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BUSINESS
May 29, 2000

Farmers not the only ones allowed to live off the land

On May 23, the Diet approved a series of legal changes concerning securities investment trusts, securities investment corporations and SPCs (special-purpose corporations) that will further advance securitization of real estate in this country.
COMMUNITY
May 28, 2000

Conductor says yes to noh style 'Don Giovanni'

Theaters in Nagoya were aghast when Yoko Matsuo came calling. Even though she was born in the city and is conductor and director of the Aichi Prefecture Symphony Orchestra, her plan to stage Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni" in the style of Japan's most revered and challenging dramatic form, noh, created...
CULTURE / Art
May 28, 2000

Blastoff for the outer limits of art

A soft blowup globe projected on a small TV screen, which spins on an axis inside three aluminium rings, and seven 15-cm plastic satellites perched on a white table can be seen at Gallery Side 2, in two exhibits by England's Steven Pippin and Japan's Taro Shinoda.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
May 28, 2000

Gaj Singh

JODHPUR, India -- Mehrangarh Fort dominates the skyline of this walled, gated, desert city in Rajasthan, India. Five hundred years ago a hermit chose this imposing site for the fort, which commands the wide stretch of land below. Huge spikes were erected on massive barrier gates to counter the charges...
CULTURE / Music
May 28, 2000

Gergiev faultily great with the Rotterdam Phil

Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
CULTURE / Art
May 27, 2000

Issey Miyake: artist, sculptor or fashion designer?

"Issey Miyake Making Things," Miyake's current offering, presents the master in three different aspects. Broadly speaking, of course, sculpture, painting and fashion design are related, but no one else has such ability to convince us that these three arts can be made one.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2000

From Asian style to global style

"If mankind eradicates the habitat of the giant panda, then the panda ceases to exist in the wild. The IMF package is a mandate to eradicate the existing habitat of Asia's corporates." -- Russel Napier, a strategist at Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia
COMMUNITY
May 25, 2000

More and more men are getting left on the shelf

"When I come home from work in the evening, my room is dark, and in winter it's cold. At these times I always wish I had a wife waiting for me, with a hot meal," says Yoshiharu Mitamura (not his real name), a 36-year-old photographer.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 25, 2000

On a culinary cruise in Akasaka

We have numerous restaurants which bear the name of their chefs, owners or svengalis. But Denis Allemand is perhaps the first to proudly boast the name of the man responsible for its interior design -- whose main work in Japan up to now has been producing deli-diners in airport departure lobbies for...
JAPAN
May 24, 2000

Video violence begets real thing

When a 14-year-old Kobe boy shocked the nation three years ago by killing an elementary school boy and placing his severed head in front of a school gate, Masatoshi Taguchi said he was afraid similar crimes would follow.
LIFE / Travel
May 24, 2000

Echoes of Gandhara and ancient Rome

LANZHOU, China -- Four hundred kilometers from Dunhuang the Jiayuguan Pass, the "Greatest Pass Under Heaven," marks the old border between China proper and the Western Territories. The Chinese considered it the outer limit of civilization. In the 5th century B.C. the legendary Taoist master Laozi, aged...
BUSINESS
May 24, 2000

Brokers must inform about risks

The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed and enacted an investor protection bill that obliges brokers to inform investors of the risks involved when investing in specific financial products.
SUMO
May 22, 2000

Komusubi Kaio claims first Emperor's Cup

Seven years after entering the Makunouchi Division and 12 years after his sumo debut, Kaio finally captured his first yusho Sunday with an outstanding 14-1 record in the Natsu Basho at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 22, 2000

Exotic pet importer confirms Japan is haven for illegal animal imports

The situation is worse than I imagined. In my last column (May 8), I wrote about smugglers carrying live primates into Japan in their luggage. Days after that column appeared, I was put in touch with an exotic pet importer who confirmed that government oversight of trade in animals is abysmal.
JAPAN
May 21, 2000

Cult used Unzen to solicit followers in Nagasaki

The founder of the Honohana Sanpogyo religious group met with the governor of Nagasaki Prefecture in the spring of 1992 and maintained that a "voice from heaven" said the eruption of Mount Unzen would stop by the year's end if prefectural residents "awaken to the real way of life," it was learned Saturday....
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 21, 2000

Dreams come true

Today I am happy to tell you about one of this column's most successful accomplishments. It began last October when I received a heartfelt letter from Chip Bozek, a teacher in Hokkaido. He wanted to find someone who could give him a "chonmage" haircut like the old-time samurai wore. He had asked his...
COMMENTARY / World
May 21, 2000

Making mountains out of molehills

SYDNEY -- China's opening to the world amid its economic reform and modernization has brought immeasurable benefits to many of its citizens who are being enriched through growing trade linkages. Trading with the rest of the world and even the lukewarm welcoming of foreign investment capital have improved...
JAPAN
May 18, 2000

Ministry to enhance law covering forgery

The Justice Ministry is considering drafting a bill that would criminalize the possession of forged prepaid cards and gift certificates, according to ministry officials.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 17, 2000

Wild and free, within certain restrictions

"Wildlife," "natural," "wild" and "free" are terms that are loaded with meaning, redolent with atmosphere. They are words that may transport you mentally to the tundra, patrolled by polar bears, to the acacia-dotted African savanna across which herds of buffalo, gazelle, elephant and giraffe roam, or...
COMMENTARY
May 16, 2000

Failing youth and the victims of crime

The whole nation was shocked by the hijacking of a bus in the middle of the "Golden Week" holiday season. And it was a 17-year-old boy who seized the bus and killed one passenger.
CULTURE / Books
May 16, 2000

Japan still has its strengths

PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT: How Japanese Enterprises Meet the Challenge, by Hirotoshi Shibuya and Hideyuki Kamiryo. The Japan Times, 2000, 209 pp., 3,000 yen (cloth). While corporate philosophies and principles may change from country to country, the basics of finance are constants. "Productivity Improvement"...
BUSINESS
May 15, 2000

Constructive advice for launching multilateral talks with the WTO

the summit of major industrialized countries kicks off in July, one of the things the world will be waiting to see is whether the leaders of these nations will be able to launch a new round of multilateral trade liberalization talks under the World Trade Organization.
COMMENTARY / World
May 13, 2000

A layman's view of the ADB meeting

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- A high-profile meeting of ministers, financiers and bankers at a venue known as the cultural capital of Thailand represented quite a change here last week. The 33rd annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank's Board of Governors was not only a novelty for exotic Chiang Mai,...
BUSINESS
May 13, 2000

Panel looks to ease new tax burden on small firms

The Tax Commission's subpanel on local corporate taxation wrapped up re-examination of its new local corporate-tax proposal Friday, adding a few technical ideas to its earlier report released last July.
JAPAN
May 11, 2000

School has an ear for Korean language

Every eye in the classroom is fixed on Shinji Kurosawa's lips. " 'Pul gogi,' repeat after me," instructs the Korean language teacher.
BUSINESS
May 11, 2000

BOJ mulls end to zero-interest policy

Policymakers at the Bank of Japan are close to concluding discussions on when to terminate the bank's zero-interest rate policy, the central bank's deputy governor told a parliamentary committee Wednesday.
BUSINESS
May 11, 2000

Foreign reserves get IMF lift

The nation's foreign exchange reserves totaled $338.58 billion at the end of April, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past