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JAPAN
Sep 28, 2000

Matsushita, Waseda to set up remote-learning venture

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. will set up a joint venture with Waseda University in Tokyo on Monday that will offer online learning courses to both students and the general public, Matsushita said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2000

Inventors cheated by support group head: attorneys

A group of patent attorneys on Wednesday asked police to investigate the founder of an amateur inventors' support group whom it accuses of swindling inventors out of 340 million yen over the past 10 years, the attorneys said.
BUSINESS
Sep 28, 2000

Banks agree to forgive Hazama debt

Hazama Corp. said Wednesday that its four main creditor banks have agreed to forgive a combined 105 billion yen in loans to the debt-saddled construction company.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2000

Foreign residents on slow boat to get vote

The Japanese woman was unhappy.
OLYMPICS
Sep 28, 2000

Nagata is Japan's unlikely hero in 69-kg wrestling

SYDNEY -- Katsuhiko Nagata was the unlikely hero for Japan at the Sydney Olympics on Wednesday when he lifted a silver medal to save the nation from embarrassment in the world's oldest competitive sport.
BUSINESS
Sep 28, 2000

Mori vows to urge oil producers to stabilize prices

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori promised Wednesday to call on oil producers to make efforts to stabilize crude prices, saying the recent surge in the prices could have a negative impact on the global economy.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 28, 2000

New garter-free stockings get a leg up on the market

Japanese women have long been attached to nylon pantyhose, wearing them even during the hot and humid summer months. Despite the fashion for bare legs and sandals, many working women continue to wear pantyhose to the office in the sweltering heat.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2000

AOL, DoCoMo form alliance

America Online Inc. and NTT DoCoMo Inc. announced Wednesday in Tokyo that they will form a strategic alliance to integrate their wireless and fixed-line Internet services, with NTT DoCoMo becoming AOL Japan's top shareholder.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Sep 28, 2000

Keeping it plain and simple for the serious sake drinker

Some of the best sake can be tasted these days at modern, shiny, artsy-craftsy sake pubs. These present some of the most lively and interesting environments in which to hang out with nihonshu. But sometimes, what we seek in a sake pub is more of an out-of-the-way feeling. Sometimes its anonymity that...
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Sep 28, 2000

Have some madeira, my dear

What's fascinating, fortified and fun to discover?
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2000

Japan's nonprofits carve out a space of their own

When the Nature Conservancy's Lori Forman addressed the College Women's Association of Japan at a luncheon earlier this year, the topic was supposed to be nongovernmental organizations in Japan. But instead of providing a nuanced description of Japan's not-for-profit movement, Forman seemed more interested...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2000

Koreas need peace, not a peace treaty

SEOUL-- This week's defense minister-level meeting on Cheju Island is welcome news as the two Koreas take another historic step forward in their rapidly developing rapprochement. But the road ahead will be long and convoluted. According to one well-placed South Korean official, "we are in the realm of...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 28, 2000

Birth of a new generation

Turn on the television or flip through any popular magazine, and you're sure to come across gyarumama (gal mamas) -- teenage moms with tanned skin, trendy clothes and towering platform shoes.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2000

Tsukuba team creates first model of mitochondrial disease

Biologists at Tsukuba University have produced the first animal model of mitochondrial disease, paving the way for research into human diseases, such as some forms of paralysis and kidney failure, that are caused by mutations in mitochondrial DNA.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 28, 2000

Trendy slurping in Azabu-Juban

All things must pass -- especially, it seems, the good stuff. So a final farewell, then, to the old Azabu-Juban we used to know and love, with its funky, friendly mom 'n' pop stores, cheap nomiya and overpriced wine bars, and its faintly musty smells of onsen and kimchi.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 28, 2000

Disabled fight for freedom of movement

Disabled people should not take trains -- at least that's what Take Maruyama, who needs a wheelchair because of cerebral palsy, was told by his family when he was growing up in a small town in Tochigi Prefecture. Fortunately, he didn't listen.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2000

Tokai residents fear more accidents

Nearly a year after the nuclear accident in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, which resulted in the deaths of two people, 60 percent of town residents surveyed are still concerned about further nuclear accidents but say they need their jobs in the nuclear industry, a Kyodo News survey showed Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 27, 2000

Solving problems in Prague

Economic policymakers are gathered in Prague this week to make sense of the international economy. The mood is mixed, and rightly so. While the global economy has recovered from the scare of 1998 and has registered strong growth ever since, the recovery is fragile. It could be derailed by, say, high...
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2000

Honda revamp cuts production time 30%

Honda Motor Co. said Tuesday it has completed rationalization of its auto production at its plant in Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, which will shorten by more than 30 percent the average time it takes to assemble automobiles.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2000

Snow Brand to cut 1,300 jobs, form alliance with Nestle

Snow Brand Milk Products Co., which was embroiled in a massive food-poisoning scandal this summer, unveiled a major restructuring plan Tuesday that includes cutting 1,300 jobs -- 20 percent of its workforce -- within 21/2 years and closing its Osaka plant.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2000

Pension bill drawn up to give workers choices

The government has drafted a bill to drastically reform Japan's corporate pension system with an eye to protecting employees' rights to receive pension benefits, government officials said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2000

Sales at supermarkets fall for 21st month to 1.336 trillion yen

Sales at domestic supermarkets dropped 5.7 percent in August from a year earlier to 1.336 trillion yen, the 21st consecutive month of decline, an industry association said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2000

State demands 12 years for schoolgirl's abductor

OSAKA -- Local prosecutors demanded a 12-year prison term Tuesday for a former Ibaraki municipal employee charged with abducting an elementary school girl and demanding a 42 million yen ransom.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2000

Cuba looks forward to expanding ties with Japan

Cuba hopes for strengthened relations with Japan in a wide range of areas and also wants to normalize ties with the United States, its longtime nemesis, sometime in the future, Vice President Carlos Lage said in a written interview with The Japan Times.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2000

Yokohama mayor denies 'sin tax' plan aimed at politically weak

Yokohama Mayor Hidenobu Takahide has denied claims that the city's controversial "entertainment tax" plan unfairly punishes the politically weak by singling out unpopular businesses.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2000

Tokyo International Film Festival to screen 16 films by new directors

Sixteen films by new directors will be screened in competition at the 13th Tokyo International Film Festival, which will begin Oct. 28, according to event organizers.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2000

Nonaka asks China to stop 'research' in Japanese waters

Hiromu Nonaka, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, on Tuesday asked the Chinese assistant foreign minister to ensure that China refrains from conducting research in Japan's exclusive economic waters.

Longform

Capsule hotels were created as a way to deal with the amount of overwork employees tend to do in Japan. Can't commute home? Then spend the night in an tiny, affordable sleeping space.
Japan wakes up to the market for a proper sleep