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CULTURE / Film
Jun 4, 1999

Somewhere over the airwaves

Once upon a time, back in the '50s, there existed a "better" America, a wholesome utopia of crew cuts, unquestioning white-bread conformity and mom in the kitchen baking apple pies.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 4, 1999

An audience with the Tokyo culture king

Moichi Kuwahara's office occupies a crumbing apartment building in Tokyo's Yutenji district. The warren of small rooms resembles an art squat -- packed full of editors, graphic designers, writers and other creative types who provide the artistic fodder for Club King, a company whose products, magazines,...
CULTURE / Music
Jun 4, 1999

Musician spreads jazz gospel

"Jazz is my religion," said Joe Lee Wilson in a ceremony last week at the Tokyo campus of the International School of the Sacred Heart, after completing a six-week music workshop with 600 students.
EDITORIALS
Jun 3, 1999

A new world for Japanese business

The latest earnings reports from Japanese corporations listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange provide a running commentary on their predicament. Reflecting a drawn-out recession, both sales and profits plunged in the year to March 1999 (fiscal 1998). On average, sales in all industries except financial services...
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

Annual international dinghy race not enough: sailors

YOKOHAMA — A recent officially supported international friendship dinghy race held off Yokohama saw nine nations represented in a crowded field of 17 vessels.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

31 reprimands issued over hospital's patient mixup

YOKOHAMA — The city of Yokohama decided Thursday to reprimand 31 people involved in a patient mixup at Yokohama City University Hospital in January that resulted in a lung patient undergoing heart surgery and a heart patient lung surgery.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

Obuchi, Mahathir discuss crisis mission plans

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi told visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday Japan will send an economic research mission in August to six Asian countries hit by the region's currency crisis, a Foreign Ministry official said.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

Immigrants: Foreign laborers attempt to organize

First of two parts
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

Obuchi takes competition woes to industry leaders

Japan needs to promote joint projects between the government and the private sector to strengthen its industrial technology, government and business leaders agreed Thursday at a state panel on beefing up industrial competitiveness.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

G8 must remodel global monetary system: Mahathir

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad urged the United States and other economic powers Thursday to decide on a stable architecture for the international monetary system at the upcoming Group of Eight economic summit to prevent a recurrence of the financial turmoil in Asia.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

Rainy season takes hold in most of Japan

The rainy season has started in most parts of Honshu as well as northern Kyushu and Shikoku, the Meteorological Agency said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

Liberals seek legislation to back recovery

Japan should concentrate over the next two years on achieving economic recovery and enact a basic law toward economic resuscitation, according to a basic policy draft adopted by the Liberal Party's executive council Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

Estrada makes plea for direct investment

Philippine President Joseph Estrada reiterated Thursday his belief that the opportunity is ripe for direct foreign investment in his country now that his national reform program is well under way.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

MITI urges prudence on steel dumping charges

Osamu Watanabe, vice minister for international trade and industry, urged Washington Thursday to act prudently in judging U.S. steelmakers' dumping charges against cold-rolled steel imports from Japan and 11 other economies.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

U.N. investigator urges Japan to admit liability for sex slaves

Gay McDougall, a U.N. special investigator on human rights, has urged the government to admit its legal liability and provide compensation to Asian women forced into prostitution before and during World War II.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

Austria envisions aid corridor for ethnic Albanians

Austria is considering establishing a corridor for transporting humanitarian aid supplies to ethnic Albanians remaining in Kosovo, visiting Austrian President Thomas Klestil told Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi on Thursday.
COMMUNITY
Jun 3, 1999

Getting to the point of good health

Consider these facts:
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1999

BIS considering new, weighted risk standards

A committee under the auspices of the Bank for International Settlements on Thursday unveiled a draft proposal to change the method it uses to calculate banks' capital adequacy ratios.
EDITORIALS
Jun 2, 1999

Cautious optimism on Pyongyang

U.S. presidential envoy William J. Perry returned from his visit to North Korea last week with the assessment that the North Koreans will "maintain and respect" their 1994 agreement not to develop nuclear weapons. The top government and military officials he met in Pyongyang reportedly pledged to continue...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 1999

France's Corsican question

PARIS -- "France," according to one of its best-known poets and political thinkers, Paul Valery, "is the most heterogeneous country that ever existed." The present tragedy in Kosovo makes this sound hyperbolic, yet there is an element of truth in it. The French who live on the shores of the Mediterranean,...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jun 2, 1999

But are you experienced?

Remember how online art used to be one of ballyhooed features of our new and improved lives on the Internet? We talked of visiting faraway museums, browsing rarely seen masterpieces, hyper-annotated with curatorial notes and historical contexts. Similarly enticing was the promise of new media and art...
JAPAN
Jun 2, 1999

'Kimigayo' fliers not official state line: Nonaka

A leaflet explaining the lyrics of "Kimigayo," the de facto national anthem, that was distributed to Japanese embassies in more than 110 countries is not intended to be an official government interpretation, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 1999

Cost, doubts mean rousing reception unlikely for pill

and MAYUMI NEGISHI Staff writers
JAPAN
Jun 2, 1999

Spring to bring kids 'unique education'

A new class covering unconventional subjects will appear in the nation's elementary and junior high schools as early as next April, the Education Ministry announced Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 1999

Dentsu revenues fall first time in five years

Advertising king Dentsu Inc. said Wednesday that its pretax profit and operating revenues for the business year ended March 31 dropped for the first time in five years.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jun 2, 1999

Found and lost

In looking through my file for information I needed for today's column, I was diverted by notes from readers that amused me, or might someday be useful. Here are a few of them:
JAPAN
Jun 2, 1999

Ishihara's Yokota visit fails to rally support

In a move designed to give another push toward the return or joint-use of the U.S. military's Yokota Air Base, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara on Wednesday made a high-profile visit to the base and held a meeting with local mayors — but failed to forge local voices into a chorus.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 2, 1999

Island life a short cut to evolution

Japan is not just an island; it is an archipelago.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jun 2, 1999

Among the ruins of the Mayan Paris

You wouldn't have wanted to watch a ball game at the close of the season in the ancient Mayan city of Copan.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 1999

Price said not everything in IDC bidding war

Toyota Motor Corp. President Hiroshi Okuda reiterated Wednesday that his firm will take workers' job security and international relations into consideration along with bid prices in deciding what offer to accept for its shares in International Digital Communications Inc.

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