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BUSINESS
Jan 1, 2000

The next loud bang could be in retailing

Just as foreign companies have accelerated reorganization of financial and automobile industries, powerful foreign chain stores are now gearing up to expand in the general merchandising market in Japan.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 1999

Complaints of shoddy new homes on rise

Staff writers Despite the colorful sofa and classy light fixtures, it's the long crack running along the ceiling and down the west wall of the living room that catches the eye. Sodden floorboards in the hallway further dampen the fresh feel that usually accompanies a newly built home. That's what one...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 1999

Happy in the Gucci nation

What kind of country will Japan be in the 21st century? The millennial forecast is in and it looks like this: Japan's cultural elite is quickly converging around the notion that Japan should be the first boutique state of the 21st century -- distinctive, well designed and expensive.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 1999

Carmakers jockey for inroads in slow-growing China market

Staff writer GUANGZHOU, China -- Browsing through glossy catalogs, a couple of men chat with dealers over the counter of a spacious car showroom. Beside them sit three brand-new cars. What appears to be an ordinary scene at any roadside dealership, however, is not run-of-the-mill; one of the cars --...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Dec 23, 1999

Sake tools you can trust

Happy Holidays to all Japan Times readers.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Dec 23, 1999

Yearend nostalgia

There is something about the holiday season that brings out nostalgia. Old times are recalled. We reach out with Christmas and New Year's cards to friends we haven't seen for years. A lot of conversations begin with, Do you remember . . . It seems that although most people anticipate the opportunities...
COMMUNITY
Dec 23, 1999

A cry to help children in need

If Joseph Lam were to take a vocational aptitude test, the results would no doubt point to a career in either politics or tele-evangelism.
LIFE / Style & Design / BEAUTY EAST AND WEST
Dec 23, 1999

Santa's bag full of health and beauty

Are you still faced with filling a lengthy Christmas wish-list and find yourself running out of time? Consider investigating the range of one-stop health-and-beauty gift options before you give up and buy those last-resort presents that lack imagination and personal suitability -- the candles, calendars...
JAPAN
Dec 22, 1999

Insanity cited in serial killer's death penalty appeal

The counsel for convicted serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki did not dispute allegations that he murdered four girls in Tokyo and Saitama prefectures in the late 1980s, but they claim he was insane at the time. The lawyers made the claim in their opening statement Wednesday of the appellant trial before...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

Alleged serial killer 'insane'

The counsel for accused serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki on Tuesday did not argue allegations that the defendant was involved in the murders of four girls in Tokyo and Saitama prefectures in the late 1980s but did claim he was insane at the time. The lawyers made the claim in their opening statement of...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 1999

Seattle art world meets on Gallery Walk

SEATTLE -- Eric Painter is a potter. Actually, he was a biologist before he quit his research job with National Marine Fisheries and bought a pottery school and gallery in downtown Seattle's historic Pioneer Square.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Dec 8, 1999

May we help you?

They say this might be the year that online Christmas sales in the U.S. actually live up to past promises of e-commerce's ascendancy. Hurrahs could be heard when it was reported that online transactions over Thanksgiving were up 10-fold (and groans could be heard as servers started overloading with the...
LIFE / Travel
Dec 8, 1999

A life less ordinary: Anne Frank's legacy

Amsterdam must be the only European city whose most popular tourist attractions occupy different ends of the sliding scale that begins with virtue and ends with vice. It is likely that many of those who wait patiently in the queues that snake daily around the canal-side block where the Anne Frank Huis...
JAPAN
Dec 7, 1999

'Knock' to take suit ruling seriously

OSAKA -- Osaka Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama told a news conference Tuesday that he would "take seriously" Monday's anticipated ruling in the sexual harassment lawsuit against him, which he did not contest. He also told the day's regular news conference that he would pay compensation if the court orders him...
CULTURE / Art / ARTS AND ARTISANS
Dec 4, 1999

Drumming up business for 300 years

The first musical instruments humans ever invented were believed to be those of percussion. The oldest drum, discovered in Moravia, dates back to 6000 B.C.
JAPAN
Dec 1, 1999

Grocers' group aids family businesses

Staff writer
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Dec 1, 1999

The top of the world

Tengboche Monastery is the oldest Buddhist monastery in Nepal. Founded in 1916 by Lama Gulu, the building itself has been destroyed and rebuilt twice. Today it is home to 50 monks and hosts about 22,000 visitors each year
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
Nov 24, 1999

When the going gets tough, the tough drink coffee

When I was a child, my mother didn't hesitate to drag me along on her shopping sprees, and if she managed to find some bargains, she would celebrate (and reward my good behavior) by treating me to something sweet at the department store coffee shop.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 24, 1999

British bulldogs in a China shop

BRITAIN IN CHINA: Community, Culture and Colonialism 1900-1949, by Robert Bickers. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1999; 276 pp., 45 pounds (hardcover), 15.99 pounds (paper). When Lord Macartney opened his British Embassy in China in 1792, he was told to ask for bit of land or,...
CULTURE / Art
Nov 20, 1999

Indigo dyers singing the artisan blues

The deep blue color of aizome (indigo dyeing), is often referred to as the color of Japan. Made from the ai (indigo) plant, a type of tade (smartweed) grown in Japan, aizome has also gained a great deal of popularity worldwide. Although indigo comes in an array of hues, the most popular is one that is...
JAPAN
Nov 16, 1999

Regional Special: Sanin

'Inaka' taps city disenchanted to repopulate>Staff writer
CULTURE / Art
Nov 13, 1999

An ode to nature -- her beauty and her treasures

For many artists and craftsmen, nature is a great source of inspiration. For Toyama-based sunago craftsman Tatsuo Nagaoka, the beautiful scenery he encounters while hiking in the mountains is also his inspiration to create new work. His subjects range from a sea of clouds viewed from a mountain peak...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 11, 1999

Homebrewing for fun, taste and profit

"Hamm's" is the first spoken word recorded in Rob Nelson's baby book. His parents say he was influenced by the rhythmic beat of the Hamm's Beer television commercial. Now, when not consuming one of his own homebrew creations, Nelson, 47, is out searching for the perfect pint. His favorite beer to date,...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 11, 1999

No smoke gets in your eyes here

It is not so much ironic as inevitable that the shichirin -- the basic, mass-produced, charcoal-fired clay stove so widely used in Japan in the austere postwar reconstruction days -- has now been reinvented as the favorite cooking accessory for recession- chic dining out.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 10, 1999

World of washi

WASHI CRAFTS: Working with Japanese Handmade Paper, by Andrea Heinrichsohn. Tokyo: Shufunotomo Co. Ltd., 1999, 95 pp., 2,400 yen. If you have ever looked longingly at the richly decorated sheets of "washi" in a Japanese paper shop, but left empty-handed for lack of an idea of how to put them to appropriate...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 7, 1999

Hail Japan, for you will surely miss it one day

The foreign community in Japan is transient. People come and go. The funny thing is, when they go, they're usually ready. It's something biological: that need to return home.
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.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Oct 31, 1999

When there's a need

What is KEEP? a reader asks. Friends in the United States want to know about its activities before making a donation.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 30, 1999

Two billion light years of poetry

SHUNTARO TANKIAWA SELECTED POEMS, translated by William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura. Manchester: Carcanet, 1998, 115 pp. + preface, 12.95 British pounds In early November 1998, Shuntaro Tanikawa and his translators took part in Britain's Poetry International. Among the bards contributing with Tanikawa...
JAPAN
Oct 20, 1999

Eatery gives elderly more than good food

Staff writer

Longform

Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?