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JAPAN
Aug 16, 2000

Chemical safety plans urged by '05

An intergovernmental forum will call on governments to establish national plans by 2005 to safely manage hazardous chemicals, according to draft documents obtained by Kyodo News.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2000

Motorola disputes train ticket machine contract bidding

Motorola Japan Ltd. has asked the government to order East Japan Railway Co. to reopen supply-contract bidding for next-generation automated wicket systems, saying Sony Corp. was unfairly selected, JR East and Motorola officials revealed Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2000

Motorcycle makers gear up to tackle domestic slump

Despite brisk business in the global market, Japanese motorcycle makers have for years watched their domestic sales slide.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2000

Markets unfazed by interest hike, Hayami says

The financial markets have been calmly viewing the Bank of Japan's lifting of its controversial "zero-interest-rate" policy last Friday, BOJ Gov. Masaru Hayami said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2000

Record paper production expected

Paper production in Japan will likely rise to a record high this year, reflecting an information technology-led economic recovery, industry officials said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2000

Wage conditions stronger: BOJ

The Bank of Japan slightly upgraded its evaluation of income conditions for salaried workers while confirming the ongoing gradual economic recovery in a closely watched monthly report released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2000

Kepco urged to explain MOX mess

OSAKA -- Fearful that history will repeat itself, antinuclear groups are calling on Kansai Electric Power Co. to provide data on a batch of mixed uranium and plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel now being processed in France.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2000

7,000 attend ceremony to remember war dead

Some 7,000 people prayed Tuesday for the souls of the 3 million Japanese killed in World War II and wished for peace in the 21st century during a government-sponsored memorial ceremony in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2000

Government workers facing salary reductions

The National Personnel Authority on Tuesday recommended bonus reductions and a freeze on central government employees' basic monthly salaries, which would reduce government employees' annual income over the previous year for the second consecutive year.
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 16, 2000

Giants first to get 60 victories

Tomohiro Nioka and Yoshinori Murata drove in two runs apiece and rookie southpaw Hisanori Takahashi made yet another solid outing Tuesday as the Yomiuri Giants became the first team to reach 60 wins with a 4-3 victory over the Hanshin Tigers.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2000

Infants' brain tissue utilized for research without consent

Brain tissue samples from infants who died of sudden infant death syndrome were used for research by the Health and Welfare Ministry's National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry without families' consent, Tokyo Metropolitan Government sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2000

Arafat to arrive Thursday for visit

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will arrive in Japan on Thursday for a two-day visit, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono announced Tuesday.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 16, 2000

The hippies were right -- go macrobiotic!

FUKUOKA -- Is it possible to re-create the clean, almost-vegetarian Japanese cuisine of the past?
CULTURE / Books
Aug 16, 2000

The 'third way' goes via Japan

CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY IN MODERN JAPAN, edited by Ian Inkster and Fumihiko Satofuka. 2000, I.B. Tauris, 39.50 British pounds / St. Martin's Press, $59.50. THE JAPANESE AND EUROPE: Images and Perceptions, by Bert Edstrom. Japan Library, 35 British pounds / $55. In less than 150 years, Japan has changed...
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2000

Ministry to launch new lifestyle survey next year

The Health and Welfare Ministry will launch a survey next year to track the lives of newborns and certain groups of adults in a bid to better understand social problems such as the dwindling birthrate, ministry sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2000

Four fishermen back from Russia

OSAKA -- Four Japanese fishermen returned to Japan on Tuesday from Russia, where they were released last week by Russian authorities after being charged with fishing without a permit in Russian economic waters.
COMMENTARY
Aug 16, 2000

Japan, logic and the bomb

This year's August end-of-war anniversaries have seen yet another round of Japanese appeals for nuclear disarmament. Past atomic bomb sufferings give Japan a special moral authority in this area, it is claimed.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 16, 2000

Making a run for the horse mackerel

Abundant, easy to catch and good to eat: an apt description of the scrappy little Japanese horse mackerel. Records show that the fish has been a Japanese favorite since the Nara Period, over 1,000 years ago, and it still has its aficionados today. Many Japanese anglers pursue this popular fish in preference...
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Aug 16, 2000

Fat a question of feathers for shearwaters

The fact that young animals and birds not only start off small, but remain smaller than their parents for a long time, seems to be a dominant rule of life. Think of fox or badger cubs, think of young sparrows or bulbuls -- from birth, or hatching, and for some time after they remain smaller than their...
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2000

Torashima plans more Okinawa base talks

Defense Agency chief Kazuo Torashima said Tuesday he will make another visit to Okinawa Prefecture to discuss issues concerning U.S. military bases in the prefecture with local officials.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 16, 2000

Of Rubber Ridley and his Gardens

The Gardens: That is how many locals refer to them. Just The Gardens. As if there were no other, as Bonnie Tinsley wrote in "Visions of Delight."
CULTURE / Books
Aug 16, 2000

China stays focused on the big picture

INTERPRETING CHINA'S GRAND STRATEGY: Past, Present, and Future, by Michael D. Swaine and Ashley J. Tellis. RAND 2000, Project Air Force, 2000, 283 pp., $35 (cloth), $20 (paper). Dealing with China is the chief foreign-policy challenge of the 21st century. Governments in Tokyo, Washington and elsewhere...
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2000

Japanese, U.S. travel giants in negotiations to form business alliance

Japan Travel Bureau Inc. said Tuesday it is in talks with Carlson Wagonlit Travel, the largest travel agency in the United States, on forming an alliance on business trips and a joint venture in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2000

Australia splits on single mothers' rights

SYDNEY -- Sex and the single woman: This unlikely topic has suddenly become a political cause celebre in Australia. Even the Olympics are taking a temporary back seat to the debate on unmarried women's right to motherhood.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 16, 2000

Taking a seat in the no-joking section

Smoke, as they say, gets in your eyes. Not to mention your clothes, hair, nose, lungs, taste buds, teeth, gums and (if you are a smoker) your pocketbook.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 16, 2000

May this force be with you

THE MYSTERIOUS POWER OF KI: The Force Within, by Kouzo Kaku, translated by Roger Machin and Mami Nakamura. Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental, 2000, 154 pp., with b/w photographs, 14.95 British pounds. Despite the title of this book, there is nothing mysterious about "ki." It is a concept popularly...

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