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JAPAN
Aug 31, 2000

Yoshino dam project may yet proceed; foes irked

OSAKA -- Opponents to the controversial Yoshino River dam project in Tokushima are dissatisfied with a ruling coalition proposal made earlier this week that the 100 billion yen project be returned to the drawing board.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 31, 2000

Frugality boom highlights fun and fulfillment of the simple life

As explained in this column several months ago, Japanese TV often adapts successful programming ideas from abroad. Still, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a local version of "Survivor." Reality-based programming is already available in Japan. Years ago, "Denpa Shonen" moved beyond such simplistic...
EDITORIALS
Aug 30, 2000

Keep Iraq on the agenda

A growing number of reports suggest that Iraq is again developing ballistic missiles. Predictably, the government in Baghdad has dismissed the charge. We cannot be sure what is going on: Efforts by the United Nations to inspect Iraqi programs to develop weapons of mass destruction are still blocked by...
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

Osaka divided over Games

OSAKA -- Osaka took a big step forward in realizing its dream of hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics on Monday when it was listed among five final candidate cities.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

Medical importer delayed product warnings

A Tokyo-based importer of U.S.-made artificial pericardiums linked to inflammation in transplant patients waited six months before warning hospitals after it learned of health risks associated with the product, according to medical sources.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

Snow Milk offices to be raided today

OSAKA -- Police will search both the head office of Snow Brand Milk Products Co. in Tokyo and its western Japan branch today on suspicion that professional negligence in connection with recent food-poisoning cases resulted in bodily injury, sources said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2000

Beware effect of rising demand on stocks

Now that selloffs by foreign investors that have buffeted the Tokyo stock market for months have finally eased, market participants are showing more gumption.
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2000

Insurance industry group to manage Taisho Life

The Life Insurance Association of Japan on Tuesday accepted a request by the Financial Services Agency to become administrators for Taisho Life Insurance Co., which collapsed Monday, the association president said.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

'Sick-house syndrome' to be probed in schools

The Education Ministry will inspect 50 school buildings across the nation in September to determine the level of air contamination from chemical substances used in interior construction materials, ministry sources said.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

Agency to create database of tidelands

The Environment Agency will create a database of tidelands in Japan, making records on topography and fauna over a five-year period to protect those sites, agency officials said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2000

MITI budget for 2001 climbs 2.3%

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry presented its fiscal 2001 budget request Tuesday, up 2.3 percent from the previous year to 1.96 trillion yen.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

Jumbo vessel unveiled to clean ocean oil spills

The government on Tuesday unveiled Japan's largest oil-recovery vessel, ordered by the Transport Ministry in the wake of a huge oil spill on the Sea of Japan coast three years ago.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

Analyst attacks organ transplant proposal

A leading sociologist has slammed a proposal under consideration by a government-funded study group that the current law on organ transplants be revised to allow the procurement of organs from brain-dead patients with just the written consent of family members.
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2000

NTT allows competitor in its doors

Faced with mounting criticism over stalling and exclusionary tactics, telecom giant NTT East Corp. for the first time has allowed a competitor to set up broad-band interconnection equipment within its compound in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

Children lead exodus of volcanic Miyake Island

Miyake Island's Mount Oyama erupted again early Tuesday morning -- its second major blast this summer -- hastening the evacuation of 136 children later in the day.
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2000

Taisho exec's fundraising acts scrutinized

Prosecutors are examining the fundraising activities of a Taisho Life Insurance Co. executive who was arrested Monday on suspicion of fraud, sources close to the case said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

Requests for 2001 budget down slightly

Fiscal 2001 budget requests from ministries and agencies will total about 84.83 trillion yen, or 160 billion yen less than the initial budget for the current fiscal year, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2000

Unemployment holds at 4.7%

The nation's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 4.7 percent in July, unchanged from June, the Management and Coordination Agency said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

Talks to hold up Kitakyushu as environmental success story

Asia, with more than half the world's population and economies that continue to grow, poses one of the biggest environmental challenges of the coming century. The United Nations predicts that by 2025 more than half the region's population will have moved to the already packed metropolises.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Aug 30, 2000

Architects reach for the sky

www.geocities.com/PicketFence/5192/ The address above is actually a really nice metaphor. The "picket fence" it refers to is the chain formed by the world's tallest buildings. Add "center_of_india.html" to the end of the address and take a look at an artist's rendering of what some day might be the...
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2000

Chemical firm disputes EC's fines

Leading chemical maker Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co. has filed a complaint with the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice claiming the European Commission broke a promise when it calculated a price-fixing fine imposed on the company, the firm said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2000

Little reason to celebrate in East Timor

Just over a year ago, in August 1999, I was in the Baucau district of East Timor, helping to monitor the leadup to the referendum on independence as a U.N.-accredited observer with the independent International Federation for East Timor Observer Project.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 30, 2000

Cool, clear cascades in a citadel of water

Early each spring, the magnificent Mount Aso region in Kumamoto Prefecture opens its sightseeing season with a bang in the rituals of the Aso Fire Festival, and giant characters for "fire" are blazed into the area's hills.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 30, 2000

Travel in the company of women

"The challenge is to myself and not to the mountain." -- "Clouds from Both Sides," by Julie Tullis
LIFE / Travel
Aug 30, 2000

'A lippy and lewd bunch of women'

Ten or 15 years ago, it seemed as if women travel writers might have become an extinct species. Manuscripts submitted by women were subjected to a special set of rules. Editors expected their accounts to include record-breaking feats, promotional gimmicks or at least the use of some eccentric mode of...

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