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JAPAN
Sep 16, 2000

Wealthy seniors should pay social security: panel

A private advisory panel to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has proposed that the government force better-off retirees to pay into social security again to prevent the system from collapsing and to ease the growing burden on younger, working people.
SUMO
Sep 16, 2000

Former sekiwake Mitoizumi retires

Former sekiwake Mitoizumi of the Takasago stable decided Friday to step down from the ring after posting a 1-11 record in the second-tier juryo division at the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2000

Dentist patents false teeth with chip identifying wearer

OSAKA -- An Osaka dentist has received Japanese and U.S. patents for a set of false teeth containing a tiny microchip that identifies its wearer.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2000

Porcelain design echoes Japan

It's not difficult to understand the influence of Japanese ceramics on famed British chinaware producer Royal Crown Derby.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2000

Spy affair may prevent Russian colonel's visit

A visit to Japan by Col. Gen. Yuri Burkeyev, commander in chief of the Russian Ground Forces, may be postponed in the wake of last week's arrest of a Maritime Self-Defense Force officer on charges of spying for a Russian Embassy official in Tokyo, according to Defense Agency sources.
SOCCER / World cup
Sep 14, 2000

World Cup 2002 tickets to sell Oct. 2

Tickets reserved for residents of Japan for the 2002 World Cup will start selling Oct. 2 after a computer draw selects who can buy them, the Japanese World Cup Organizing Committee (JAWOC) announced Wednesday.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 14, 2000

Bruised flowers: China's hidden army of child laborers

BEIJING -- Hu Changjun was desperate to escape the poverty trap in Wuxi County in southwest China's Sichuan Province. So she couldn't believe her luck when a fellow villager named Changyan offered her work at a joint-venture factory in distant Beijing. "A joint venture means a foreign company, where...
ENVIRONMENT
Sep 14, 2000

Fisheries crashing from pollution in Ariake

The cuisine of the Ariake Sea in northern Kyushu, featured recently in quarterly cultural magazine Fukuoka Style, is a strange one. It's dominated by grotesque, unusual-tasting fish and shellfish simmered heavily in sugar and soy or wrapped in dense layers of seaweed.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Sep 14, 2000

Hatsu-nomikiri still a summer ritual for brewers

Sake breweries are usually fairly quiet in the summer. Except for the few large breweries where brewing continues all year, most places are dark and quiet and empty, as the brewers themselves have gone home for the summer. Traditionally, the kurabito (brewers) traveled great distances from their rural...
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2000

Parties agree supplementary budget is needed

Senior officials of the government and the ruling coalition on Tuesday agreed on the need to draw up a supplementary budget for the current fiscal year.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2000

U.S. bases to preserve environment

The United States and Japan have reached an agreement obligating U.S. military bases in Japan to preserve the environment, government sources said.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 10, 2000

Utsugi ready to fulfill softball dream with Japan

Reika Utsugi remembers the summer of 1996 -- missing out on the Japanese Olympic softball team after she changed her nationality. Four years later, the former Chinese captain will play for Japan in Sydney.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 10, 2000

Long trip from Kiev to Tokyo justified by 'Pathetique' results

Kiev National Opera and Ballet Theater Orchestra July 25, Vladimir Kozhukhar conducting in Takemitsu Memorial Hall -- Ballad (Pormbescu), Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra in D Minor, Op. 99 (Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich, 1906-75), featuring Atsuko Tenma; Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 "Pathetique"...
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2000

MSDF officer arrested, admits spying for Russia

The Metropolitan Police Department and Kanagawa Prefectural Police arrested Lt. Cmdr. Shigehiro Hagisaki, a researcher at the Defense Agency's National Institute for Defense Studies, on suspicion of violating the Self-Defense Forces Law, which prohibits SDF members from divulging classified security...
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2000

86% of aged in rehab sites termed senile

Nearly 86 percent of senior citizens placed in health facilities for elderly people to undergo rehabilitative treatment are senile, according to a report by the Health and Welfare Ministry.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2000

LDP approves 17 billion yen loan to China

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Thursday approved a 17.2 billion yen special loan package for China despite Japanese protests over recent Chinese naval activities near Japanese waters, LDP officials said.
BUSINESS
Sep 7, 2000

Symantec, DoCoMo discuss virus measures for i-mode

Antivirus software maker Symantec Japan Inc., the Japan unit of Symantec Corp. of the United States, is in talks with NTT DoCoMo Inc. on supplying the mobile phone services provider with software to protect its i-mode Internet phones, Symantec officials said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2000

Law urged to curb diesel car emissions

Particulate matter emissions from diesel-powered automobiles should be included in a law to control nitrogen oxide air pollution if urban air quality needs to be brought to an acceptable level, according to an Environment Agency advisory committee.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2000

China blocks disarmament

NEW DELHI — U.S. President Bill Clinton's weekend announcement to delay a decision on deployment of the U.S. national missile defense system will do little to end the gridlock at the United Nations' main disarmament body, the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. The CD has been without work for four...
BUSINESS
Sep 6, 2000

Sumitomo to invest in WDM technology

Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. said Tuesday it will invest 35 billion yen in fiscal 2000 on the construction of manufacturing facilities for optical fibers and other telecommunications devices related to wavelength division multiplexing technology.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 6, 2000

Love's more than just the money, honey

Back in the halcyon days of my young adulthood, when I used to sigh feverishly into my fiancee's walnut eyes, you can rest assured I spied romance, hope and her contact lenses, but never -- never! -- a pair of yen stickers.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 5, 2000

NHL's Crisp pumped for Japan games

Former NHL player and coach Terry Crisp shakes hands with Nashville Predators hopeful Yujiro Nakajima in Tokyo on Monday in front of the Stanley Cup. If the Nashville Predators put on half the show that Terry Crisp did Monday afternoon, the National Hockey League has nothing to worry about.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2000

Gov. Ishihara tells troops to take heart

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, who led the charge for expanding the participation of Self-Defense Force troops in Sunday's disaster drill by the metropolitan government, urged SDF personnel to take pride and retain confidence as a military force.
BUSINESS
Sep 4, 2000

Japan fails its universities, which in turn fail industry

Japan's economic doldrums in recent years have triggered an outcry over the declining technological competitiveness of its industries, and the government has taken technology-promotion steps that would lead to the creation of new businesses or markets.
COMMENTARY
Sep 4, 2000

Japan flounders without goals

The disturbing thing about Japan today is that it lacks a clear sense of national purpose even though the 21st century is close at hand. The economic slump of the 1990s is often described as a "lost decade" or a "second surrender" (after the defeat in World War II). But it is not just the stagnant economy...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2000

Bloody birth of multicultural Europe

LONDON -- "What are you doing here in Germany," asked the three drunken youths when they ran into Alberto Adriano in Dessau one Saturday night in June. "I live here," Adriano might have replied, but he didn't get the chance. The three were still rhythmically kicking and stamping on his head with their...
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2000

Miyake islanders evacuated to Tokyo

Some 280 of the remaining residents of Miyake left the island aboard a ferry Saturday afternoon, in accordance with an evacuation order issued by local officials the previous day as fears rose that islanders could be injured by falling rocks superheated by volcanic activity and ash thrown out from Mount...
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2000

Antistalking law seen falling short

KOBE -- An antistalking law that cleared the Diet in May and goes into effect in November is being called insufficient, and speakers at a recent symposium here are calling for new, tougher legislation and urging police to change their attitudes about stalking.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 3, 2000

Following in the footsteps of Lafcadio Hearn

"What's it like living in Japan?" my friends back home often ask me. It's a hard question to answer. So instead, I'll describe what I did today, a typical day in Japan for me.
BUSINESS
Sep 2, 2000

Power developer eyes investment in Asia

The Electric Power Development Co. is about to sign contracts to build power generation facilities in Thailand and China, company officials said Friday.

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