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CULTURE / Film
Jul 6, 1999

Going for more than two dimensions

While most films out there these days prostrate themselves before the altar of entertainment, there are still a few that dare to set different goals. "Under the Skin," the debut feature by U.K. director Carine Adler, is one such work, a cathartic rhapsody of sex and grief that is based in messy reality,...
JAPAN
Jul 6, 1999

June sales show minivehicles still hot

Unit sales of minivehicles in June marked their ninth consecutive month of year-on-year increase with 165,466 units, up 29.2 percent compared with the same month last year, an industry association said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 6, 1999

Constitutional review panel approved by Lower House

The first Diet debate on the Constitution since it was written in 1946 could come in January.
JAPAN
Jul 6, 1999

2,049 faulty points found in shinkansen tunnel

West Japan Railway Co. has found a total of 2,049 defective points in the tunnels of the Sanyo Shinkansen Line, it was learned Tuesday.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 6, 1999

Glimpses of Indonesia after Suharto

THE POLITICS OF POST-SUHARTO INDONESIA, edited by Adam Schwarz and Jonathan Paris. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1999, 120 pp.. $17.95 MILITARY DOCTRINES AND DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION: A Comparative Perspective on Indonesia's Dual Function and Latin American National Security Doctrines, by Jun...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jul 6, 1999

How to get your teenage kicks in the 'teahouses' of Tokyo

I'm not one to hang around kiddies' playgrounds (honestly!), but when I strolled into Shimokitazawa's Shelter last week I was instantly teleported into a school disco, and it kinda felt good. But keep that to yourself, OK.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 1999

Corporate pessimism on wane, latest 'tankan' shows

Japan's corporations have become more optimistic in the past three months, logging an improvement in business confidence for the second time in a row, the Bank of Japan's latest "tankan" business sentiment survey shows.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 1999

Ambassador gives India's side of Kashmir story

India is ready to talk only after Pakistan withdraws its troops from Kashmir, Indian Ambassador to Japan Siddharth Singh said Monday.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 1999

Obuchi to seek Ozawa's nod for New Komeito entry

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Monday that Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi will try to meet Liberal Party leader Ichiro Ozawa before his scheduled visit to China on Thursday to secure his understanding on the entry of New Komeito into the current two-party coalition.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 1999

Parents unprepared for child seat law

Staff writer
JAPAN
Jul 5, 1999

Council proposes 10-year action plan for new Japan

An advisory panel to Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi adopted a 10-year plan Monday to convert the economy into a society based on knowledge and ideas.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 1999

Government sees role in nurturing venture firms

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi instructed his Cabinet Monday to start working out industrial "millennium projects" that will enable the government and private sector to concentrate joint efforts on growth industries such as information technology.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 1999

Concrete chunk falls from bullet train bridge

OSAKA -- A chunk of concrete measuring 6 cm by 12 cm and weighing roughly 200 grams was found broken off an elevated bridge supporting a portion of the Sanyo Shinkansen track between Himeji and Aioi in Hyogo Prefecture, West Japan Railway Co. officials said Monday.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 1999

Rengo seeks 14 trillion yen supplementary budget

The Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) on Monday urged the government to compile a 14 trillion yen supplementary budget for fiscal 1999 to create more jobs and to rejuvenate the nation's economy, Rengo officials said Monday.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 1999

Extra budget to be submitted Thursday

The government on Thursday will submit a fiscal 1999 supplementary budget to the Diet after having it approved by Cabinet ministers the same day, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 1999

A paler shade of Green hurts Germany

The German Green party is in the midst of a major identity crisis -- struggling between the ideals that have been the motor of its very existence and the pragmatism required of a junior coalition partner of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's (barely) left of center government. A new generation of Greens,...
EDITORIALS
Jul 4, 1999

Stone the crows!

Tokyo, Scene 1: A man is waiting patiently for a bus in Roppongi, thinking about nothing, minding his own business. Suddenly, out of a clear blue sky, a bomber-shaped bird watching from atop an adjacent building delivers its payload. Splat! Dabbing at the white mess dripping down his jacket, the victim...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 1999

Promise of autonomy fades in Hong Kong

HONG KONG -- Right from the start, the current legal and political case concerning "right of abode" in Hong Kong has been a journalist's nightmare. Highly complex, profoundly nuanced, and containing contradictory strands, the case was impervious to easy simplification. Both sides to the dispute could...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 4, 1999

Slurp noodles right with the lip-o-suction method

Japanese people can eat a bowl of noodles in just five minutes. That's because they don't chew. Real noodle connoisseurs know that the taste of the noodle is felt in the throat, not the tongue, so to appreciate the true flavor of noodles, you must swallow them whole. I wonder how the stomach feels about...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 1999

To buy or not to buy Russian?

Advertising is the third oldest profession after prostitution and journalism. Pyramids of ancient Egypt sold the promise of afterlife. Alexander the Great kept founding one Alexandria after another. Roman palaces advertised state authority. The multicolor banners of kings and princes promoted the glory...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jul 4, 1999

Happy holiday

The U.S. celebration of independence does not always fall on a column day and even when it does, I rarely write about it. There are some 153 diplomatic missions represented in Tokyo and they all have national days that could be noted. But then, once in a while I do. Once I wrote how Japan had honored...
EDITORIALS
Jul 3, 1999

NTT readies for the digital era

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. made a fresh start Thursday as a group of companies under the control of a holding company. As Japan's largest telecommunications company, NTT is expected to play an even larger role in a broad spectrum of activities. With competition heating up at home and abroad,...
EDITORIALS
Jul 2, 1999

Complacency is the threat

Two years ago today, the world got its first exposure to "bahtulism." The Asian contagion then circled the globe, infecting governments in Northeast Asia, Russia and South America. The crisis that followed was the worst since the Great Depression and has shaken the foundations of the world economic architecture....
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1999

Pair arrested over Net-based sales scam

OSAKA -- Two men were arrested here Friday on suspicion of posting false advertisements to sell computers and watches on an Internet Web site and swindling money out of potential customers, police said.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1999

State posts '98 surplus despite revenue shortfall

State tax revenues for fiscal 1998 totaled 49.42 trillion yen, falling 747.1 billion yen short of estimates and slipping below 50 trillion yen for the first time in 11 years, the Finance Ministry said Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1999

Former pop idol, manager arrested over spiked 'shochu'

Police arrested a former member of pop music group Four Leaves and his former manager Friday for serving a female friend a drink laced with stimulants.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1999

FRC downplays loans made by recapitalized banks

Combined outstanding loans to small and midsize firms from the 15 banks that received public funds in March fell 715 billion yen short of estimates, according to bank reports released Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1999

DPJ bill targets political donations

In an attempt to block a move by some members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of Japan will submit a bill to revise the Political Funds Control Law to ensure politicians will be banned from receiving political donations from companies and other organizations beginning January...
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1999

Telecom Realignment: Newcomers may have edge on NTT

Last in a series
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1999

Schoolchildren christen crested ibis 'Yuu Yuu'

The first ibis to be bred in captivity in Japan has been named "Yuu Yuu," Environment Agency chief Kenji Manabe said Friday.

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