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COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 31, 2000

Musical festivals

It's time again for the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto. The first was held nine years ago when many outstanding Japanese musicians gathered together, as they have every year since, to honor their teacher, Hideo Saito, with a combined musical performance.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2000

Sogo explains debt plan to shareholders

Sogo Co. on Tuesday held its first shareholders' meeting since it released a restructuring plan that involves some 73 creditor firms forgiving the ailing department store operator some 639 billion yen in debts.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2000

DoCoMo mulling stake in U.S. mobile carrier

NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's largest mobile phone group, is negotiating to take a 10 percent to 20 percent equity stake in VoiceStream Wireless Corp., a U.S. mobile phone carrier, for several hundred billion yen, sources familiar with the deal said Tuesday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 31, 2000

Attention: Sitting next to foreigners is forbidden

"Do I smell?"
CULTURE / Stage
May 31, 2000

Staged 'Dorian Gray' tours Japan

The International Theatre Company London is presenting a stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde's classic novella "The Picture of Dorian Gray" on tour in Japan until June 12.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2000

MHI, Hitachi enter alliance on steel

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Hitachi Ltd. said Tuesday that they have reached an agreement to integrate their steelmaking machinery operations, a move that would create the world's second-largest manufacturer of such equipment.
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2000

Risking death with every step, every day

"We are full of love for you, but cannot take care of all." -- from a notice to Karen villagers that mines would be set on their land
COMMENTARY
May 31, 2000

Japan-Taiwan ties are not China's affair

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara attended the May 20 inaugural ceremony for Taiwan's new president, Chen Shui-bian. While in Taipei, Ishihara talked with Chen and his predecessor, Lee Teng-hui, about various issues between Japan and Taiwan. This was good for Japan-Taiwan relations.
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2000

Myanmar's ethnic patchwork

In terms of sheer social complexity, it has few rivals -- perhaps Lebanon, possibly the Balkans. But Myanmar's ethnic mix is truly diverse. There are some 100 languages and dialects. Major ethnic groups like the Karen, Shan, Mon, Chin and Kachin encompass others. The Chin alone have 40 subgroups. Even...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 31, 2000

The Net impact of giving

Last week I looked at the power of bulk buying that is being unleashed on Web sites such as Mercata and Mobshop. I genuinely like the concept, particularly because I like new models of e-commerce that push the Web's potential. If the aggregated consumer trend takes off like eBay, the wired consumer might...
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2000

When political expression leads to jail

Bo Kyi speaks English in a soft voice. He learned it the hard way, unable to see his teacher. They were political prisoners in adjoining cells in Myanmar's Thayawaddy Prison . His teacher whispered to him while the guards were away. Then Bo Kyi used a piece of brick to write out new words on his cell...
BASEBALL / MLB
May 30, 2000

Dragons top Giants 9-8

Leo Gomez belted a game-tying two-run run homer in the eighth inning and pinch-hitter Kazuki Inoue drove in the winning run Sunday as the Chunichi Dragons rallied for a 9-8 victory over the Yomiuri Giants at the Tokyo Dome.
JAPAN
May 30, 2000

Spoiled kids reared on expectations, not values

Young people today are taught to expect things but are not taught their value or how to secure them, and adults are at fault for overprotecting and spoiling their offspring, according to psychiatrist Shizuo Machizawa.
JAPAN
May 30, 2000

Press worried by cost and lack of G8 hotels

Foreign journalists in Japan have expressed concern to the Foreign Ministry about the high cost of hotel accommodations for July's Group of Eight summit in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture.
EDITORIALS
May 30, 2000

Trouble in paradise

Fiji is tiny cluster of islands about 3,600 km east of Australia. With a population of fewer than a million people scattered across some 300 islands, it is sometimes considered the South Pacific ideal, offering secluded beaches, crystal-clear waters and a relaxed lifestyle that beckons to visitors from...
JAPAN
May 30, 2000

State denies Okinawa deals with U.S. ever took place

The government on Monday denied a report by a major Japanese daily that Japan paid about $200 million to the United States in clandestine deals over the May 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japanese rule.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2000

Setback fuels recovery doubt

Feeling the jolts of unstable stock markets worldwide, the Tokyo bourse has been hit by sharp corrections since the start of April.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2000

Palmtops to be fourth pillar of Sony's electronics lineup

Sony Corp. said Monday that it will make palmtop mobile personal computer terminals a major part of its electronics product lineup.
JAPAN
May 30, 2000

Foot cult founder, seven senior members indicted

Prosecutors on Monday indicted Hogen Fukunaga, founder and former leader of the Honohana Sanpogyo cult, and seven of its senior members on charges of fraud.
JAPAN
May 30, 2000

Global warming to strike hard: IPCC

Global warming may cause large-scale flooding after 2100, leading to water shortages and the spread of infectious diseases, according to the draft of a report to be issued next year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2000

Industrial output drops by a preliminary 0.4%

The nation's industrial output declined 0.4 percent in April from the previous month, marking the first decrease in two months, according to a preliminary report issued Monday by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 30, 2000

Kyoto, Basho, a mouse and you

KYOTO GARDENS: A Virtual Stroll through Zen Landscapes. CD-ROM (Apple Macintosh). Yorba Linda, Calif.: Lunaflora. Distributed by Mercury Software Japan. 4,000 yen. You stride your mouse and gallop off on a tour of two dozen of Kyoto's most famous gardens. If, that is, you have slipped this CD-ROM into...
CULTURE / Music
May 30, 2000

Rocking out to bicultural rhythms

BANGKOK -- Hundreds of kids line up patiently outside the air-conditioned convention hall for an hour, only to learn the hottest, cheapest concert of the month has just been sold out. The logo for the event is the Japanese flag, a red sun on a field of white, bearing the English words: Asia 2000 Music...

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