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LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 23, 2000

Tsukiji or not, nothing fishy about Bellini's Bar

One usually doesn't go to Tsukiji to get a fine cappuccino or a poppy-seed sponge cake soaked in liqueur. Yet just a few minutes away from "Tokyo's Kitchen," where pricy cuts of maguro are noisily auctioned off to the highest bidder, Bellini's Italian Bar offers businesspeople and tourists alike a pleasant...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2000

Irrational intransigence

Was I the only one who noticed? Ever since the end of the Cold War (that breeding ground of massive numbers of nuclear warheads), U.S. policy toward Russia has been to get rid of as many Russian nuclear weapons as possible. Yet when the Russians recently proposed eliminating up to 1,000 strategic nuclear...
LIFE / Travel
Feb 23, 2000

Heaven in Beppu's hot spring hells

The Lonely Planet's Japan edition pans it, but the onsen (hot spring) town of Beppu in Oita Prefecture provides a fun glimpse of somewhat dated Japanese sightseeing rituals -- and of course, with perhaps the most diverse array of hot springs in Kyushu, it has some great places to take a dip.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2000

Most Tokyoites support bank-tax plan

More than 80 percent of about 1,700 people who had contacted City Hall as of Tuesday back Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara's plan to tax Tokyo's major banks. According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the city had received 1,674 phone calls and letters as of Tuesday, with 83 percent of them supporting...
EDITORIALS
Feb 22, 2000

Iran changes -- its own way

Iranians went to the polls last week in the sixth general elections held since the Islamic revolution of 1979. The ballot was the most fiercely contested since the overthrow of the shah, and for good reason: The stakes could not have been higher. Voters knew that a win for reformers could break the religious...
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2000

Ex-fugitive again denies Itoman breach of trust

OSAKA -- Former fugitive real estate developer Heo Young Joong, 52, on Tuesday pleaded not guilty again to charges of causing damage to the defunct trading house Itoman Corp. The Osaka businessman restated the plea when his Osaka District Court trial resumed Tuesday following a 28-month recess caused...
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2000

Japan, Iran slate arms talks

Staff writer Japan and Iran will hold high-level talks on disarmament and nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction in Tokyo for the first time, probably during the first half of April, Foreign Ministry sources said Tuesday. The sources said the talks will be held between Norio Hattori, the Foreign...
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 22, 2000

Edo Period internationalism: kabuki's Hakata smugglers

The Kabukiza's programs for the month of February offer some of kabuki's biggest stars, including tachiyaku (male leads) Danjuro Ichikawa, Kikugoro Onoe and Kichiemon Nakamura. Jakuemon Nakamura, the distinguished 79-year-old onnagata actor, appears opposite Kichiemon in two plays in the evening program,...
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2000

Allergy-prone get jump on hay fever

Staff writer For the past 10 years, spring has been tough on Mari Koi, with her seasonal allergy leaving her with itchy, watery eyes and a runny nose from February through March. But this year, the 30-year-old Tokyo woman has been well so far -- possibly due to early preparation. "I have been taking...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 22, 2000

When paranoia is in power, prepare to be surprised

WHY VIETNAM INVADED CAMBODIA: Political Culture and the Causes of War, by Stephen J. Morris. Stanford University Press, 1999, 315 pp., $49.50/30 British pounds (cloth), $18.95/11.95 British pounds (paper). In July 1973, the Khmer Rouge launched an offensive against Cambodia's capital city, Phnom Penh....
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2000

Proposal would bolster crime victims' rights

The right of the accused to face his or her accuser is one issue at stake in a draft proposal aiming to better protect crime victims' rights that was submitted to the justice minister Tuesday. The Legislative Council submitted the proposed revision of the Criminal Procedure Act to Justice Minister Hideo...
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2000

Port transport business targeted for deregulation

The Cabinet approved a bill Tuesday to deregulate the harbor transport business in a bid to boost the competitiveness of Japanese ports. The government was to submit the bill to the Diet later in the day, aiming for enforcement this year. The bill, which would revise the Port Transport Business Law,...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 22, 2000

The mathematics of love and loss

RABBIT OF THE NETHERWORLD, by Reiko Koyanagi. Illustrated by Monica Tamano, translated by Hiroaki Sato. Red Moon Press, 1999, 62 pp., $12 (paper). "Rabbit of the Netherworld" is a unique and often compelling memoir, a fragmentary poetic recreation of the author's wartime childhood and its many painful...
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2000

State drops effort to sway Ishihara

The government issued a statement Tuesday that spells out its position on Tokyo's controversial new tax plan and at the same time washes its hands of the issue. "The government sees that the plan includes problems and asks the prefecture to deal with the issue carefully," the statement says. It also...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 22, 2000

Some very serious pillow talk

CARTOGRAPHIES OF DESIRE: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950, by Gregory M. Pflugfelder. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999, 200 pp., unpriced. As the author of this detailed, closely reasoned and beautifully written study reminds us, "Rather than sexual practice, this book...
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2000

Tokyo's tax plan too bold for government to touch

Staff writer The Cabinet effectively admitted on Tuesday that there is nothing the central government can do -- at least for now -- to stop Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara from implementing his plan to tax banks. One option the central government may have to forestall the negative effects it says the tax...
BUSINESS
Feb 22, 2000

Stock market on hold until weather clears

The Tokyo stock market has entered a consolidation phase since the key Nikkei average climbed past the 20,000 level early this month.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 22, 2000

Hearing the global groove

Just back from an exhilarating recording trip to Santa Cruz, Calif., for the second installment of the project by Okinawa's Takashi Hirayasu and American guitarist Bob Brozman. This time the duo was joined by other musicians on percussion, drums and bass, and also David Hidalgo from Los Lobos and the...
EDITORIALS
Feb 21, 2000

Talking again to Moscow

Although the Cold War has been over for more than a decade, Russia continues to befuddle Western diplomats. Moscow's international influence is a fraction of that of the Soviet Union, its economy is a basket case and it is beset by one domestic political crisis after another, yet the country maintains...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2000

Penny-wise, pound-foolish

The Japanese government is reportedly planning to negotiate a cut in so-called "omoiyari yosan" (sympathy budget), or special host-nation support, for the U.S. forces stationed in Japan. The word "omoiyari" is left out these days, however, on the ground that it can create misunderstandings. The budget...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2000

Pinochet's contribution to humanity

NEW YORK -- The greatest contribution Gen. Augusto Pinochet has made to the rule of international law and to the reign of justice goes beyond his rightful detention in Britain, something never even imagined by Chile's most powerful dictator. Rather, it is to have made real the validity of extraterritoriality...
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2000

Obuchi apologizes to Kok for Dutch victims of war

In a meeting Monday with his visiting Dutch counterpart, Willem Kok, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi expressed Japan's "deep remorse and a heartfelt apology" for Dutch victims of World War II, a Foreign Ministry official said. Kok said that although the events of history cannot be undone, the two nations...
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2000

WHO wants battle against disease on agenda of G8 summit

The World Health Organization has asked Japan to prioritize the battle against infectious and parasitic diseases by placing the topic high on the agenda for the Group of Eight summit in Okinawa this summer, government sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2000

Mexico promotes free trade pact

Japan and Mexico should seriously study the possibility of a bilateral free-trade agreement, visiting Mexican Foreign Minister Rosario Green reiterated Monday. "Concluding an FTA between Japan and Mexico would benefit both countries," Green told a news conference. "To Mexico, such an agreement would...
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2000

Home affairs minister talks tax with Ishihara

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara met Kosuke Hori, home affairs minister, at a Tokyo hotel Monday evening to hear the ministry's concerns regarding the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's plan to tax the gross profits of major banks in Tokyo. Following the 15-minute closed meeting, Hori told reporters that he...
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2000

Election timing to be set with coalition partners: Obuchi

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi said Monday that he will determine the date for dissolving the Lower House in close consultation with his two ruling coalition partners, keeping alive media speculation over the timing of the next general election.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2000

Wired new world challenges Japan's old model: U.S. exec

Staff writer The American Management Association leads by example. By adapting its raison d'etre -- to provide business education and management development programs to thousands of companies worldwide -- to the Internet-wired world, the organization is hinting at the direction it believes its members...
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2000

Standards needed for granting residence status: rights activist

Staff writer An advocate of foreigners' rights says he has seen indications that Japanese authorities are beginning to regard those who overstay their visas as human beings -- not as mere laborers or scofflaws. However, Katsuo Yoshinari, head of the Asian People's Friendship Society, said there is a...
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2000

Development of human resources vital to ending Asian economic crisis

The last two or three years of the 1990s will probably be long remembered in the minds of those in East Asia and around the globe as the Asian Economic and Currency Crisis. Has this crisis actually ended?
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2000

Tertiary industrial activity rose 1% in 1999

The nation's tertiary industry activity grew 1 percent in 1999, marking the first rise in two years, according to a preliminary report issued Monday by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. The index of activity in the tertiary industry for the year stood at 103.2 against a base of 100 in...

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