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JAPAN
Jan 26, 2001

Three groups dominate underworld

About 68 percent of some 83,600 known gangsters in Japan were affiliated with three large "boryokudan" underworld syndicates as of the end of last year, reflecting the growing oligopolization of the mob, a National Police Agency report said Thursday.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 25, 2001

Isegen: Stoking the inner embers, Edo style

As the snow wafts down and the forecasters warn of arctic conditions to come, spare a thought for the folks of ancient Edo, who had to make it through the winter months without such essential survival tools as fleece jackets, cup ramen and Hokaron hand warmers.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 21, 2001

Almost like a mouthful of Momma's tasty tofu

If you're a foreigner in Japan, Japanese people will always ask you, "Why are you in Japan?" If you're a foreigner who has been in Japan a awhile, Japanese people will always ask you, "Why are you still in Japan?"
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 14, 2001

Danger! Americans may smother you in kindness

I always get a kick out my students when they come back from the United States and exclaim, "Wow! Americans are so friendly!" Of course, what they really mean is, "Wow! No one even tried to kill us!"
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2001

Fates of Estrada, Philippines hang on trial

MANILA -- President Joseph "Erap" Estrada is in the battle of his political life as his lawyers fight corruption charges in an impeachment trial.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 11, 2001

Taking stock of the new ryori

Before intrepidly setting out to eat our way through this brave new century, let us pause briefly to consider the state of contemporary Japanese dining. Needless to say, the situation is very different from 100 years ago, when most people were fed by itinerant hawkers, yatai stalls or simple food outlets...
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2001

Cop impostor just wanted respect

A 25-year-old man was arrested close to the Diet building with a fake lapel pin resembling those worn by members of a special police unit assigned to protect key figures as well as a false bar association membership card, it was learned Tuesday.
COMMUNITY
Jan 7, 2001

Good manners make comfortable relations

In Japan, there has been much discussion of late of both morals and manners. Indeed, one national newspaper on Jan. 1, in a section devoted to scrutinizing how Japanese have changed in recent years, devoted a whole page to the question: Are good manners a thing of the past?
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2001

One tuna fetches 20 million yen at Tsukiji

A single tuna fetched a record 20.2 million yen Friday at the year's first auction at Tsukiji Uoichiba Co., Tokyo's biggest fish market for marine-product wholesalers, Tsukiji officials said.
BUSINESS
Jan 4, 2001

Redevelopment hits Tokyo's heart

For the moment, it remains an enormous no man's land in the heart of Tokyo, with the only signs of life the numerous cranes, prefab huts and foundations that indicate construction projects are under way.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jan 3, 2001

Walking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

Approaching Machu Picchu on foot along Peru's 32-km Inca Trail might sound the stuff of legend. Or, better still, the stuff of Tin Tin. In all honesty, however, it can be more trial than trail.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 28, 2000

Down's diagnoses defied

Hope was not in the prognosis that doctors gave to Chie Myo, after examining her first son, Shunsuke, at the age of 3 months. They diagnosed the baby as having been born with Mongolism, a derogatory term previously used for Down syndrome, and predicted that he would not live long, saying a mere cold...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 28, 2000

Looking back at the future

In honor of that particularly Japanese custom of creating instant tradition ("Since 1999"), this last column of the year peers forward by looking back. Here are just three of the many new places we have visited and enjoyed during the past 12 months but never got around to writing up.
LIFE / Travel
Dec 27, 2000

Hot springs by the Vienna Woods

BADEN, Austria -- More than most European capitals, Vienna, which bears a rich legacy as the one-time heart of the old Austro-Hungarian empire, has enough monuments and museums (not to mention restaurants and coffee houses) to keep you hopping from morning until night.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2000

Universal leads Kinki tourism boom

OSAKA -- With construction work on Universal Studio Japan nearing completion, expectations are running high that the Hollywood theme park will attract hordes of visitors and revitalize a hitherto drab industrial site.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2000

Kagawa folks get to bottom of their 'udon' bowls in more ways than one

TAKAMATSU, Kagawa Pref. -- As a native of a prefecture famous for Sanuki "udon" (wheat noodles), Kazutoshi Tao thought udon was a simple component of daily life -- until he visited a place where customers whip up their own variety.
LIFE / Travel
Dec 20, 2000

Rapt in the spell of a castle town

There's something exotic about a castle town, and Kumamoto is no exception. Kumamoto Castle's enormous fortifications and steps give an immediacy to the thrills and spills of history, and tower knowingly above its surrounds today.
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Dec 14, 2000

Perfect match for sushi found in Deppisch wine

When all 194-cm of Johannes Deppisch looms before you, complete with his warm, spontaneous smile, you're inclined to think that his wines must be as powerful as he is. In fact, they're light, dry and fruity, and as refreshing as a visit to Josef Deppisch Weingut. Founded in 1872 in Marktheidenfeld, the...
COMMUNITY
Dec 10, 2000

Iron chef champ's book hailed best in the world

One of Katsuyo Kobayashi's strengths is that she is 100 percent reliable. With 140 books published to date, even the most inept cook can take home her latest compilation of recipes and come up trumps every time. Not only are they easy to make, good to eat and affordable, but joy of joys, some are now...
BUSINESS
Dec 2, 2000

Jobless rate unchanged at 4.7%

Japan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 4.7 percent in October, unchanged from September, although the number of jobholders increased for the first time in 33 months from a year earlier, the Management and Coordination Agency said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 30, 2000

The Russian Far East reaps peace dividend

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- Bunkered in a hillside above the port city where Russia's Pacific Fleet anchors, Slavyansky Khleb may be one of the most secure bakeries on the planet.
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2000

Town takes eco stride, refines used cooking oil for car fuel

NAGAHAMA, Shiga Pref. -- In an effort to generate business opportunities and improve the environment of this western Japan city, a group of small and medium-size businesses have launched a project to build equipment to refine used cooking oil for use in automobiles as an alternative fuel.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 15, 2000

Russia's Baltic outpost

Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin was not one of Russian history's shining stars. An unpleasant figure, he found favor with dictator Josef Stalin and rose to become Soviet president before dying in 1946. Nonetheless, in the fashion of those times, his surname was given to two major Russian cities and their accompanying...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 12, 2000

How to pick a foreigner out of the crowd

The longer I live in Japan the more I realize how strange people of my own planet look. Compared to the lean, congruent Japanese, foreigners seem like gigantic globs of cellulite.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 9, 2000

Smoke gets in your eyes

A scar on her arm reminds Kyoko Saito (not her real name) of an unpleasant experience she had a month ago. The Tokyo office worker was hurrying home one night after working three hours overtime, when she overtook three men chatting as they sauntered along the crowded sidewalk to the nearby station.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 9, 2000

Now is the season of our great content

It's all too easy to take for granted a restaurant of the caliber of Les Saisons. Ensconced within the venerable portals of the Imperial Hotel, it is plush, self-assured and runs with the same effortless reliability as a well-tuned Bentley sports car. You just know that an evening at table is going to...
JAPAN
Nov 8, 2000

Shops continue discriminatory practices

A year has passed since the Shizuoka District Court issued a landmark ruling that awarded damages to a Brazilian journalist for being refused service at a jewelry shop in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, simply because she was foreign.
COMMUNITY
Nov 2, 2000

Bank dealer trades finances for fiction

NIIHAMA, Ehime Pref. -- For most writers, the road to publication is paved with rejection slips. Not so for British expatriate Marisa Ishikawa, 35, who lives in Niihama-shi, Ehime Prefecture, with her Japanese carpenter husband and their two small children. Ishikawa dashed off her first novel in between...
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2000

Unemployment level climbs back up to 4.7%

Japan's unemployment rate climbed back to 4.7 percent in September, up 0.1 percentage point from August, for the first rise since June, when the rate rose to 4.7 percent from 4.6 percent, the Management and Coordination Agency said Tuesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 27, 2000

The highs and lows of izakaya dining

The ethereal, powder-blue fiber-optic lights that illuminate the entrance to Yui-an give a remarkable sense of stepping into another dimension -- a sensation heightened by the high-speed elevator ride to the top of the Sumitomo Building. With your brain suitably befuddled before you even get through...

Longform

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