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SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 25, 2000

You say Fusaichi, I say Fusaichi

Whenever a Japanese name enters the sporting world's lexicon, all sorts of problems arise. Take the Nagano Olympics for example. Is it pronounced NA-ga-no or Na-GA-no? The foreign media wrestled with this question for two straight weeks during the winter of 1998. The confusion trickled down to the masses...
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2000

Japan's national security policy ignores public sentiment

The impression that one gets when looking at the evolution of Japan's security policy in recent years is that the Japanese public has consented to steps taken by Tokyo. After all, that is the fundamental expectation that democracies nurture. Following this reasoning, Tokyo should be developing a security...
BUSINESS
May 24, 2000

JR East posts triple rise in net profit

East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) said Tuesday its group net profit in fiscal 1999 leaped threefold from the previous year, following two consecutive years of setbacks.
CULTURE / Books
May 23, 2000

The new China, from hamburgers to lonely hearts

THE CONSUMER REVOLUTION IN URBAN CHINA, edited by Deborah S. Davis. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000, 379 pp., 35 b/w photos, 21 tables, $22 (paper). McDonald's is the great equalizer. Wherever you go in the world it tastes exactly the same. The same beef, the same cheese, the same shredded...
BUSINESS
May 23, 2000

Sumitomo, Sakura back in black

Sumitomo Bank and Sakura Bank returned to the black in fiscal 1999, partly due to gains from sales of stocks and fewer bad-loan writeoffs compared to the year before, according to their earnings reports released Monday.
BUSINESS
May 22, 2000

Ishihara tax reflects paralysis caused by national tax scheme

The new size-based tax on big banks that has been introduced by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara is causing major repercussions and prompting Osaka Prefecture to consider a similar tax.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 22, 2000

Exotic pet importer confirms Japan is haven for illegal animal imports

The situation is worse than I imagined. In my last column (May 8), I wrote about smugglers carrying live primates into Japan in their luggage. Days after that column appeared, I was put in touch with an exotic pet importer who confirmed that government oversight of trade in animals is abysmal.
BUSINESS
May 22, 2000

As with risk, ranks of analysts rising

Once again the time has come for the mass-release of Japan Inc.'s annual earnings reports. While the stock market is showing signs of rumbling back to life after nearly a decade of dormancy, significant changes to Japan's financial landscape are forcing players to make rapid transitions just to keep...
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
May 21, 2000

Japanese poets write the book of love

Stroker, a publisher of chapbooks, is the distributor and copublisher of "2000 Japanese Poems for the Year 2000," a voluminous collection of chapbooks, 15 in all, translated by Howard S. Levy.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
May 21, 2000

Mohan Kumar

NEW DELHI -- "Three things are necessary for a driver: a good horn, good brakes and good luck."
CULTURE / Music
May 21, 2000

Desperately seeking maestro for a long-term relationship

Tokyo-to Kokyo Gakudan
EDITORIALS
May 19, 2000

The Fed walks the tightrope

Alarmed by signs that the U.S. economy is overheating, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board this week raised U.S. interest rates by half a percentage point. The move reflects a shift in sentiment at the U.S. central bank. While the bank's top officials appear to have accepted the idea that information technologies...
JAPAN
May 19, 2000

Bamboo buildings get support of ZERI as eco-friendly option

OTSU, Shiga Pref. -- One of the pavilions at World Expo 2000, slated to run from June to October in Hannover, Germany, is made mostly of bamboo.
BUSINESS
May 19, 2000

Will volatility mean long slump, bargains?

The Tokyo stock market has been on a roller-coaster ride in recent weeks, keeping market participants guessing on whether the volatility is the beginning of a lasting decline.
JAPAN
May 18, 2000

Ministry to enhance law covering forgery

The Justice Ministry is considering drafting a bill that would criminalize the possession of forged prepaid cards and gift certificates, according to ministry officials.
JAPAN
May 18, 2000

Diet enacts law to keep abusive parents from kids

A law banning abusive parents from meeting or corresponding with their children was enacted by the Diet on Wednesday.
BUSINESS
May 18, 2000

Classes help individuals learn about stock market

With the devastatingly low interest rate available on deposits and the prospect of the introduction in Japan of U.S. 401(k)-style pension plans, more people are studying stock market investment.
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2000

Ambivalence, hope greet Korean summit

YANJI, China -- When Eun-byol crossed the Tumen River from North Korea into China three years ago, she was nearly bald from malnutrition after subsisting on a diet of grass and bark mixed with an occasional spoonful of rice.
LIFE / Style & Design / BEAUTY EAST AND WEST
May 18, 2000

The facts you should know before trying to take it all off

More people than ever are overweight, and I would guess that the percentage of people on diets has gone up proportionally as well. Add the number of dieters who really do need to lose weight to those who diet out of some misguided desire to be skeletal, and you've got a lot of people. Weight loss is...
LIFE / Digital
May 17, 2000

Webby winners for 2000

SFMOMA Webby Prizefor Excellence in Online Art Entropy8Zuper (www.entropy8zuper.org)
BUSINESS
May 17, 2000

Sweep kicks up suspicious trading sites

The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission is examining 25 Japanese-language Web sites for fraudulent activity related to securities transactions, commission officials said Tuesday.
LIFE / Digital
May 17, 2000

In.five.words.or.less

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Webbys may bill themselves as the antidote to the Academy Awards, but the truth is that this Internet awards gala has a severe case of Oscar envy.
CULTURE / Books
May 16, 2000

Japan still has its strengths

PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT: How Japanese Enterprises Meet the Challenge, by Hirotoshi Shibuya and Hideyuki Kamiryo. The Japan Times, 2000, 209 pp., 3,000 yen (cloth). While corporate philosophies and principles may change from country to country, the basics of finance are constants. "Productivity Improvement"...
JAPAN
May 15, 2000

Obuchi dies 43 days after stroke

Former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, credited with helping pull Japan out of its worst economic downturn since the war, died Sunday at a Tokyo hospital, six weeks after suffering a stroke and falling into a coma, government officials said. He was 62.
JAPAN
May 15, 2000

Future of transport just round the corner

It's a sunny morning in the spring of 2013. As you ride a commuter train, an information panel on the wall announces a 30-minute delay caused by an accident. With your cellular phone, you search for an alternative route and make a reservation to get to your destination.
COMMENTARY / World
May 15, 2000

China: an emerging partner or threat?

Is China a rising colossus that intends to bully its neighbors and dominate Asia? Should Washington adopt a more hardline policy toward China on trade, human rights and national security issues? Or is China a country that has already moved far along the road to a market economy and a more open society...
EDITORIALS
May 14, 2000

The rites of spring

Anyone poking about in newspapers or on the Internet lately might have come across a couple of essays expressing a view that seems to pop up seductively in public discourse whenever the weather turns warm. Like a view of cool woods from the window of a stuffy classroom in spring, this idea offers the...
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2000

Fight against pirates slowed by China

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- After dark on April 21, two boats carrying 20 pirates armed with cudgels and metal rods slipped up alongside a Russian freighter called Forest-1 in the port of Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Longform

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