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CULTURE / Books
Jul 13, 2000

It's Karl Marx vs. Jackie Chan, and the old, fat guy wins

CITY ON FIRE: Hong Kong Cinema, by Lisa Odham Stokes and Michael Hoover. London: Verso, Sept. 1999, 372 pp., $22 (paper). It began as a buzzing, multicultural confusion. The year is 1909. Hong Kong's cinema is born with a silent effort titled "Stealing the Roasted Duck." It is the handiwork of Liang...
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2000

Security role a two-edged sword but U.S. keeping lower profile

CHATAN, Okinawa Pref. -- It's an early Tuesday evening at Morgan's, a popular bar along Gate Two Road, and the mood is festive.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Jul 13, 2000

Compulsories of sake keeps brewers in top form

Last month, I gave an overview of the Shinshu Kanpyokai, the national new-sake tasting competition held each spring, and its logistics. Here is a look at what kind of sake wins, and what the big deal is about anyway.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2000

New justice minister urges changes to Juvenile Law

With the recent spate of serious crimes committed by minors heightening concerns about juvenile issues, revisions to the Juvenile Law are necessary and must be completed as early as possible, newly appointed Justice Minister Okiharu Yasuoka said.
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2000

North Okinawa mixed on planned military-civilian airport

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. -- From a tiny desert island off the U.S. Marine Corps' Camp Schwab, Takuma Higashionna looks out over the coral reef amid clear water.
BUSINESS
Jul 7, 2000

Dollar-selling pressure looms at end of half

The Bank of Japan's quarterly survey on business sentiment should have given the central bank fresh evidence of an economic recovery and justification for ending its "zero-interest-rate" policy.
BUSINESS
Jul 7, 2000

Diet to meet on taxpayer Sogo bailout

Diet committees will hold extraordinary sessions July 17-18 to scrutinize the planned public-funded bailout of ailing department store operator Sogo Co., legislators said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jul 7, 2000

FRC may detail Sogo bailout

The Financial Reconstruction Commission is to consider whether it can disclose the numerical data that led to the government's decision to forgive loans to troubled department store chain Sogo Co., the newly appointed FRC chairman said.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 6, 2000

86-year-old composer going strong

At 86, Saburo Takata may be the oldest working composer of classical music in the world. Not that he feels like it.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2000

Bangkok sticks with its old-style politics

BANGKOK -- If Thai politics has changed since demonstrators ousted a pro-military government in 1992 and set the stage for democratic reforms, you would hardly know it from watching the campaign for this month's Bangkok gubernatorial election.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jul 5, 2000

The tyranny of the square

When talking to Ted Nelson, strap in tight. It's quite a ride. Trained as a philosopher and film director, he is equal parts visionary and crank. Many consider him to be one of the fathers of the World Wide Web. He coined the word "hypertext" in 1965, but he has become a scathing critic of the Web and...
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2000

Bacteria outbreak at Osaka hospital claims lives of seven elderly patients

OSAKA -- Seven elderly patients at a hospital in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, died between May 7 and Saturday after contracting serratia bacteria -- apparently inside the facility, officials said Monday.
BUSINESS
Jul 3, 2000

Election results mean Diet must heed fickle workforce

The tripartite coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party have managed to win an "absolute comfortable" majority that will enable them to control all standing committees in the powerful Lower House and chair them as well.
EDITORIALS
Jul 2, 2000

Dumb and dumber

There is a wonderful anecdote about Oscar Wilde in Richard Ellmann's monumental biography of the Victorian wit, aesthete and playwright. In 1882-3, Wilde undertook a North American lecture tour, with the aim of bringing the gospel of beauty to the New World. A highlight of the tour was his stopover in...
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2000

Milk production line found contaminated

OSAKA -- Bacteria has been discovered on the production line of a Snow Brand Milk Products Co. factory here that processed low-fat milk believed to have made nearly 5,000 people ill, the company's president said Saturday.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2000

New bank regulator inaugurated

The Financial Services Agency on Saturday replaced the Financial Supervisory Agency as the nation's top bank regulator, assuming the duty of salvaging Japan's bad loan-swamped banking industry.
COMMUNITY
Jul 2, 2000

Noh master calling U.K. college alumni

There was some initial confusion when Naohiko Umewaka requested help in finding graduates of Royal Holloway. What was he talking about? The only Holloway known to this Londoner is the district north of the River Thames best known for the prison of the same name. Now here was a story! Japan's best known...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2000

Winds of change blowing through Asia

CHANG MAI, Thailand -- The recent historic handshake between South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang captivated the world. As emotions over the summit subside, what can be said about Korean developments when viewed from a broader Asian perspective?
JAPAN
Jul 1, 2000

DIC purchases 198 billion yen of Sogo's loans from Shinsei

The state-run Deposit Insurance Corp. announced Friday it will buy 197.6 billion yen of Shinsei Bank's outstanding loans to troubled department store chain Sogo Co. and waive 97 billion yen of that amount.
BUSINESS
Jul 1, 2000

12 nations ink bilateral deals at Sapporo U.N. talks

In a bid to facilitate foreign direct investment, 12 developing nations signed 22 bilateral investment pacts during a fortnight of negotiations that wrapped up Friday in Sapporo under the auspices of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
EDITORIALS
Jun 30, 2000

Germany says 'no nukes'

The agreement reached earlier this month between the German government and major electric-power companies to phase out that country's commercial nuclear program in about 30 years came as a fresh reminder of the global shift away from nuclear energy production. The "irreversible" landmark agreement is...
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2000

FRC details rules on injecting capital into credit institutions

The Financial Reconstruction Commission unveiled guidelines Thursday for the injection of capital into credit associations and credit unions, the collapse of which could wreak havoc on local economies.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2000

Radical Hindus wrecking India's tolerant secularism

NEW DELHI -- The new millennium has been terribly cruel to Christians in India. Fanatical Hindu organizations -- which are wings of the country's ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- have unleashed a reign of terror on the second-largest minority group after the Muslims. Murder and mayhem and...
BUSINESS
Jun 29, 2000

Shinsei asks DIC to take Sogo loans

Shinsei Bank on Wednesday formally asked Deposit Insurance Corp. to take over 205 billion yen of its loans to embattled department store chain operator Sogo Co., bank officials said.
COMMENTARY
Jun 29, 2000

Japan's voters call for change

Voters apparently called for a change in the nation's politics in Sunday's elections for the House of Representatives. The Democratic Party of Japan consolidated its position as the No. 1 opposition party by winning an additional 35 seats, although it failed to win enough votes to allow it to establish...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 28, 2000

Coalition holds on to power

The Liberal Democratic Party had dubbed Sunday's election a "battle in mourning," in hopes that the untimely death of former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi would get out the "sympathy vote." As it turned out, the LDP and its coalition partners suffered a major set- back, contrary to the wishes of Prime...
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2000

Business chiefs upbeat after poll

Business circles expressed hope Monday that the new government to be formed after Sunday's Lower House election will take prompt action to lead the economy to a recovery.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2000

Coalition parties stand by Mori

Despite the setback that the ruling bloc suffered at the hands of the public in Sunday's election for the House of Representatives, top leaders of the Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition allies agreed Monday that Yoshiro Mori should stay on as prime minister.

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