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JAPAN
May 10, 2000

Communities tapped to teach kids foreign languages

Elementary school students in 29 communities across Japan will receive community-run foreign language lessons outside of school, Education Ministry officials said.
JAPAN
May 10, 2000

Honohana leader, 11 cohorts arrested for bilking believers

The Metropolitan Police Department arrested Hogen Fukunaga, the founder of the foot-reading cult Honohana Sanpogyo, and 11 other senior cult members Tuesday on suspicion of fraud.
BUSINESS
May 10, 2000

Correction episode may be near an end

The trigger for Tokyo stock price corrections in recent weeks has been volatility on the New York Stock Exchange.
BUSINESS
May 10, 2000

Minicars take first fall in five months

Domestic sales of new minivehicles in April decreased 2.9 percent to 141,600 units, marking the first year-on-year drop in five months, the Japan Minivehicles Association said Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 10, 2000

Mori to visit Seoul May 29 for talks with President Kim

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will make a one-day trip to Seoul on May 29 to hold informal talks with South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
May 10, 2000

Economic growth in March was ninth straight expansion

The March coincident index of economic indicators, which gauges the current state of the economy, measured above 50 percent -- an indication of economic expansion -- for the ninth straight month, the Economic Planning Agency said Tuesday.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 10, 2000

Sea of love

Ponder, if you will, these two recent headlines:
LIFE / Travel
May 10, 2000

Postcards from the flip side of Japan

Think of the antithesis of Japan. A place where there are few people, an abundance of unspoiled natural beauty, a low standard of living and, perhaps most importantly for the visitor, sparkling blue oceans teeming with fish and alive with coral reefs.
JAPAN
May 10, 2000

Crane to help team watch forest

A group of scientists from Japan and Malaysia will soon begin monitoring a tropical forest in Malaysia's Sarawak region from a lookout atop the world's largest nature-observation crane.
JAPAN
May 10, 2000

Report focuses on NGOs, missile threat

The government will step up its efforts to build partnerships with nongovernmental organizations and other groups to meet emerging diplomatic challenges, according to the Foreign Ministry's annual foreign policy report released Tuesday.
CULTURE / Stage
May 10, 2000

Kee Company explores facets of communication

If we could see language, if language relied on visual instead of aural means, it would become a kind of communication closely resembling telepathy: a fusion of the observer with the observed.
ENVIRONMENT
May 10, 2000

Trees and taste at Mito Botanic Garden

Mito, in Ibaraki Prefecture, is well known throughout Japan for natto (fermented soybeans), an acquired taste. It is also known for Kairakuen Garden, one of the Three Famous Gardens in Japan, which I've written about before. Just a couple of kilometers south of Mito in the lush green countryside, there...
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2000

Modest hopes for summit between Koreas

Last month, the leaders of North and South Korea stunned the world with an announcement of plans to meet in Pyongyang in June at the first ever summit between the two nations. It is an event fraught with both danger and opportunity.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 10, 2000

We all have problems

A foreign man, engaged to be married to a Japanese woman, has a problem. They have decided they want to buy a mansion (apartment) rather than pay rent for someone else's property. He has heard that foreigners wishing to buy property or arrange a mortgage are required to have permanent residence status,...
LIFE / Travel
May 10, 2000

Panasonic shows off high tech for the kids

What's a kyoiku mama to do?
BUSINESS
May 10, 2000

Five firms tie up on trust bank

Four Japanese financial institutions have teamed up with Deutsche Bank AG to acquire DMG Trust Bank, a Deutsche Bank subsidiary, with the intention of turning it into Japan's first trust bank specializing in administering corporate pension funds, company officials announced Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 10, 2000

Activists arrested in 'dioxin capital'

Four members of the environmentalist group Greenpeace International were arrested Tuesday after scaling a tower near an incinerator plant in Tokyo to protest Japan's waste-incineration policies, police and group members said.
JAPAN
May 10, 2000

Okinawa goods shops basking in G8, or pop-star spotlight?

Who is to thank for the recent brisk sales at an Okinawa goods shop in Tokyo, former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi or pop singer Namie Amuro?
BUSINESS
May 10, 2000

DoCoMo makes foray into European market

Fired by the ambition to spread its next-generation multimedia cellular systems across Europe, NTT DoCoMo Inc. said Tuesday that it will acquire 15 percent of Dutch-based cellular operator KPN Mobile N.V. for 500 billion yen.
BUSINESS
May 10, 2000

Matsushita's memory card up against Sony's product

In a bid to compete against Sony Corp.'s Memory Stick, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. will introduce a product in June featuring a small flash memory card named the SD Memory Card, Matsushita announced Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
May 9, 2000

Crime knows no boundaries

Crime was very much on people's minds during this year's Golden Week holiday period. While the calendar made it possible for record numbers of Japanese to travel abroad, those who stayed behind for whatever reason were transfixed by news of two appalling crimes one day apart, each allegedly committed...
JAPAN
May 9, 2000

Takashimaya enters Nagoya on quest for piece of the pie

NAGOYA -- For 20 years, the city with the nation's highest private savings rate had only four major department stores.
SUMO
May 9, 2000

Kaio claims second ozeki scalp

Komusubi Kaio forced out Chiyotaikai to claim his second ozeki scalp of the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament on Monday and keep the early pace with unbeaten grand champions Akebono and Takanohana.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 9, 2000

Giants shut down Swallows 4-0

Pinch-hit slugger Akira Eto belted a grand slam and rookie Hisanori Takahashi went the distance while tossing a three-hitter Sunday as the Yomiuri Giants blanked the Yakult Swallows 4-0 at the Tokyo Dome.
JAPAN
May 9, 2000

NTT to buy U.S. Net firm

NTT Communications Corp. announced Monday that it will acquire Verio Inc. of the United States, a major Internet service provider, in order to become a "full-service player" in Asia, Europe and the U.S.
JAPAN
May 9, 2000

Longer Golden Week spurs huge turnout

Some 68.1 million people spent their Golden Week holidays at major tourist attractions or events this year, an increase of roughly 14.3 million from last year, the National Police Agency said Monday.

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