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COMMUNITY
Jan 20, 2002

Kabukicho: where worlds collide

About 1 a.m. on the morning of Sept. 1, 2001, a fire of undetermined origin swept through the No. 56 Myojo Building in Shinjuku's Kabukicho district, resulting in the deaths of 44 people on the upper two floors. While investigators say they have ruled out arson, stories in the tabloid press continue...
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2002

Senior vice foreign minister to visit Seoul to kick off year of exchanges

Senior Vice Foreign Minister Shigeo Uetake will visit Seoul next week to help kick off a year of friendship exchanges between Japan and South Korea.
BUSINESS / ON THE FRONT LINE
Jan 17, 2002

Electronics firms' strategies spark new hope

Investors have taken heart from the recent raft of reports on industrial realignments and new business undertakings by high-technology companies.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Jan 17, 2002

Nintendo's Arakawa surprises with retirement announcement

Nobody really cared who the president of Nintendo of America was when Minoru Arakawa founded the company in 1980. With games like "Radarscope" and "Sheriff," it was just another Taito wannabe trying to break into the U.S. arcade market.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Jan 17, 2002

Magic elfin adventures of Jak & Daxter land in Japan

Back in August, The Japan Times ran a feature about a company called Naughty Dog that specializes in 3-D adventure games.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jan 16, 2002

If at first you don't succeed

Teen idol Ami Suzuki is apparently on the verge of making a comeback after disappearing from the J-pop radar more than a year ago.
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2002

Omron adds cat to robot pet population

A lifelike robot cat closes its eyes and meows after a young boy rubs the acrylic fur on its chin at a department store in Tokyo.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Jan 10, 2002

Can you take the Payne?

"Max Payne" falls somewhere between "Pulp Fiction" and "The Matrix." Well, OK, "Max Payne" is a video and computer game, so maybe it only falls virtually between those two Hollywood blockbusters.
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2002

New Year's show wows crowds with fire drills, acrobatics

Tokyo firefighters conducted disaster drills and performed traditional acrobatics on ladders Sunday in a ceremony in Koto Ward to mark the beginning of the new year.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jan 3, 2002

A changed U.S. greets 2002

WASHINGTON -- Welcome to Year One of the time thereafter. If there is a constant in the commentaries on Sept. 11, it is that it was a day whose events changed the way we will live forever.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Jan 3, 2002

Sometimes the gaming is too rough

When it comes to video games, Japan generally gets the good stuff first. Nintendo, Sony, and NEC hardware generally comes out in Japan before the United States. "Devil May Cry," "Final Fantasy X," and "Luigi's Mansion" all came out in Japan before they made it to the United States.
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2001

Top 10 news stories of 2001

Japan Times editors picked the following domestic news stories as the most important of 2001:
COMMUNITY
Dec 30, 2001

Getting out to see the new year in

So you want to be there to join in a great mass countdown to 2002 -- or you are determined to be one of the early birds catching sight of the Sun's first New Year rays? With so many venues vying for your bleary presence on New Year's Eve/New Year's Day, some observatories are opening their doors before...
JAPAN / Media
Dec 30, 2001

'Kohaku': the best, or just best behaved?

"Kohaku Utagassen," NHK's New Year's Eve music extravaganza, which celebrates its 52nd anniversary on Monday night, has traditionally been seen as the year's most significant event for Japanese singers, with selection to appear on the show truly "legitimizing" a performer's career. As well, certainly...
COMMUNITY
Dec 30, 2001

O-Shogatsu: a custom-made holiday

Yoshio Mamiya doesn't need reminding that o-shogatsu is almost here. For several weeks, the 78-year-old craftsman has been working 12-hour days, seven days a week at his studio in the Sanno district of Tokyo's Ota Ward, where he busily stitches away to meet his customers' demand to renew their domestic...
BUSINESS
Dec 29, 2001

Sony in talks with Fujitsu over Nifty

Sony Corp. is negotiating with Fujitsu Ltd. to acquire Internet service provider Nifty Corp., a Fujitsu subsidiary, industry sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2001

TV comedian indicted over drug use

Prosecutors on Friday indicted TV comedian Masashi Tashiro on a charge of using stimulant drugs.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2001

Simply, the best

This was a year in which the most memorable screen image belonged to reality, not cinema. Indeed, as many have noted, the spectacle of airline jets ramming into the World Trade Center towers was all too reminiscent of a Hollywood blockbuster's money shot -- and that may have been the point. Terrorists...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Dec 26, 2001

'Jazzin' ' with UFO

It is a rare trick to be both popular and cutting-edge, a trick that the DJ unit United Future Organization has pulled off with aplomb. In the quicksilver world of club music, it is even more unusual for a dance event to last one year, much less ten. "Jazzin' " celebrates its 10th anniversary this month...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 23, 2001

Beating the game -- at last

"Dad, could you show me how to make a jump shot?" So my younger son once requested as we stood beneath a hoop in his junior-high playground.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2001

Fun and family bonding

Spy KidsRating: * * * 1/2 Director: Robert Rodriguez Running time: 88 minutes Language: English Now showing
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2001

Visa sweep nets over 20 in Shinjuku

Tokyo police and immigration officials took more than 20 Chinese, Iranian and other foreigners in the Shinjuku area into custody Monday night on suspicion they have been overstaying their visas.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 19, 2001

2001 -- A sound odyssey

It was a year for rocking, for boppig, for grooving, for moshing, for swaying and of course, for listening. Taking one last spin through the sounds of the past 12 months, our music writers tell us what they heard.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2001

Obituary: Hiroshi Minami

Pioneer social psychologist Hiroshi Minami died early Monday of pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital, his family said. He was 87.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 18, 2001

Sowing the seeds of revolution

Does the end of Taliban rule mean that the people of Afghanistan can now look forward to a new era of peace and freedom? Not according to the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, who believe that unless all fundamentalist groups in the country are disarmed, a repeat of the brutality...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2001

Heading off hooligans at 2002 World Cup

The 2002 soccer World Cup draw was a confusing and nerve-racking affair for the national team coaches and officials attending the ceremony in Pusan, South Korea, and for the many fans watching on television all over the world. For Japanese soccer officials, the collective sigh of relief never happened....
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2001

Traps planned to corral pesky Tokyo crows

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government plans to launch a sweeping operation this month against the capital's crows, notorious for attacking piles of garbage and even small animals.
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2001

Tax reforms to result in 30 billion yen revenue loss

The ruling coalition announced a package of tax reforms for fiscal 2002 on Friday evening that will result in an estimated revenue loss of about 30 billion yen.
BUSINESS
Dec 12, 2001

NTT, SCE agree on fast link for PlayStation2

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. said Tuesday it has agreed with NTT Broadband Initiative Inc. and Sony Communication Network Corp. to start offering broadband services for PlayStation2 computer game consoles in April.

Longform

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