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JAPAN
Feb 1, 2000

Nago base plan threatens dugong habitat

Less playful than dolphins and not as awesomely powerful as whales, dugongs have somehow failed to capture the popular imagination like their more dynamic cetacean brethren. But this endangered creature, found off the east coast of Okinawa's main island, may soon steal the limelight.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 1, 2000

Because of memory, because of hope

BRIDGE ACROSS BROKEN TIME: Chinese and Jewish Cultural Memory, by Vera Schwarcz. New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 1998, 232 pp. (cloth). Staff writer Rarely does a book challenge a reader -- or a reviewer -- as this one does. "Bridge Across Broken Time" is equal parts academic study, meditation...
COMMUNITY
Feb 1, 2000

Dance craze swinging into action

The 1996 hit movie "Shall We Dance?" has helped the Japanese appreciate the charm of ballroom dancing. Yet despite the surging popularity of dance schools across the country, social dance continues to play a minor role in the local nightlife. Now, some devotees are promoting swing, a more casual version...
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2000

Sony to sell appliances directly over Internet

Sony Corp. will begin online sales of home appliances for the domestic market by the end of March, the major electronics manufacturer announced Tuesday. It will be the first time a major Japanese electronics maker has sold home appliances directly to consumers over the Internet. Japanese electric appliance...
MORE SPORTS
Feb 1, 2000

Rams outlast Titans in Super Bowl thriller

ATLANTA -- The St. Louis Rams outlasted the Tennessee Titans in the greatest finish in Super Bowl history Sunday, hanging on, literally, for a 23-16 victory before a crowd of 72,625 at the Georgia Dome.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2000

Aum pays redress to its victims

Aum Shinrikyo has paid 25 million yen as the first installment of its own compensation package for victims of crimes attributed to the religious cult, senior Aum officials said Tuesday. At a press conference held at the cult's Yokohama branch, top members, including Fumihiro Joyu, said Aum remitted the...
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2000

Firm to foster tots' enterprise spirit

OSAKA -- Alpha Corp., a company that dispatches baby sitters and runs nurseries in major hotels, will establish a school in Yokohama aimed at establishing the enterprise spirit in kindergarten and elementary school students, the Kyoto-based company said. Officials of the firm said classes at the new...
CULTURE / Music
Feb 1, 2000

The madmen of rock 'n' roll live in perpetual teen culture

The band's called Mad 3. There's three of them (Eddie "Guitar Hero" Legend, Haruto "Thunder Bass" and Kyo "Smash the Drum Kit"), and they claim to be mad.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2000

Defense official held in 300 million yen bilking

OSAKA -- An official of the Defense Facilities Administration Agency has been arrested for attempting to swindle 300 million yen out of a company executive by offering a bogus business transaction with the Defense Agency, prosecutors said Tuesday. Tatsuro Kitamura, 43, a labor relations official at the...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2000

Voting on Taiwan's future

Taiwan's presidential campaign is moving toward the final stretch. It is being fought among three top contenders: Vice President Lien Chan of the Nationalist Party, Chen Shui-pien of the Democratic Progressive Party and James Soong, an independent. The second free, direct presidential election on March...
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2000

Social parity, commerce rules needed for leap to cyberspace

As the world entered the 21st century, a number of newspapers and economic journals ran feature articles with grand forecasts for the new age.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2000

Aum put under surveillance

The Public Security Examination Commission on Monday announced that it will allow authorities to put Aum Shinrikyo under surveillance for three years, the maximum period the Aum-directed law allows. The commission's decision will take effect today, and the Public Security Investigation Agency, with the...
EDITORIALS
Jan 31, 2000

Matters of life and death

Medical blunders in the nation's hospitals invariably make headlines -- when they are discovered and acknowledged. The patient's right to informed consent has been severely tested by reports that two patients at a municipal hospital in Osaka Prefecture were recently operated on for a second time without...
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2000

Japan signs pact for North Korea reactors

Japan signed an agreement Monday to finance the construction of two light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea, completing the funding of the project under an 1994 accord between the United States and North Korea on Pyongyang's abandonment of its nuclear development program. The loan agreement was signed...
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2000

Deregulation likely to send air fares into nosedive

Staff writer While the entry of new airlines two years ago accelerated competition in the industry in Japan, fares are likely to drop further as full deregulation is introduced today. The revised Civil Aeronautics Law will eliminate regulations on domestic air fares. As a result, domestic airlines will...
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 31, 2000

Fighting the illegal wildlife trade

PRETORIA -- Praised as the best wildlife law-enforcement agency in all of Africa, South Africa's Endangered Species Protection Unit combines perilous undercover investigation and hardline law enforcement with a passion for one of Africa's most precious resources -- its wildlife.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2000

Analysis: Aum's survival in doubt as watch begins

Staff writer Monday's decision by the Public Security Examination Commission to invoke a law to monitor Aum Shinrikyo will inevitably deal a major blow to the cult -- possibly even leading to its breakup. According to the law, enacted in December, Aum must submit a list of its current members as well...
COMMENTARY
Jan 31, 2000

Let the great debate begin

The Diet is finally launching debate on constitutional issues, breaking a long-standing political taboo. As the ordinary Diet session opened Jan. 20, both houses created panels to conduct the first parliamentary debate on the pros and cons of constitutional amendments. All political parties will take...
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2000

Gateway tweaks sales strategy by applying Dilbert principle

Gateway is bullish on Japan, especially on the smaller businesses it is targeting, and the computer maker is counting on a perhaps unlikely character to help make the sale: a mouthless, bespectacled, befuddled -- yet likable -- dweeb named Dilbert.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2000

Galleon to virtually re-enact first contact with Europe

Staff writer Visit the Osaka Maritime Museum when it opens this summer, and you might want to take along a waterproof poncho, motion sickness pills and a sword. This has nothing to do with the location of the all-glass, globe-shaped museum, which floats like a giant mirror ball on the waters of Osaka...
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2000

Myanmar government losing all financial footing

Staff writer Nearly half of the approximately 270 billion yen in Japan's outstanding official yen loans to Myanmar have gone sour.As of March 31 last year, the final day of fiscal 1998, Japan's outstanding yen loans to developing countries totaled 9.8 trillion yen, of which 272.5 billion yen was being...
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2000

Chuo relinquishes presidency of merged bank

Staff writer Top executives of Mitsui Trust & Banking Co. and Chuo Trust & Banking Co. were inundated with questions from reporters Monday as they announced the reversal of an earlier decision regarding the leadership structure of a bank to be set up through a merger of the two firms in April....
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2000

Opposition parties continue Diet boycott

The Lower House on Monday entered a two-day, question-and-answer session on policy speeches delivered Friday as the opposition camp continued its boycott in the face of last week's turmoil over a seat-reduction bill. It marked the first time in the past 33 years that a question-and-answer session on...
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2000

Emperors of the rag trade

"Haute couture" -- high fashion -- has long been good for a laugh. One of the best therapies for gloom in Tokyo is to stroll along the southeastern end of Omotesando, in Aoyama, where the fashion boutiques cluster. The prison-block architecture (rain-streaked cement tastefully accessorized with rust)...
COMMENTARY
Jan 30, 2000

Why Taro can't speak English

It's exam season in Japan, and once again the problem of English language education is being churned over. This time the debate threatens to turn serious, for three reasons.
COMMUNITY
Jan 30, 2000

Preaching the gospel of women's television

Those who watch the program "New Yorkers," broadcast weekly on NHK's satellite channel, will be familiar with the name Nancy Lee. But how many realize that this snappy, bright, Jewish-American from New Jersey is as much at home in Japanese as English?
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 30, 2000

More Japanese baseball games on the horizon?

Japanese sports papers are saying the Central and Pacific Leagues are thinking of expanding their season schedules to 140 games in 2001, and the PL is considering re-adopting its split-season format used between 1975 and 1982. If they follow through, it will be the most games played by the teams here...
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Jan 30, 2000

Success story

While no one can possibly take in all the exhibitions in Tokyo, some of you may be interested in a showing of Yoshihiro Kubo's oil paintings today through Tuesday at Ginza Art Plaza, phone (03) 3289-2345 for directions. If you don't know, Dr. Kubo opened what was perhaps the first dental clinic in Japan...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 30, 2000

Vesting the third millennium in peace

KYOTO -- Llamas grazed contentedly on the slopes surrounding Machu Picchu as John Kurtenbach spread out the kesa on the South American peak. Later it became part of a meditation held there.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 30, 2000

Rams vs. Titans: the inside scoop

ATLANTA -- With the St. Louis Rams and Tennessee Titans going through their final full practices Friday at the Georgia Dome as the city braces for a huge snowstorm, the buildup to Super Bowl XXXIV has reached its crescendo.

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