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BUSINESS
Mar 11, 2001

'Perverse' individualist embraces opportunity where others see gloom

Makoto Naruke describes himself as a "perverse man" who avoids following the crowd and does things that others dare not. Many people questioned his actions when he quit as Microsoft Co. president last April, but Naruke simply pointed out he became sick of the post after nearly nine years of service....
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 11, 2001

Consadole stuns Cerezo in opener

Newly promoted J. League first-division side Consadole Sapporo made a dream start to its new life in the top flight Saturday with a priceless 2-1 away win at Cerezo Osaka on the opening day of the 2001 season.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2001

Empty classrooms renovated for public use

With the birthrate declining, Tokyo municipalities have found that a growing number of school buildings are not being used. More wards are responding by renovating these vacant classrooms for wider use, ranging from offices to child-care centers.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2001

Fukuoka prosecutor gets suspension

The Justice Ministry on Friday suspended a Fukuoka prosecutor for six months for leaking investigative information to a crime suspect's husband, Justice Minister Masahiko Komura said.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2001

Italian ambassador talks up 'Italy in Japan 2001' program

Gabriele Menegatti considers himself lucky that he will see the "Italian Year" program kick off just as he starts his second year as Italy's envoy to Japan.
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 9, 2001

Show me what you've got!

I'd like to greet all the players in the J. League and look forward to seeing the joy of football in Japan this year. I'd specifically like to welcome the new foreign players. My message to you, as well as to the Japanese players, is simply play your best, play football.
EDITORIALS
Mar 8, 2001

Tightening the net

When the law finally caught up with Al Capone, the famed Chicago mobster, the instrument of justice was income tax invasion. That might seem strange given his life of crime, but law-enforcement officials do the best with the tools they have and getting the feared man behind bars was the goal.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Mar 8, 2001

'Samurai' blazing a trail in XFL

Being a pioneer has its rewards, but as many a sports trailblazer has learned over the years, going where no one else has gone before is not all glory. In fact, it can be downright tough.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2001

Matsushita Communication in tieup

Matsushita Communication Industrial Co. said Wednesday that it has teamed up with U.S.-based Iridian Technologies Inc. to license basic biometric recognition technology and jointly develop next-generation systems for recognizing irises.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Mar 7, 2001

That strange creature is mammalian kin

Therians: They may sound as if they come from a far-off planet, but these are no alien creatures. Found in nearly every corner of the Earth, they count a surprising range of species among their ranks: the next-door neighbor's pet pooch, alpacas in the Andes, aardvarks in Africa, and even you and me....
COMMUNITY
Mar 7, 2001

It's a flounder to catch but a great fish to eat

The most popular of the many species of flatfish found in Japanese waters, the olive flounder, or hirame, is a challenge to catch and a gourmet treat.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 6, 2001

Two perspectives on a gray tomorrow

CARING FOR THE ELDERLY IN JAPAN AND THE U.S.: Practices and Policies, edited by Susan Orpett Long. Routledge: London, 2000. 358 pp., $100. By the year 2025, some 26 percent of Japan's population will be over 65 years old, meaning that society and families will need to cope with the various needs of...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 6, 2001

Carefully controlled exoticism

THE ORIENT STRIKES BACK: A Global View of Cultural Display, by Joy Hendry. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2000, 256 pp., 40 illustrations (16 color). 42.99 British pounds (cloth), 14.99 British pounds (paper). A century ago, the West used to entertain and educate itself with random views of the East. World's...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Mar 5, 2001

Nanjing Massacre evidence twisted at historian's whim

A publisher asks me to make excerpts from Judge Radhabinod Pal's "dissentient judgment" and write an introduction to the selection. The Indian jurist Pal was one of 11 judges who sat on the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (the Tokyo Trial). He found Japan not guilty, the only one to...
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2001

First rules on removing harmful foreign species drafted

A panel of the the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry has drawn up a set of rules that would allow the extermination of some fish and animals introduced to Japan that are endangering their indigenous counterparts, ministry sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2001

Gynecologist takes sex crusade to Roppongi streets

When Tsuneo Akaeda opens his mouth to speak about the sex culture of Japan's younger generation, a tirade of sexual slang all the more surprising because of his professional and smart-suited exterior flows out.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 4, 2001

Lydia Gomersall

Each year for 11 years now, Refugees International-Japan has been sponsoring its Art of Dining Exhibition. In this display, participants present highly individual, beautiful and imaginative tabletop settings for viewers' admiration and inspiration. Proceeds from the event go to RIJ's programs for the...
COMMUNITY
Mar 4, 2001

Japanese estate agent right at home in London

"I'll have the agreement drafted by Monday, then fax it over," Kazuyuki Nakamura was saying to a client over the phone last week in northwest London. "It's not your property? So who is the landlord? Well, he can appoint you to collect (rents) on his behalf. Otherwise we can, but then that will cost you;...
CULTURE / Film
Mar 3, 2001

Gwyneth and Ben's last tango in L.A.

My friend Mari has a dilemma -- she just split up with her boyfriend of three years. They work in the same company, on the same floor, and Mari had hoped it was leading to a church wedding in Tuscany. Instead, it ended after a screaming, 10-hour argument, and with the boyfriend owing Mari a total of...
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2001

No quick fixes for Japan's ills

TOKYO and LONDON -- The 17th annual meeting of the U.K.-Japan 21st Century Group -- the bilateral think tank set up by Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher way back in the '80s -- took place this year on Awaji Island in Kobe Bay, island of gods and puppets and,...
CULTURE / Art
Mar 3, 2001

The critical mass

The current exhibition of 127 sculptures at the Yokohama Museum of Art is not only interesting from an artistic point of view, but also provides a fascinating insight into much of the intellectual Sturm und Drang of the 20th century.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2001

The spy game: high stakes, low payoffs

LONDON -- It's an impressive list: CIA official Aldrich Ames jailed for life in 1994 for spying for Moscow; CIA agent Harold Nicholson jailed for 23 years in 1997 for the same offense; FBI employee Earl Pitts sentenced to 27 years later the same year for passing information to Moscow; U.S. Army Col....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 1, 2001

NHK's hollow take on easy-money bubble era

What's impressive about the new Steven Soderbergh film, "Traffic," which opens here in April, is how thoroughly it presents all the ramifications of America's drug war by exclusively dramatic means: no charts, no explanations of cause and effect, no polemics. The movie's three separate plot vectors intersect...
BUSINESS
Mar 1, 2001

JVC touts smallest video in world

Victor Co. of Japan said Wednesday that it will launch the lightest and smallest digital video camera in the world in the next couple of weeks.
LIFE / Travel
Feb 28, 2001

Asia's heritage boom

Call it nostalgia or call it a self-awakening, but Asians are rediscovering the value of their architectural heritage. From ancient police courts in Shanxi, China to forest temples in Thailand, from colonial quays in Singapore to the brick kilns and iron smithies of Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward, the...
JAPAN / BENCH REFORM
Feb 27, 2001

Battle to change closed-shop legal system hits poignant note

Had it not been for the death of her newborn baby, Fukumi Kushige would have shared the apathy of most Japanese toward the nation's legal system.
JAPAN / BENCH REFORM
Feb 27, 2001

Battle to change closed-shop legal system hits poignant note

Had it not been for the death of her newborn baby, Fukumi Kushige would have shared the apathy of most Japanese toward the nation's legal system.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 27, 2001

Soar with Madame Butterfly

MADAME BUTTERFLY: Japonisme, Puccini, and the Search for the Real Cho-Cho-San, by Jan van Rij. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2001, 192 pp., 24 b/w photos, drawings, map, $24.95 (casebound). Giacomo Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" has become more than just a pretty piece of music. It has turned into something...

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?