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JAPAN
May 17, 2000

Nagoya community to hold walk-a-thon

Each year for the past nine years, Nagoya's foreign community has gathered in the city's Meijo Park district for an annual charity walk-a-thon. Thousands of people, from members of the local expatriate business community to players from the Chunichi Dragons to ordinary citizens, participate in a day...
CULTURE / Art
May 13, 2000

Tate residency builds a cultural bridge

Johnnie Walker, a self-declared champion of the avant-garde, has made big strides through the Tokyo art scene. For many years Walker, through his foundation Za Moca, has made it his purpose to support artists in various ways, from monthly parties to celebrate artists exhibiting in Tokyo, through accommodation...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 10, 2000

Sea of love

Ponder, if you will, these two recent headlines:
JAPAN
May 9, 2000

Osu survives with blend of old and new

NAGOYA -- Young people browse through the shirts and jeans at a used clothes store, while an elderly woman picks up some tea at a shop around back. On the street, a young couple eating ice cream pass a man with a computer.
COMMUNITY
Apr 23, 2000

JR East's No. 20 'just your average station'

Like many Yamanote Loop stations, Gotanda's name speaks of the area's past. Gotanda literally means 5,000 sq. meters of rice paddies, "tan" formerly being a measure for land area equivalent to 1,000 sq. meters.
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 15, 2000

Illusion meister's imagination creates world of visual fantasy

When we were children, the world was a place full of magic and mystery. In our minds, Santa Claus really existed; a ghost lived in the attic; and we could easily imagine our favorite doll coming to life overnight.
COMMUNITY
Apr 13, 2000

Striving to fulfill a real whale of a task

FUKUOKA -- Each year during the colder months (about December to February) a variety of whales pass northern Kyushu on their way south to warmer waters and richer feeding grounds, following the Tsushima Warm Current down from Okhotsk along Japan's west coast. Larger whales tend to trail the Pacific Ocean...
LIFE / Travel
Apr 12, 2000

Follow the pilgrims' road to where past and present meet

When the warm spring winds riding the Kuroshio (Black Current) reach Shikoku, the island is at its best for visitors. Shikoku in the spring attracts both tourists and pilgrims. The pilgrims come to visit some or all of the island's 88 temples dedicated to Kobo Daishi, who introduced Shingon Buddhism...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 5, 2000

Howai notto aborisshu katakana?

According to a survey from late last year, over 80 percent of the Japanese population has some difficulty reading katakana, the syllabary specially used for foreign terms.
BUSINESS
Mar 31, 2000

Sony ties up with Sakura on Net bank

Sony Corp. announced Thursday that it has formally decided to set up an Internet-only bank in cooperation with Sakura Bank and J.P. Morgan of the U.S.
BUSINESS
Mar 30, 2000

Sony eyes Sakura as key Internet bank partner

Sony Corp. plans to have Sakura Bank become a major investor in an Internet-based bank it hopes to set up next year, industry sources said Wednesday.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 30, 2000

Exhibition ticket giveaway

Ten pairs of tickets to the "National Treasures of Japan" exhibition, being held at the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park through May 7, will be given away to 10 Japan Times readers.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 28, 2000

Tried and true not always the way to go

As mentioned last time in this column, a new restaurant/venue, Tribute to the Love Generation, will open in Odaiba on Tokyo Bay next month. It is not, as you may expect, a hangout for "Dead-heads," or ex-flower power hippies hiding out in Tokyo, but in fact will host mainly "world music" concerts. With...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 24, 2000

Tony Bennett: a true master of the fine art of sincerity

Hyperbole becomes Tony Bennett. His effusiveness is all-encompassing, gathering his audience, his musicians, the people who wrote the songs he sings, and even the singers who covered those songs before him into a warm, gushing embrace. Performing more than 90 minutes' worth of material at Suntory Hall...
BUSINESS
Mar 22, 2000

0.2% increase in capital spending seen

Major Japanese corporations are planning to invest 0.2 percent more on equipment in fiscal 2000, the first increase in four years, the government-affiliated Development Bank of Japan said Tuesday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Mar 22, 2000

NTT then and now

Last week's column dealt with NHK's fees and why we should pay them. Similarly, there are complaints from readers about paying the initial 72,000 yen plus 2,184 yen consumption tax and 800 yen contract charge to NTT for the standard telephone installation fee. None of this amount is refundable although...
BUSINESS
Mar 21, 2000

Sanwa, DigiCube in e-commerce deal

Sanwa Bank and game software distributor DigiCube Co. plan to set up a joint venture with other partners to install e-commerce terminals in shops across the nation to offer financial services and sell game and music software, sources at the companies said Monday.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Mar 16, 2000

NBA meets 'The Truman Show'

"And for tonight's halftime entertainment, Marv, let's go to the Blazers locker room and catch a glimpse of Detlef Schrempf undressing."
CULTURE / Books
Mar 7, 2000

Puppets seen through the bars

THE FUNERAL OF A GIRAFFE and Other Stories, by Tomioka Taeko. Translated by Kyoko Selden and Mizuta Noriko. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 182 pp., $21.95. Originally a poet, Taeko Tomioka turned to fiction later in her career, after the breakup of a long-term relationship and a return to her native Osaka....
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2000

Game fans snap up PlayStation2

More than 7,000 stores nationwide started selling at 7 a.m. Saturday an advanced version of the popular PlayStation game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
BUSINESS
Mar 4, 2000

Updated PlayStation lands in stores

PlayStation2, the advanced version of the world's most popular video game console, goes on sale today amid growing expectations that the new machine will serve as a powerful tool connecting homes to cyberspace in the near future.
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2000

PlayStation2 order site has info security breach

Customer information was accidentally made accessible to anyone entering the Japanese Web site of a Sony group company handling sale reservations of PlayStation2 game consoles, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. said Thursday.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2000

Low-cost cruises are reeling them in

Singapore-based Star Cruises, the leading ocean cruise line in the Asia-Pacific region, is enjoying an overwhelming response after it recently announced the operation of low-priced luxury cruises.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 29, 2000

Afghanistan drags Pakistan down with it

ISLAMABAD -- More than 20 years after Soviet troops marched into Afghanistan in support of the last communist coup, the central Asian country's turmoil is unending. Descriptions such as "extreme impoverishment," "a lost generation" and "the ultimate pariah state" are just some of the ways that Afghanistan...
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 29, 2000

Anti-glamor Idevian Crew hit the stage

Shigehiro Ide is back on stage with his dance company Idevian Crew after all too long an absence from performing. His comeback in "Which," the piece he choreographed to open the Next Dance Festival at Shinjuku Park Tower Hall Feb. 18, establishes him as the most promising dancer/choreographer on the...
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2000

Sega, Swatch to join forces in Internet projects

Sega Enterprises, Ltd. and Swatch, A.G. on Thursday announced three new collaboration projects to enhance their Internet entertainment services. The two firms said one of the projects will entail the launch this year of a new service called "Internet & Wearable," for which Swatch will begin marketing...
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 2000

Criminals in the least likely places

Like the media abroad, Japan's press and television are criticized for sensationalized crime reporting - with one important difference. Critics say they are too slow and too timid in reporting criminal behavior by the nation's police forces. At a time when random crimes of violence are occurring with...
COMMENTARY
Feb 10, 2000

Democracy under attack

When I first read that the Japanese coalition government had decided to force through a bill to reduce the number of seats elected by proportional representation, my first thought was, since they had a majority of votes in both Houses for this measure and as democracy generally implies majority rules,...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Feb 10, 2000

Olympics strike out with baseball format

In last week's installment of Sports Scope, my esteemed colleague David Picker took Orix BlueWave star center fielder Ichiro Suzuki to task for showing no interest in going to the 2000 Olympics. Well, I'm with Ichiro.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2000

DCI unveils programming for digital data broadcasts

Digital Cast International Ltd. on Thursday unveiled programs it plans to deliver on a digital data broadcasting service it is planning to launch Dec. 1. The Tokyo-based broadcaster will offer a 24-hour schedule of news, weather forecasts, local government bulletins, sales programs for books, regional...

Longform

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