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OLYMPICS
Sep 19, 2000

No gold for Mai-chan

SYDNEY -- Mai Nakamura led the field until the last two strokes of the pool but had to settle for silver as she claimed Japan's second medal in swimming at the Sydney Olympics in the women's 100-meter backstroke Monday.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2000

Tokyo called on to protect gays' rights

Private groups are calling on the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to add homosexuals to its list of people whose basic human rights need to be protected.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2000

Bishop urges pressure on Jakarta to oust militias

Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, East Timor's top Catholic leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, called on the world to pressure Jakarta to relocate Indonesian army-backed militias still operating with impunity in West Timor and outlined the current state of the reconciliation and reconstruction process...
EDITORIALS
Sep 19, 2000

A welcome slowdown

The biggest concern among economists in the last year has been the prospect of a "hard landing" for the high-flying U.S. economy. They feared that either because of a crisis or by design, the United States would stall and knock the wind out of the global economy. That danger seems to be abating: The...
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2000

Simul launches staffing subsidiary

Simul International, Inc. has launched a staffing agency specializing in human resources for international communications, the Tokyo-based interpreting and translation firm said Monday.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2000

Workers less optimistic on economy

The Economic Planning Agency said Monday that its index measuring workers' views on the current status of the economy showed they were more pessimistic in August than three months ago.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2000

Panel calls for juries in criminal trials

Members of a government panel on judicial reform said Monday they will push for the introduction of a jury system for criminal trials as a way to secure "popular sovereignty."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 19, 2000

Urban life's high cost in health

The bright lights of the city are drawing a record number of people in search of careers and excitement. But city life comes at a price. Recent studies have found that Japan's city dwellers are jeopardizing their lives and their offspring.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2000

Summer of 2000 headed for record books

This summer appears set to become one of Tokyo's hottest on record after Monday marked the 66th day this season that temperatures in the capital have soared above 30, the Meteorological Agency said.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2000

Sky Perfect to issue 400,000 new shares

Sky Perfect Communications Inc., operator of communication satellite broadcaster Sky PerfecTV, said Monday it will issue 400,000 new shares by public offering in a bid to raise some 105.1 billion yen to boost its business.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2000

Kumagai Gumi to restructure

Kumagai Gumi Co. unveiled a restructuring plan Monday under which the debt-ridden construction firm will ask 15 creditors to forgive debts totaling 450 billion yen.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 19, 2000

Poetry that brings countries together

THE WEATHER IN JAPAN, by Michael Longley. Jonathan Cape, 2000, 70 pp., 8 British pounds. HAY, by Paul MULDOON. Faber & Faber, 140 pp., 7.99 British pounds. A SMELL OF FISH, by Matthew Sweeney. Jonathan Cape, 2000, 64 pp., 8 British pounds. Irland and Japan: two countries at the far extremities of the...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 19, 2000

Kwangju: a turning point for South Korea

THE KWANGJU UPRISING: Eyewitness Accounts of Korea's Tiananmen, edited by Henry Scott-Stokes and Lee Jai Eui. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2000, 268 pp. $18.95 (paper). "Covering the Kwangju uprising -- and writing of it in the aftermath," a Korean observer writes, "I was stuck for words. A reporter is supposed...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 19, 2000

Program laying groundwork to conserve rivers and trails

John Monroe jokingly refers to himself as a "conservation venture capitalist." Unlike most investment bankers, however, Monroe is investing for the long term.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Sep 19, 2000

Rockin' without fear or favor

I'm often asked what kind of misfits bother writing to Fuzzy Logic and what they say and as I'm busy lying on a beach in Thailand -- having my toes sucked by a bunch of cherry-lipped ladyboys while sipping a sexy cocktail and sucking on a big fat exotic stoogie -- I've decided to give you a few examples...
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2000

Isuzu, GM start commercial sales venture in U.S.

Isuzu Motors Ltd. announced Monday that it has formed a commercial vehicle sales company in the United States with General Motors Corp.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 19, 2000

A fascinating figure of 13th-century Japan

CHARISMA AND COMMUNITY FORMATION IN MEDIEVAL JAPAN, by S.A. Thornton. Ithaca: Cornell University East Asia Series, 1999, 290 pp., unpriced. The "charisma" of the title of this carefully researched and impressively thorough work of scholarship refers, in the first instance, to the medieval Buddhist...
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2000

Kato wants LDP to end alliance if it wins a majority

Koichi Kato, former secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, said Monday that the party should not form a coalition with New Komeito if the LDP secures a majority in the House of Representatives in the next general election.
COMMENTARY
Sep 19, 2000

Dispute defies quick solution

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed in their recent Tokyo summit to resolve the bilateral territorial dispute over the Northern Territories, stirring mixed reactions in the two countries. Although they agreed to continue peace-treaty talks toward the yearend deadline,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 19, 2000

Laos' fractured human map

LAO HILL TRIBES: Traditions and Patterns of Existence, by Stephen Mansfield. Images of Asia: Oxford University Press, 2000. 120 pp., 21 color plates, 24 monochrome, unpriced. In a sense, Laos remains closer to a conglomeration of tribes than it does to a conventional state composed of a unified people....
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2000

Case of tanker truck blast to be handed to prosecutors

Police decided Monday to send papers to public prosecutors this week on three officials of a firm whose tanker truck exploded on a Tokyo expressway in October, injuring 25 people, investigative sources said.
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 19, 2000

Heirs toddle onstage to pass torch of Utaemon

During the month of September, the Kabukiza in Tokyo is presenting a special program comprising four well-known plays and two famous dance numbers in memory of Utaemon Nakamura V, the onnagata actor who died in 1940 at the age of 75.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2000

Economy still in recovery mode, BOJ says

The Bank of Japan left its overall assessment of the economy unchanged in its monthly report released Monday, saying the economy is continuing a gradual recovery led by business investment.
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2000

Police to plant cameras at perilous intersections

Police plan to install video cameras at about 350 accident-prone intersections across Japan beginning in April to help police investigate collisions at the spots, the National Police Agency said.
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 18, 2000

Hawks drop Buffaloes 6-1

Hiroshi Shibahara slugged a two-run tie-breaking homer in the sixth inning, helping the Daiei Hawks down the Kintetsu Buffaloes 6-1 and snap their losing streak at three on Sunday at the Fukuoka Dome.

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