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LIFE / Travel
Mar 29, 2000

Samurai, silk and soba in a classic castle town

Like many castle towns, the identity of Ueda, in Nagano Prefecture, is closely intertwined with its castle.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2000

Postwar taxation architect Shoup dies

Carl S. Shoup, a U.S. scholar who laid the foundation of Japan's postwar tax system, died in New Hampshire of unknown causes last Thursday, (March 23) the Finance Ministry said Tuesday. He was 97.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Mar 29, 2000

Slow down, you move too fast

While dashing through the headlines the other day, I came across a story about a researcher in Scotland who has discovered yet another ailment of modern man: Hurry Sickness.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2000

Diet votes to reduce benefits in retirees' pension packages

A package of seven bills designed to save the nation's financially strapped pension system by reducing the pensions of private-sector workers cleared the Diet on Tuesday, with the measures to take effect April 1.
BUSINESS
Mar 29, 2000

I-mode Internet service down once more

Users of i-mode cellular telephones were unable to use the phone's Internet service for three hours Tuesday, less than a day after a similar disruption, the company said.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Mar 29, 2000

Very little help

A foreign woman married to a Japanese is concerned about her son who refuses to go to school, a problem that is shared by a lot of other families today. Many kids are revolting against Japan's education system. It could be an indication that they are getting smarter, but unfortunately it doesn't make...
BUSINESS
Mar 29, 2000

Economy up but money market struggling

Positive factors for both the dollar and the yen are making it difficult for the currency market to find its way.
EDITORIALS
Mar 28, 2000

Subverting campaign-finance reform

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has been busy setting up new chapters across the country. If the move was aimed at expanding party activities to put politicians, not bureaucrats, in the driver's seat, or to improve its local programs in tandem with devolution, it would be fine. But the new chapters...
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 28, 2000

Giants give Cubs rude welcome to Japan

Monday night's game was supposed to be Sammy Sosa's moment to strut his stuff. It quickly turned into the Hideki Matsui Show.
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2000

Car manufacturer alliances aim to exploit partners' strengths

As Mitsubishi Motors Corp. on Monday announced a capital tieup with DaimlerChrysler AG, the dust may begin to settle from a series of realignments that have changed the landscape of Japan's automotive industry.
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...
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2000

Health-care plan to benefit middle class

Many corporate employees, self-employed people and civil servants can expect to enjoy better and inexpensive welfare services under a new insurance system set to begin April 1 to deal with the nation's rapidly aging population, according to a leading economist.
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 . . .."

Longform

The students at Mitaka Municipal No. 7 Junior High School have access to various cooling devices for when they play sports.
Japan's extreme heat is causing a rethink of school sports