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BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2000

Two paper firms agree on merger details

The nation's second and fourth largest paper firms will merge operations under a holding firm in April 2001, the two firms formally announced Monday.
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2000

DoCoMo to stake 1 billion yen in Sakura online bank plan

NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc. will invest some 1 billion yen in an online bank to be set up by Sakura Bank this summer, NTT DoCoMo officials said Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2000

Ozawa planning to deliver latest 'ultimatum' to Obuchi

Liberal Party leader Ichiro Ozawa may deliver another "ultimatum" to Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi as early as today over the possible withdrawal of his 51-member party from its 14 monthlong alliance with Obuchi's Liberal Democratic Party.
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2000

TSE approaching end of correctional stint

The Tokyo stock market appears to be crawling out of a correctional phase.
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2000

Firms hoping for good changes in Putin's Russia

Senior Japanese businesspeople expressed hope Monday that Russia's newly elected President Vladimir Putin will create a favorable investment environment in Russia by realizing political and economic stabilization.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2000

U.S. sues to shut down incinerators

The United States on Monday filed a civil suit against a waste disposal company near the U.S. Naval Air Facility in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, seeking immediate suspension of the firm's incinerator operations, according to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2000

Sumitomo, Mitsui tieup advanced by six months

Sumitomo Marine & Fire Insurance Co. and Mitsui Marine & Fire Insurance Co. announced Monday they will merge in October 2001, moving up an earlier schedule by six months.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 28, 2000

The marvelous paradox of Ise

ISE -- JAPAN'S ISE SHRINES: Ancient but New, by Svend Hvass. Holte: Aristo Press, 146 pp., profusely illustrated, 6,000 yen. Ise holds one of the most important Shinto shrines in Japan. Enshrining the ancestral gods of the Imperial family, it has a long and varied political career. Such was its power...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 28, 2000

Tried and true not always the way to go

As mentioned last time in this column, a new restaurant/venue, Tribute to the Love Generation, will open in Odaiba on Tokyo Bay next month. It is not, as you may expect, a hangout for "Dead-heads," or ex-flower power hippies hiding out in Tokyo, but in fact will host mainly "world music" concerts. With...
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2000

NTT to offer early warning to allergy-sufferers via phone

Come next spring, your cell phone may tell you how runny your nose and how itchy your eyes will be the next day -- a warning of what might happen if you walk outside.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 28, 2000

Compassion, discretion and social pressure key to rehabilitation

LINKING COMMUNITY AND CORRECTIONS IN JAPAN, by Elmer H. Johnson with Carol H. Johnson. Carbondale and Edwardsville, U.S.: Southern Illinois University Press; 2000; 413 pp., $44.95. One morning a Japanese farmer sees his deranged wife trying to hang herself. Rushing to her side he manages to calm her...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2000

No stopping the IT revolution

Most economic experts seem to agree that the information-technology revolution will bring profound changes to the global economy, and to the Japanese economy as well. Some people still believe that the revolution and the development of multimedia communications technology are only a bubble. However,...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 28, 2000

Blindness tips the scales of history

THE POSTWAR CONSERVATIVE VIEW OF ASIA: How the Political Right has Delayed Japan's Coming to Terms with its History of Aggression in Asia, by Yoshibumi Wakamiya. Tokyo: LTCB International Library Foundation, 1999, 370 pp. 3,000 yen, This study of Japan's dilatory and grudging attempts to come to terms...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 28, 2000

Disciples of authenticity and the exact science of madness

"If I count to four, can you make yourself feel angry?" asks bass player Kentaro Kawaguchi, founder and visionary of the band 54-71. "One. . . two . . . three . . . four . . .."
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2000

Fukaya, Lamy to push WTO round

Trade chief Takashi Fukaya said he and Pascal Lamy, the European Union's trade commissioner, agreed Monday to pursue efforts to jointly hold working-level meetings with the United States and Canada in Geneva on Friday to encourage the World Trade Organization to swiftly launch a new round of free-trade...
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2000

Dioxin in Fujisawa river 16 times official standard

Samples taken from the Hikichi River in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, late last year showed dioxin levels up to 16 times the recently-set environmental standard, the Environment Agency announced on Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2000

Obuchi hails Putin's win in Russia

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on Monday congratulated acting Russian President Vladimir Putin via telephone on his victory in Sunday's presidential elections, a Foreign Ministry official said.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2000

Police arrest ministry official

Police on Monday arrested a bureaucrat at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries who was allegedly wined and dined to the tune of about 1.9 million yen by an agricultural cooperative in Kagawa Prefecture in return for favors involving farm subsidies.
EDITORIALS
Mar 27, 2000

Clinton walks the tightrope

For all the aspersions cast at U.S. President Bill Clinton, it cannot be said that he lacks courage. For no other word can describe Mr. Clinton's foray into the treacherous politics of South Asia. The decades-long standoff between India and Pakistan has become yet more threatening since the two governments...
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2000

Ever been to Nakamura?

Nakamura has turned out to be the most common town name in Japan, with 698 towns bearing the name nationwide, according to a new map produced by the Geographical Survey Institute.
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2000

Excessive currency liquidity fuels speculative rise in crude

Crude oil prices, which just a year ago appeared on the verge of falling below $10 per barrel, began a steep climb this year, at one point hitting $34 per barrel -- the highest level since the Persian Gulf Crisis. There are two major reasons behind this phenomenon.

Longform

Dul Saroth (left) and Soeum Samrach, deminers with the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority, practice using the Advanced Landmine Imaging System in Cambodia’s Siem Reap province in August.
The Japanese tech that could one day make Southeast Asia landmine-free