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JAPAN
Aug 24, 1999

Bank customers detail need for new deposit safety net

A safety net is needed to protect deposits in business transaction accounts and to ensure fast refunds if banks fail after fiscal 2000, a cross section of bank customer representatives said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 12, 1999

Auto sector shakeup has parts makers playing catchup

Staff writer
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Aug 11, 1999

Like it is

Language is enriched by people who don't speak it very well, using phrases made up of words that contain the meaning of what they want to say but not the usual form. The result is sometimes quite effective. How about this one reporting a break in the summer heat: The weather is going down a bit, or this:...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Aug 9, 1999

A learning experience

It is interesting to follow the drinking culture of Japan. In times when "Japaneseness" is being emphasized, sales of "Nihon-shu" (sake) and "shochu" (an indigenous distilled beverage that uses a variety of things that will ferment but mainly sweet potatoes) tend to increase. Beer is seldom affected...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 5, 1999

Jambalaya! Cooking to die for in the Big Easy

A visitor to New Orleans in the early part of this century described the city as "a paradise for gluttons," and considering that the Big Easy has the highest number of restaurants per square kilometer in the United States and its denizens have the lowest life expectancy in the country, it's easy to see...
JAPAN
Jul 27, 1999

Nissan parts makers merge

Two major auto parts makers in the Nissan Motor group formally signed an agreement Tuesday to merge on April 1, company officials said.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 1999

Toyota's consolidation not telecom pullout, exec says

Staff writer
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 18, 1999

Becoming a black belt in things Japanese

When foreigners arrive in Japan for the first time, they are full of wonder. Many of us aren't familiar with the Japanese language or kanji and have only read about Japanese culture in magazines or books. We all start out with a "white belt" in things Japanese.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Jul 17, 1999

Chilling out with the ghosts of summer

The summer months have traditionally been a time when Tokyoites tried to avoid the urban heat either by escaping to the mountains, beaches or, if that was not possible, venturing out during the evening to sit on the riverbank, drink cool, refreshing beverages and listen to ghost stories.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 1999

Osaka puts on job fair to help the unemployed

OSAKA -- In a bid to help job-seekers in the Kansai region, where the unemployment rate exceeds the national average, Osaka Prefecture Wednesday kicked off Job Information Fair '99, featuring 200 computers listing 15,000 jobs.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jul 6, 1999

How to get your teenage kicks in the 'teahouses' of Tokyo

I'm not one to hang around kiddies' playgrounds (honestly!), but when I strolled into Shimokitazawa's Shelter last week I was instantly teleported into a school disco, and it kinda felt good. But keep that to yourself, OK.
LIFE / Travel
Jun 23, 1999

Sightseeing for harried business travelers

Most tourists bypass Nagoya en route to Kyoto or the shrines of Ise, but if you're visiting on business and have some free time don't just snooze in your hotel room: Get out and explore.
LIFE / Travel
Jun 23, 1999

Vices and virtues of Pompeii exposed

Imagine if an entire town could disappear yet be preserved intact, sealed timeless in eternity. Then imagine that surprised excavators nearly 1,700 years later uncover this natural time capsule to reveal what life was really like in the ancient world.
COMMUNITY
Jun 17, 1999

Trials and triumphs of black beauty

"Black is beautiful" was one of the most culturally charged American political slogans of the 1960s. Thirty years later, former model and educator Barbara Summers proves just how true those words are in her coffee-table book titled "Skin Deep: Inside the World of Black Fashion Models."
COMMUNITY
Jun 12, 1999

Don't throw in the towel on tenugui yet

Tenugui, rectangular cotton hand towels, are sometimes distributed by shops or firms as gifts for their openings or other occasions, mainly because they are inexpensive, lightweight and easy to carry. Those who receive them, however, are not usually thrilled to get towels printed with simple patterns...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jun 9, 1999

High praise

A woman writes that last year she saw several subway advertisements for Hunter-Douglas window blinds and asks if I can find the company's phone number. She complains that local services are extremely expensive and leave a lot to be desired. Recently, for example, she contracted for similar work but as...
JAPAN
Jun 4, 1999

UNEP kicks off third global photo contest

The head of the U.N. Environment Program announced Friday in Tokyo the launch of the world's largest photography contest in anticipation of World Environment Day.
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
May 27, 1999

Old and new blended perfectly at Otani

A pebble's throw away from the Akasaka Mitsuke subway station, the Hotel New Otani (which happens to be in the midst of celebrating 35 years as one of Tokyo's premier hotels) might just offer the solution to savvy travelers' "been there, done that" blues.
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

InterFM plans special Beatles broadcast

InterFM is inviting listeners to submit the name of their favorite Beatles tune for a special program airing May 30.
ENVIRONMENT
May 19, 1999

Azaleas rioting

WASHINGTON -- Henry Mitchell liked azaleas (and many other plants). "With them," he once wrote, "you can be as riotous, gaudy and vulgar as you please, or as delicate."
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
May 19, 1999

Journeying into the valley of death

"Death Valley," noted our guidebook, "is an inhuman environment: barren and monotonous, burning hot and almost entirely without shade or water." In short, the ideal antidote to Japan's rainy season, which is why we went.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
May 18, 1999

Holy big beat funk, Captain!

Check him out now, the funky captain. Check him out now, the F-U-N-K-Y captain. Ch-ch-ch-ch-nu-nu-na-na. (cue big drums) . . . . There's a new superhero in town, folks. His name is Captain Funk. He's touching down in a disco den near you. His manifesto is simple:
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 18, 1999

Culture: mirror or straitjacket?

THE WORLDS OF JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE: Gender, Shifting Boundaries and Global Cultures, edited by D.P.K. Martinez. Cambridge University Press, 1998, 212 pp., unpriced. THE WORLDS OF JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE: Gender, Shifting Boundaries and Global Cultures, edited by D.P.K. Martinez. Cambridge University...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 16, 1999

So long ago

A woman writes of a quest, not hers but a friend's. This friend is looking for a man she knew many years ago. He was born in Hokkaido in 1913. He was a Christian and was active with the Young Men's Christian Association. He traveled widely in foreign countries in connection with that work.
LIFE / Travel
May 13, 1999

The 'red, green and white lines': rubies, jade and heroin

Like most things connected to money and profit in Myanmar, there is a sinister side to the north's resurgent economy, a subtext that generally eludes visitors' attention. Still, at least one travel book, Nicholas Greenwood's original and often very funny "Bradt Guide to Burma," has picked up on it. Not...
CULTURE / Books
May 4, 1999

A dose of reality for Asia's high-flyers

TIGERS TAMED: The End of the Asian Miracle, by Robert Garran. Allen Unwin, 1998, 228 pp. (paper). "Tigers Tamed," "The Trouble with Tigers," "Asian Contagion." It's hard to miss a touch of what seems like gloating in the attempts to chronicle Asia's recent misfortunes.
CULTURE / Books
May 4, 1999

Artistry lost in translation

WHITE LETTER POEMS, by Fumi Saito, translated by Hatsue Kawamura and Jane Reichhold. AHA Books, 1998, 110 pp., $10. The title of this well-produced selection of tanka by the venerable poet Fumi Saito is taken from the first tanka in the book's first section, which contains work from "Gyo ka" (Songs...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 27, 1999

The Tokyo guide for Tokyo-lovers

A View of the City, by Donald Richie, with photographs by Joel Sackett. London: Reaktion Books, 143 pp. No one is indifferent to Tokyo. Most people dislike it. It's huge, it's ugly, it's loud, the water's metallic, and movies arrive six months late. But a few people like Tokyo.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan