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LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Nov 3, 1999

Marketing witchcraft

"The Blair Witch Project," which will finally appear at a theater near you this month, is one of the scariest movies of the '90s.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 1999

Nichiei wage system was based on aggressiveness

OSAKA -- Nichiei Co., the nation's largest lender of "shoko" high-interest loans for small businesses, effectively encouraged its employees to extend excessive loans to customers by introducing a merit-based wage system, it was learned Wednesday.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 1999

Suntory Chairman Saji dies of pneumonia at 80

Keizo Saji, the chairman of Suntory Ltd., died of pneumonia Wednesday morning at a hospital in Suita, Osaka Prefecture. He was 80.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 1999

Data leak prompts NTT office search

OSAKA -- Police searched the Osaka branch office of NTT West on Wednesday for evidence against a former employee arrested the previous day for allegedly receiving bribes from so-called Dial Q2 service companies in exchange for information on NTT customers.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Nov 3, 1999

For better or worse

November? Already? How different it is for little kids who think there is a generation between one Christmas and another. November is a stepping stone to the yearend holiday celebration, which this year will have both special meaning and reasons for concern. Regardless of assurances, people wonder what...
JAPAN
Nov 3, 1999

Paper trail thins on Cresvale deals with Yakult Honsha

The stock bought by a former vice president of Yakult Honsha Co. with rebates from the Tokyo branch of Cresvale International Ltd. was not transferred under his name because the branch chairman did not want authorities to discover his activities, sources close to the case said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 1999

Suntory scientists near to making first blue rose

OSAKA -- Suntory Ltd.'s research institute hopes to create a blue rose in the next few years, according to officials.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 3, 1999

Photographic record of a trail-breaking career

I sometimes eat lunch with a close friend who has but one child, a toddler aged 2. He likes to show me photographs.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Nov 3, 1999

Kauai -- the director's cut

Remember that incredible rain-forest waterfall in "Jurassic Park?" Don't search for it in the movie's fictional location off Costa Rica. It's on Kauai Island, the self-styled "garden isle," State of Hawaii.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Nov 3, 1999

How to read a bird's lifestyle in its feet

A reflexologist will tell you that feet reveal a great deal about a person's physical state, and that cures can be administered via the feet.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 3, 1999

Autumn leaves and legends of Kyushu's farthest mountains

GOKANOSHO, Kumamoto Pref. -- The tiny community of Gokanosho (made up of five hamlets, hence its name) is virtually in the center of Kyushu. Draw an imaginary semicircle arching inland from the Kumamoto-Hitoyoshi expressway, and Gokanosho will be in the middle.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 1999

26-year-old aims to be online ad king

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Nov 2, 1999

An unconvincing debut

The extraordinary Diet session that convened last Friday is the first parliamentary sitting since the tripartite coalition administration of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi was launched about a month ago. The public's main concern is with what Mr. Obuchi is trying to accomplish under the expanded coalition...
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

Japan to lift ban on flights to Pyongyang

The government announced on Tuesday that it will resume charter flights to North Korea, easing sanctions it imposed in September 1998 after a North Korean missile flew over Japan.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

Second bill would facilitate redress claims

The Liberal Democratic Party-led ruling coalition submitted a bill to the Diet on Tuesday designed to facilitate redress for victims of Aum Shinrikyo's alleged crimes.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

Unlock voluntary mental patients, council says

Mental patients who are voluntarily hospitalized for treatment should in principle not be locked up, according to a report submitted Tuesday to a subcommittee of an advisory council to Health and Welfare Minister Yuya Niwa.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

NTT pair held over suspected data leak to leftists

Two NTT employees were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of helping members of a leftist extremist group illegally obtain information on members of a rival faction, police officials said.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

Hino Motors down 15.4 billion yen at half

Hino Motors, Ltd. reported Tuesday an unconsolidated pretax loss of 15.4 billion yen for the first half of fiscal 1999 and a sales decline of 219.1 billion yen, down 1.8 percent from the same period last year.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

Hotel exec arrested for hiding money

OSAKA -- The former president of a company that used to manage International Dojima Hotel was arrested Tuesday on suspicion that he withdrew more than 1 million yen from his bank account -- which was already under control of government-appointed administrators -- and hid the money.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

Schroeder has faith economy will recover

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Tuesday he has become confident of Japan's economic recovery through talks with Japanese government and business leaders during his three-day visit here.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 2, 1999

And a drum shall lead them

THE ROUSING DRUM: Ritual Practice in a Japanese Community, by Scott Schnell. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, pp.364 with b/w photos xxvi and maps. $59.00 (cloth); $33.95 (paper). Interpretations of that folk festival, the "matsuri," vary. Kunio Yanagida, the founder of folklore studies in Japan,...
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

Lebanese envoy seeks 'bridge' with Japan

After 19 years of strife and internal struggles that destroyed the entire nation's infrastructure, Lebanon's reconstruction work is under way but the country is still in need of assistance from abroad, including Japan, the new Lebanese ambassador to Japan said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 2, 1999

This poetic chameleon wore khaki

SHREDDING THE TAPESTRY OF MEANING: The Poetry and Poetics of Kitasono Katsue (1902-1978), by John Solt. Harvard University Asia Center, 1999, 395 pp., $49.50. On Jan. 4, 1942, less than a month after Japan's assault on Pearl Harbor, Katsue Kitazono -- the spelling that John Solt gives the name in "Shredding...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Nov 2, 1999

Mosh mosh! Where have the punk girls disappeared to?

Hiroko is a smart TV tarento and it's her birthday so I've got a big treat in store for her: I've rustled up a pair of guest passes for a sold-out Guitar Wolf gig.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

High-tech first-aid kit gives elderly help in rural areas

OSAKA -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. has developed a next-generation first-aid kit for people who live in remote locations where there are no medical facilities.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

Hatoyama calls Obuchi government a 'moral hazard'

Calling the new coalition government of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi a "moral hazard" formed solely to reinforce political power, DPJ head Yukio Hatoyama on Tuesday demanded the early dissolution of the Lower House.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

Diet gets fast-track bill to curb Aum

The government submitted a bill to the Diet on Tuesday that will clamp down on Aum Shinrikyo by allowing the Public Security Investigation Agency to regularly supervise and restrict the activities of the cult's followers.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

Nishimura called on to resign seat

A group of female lawmakers of the Social Democratic Party submitted a written request Tuesday to the office of Liberal Party member Shingo Nishimura, demanding he immediately resign over recent remarks that led to his resignation from his post as Defense Agency parliamentary vice minister.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

HP gears up for aggressive Japan campaign

Consumers and business partners in Japan will become increasingly important in the next century for Hewlett Packard Co. to expand its share in the information technology market, Carly Fiorina, new president and chief executive officer of the firm, told reporters Tuesday.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

LDP panel set to debate Yasukuni Shrine issues

The Liberal Democratic Party said Tuesday it will set up an informal panel within the party to discuss issues concerning Yasukuni Shrine, LDP Secretary General Yoshiro Mori said.

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