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COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Nov 17, 1999

Getting things done

From time to time I have been asked to remind people that although Japan is a very safe country, there are times when it is not. The yearend has always been a time when people should be especially careful. In old Japan, all debts had to be paid by the end of the year, but even a cursory perusal of today's...
JAPAN
Nov 16, 1999

Regional Special: Sanin

'Inaka' taps city disenchanted to repopulate>Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 16, 1999

Review of space program urged in wake of rocket crash

Government officials pledged efforts Tuesday to rebuild Japan's space program in the wake of Monday's failure of the launch of an H-II rocket carrying a multipurpose satellite.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 1999

Forester decries ranger shortage, U.S. whaling

Staff writer
COMMENTARY
Nov 13, 1999

End of the House of Lords?

LONDON -- In the broader scheme of things, it is only a small incident. The final removal last week of 656 hereditary dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts and lords from the law-making machinery of the British Parliament can hardly be described as earth-shattering. Nor is it a surprise, having been long...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Nov 11, 1999

A toast to you, the brewers, and all the hard work you do

There are at present about 1,700 sakagura, or sake breweries, in Japan. This number is dropping somewhat quickly, with several kura going under each year. But for those 1,700-odd kura brewing again this year, just about now is when the brewing season begins.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Nov 10, 1999

A trans-Pacific e-channel

The name, us-style.com, hints at the focus: e-commerce with an American twist. The use of "US" suggests that the target audience considers place of origin important.
COMMUNITY
Nov 10, 1999

Walking the way of the gods

As long as there has been Japan there has been Shinto: the "way of the gods." Shintoism is not organized around any central religious text or authority. It is perhaps best described as an amalgam of thousands of local deities (kami) and beliefs observed within a base framework of rituals and customs....
JAPAN
Nov 9, 1999

In and around Kanto

Dining show to boost refugee cause>Refugees International Japan is staging its 10th annual Art of Dining Exhibition at the Westin Tokyo hotel in Yebisu Garden Place on Monday to raise funds for needy refugees all over the world.
EDITORIALS
Nov 9, 1999

Rejoicing in uncertainty

Ten years ago today, the Cold War ended. On Nov. 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall, perhaps the ultimate symbol of the world's division into two blocs and the oppression on the communist side of the Iron Curtain, was breached. Thousands of people mounted the graffiti-scarred concrete to dance, drink or just peer...
JAPAN
Nov 9, 1999

Pakistan links CTBT signing to end of sanctions

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 8, 1999

Minority suffrage bill may split coalition

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 8, 1999

Nishimura sticks to his guns, urges defense debate

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 8, 1999

Tokai health checks set; DNA found damaged

A Nuclear Safety Commission subcommittee decided Monday how they would study people who came within 350 meters of the site of the Sept. 30 nuclear criticality accident in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Nov 7, 1999

Our troubled world

Only 55 more days to go until the end of this century. It has been a troubled one, yet one filled with new discoveries and hope. More people have been assured of at least the basics of comfort in life while large numbers have been left in devastating poverty. Perhaps it will be remembered as a century...
JAPAN
Nov 5, 1999

Y2K fears boost cruises over New Year's

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 5, 1999

State unveils measures to slash nursing-care burden

The government formally announced a set of measures Friday aimed at reducing the financial burden on people under a planned public nursing care system to be launched in April.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 1999

Visaless group urges more flexible rights policy

Staff writer
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 3, 1999

Photographic record of a trail-breaking career

I sometimes eat lunch with a close friend who has but one child, a toddler aged 2. He likes to show me photographs.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

Lebanese envoy seeks 'bridge' with Japan

After 19 years of strife and internal struggles that destroyed the entire nation's infrastructure, Lebanon's reconstruction work is under way but the country is still in need of assistance from abroad, including Japan, the new Lebanese ambassador to Japan said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 2, 1999

This poetic chameleon wore khaki

SHREDDING THE TAPESTRY OF MEANING: The Poetry and Poetics of Kitasono Katsue (1902-1978), by John Solt. Harvard University Asia Center, 1999, 395 pp., $49.50. On Jan. 4, 1942, less than a month after Japan's assault on Pearl Harbor, Katsue Kitazono -- the spelling that John Solt gives the name in "Shredding...
JAPAN
Nov 2, 1999

Diet gets fast-track bill to curb Aum

The government submitted a bill to the Diet on Tuesday that will clamp down on Aum Shinrikyo by allowing the Public Security Investigation Agency to regularly supervise and restrict the activities of the cult's followers.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 1999

Child pornographers vanish as law takes effect

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 1, 1999

Child abuse cases surge 30% over '97

A total 6,932 cases of child abuse were brought before the nation's juvenile counseling offices in fiscal 1998, up roughly 30 percent from the previous year, the Health Ministry said Monday.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1999

Violence tears Brazilian community

Staff writer
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1999

Third Kabutoyama figure cleared -- after 21 years

OSAKA -- The Osaka High Court acquitted an ex-nursery school teacher of perjury Friday in the trial concerning the alibi of former colleague Etsuko Yamada, 48, who had been charged with killing a 12-year-old boy in 1974 but was cleared three times.
JAPAN
Oct 28, 1999

Know thyself in adopting foreign ways: Egypt scholars

An Egyptian minister and three scholars on Thursday said people need to appropriately examine their own culture as well as foreign influences to gain a national identity and a global perspective in the 21st Century.
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
Oct 27, 1999

The benefits of Aromas therapy

Aromas, with its Picasso-like red-and-gold logo, at first appears to be another in a long line of hip, new coffee bars from America, poised to take its place among other heavyweight "contenders" in the ongoing race to unseat Starbucks.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Oct 27, 1999

Hemlocks murmur in Kasuga's forest primeval

NARA -- Japan's first permanent capital, Heijo-kyo, was built on the Yamato plain where the modern city of Nara is located. Heijo-kyo was founded in the year 710 (from which year the Nara Period is dated) with a design based on that of the contemporaneous Chinese Tang Dynasty capital Changan.
JAPAN
Oct 27, 1999

Lenders hit for exhorbitant interest rates

Amid rising criticism of commercial loan firms over their exorbitant interest rates and frequent trouble with clients, the Financial Supervisory Agency said Wednesday the three leaders in the industry have charged an average of 20.87 percent in interest on loans, or about nine times the rate they pay...

Longform

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