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COMMENTARY / World
Jan 8, 2000

Economics and the human perspective

Economics, it is sometimes useful to point out, can hardly be analyzed at all if divorced from some basic cultural parameters. A recent academic gathering in Japan reminded us of just that.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 8, 2000

Oh, the glamour of poetic injustice

Violence aspires to poetry and vice versa in "Death in Granada," an American/Spanish production that sheds a fleeting but eerie light on one of Spain's greatest poets: Federico Garcia Lorca.
CULTURE / Art
Jan 8, 2000

Ceramic greats spotlighted

New Year's Greetings to all Ceramic Scene readers! In Japan there are innumerable artistic groups that allow their members to exchange ideas or research, sponsor lectures or workshops and to acknowledge outstanding work in their respective fields. The Japan Ceramic Society (Nihon Toji Kyokai) is one...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 8, 2000

Top of the line in toys

HIMEJI, Hyogo Pref. -- For a long time, koma (tops) were commonly given to children during the New Year's season. These days, however, the traditional toy is wobbling on the edge of extinction.
EDITORIALS
Jan 7, 2000

Pyongyang on the offensive

The new year is starting out well for North Korea. On Wednesday, the country announced a breakthrough — the opening of diplomatic relations with Italy — and Pyongyang returned to the offensive in its dealings with its chief interlocutors in the region — Japan, South Korea and the United...
COMMENTARY
Jan 7, 2000

Eyeing Lower House elections

It looks like 2000 will be a year of politics in the world and in Japan as well. In the United States and Russia, there will be presidential elections; in Japan, the Lower House will be dissolved for a snap election before its sitting members complete their four-year terms in October.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2000

Tsuda to become joint chairman of Kansai executives

OSAKA -- Kazuaki Tsuda, executive vice president of Suntory Ltd., is to be named joint chairman of Kansai Keizai Doyukai (the Kansai Association of Corporate Executives), the business organization announced Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2000

Suspect often listed suicide drugs on Net

NAGOYA -- A woman arrested Thursday for selling sleeping pills to a woman for use in a suicide attempt has frequently posted messages about suicide drugs on a Web site, police alleged Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2000

Oil talks stuck as trade chief says no to Saudi rail plan

Trade chief Takashi Fukaya refused a request Friday from Riyadh to have Japan build a mining railway in Saudi Arabia as a primary condition for renewing Arabian Oil Co.'s drilling rights in the Khafji oil field.
BUSINESS
Jan 7, 2000

One false step could send dollar reeling

The dollar-yen exchange rate could remain on a roller-coaster ride through much of the year ahead.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2000

LDP junior quits over gifts to voters

SENDAI -- A Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker elected from Miyagi Prefecture announced Thursday that he will resign to take responsibility for illegal distribution of gifts to voters.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 7, 2000

Japan's cultural underground exposed in edgy new guide

The slow days of winter are upon us, making an evening on the couch with a good book or tune more enticing than the sweaty confines of a live house or club. As folks slowly stream back into town from the New Year's holidays, there isn't a lot happening in the first few weeks of January anyway, so kick...
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2000

LDP unveils draft of policy agenda

The Liberal Democratic Party unveiled on Friday a draft of its policy agenda in the coming year, conspicuously avoiding any mention of a long-rumored plan of a merger with the Liberal Party.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2000

Police unit offers victim counseling

YOKOHAMA -- Kanagawa Prefectural Police inaugurated a special headquarters Friday to provide counseling for victims of domestic violence, child abuse and stalking and to fight such crimes.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2000

Nursing home in China advertising for Japanese

A Tokyo-based organization is advertising on the Internet a nursing care home in China that will take in elderly Japanese suffering from senile dementia, it was learned Friday.
BUSINESS
Jan 7, 2000

Japan, EU to call for new WTO talks ASAP

Japan and the European Union will issue a special joint statement next week calling for a new round of global trade liberalization negotiations to be launched as soon as possible, government sources said.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2000

Pessimism, ambivalence about future sum up state of the nation

Staff writer
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2000

Seven-Eleven ties up with seven firms for e-mart

Seven-Eleven Japan Co. said it will set up a joint venture with seven firms in February to operate an e-commerce market that will offer products ranging from books to cars.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2000

Kamei group failed to report 24 million yen

The political funds management body of Shizuka Kamei, policy chief of the Liberal Democratic Party, failed to report contributions of 24 million yen from a national group of doctors over three years, it was learned Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2000

Group hopes to reverse effects of ill-planned project

A group protesting a seemingly outdated reclamation project's lethal effects on marine life in what had been part of Nagasaki Prefecture's Isahaya Bay asked the fisheries ministry on Friday to abandon the project.
EDITORIALS
Jan 6, 2000

Kashmir embroils a region

Celebrations over the release of prisoners on Indian Airlines flight 814, hijacked last month by Kashmiri militants and held for eight hellish days, were brief. Hours after India secured the release of the 188 passengers and crew, the recriminations began. Everyone, from the authorities at the Nepalese...
COMMUNITY
Jan 6, 2000

Dynamic duo has the right vibe

Anthony Gill and Cristina Bornstein want to make your chakras vibrate.
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2000

Tax agency to probe Aum computer firms

URAWA, Saitama Pref. -- Police alerted tax authorities Thursday that two Tokyo-based personal computer industry firms allegedly linked to the Aum Shinrikyo cult are suspected of hiding income, investigation sources said Thursday. The National Tax Administration Agency is planning to launch a full-scale...
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 6, 2000

Ring in the new millennium with health-friendly rituals

If the new year is all about getting a fresh start, then the combination of new year, new century and new millennium offers the possibility for a fresher start than most other January renewals. Now is the time to take a close look at your life and decide what needs changing, what needs discarding and...
JAPAN / Media
Jan 6, 2000

New Year's TV specials -- impersonating entertainment

The suicide rate goes up at the end of the year, an increase that's usually attributed to depression in the face of what is perceived as everybody else's high holiday spirits. In Japan, there's another reason for despair. That's the prospect of being stuck in the company of relatives you hate eating...
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2000

Seven-Eleven to open e-market with seven firms

Seven-Eleven Japan Co. said Thursday it will set up a joint venture with seven firms in February to operate an e-commerce market that will offer products ranging from books to cars. The new company, 7 dream.com, will open its Web site in June to provide online services and introduce multimedia terminals...
LIFE
Jan 6, 2000

Lives spent in high and low places

Having recently returned from six months in a monastery in Tibet, Ruriko Hino is eager to talk about how she first became interested in devoting her life to the study of Tibetan Buddhism and eventually to becoming a Buddhist nun. "I was 19 years old, and working in a hostess bar," she says, making a...
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2000

Pyongyang a gracious companion in food aid talks

BEIJING -- Japanese negotiators last month noticed something unusual when they sat down across the table from government and Red Cross officials from North Korea. The North Koreans, diplomatic sources now say, were being uncharacteristically gracious. While asking Japan for several years' worth of food...
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2000

What's lurking behind Kan's smile?

Staff writer "Sometimes articles about it are written in a humorous and bantering way," said a grinning Naoto Kan, skillfully evading a reporter's question on Thursday. At his first news conference of the new year, the Democratic Party of Japan's policy chief was asked if he will run in the party's presidency...
BUSINESS
Jan 6, 2000

World markets entering corrective phase

New York share prices tumbled Tuesday, sending equity markets reeling around the world. After charging ahead in record territory for months, the steep corrections of U.S. indexes have come as no surprise.

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals