planned for EU standards

Japan plans to institute a law to meet requirements in implementing a mutual recognition agreement with the European Union on standards and inspections for such goods as electronic appliances.
COMMUNITY
Jun 25, 2000

Don't run for cover, go Zurich Insurance!

Sitting on the swishest sofa ever -- an L-shaped signature design in scarlet leather -- in the lobby of Zurich Insurance, I picked up a book from the sea-green plate-glass coffee table and began reading up on "The Swiss." What should I expect of the president of such a company? Having met any number...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 25, 2000

The do's and don'ts of business card etiquette

Please don't tell Mr. Watanabe that his business card is now in a million pieces strewn among the bras and underwear in my washing machine. This is just the latest faux pas in my history of malicious treatment of business cards.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2000

Laboratory tracks acid rain's seasonal roots

Pollution responsible for acid rain and acid snow in coastal areas along the Sea of Japan travels via China and the Korean Peninsula during the winter, but comes from other areas in Japan in the summer, an environmental research laboratory in Niigata Prefecture said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2000

G7 wants IMF votes redistributed

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrial nations are poised to push for a redistribution of voting power within the International Monetary Fund when they assemble in Japan next week, an international financial source said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2000

The answer is in the heavens

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is doing everything he can to discourage Japanese voters from taking tomorrow's election seriously. He is succeeding. On top of his efforts, is getting help from the media, which are already predicting a comfortable margin of victory for the current ruling coalition.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 24, 2000

Breathing path to beauty and inner peace

KYOTO -- In 1973, a week or two after Brooklyn native Ronnie Seldin began playing the shakuhachi, his teacher asked him what he planned to do after he returned to the United States.
EDITORIALS
Jun 21, 2000

A starting point for tax reform

A tax issue that would directly affect people's pocketbooks is pitting the Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition group, against other parties, especially the Liberal Democratic Party, in the current campaigning for the June 25 Lower House election. The DPJ is calling for a lowering of the...
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2000

Vote with criteria in mind: Hosokawa

Voters should cast their ballots in Sunday's election by asking themselves if the government has steered Japan in a desirable direction and whether it has reinforced the people's trust in politics, former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa says.
COMMENTARY
Jun 21, 2000

Korean summit puts hawks in their place

The historic reconciliation between North and South Korea is arguably the most exciting Asian development since the end of World War II. So why is the reaction from Tokyo and Washington so muted?
SOCCER / J. League
Jun 20, 2000

JFA to retain Troussier at least through October

The Japan Football Association decided to keep Japan manager Philippe Troussier until the end of October and have the Frenchman guide Japan at the Sydney Olympics in September and the Asian Cup in October, JFA president Shunichiro Okano announced Monday in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2000

Scandal-tainted kingmaker also a 'caring man'

The political career of the late Noboru Takeshita was rocked by a series of scandals that forced him to largely wield his influence from behind the scenes after he stepped down as prime minister in 1989.
BUSINESS
Jun 20, 2000

IBM to manage Nissan computers

Nissan Motor Co. and IBM Japan Ltd. announced Monday that the computer firm will manage Nissan's domestic computer and network operations starting Oct. 1.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 20, 2000

U.S. pays the price for its empire

BLOWBACK: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, by Chalmers Johnson. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2000, 268 pp., $26 (cloth). Is it time for the United States to withdraw from its empire? "America," "withdrawal," "empire": three words, three controversies. Tell me how you define these three...
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2000

Expansion of whale sanctuary proposed

Australia and New Zealand have proposed that the International Whaling Commission designate a wide area of water between Australia and Chile as a whale sanctuary, Japanese Fisheries Agency sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2000

Energy policy left to stagnate by 'ritual democracy': expert

The cure for a decade of economic stagnation may be the focal point of Sunday's general election, but Tetsunari Iida wants politicians to put energy and environment high on the political agenda as well.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 18, 2000

Giants and 'Maru-chan' a perfect match

Yomiuri Giants first baseman Domingo Martinez last week celebrated his one-year anniversary with the team, and plucking him out of the Mexican League last June and bringing him back to Japan was one of the best things the Giants have ever done.
COMMUNITY
Jun 18, 2000

Commemoration of a musical pilgrimage

"A Shakuhachi Odyssey -- Enchanted by Timbres of Heaven" is a collection of autobiographical essays, cultural musings, musical stories and more. It beat out over 200 competitors to receive last year's Rennyo Sho, a nonfiction literature prize sponsored by the Honganji Temple Foundation and supported...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 18, 2000

Three weeks is a lifetime for pet crickets

Welcome to Japan's rainy season, also known as the Insect Season. Although I live in an old Japanese house with generations of insects going back as far as the Heian Period, I also live with the comfort of knowing I'll never starve to death. "Getemono," the Japanese word for "gross things to eat," includes...
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2000

Domestic violence law sought

Japan needs to enact a law to recognize domestic violence as a crime and keep abusive husbands away from victimized women, according to the head of HELP Asian Women's Shelter, a private organization that provides emergency refuge for abused women.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2000

Students schooled in politics, not apathy

Hiroshi Harada, a 23-year-old associate of the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management, better known as Matsushita Seikei Juku, gets up before 6 a.m. every day, does exercises to an NHK radio program and cleans up around the institute's main gate with other associates.
EDITORIALS
Jun 16, 2000

Progress in Pyongyang

It has been a historic week on the Korean Peninsula. The summit between the leaders of North and South Korea, Mr. Kim Jong Il and Mr. Kim Dae Jung, has surpassed all expectations. It is tempting to say that the two men are writing the final chapter of the Cold War, but the temptation should be resisted....
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2000

NTT to offer untimed Net access

Two local Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. group firms said Thursday that they will launch July 17 a full-scale flat-rate Internet connection service for integrated service digital network subscribers.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2000

KEPCO to step up monitoring of MOX

OSAKA — In the wake of a scandal involving British Nuclear Fuels PLC, Kansai Electric Power Co. said Wednesday that it will step up efforts to monitor the quality of plutonium fuel manufactured by foreign companies for use in its nuclear power plants.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2000

Flight controllers to train at Kadena

Japan and the United States agreed Wednesday to dispatch Japanese flight controllers to the U.S. Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Prefecture for a month of training after the Group of Eight summit in July, Japanese officials said.
BUSINESS
Jun 15, 2000

NTT calls for relaxing of law as prerequisite to bigger cuts

The law concerning the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. group should be revised to grant more freedom to its two local calling companies and the revision should be a prerequisite to any further cuts in the connection fees it charges other telecommunications firms, the NTT Corp. president said Wednesday....
EDITORIALS
Jun 15, 2000

No more empty economic promises

The forthcoming Lower House election will test the economic policies of political parties more severely than did previous general elections. The reason is obvious: While industrial restructuring and economic recovery are making only slow progress, the national debt burden has reached a staggering 650...
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2000

Stable coalition key for economy, Kanzaki says

New Komeito will campaign for the Lower House election by promising a stable coalition government that will surely bring about a full-fledged economic recovery in Japan, said party leader Takenori Kanzaki.
BUSINESS
Jun 15, 2000

Convenience stores embrace e-commerce

Your average convenience store is a small shop with just 100 sq. meters of floor space.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb