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COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Dec 20, 2000

A divided Capitol awaits new president

WASHINGTON -- Wow! What a list of things to do for U.S. President-elect George W. Bush. It is long, and the degree of difficulty of almost every item on the list is of Olympian proportion.
COMMENTARY
Dec 20, 2000

The world may welcome Bush

LONDON -- While the United States adjusts to the idea of having George W. Bush as its new president, his predecessor has been treading the international stage for the last time -- at least in a presidential capacity. Bill Clinton's "final" visit to Britain received immense coverage, some of it almost...
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2000

Economic panel to be disbanded lists failures

A soon-to-be-disbanded top government advisory panel issued a report Monday reflecting on its failure to quickly deal with major economic changes such as the information technology boom and the collapse of the asset-price bubble that depressed the economy through the 1990s.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 19, 2000

Making mush of Meadowlark

SHOPPING: A Novel, by Gavin Kramer. Soho Press, 2000, 216 pp., $22 (cloth). It's easy for a foreigner to feel like a freak in Japan -- tall, different, culturally unaware, linguistically tongue-tied. This wickedly clever novel of manners turns its lens on the foreign protagonist as spectacle, British...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Dec 19, 2000

Rumbling with the jungle girls on tour in the U.K.

I'm a failed rock star and that's probably why I ended up writing about music.
COMMENTARY
Dec 18, 2000

At long last, signs of progress

During his Tokyo visit in October 1998, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and then Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi signed a joint declaration on the bilateral partnership for the 21st century. In the document, Obuchi expressed "keen remorse" and apologized for the historical fact that Japan, through...
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2000

Aid for crime victims inadequate, poll finds

About 76 percent of Japanese think government measures to protect and support crime victims are inadequate, according to a survey by the Prime Minister's Office released Saturday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 17, 2000

All I want for Christmas is some cud to chew

Since Japan has finally started to perform organ transplants, I can finally ask Santa for what I've always wanted -- an organ. And no, I don't mean a sex change. The organ I want happens to belong to a cow. And no, I don't mean the udder. What I'd like from a cow is something that would make my life...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 17, 2000

Putting the double bass on top

Widely considered the greatest double bass soloist of our time, world-renowned virtuoso Gary Karr will perform tonight at Taishi Bunka Kaikan Hall in Hyogo Prefecture with the piano accompaniment of his long-time duo partner Harmon Lewis, one of the final concerts of his 11-city, 3-week tour of Japan....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Dec 17, 2000

Ruby Pawankar

The Fourth International Symposium on Basic Approach to Allergic Rhinitis will be held in Tokyo on Feb. 10 and 11. Its central theme, "allergy -- from the nose to the lung," is to focus on the impact and relation of allergic rhinitis and asthma. President of the Fourth ISBAAR and a founder of the series...
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2000

Red Army figure admits hijacking

Former Red Army Faction member Yoshimi Tanaka pleaded guilty Friday to hijacking a Japan Airlines jet and forcing it to fly to Pyongyang in 1970.
BUSINESS
Dec 16, 2000

Reform panel chief hits wall of regulations, vested interests

After making steady progress in the economic field, Japan's deregulatory efforts are now entering a more difficult stage as they come to grips with social regulations, according to Yoshihiko Miyauchi, chairman of Orix Corp. and head of a government panel on regulatory reforms.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2000

LDP moves step closer to cutting China's ODA

The Liberal Democratic Party's top foreign policy planners approved a panel report Friday proposing that Japan's official development assistance to China should be reduced in the light of the domestic economic situation.
CULTURE / Art
Dec 16, 2000

Op-ting out of the conventional frame

"Yellow-Green Spiral" by Jun Fujita, 2000, acrylic on board Op Art, pioneered by Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely in the '60s, creates the impression of swirling movement and tricks the eye into perceiving three dimensions. Optical discrepancy is achieved by placing the geometric shapes precisely onthe...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 16, 2000

Letting the genie of art out of its bottle

It was 112 years ago when Vincent van Gogh sat down to paint his bedroom in the famous yellow house at Arles. After a few hours of frantic work, the three-dimensional room had been transformed into a two-dimensional masterpiece.
COMMENTARY
Dec 16, 2000

An isolated government clings to power

The United States and Japan are plagued by political chaos. The fierce U.S. presidential race ended in victory for George W. Bush after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the recounting of disputed ballots in Florida. In Japan, a disturbingly wide gap exists between the fragile support Prime Minister Yoshiro...
BUSINESS
Dec 15, 2000

Nissan now switching focus to domestic competitiveness

Looking back on a year in which Nissan Motor Co. appears to have finally stemmed its downward slide, President Carlos Ghosn said that regaining competitiveness in the domestic market will be the automaker's priority for the coming year.
BUSINESS
Dec 15, 2000

Retail clerks, cabbies turn pessimistic

Japanese workers sensitive to economic cycles are becoming increasingly pessimistic about the economy, according to a survey released by the Economic Planning Agency on Thursday.
BUSINESS
Dec 15, 2000

NEC sells British arm in streamlining effort

NEC Corp. said Thursday it has sold its British operation for manufacturing mobile phones to a Canadian electronics firm as part of its effort to streamline production.
BUSINESS
Dec 15, 2000

GDP actually fell in third quarter

The Economic Planning Agency will likely revise the gross domestic product data for the July-September quarter from a 0.2 percent quarter-to-quarter expansion to a contraction, an EPA official acknowledged Thursday.
COMMENTARY
Dec 15, 2000

Japan ties under Bush hinge on U.S. economy

Call it U.S. exceptionalism or a deep distrust of government. Whatever it is, Americans have demonstrated a historical preference for divided government as a check against one-party dominance. But nobody had ever expected a U.S. election with a hairline split and as much divisiveness as the one that...
BUSINESS
Dec 14, 2000

Japan set for B2B e-commerce explosion

Japan's business-to-business e-commerce market will grow faster than expected and develop in a unique way, according to Joseph Kim, president and chief executive officer of ICG Japan K.K. ICGJ provides financial and operational support to companies engaged in the B2B market.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Dec 14, 2000

Owners taking the hands-on approach

Watching Mario Lemieux as he made his rounds in Japan this past October, one could sense there was something very wrong with the picture. At various functions in Tokyo leading up to the National Hockey League opening games, here was this strapping 6-foot-5 man, just turned 35, looking healthy and fit...
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2000

Kobe man says he was a spy for Pyongyang for 20 years

KOBE -- For nearly 20 years, Cho Ryu Un, a Korean resident of Japan born and raised in Kobe, lived a double life. To friends and business partners, he was a normal businessman, albeit connected with the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon).
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2000

Parents driven to 'kidnap' children

Dutchman Engel Nieman took his 2-year-old daughter to Osaka this fall to board a slow boat for the Netherlands to visit his dying father.
COMMUNITY
Dec 13, 2000

Stopping the biological clock

As people develop wrinkles and spots on their skin with age, invisible and subtle changes also occur deep in their bodies. Researchers now agree that the aging of women's eggs is an important factor in many reproductive problems, including infertility, miscarriage and birth defects.
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2000

Poll shows Cabinet reshuffle has done little for Mori's popularity

The approval rate for Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's Cabinet improved slightly after the reshuffle on Dec. 5, according to the latest Kyodo News poll released Monday.

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go