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BUSINESS
Mar 21, 2000

Sanwa, DigiCube in e-commerce deal

Sanwa Bank and game software distributor DigiCube Co. plan to set up a joint venture with other partners to install e-commerce terminals in shops across the nation to offer financial services and sell game and music software, sources at the companies said Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2000

Broken tunnel drainage pumps halt bullet trains

OSAKA -- Three bullet trains on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line were delayed for up to 10 minutes Monday after drainage pumps in an undersea tunnel on the line in Kitakyushu were found to have temporarily malfunctioned, West Japan Railway Co. said.
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2000

Obuchi pays respects to gas attack victims

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi visited a central Tokyo subway station Monday to mark the fifth anniversary of Aum Shinrikyo's nerve gas attack on the capital's subway system that killed 12 people in one of Japan's worst incidents of terrorism.
EDITORIALS
Mar 20, 2000

Mr. Chen's historic victory

In a historic election Saturday, Taiwanese voters gave Mr. Chen Shui-bian of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party a convincing victory. In electing Mr. Chen, the Taiwanese people defied threats from Beijing and brought an end to 50 years of Nationalist rule in Taiwan. His win in Taiwan's second...
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 20, 2000

Reds beat Bellmare in big J2 showdown

HIRATSUKA, Kanagawa Pref. -- Urawa forward Kenji Oshiba struck the winner a minute after coming off the bench Sunday as the Reds rallied past archrival Shonan Bellmare 2-1 in J. League Division Two action at Hiratsuka Stadium.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2000

Military crisis law needed: Obuchi

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi said Sunday that whether to introduce legislation to better prepare for potential foreign aggression is "a problem (Japan) cannot avoid." The remark, made during a graduation ceremony at the National Defense Academy, is the strongest expression ever used by the premier in...
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2000

Japan Telecom on road to survival

With e-commerce blooming and cut-throat competition intensifying in the telephone business, Japan Telecom Co. is shifting its focus from voice to data transmission and enlisting the help of foreign partners, says Haruo Murakami, president of the firm.
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2000

Sakaiya wants to target information-related areas

Economic Planning Agency chief Taichi Sakaiya said Sunday the government's fiscal policy should concentrate on information- and environment-related areas to put the Japanese economy on a full recovery track.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2000

Police begin questioning 3 Red Army members

The Metropolitan Police Department on Sunday began questioning three of the four Japanese Red Army members sent back to Japan from Lebanon over the weekend, police sources said.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2000

Beijing resorts to rattling its saber again

In Washington, politicians and pundits alike are debating how to understand and react to the white paper released on Feb. 21 by Beijing. And even in China, there seems to be some discussion on how to interpret the verbal missile lobbed at the United States, Taiwan and Japan.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2000

Lawmaker's secretary tied to police coverup

House of Representatives member Katsuhiko Shirakawa said Sunday his private secretary was being questioned by police in connection with the Niigata prefectural police's latest coverup case. Shirakawa, 54, a former chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, said at a news conference in Joetsu,...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2000

Time to chase 'two hares'

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, citing a popular proverb, says his administration will not "run after two hares": It will first achieve economic recovery and then tackle fiscal reform. The official scenario is that the economy will pick up soon. The question is what will happen next. Without fiscal props,...
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2000

Biotech gap underlines need to foster Japanese innovation

In the early 1980s, a research report in the United States said that Japan was the most formidable competitor of the U.S. in the field of biotechnology.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2000

Earthquake with 4.2 magnitude hits Niigata Prefecture

A strong quake hit Niigata Prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast Sunday afternoon, the Meteorological Agency said.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2000

Elderly seen heading 30% of all households

Households headed by people aged at least 65 are projected to account for more than 30 percent of households in Japan's 47 prefectures by 2020, the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research has said.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 20, 2000

Built on a foundation of fear

THE SHOGUN'S PAINTED CULTURE: Fear and Creativity in the Japanese States -- 1760-1829, by Timon Screech. London: Reaktion Books, 2000, 312 pp., with 33 color plates and 111 b/w photos, 19.95 British pounds. The argument of this prodigiously detailed study is that Japan as we now know it did not exist...
LIFE / Travel
Mar 20, 2000

Seated safaris let the wildlife come to you

Trekking through the bush on an African safari can make for a fair amount of physical rigor and a lot of excitement. You'll see plenty of wildlife -- mostly their tail ends, as they run away from you.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2000

A role for Japan in South Asian peace

South Asia has witnessed an upsurge of violence since the military takeover in Pakistan and the hijacking of an Indian airliner last year. There may or may not be any causal link between the two incidents, but the peace process in the region has been the biggest casualty of both.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2000

Aum apologizes for sarin on eve of 5th anniversary

The Aum Shinrikyo cult issued a statement Sunday apologizing for the 1995 Tokyo subway gassing and promising to continue compensation payments.
LIFE / Travel
Mar 20, 2000

Antarctica without the suffering

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand -- Writing of his experience while exploring Antarctica as a member of the ill-fated Scott expedition, Apsley Cherry-Garrard recalled, "Such extremity of suffering cannot be measured. Madness or death may bring relief. But this I know: We on this journey were already beginning...
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2000

Class size cut too costly, panel says

The government should not reduce the legal ceiling on class sizes at elementary and junior high schools from 40 students to the proposed 30 to 35 because it would be too costly, according to a draft report compiled by an Education Ministry advisory panel.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 20, 2000

Valuable guide through the legal thicket in Japan

JAPANESE LAW (second edition), by Hiroshi Oda. Oxford University Press, 1999, 16,900 yen. First and foremost, this is a book about the commercial law of Japan. Initially published in 1992, the second edition endeavors to reflect the many changes that have occurred in Japanese law in the years since...
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2000

Competition spurs flurry of mergers

The world's second largest telecommunications market is undergoing a rapid and radical transformation as deregulation, the Internet and mobile phones alter the way that Japanese people work and communicate.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 20, 2000

Troubling truths about India's bomb

INDIA'S NUCLEAR BOMB: The Impact on Global Proliferation, by George Perkovich. University of California Press, 1999, 597 pp., $39.95 (cloth). In many ways, the remarkable thing about India's nuclear bomb test on May 11, 1998 is not that it occurred, but that it didn't happen sooner. Ever since India...
SUMO
Mar 20, 2000

Takatoriki runs Osaka mark to 8-0 while Takanohana falls to 2nd loss

Yokozuna Takanohana sleepwalked into his second loss of the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament on Sunday, but his Futagoyama stablemate Takatoriki boosted his record to a perfect 8-0 with another quick-fire win.
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2000

Telephone club firebombing sparks fear intergang warfare is flaring up

KOBE -- The fatal firebombing of one of Kobe's largest telephone dating clubs has led to fears of a renewed intergang war among rival affiliates of the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi.
EDITORIALS
Mar 19, 2000

A bitter fight about better chocolate

There was a storm in a chocolate box last week in Europe, home of the very best of the rich, sweet, inessential but life-enhancing stuff.
SUMO
Mar 19, 2000

Takatoriki retains sole lead in Spring tourney

OSAKA -- Yokozuna trio Takanohana, Musashimaru and Akebono cranked up the power Saturday, but the top makuuchi division's three ozeki wrestlers all flopped to embarrassing defeats on the seventh day of the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament.
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2000

'Suits' fire laws from hip at assembly upstart

KADOMA, Osaka Pref. -- A liberator of a closed local legislature or a troublemaker? That is the question being asked of Hisayoshi Toda, a newcomer to the Kadoma Municipal Assembly.
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2000

Japan against outright ban on dioxin

Japan will oppose including a total ban on dioxins and dibenzofuran in a proposed international treaty aimed at minimizing the release of persistent organic pollutants into the global environment, Japanese government sources said Saturday.

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