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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 3, 2000

Extreme Goes Mainstream

SAN FRANCISCO As Cory "Nasty" Nastazio, 22, comes off his dirt jumping practice at the 2000 X-Games site in San Francisco, he pulls up to the ESPN cameraman on his little BMX bike and the first thing he does is remove his helmet.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2000

Sydneysiders counting down

SYDNEY -- Scrubbed and polished, the Olympics city is looking good. Sydneysiders are all-welcoming as the world jets in for Olympic Games 2000. So why are we so worried?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 3, 2000

Kennedy gives answers with Tokyo Q online

Rick Kennedy loves Tokyo. He has been here for years, yet still can't get over the kindness of its citizens, the flawless attention to detail, the sensory feast to be partaken of at every twist and turn -- much of which can be eaten and drunk! So great is his enthusiasm that we missed our stop, Hamamatsucho,...
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2000

Tokyo disaster drill features SDF in big way

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's annual major disaster-relief drill Sunday will feature the participation of Self-Defense Forces troops on an unprecedented scale -- 7,100 service members, 1,090 vehicles, 80 aircraft and five ships -- at 10 venues throughout the capital.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2000

Toyota unveils remodeled luxury car

Toyota Motor Corp. unveiled the remodeled Celsior luxury sedan Thursday as part of its efforts to compete with quality European automobiles.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 1, 2000

Japanese rugby player Iwabuchi hopes to make mark at Saracens

The 2000-01 season will be a significant landmark for Kensuke Iwabuchi. The former Japan international rugby player joined English club Saracens, the team he has dreamed of playing for.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Sep 1, 2000

Play that funky Okinawan music

Asian folk music has become a rich source for progressive club music. Hang out in one of Tokyo's happening nightspots and one is apt to hear break beats ping-ponging past Indian sitars or fluttering around Balinese gamelan. But when it comes to Okinawan min'yo or traditional music, there hasn't been...
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2000

U.S. military lets press view emergency medical drills

U.S. service members stationed in Japan conduct an emergency medical drill Wednesday at the Sagami Grand Depot in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Pref. YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) The U.S. Army stationed in Japan opened to the media Wednesday a weeklong drill on emergency medical operations being conducted at a military site...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 31, 2000

Kudos to the Kinki kids

Since Hideo Nomo's spectacular rookie season in 1995, a number of Japanese pitchers have proven capable of competing at the major league level. Lately, it's the lesser lights from the Land of the Rising Sun who have been shining bright.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

Talks to hold up Kitakyushu as environmental success story

Asia, with more than half the world's population and economies that continue to grow, poses one of the biggest environmental challenges of the coming century. The United Nations predicts that by 2025 more than half the region's population will have moved to the already packed metropolises.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2000

Little reason to celebrate in East Timor

Just over a year ago, in August 1999, I was in the Baucau district of East Timor, helping to monitor the leadup to the referendum on independence as a U.N.-accredited observer with the independent International Federation for East Timor Observer Project.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 29, 2000

Captivating fragments of Southeast Asia

THE TRUTH ABOUT ANNA . . . and Other Stories, by William Warren. Archipelago Press, Singapore, 2000, 224 pp., unpriced. Most of these essays by William Warren, who has lived in Bangkok for 40 years, concern aspects of life in Thailand, about which the author has written copiously. There are also glimpses...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 29, 2000

End this dysfunctional relationship

LEAVING JAPAN: Observations on the Dysfunctional U.S.-Japan Relationship. By Mike Millard. M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, NY, 2000, 200 pp., $37.95. The $79-billion question is why does the United States continue to tolerate the lopsided economic relationship with Japan that led to a such a massive trade imbalance...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 28, 2000

General Motors humming along -- never mind the environment

A vacation is such a wonderful chance to seek out the unusual and inexplicable. This month my family and I are immersed in a foreign culture, intrigued and perplexed by the ways of an alien people. Most confounding, this culture is my own.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2000

Dai-ichi Mutual, Yasuda Fire considering tieup

Dai-ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Co. plan to form a comprehensive tieup with a view to integrating their future operations, industrial sources said Saturday.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 27, 2000

Maestro Comissiona bows to talent of Asian youth

When Sergiu Comissiona was invited to take over as conductor of the Asian Youth Orchestra in 1993, one of his first concerns was whether he could take the heat.
EDITORIALS
Aug 26, 2000

Making peace the hard way

Next month, the United Nations convenes its Millennium Summit. One of the key issues the world body must face in the next century is its role in peacekeeping operations. The magnitude of the challenges were made plain this week when a special commission released its final report. It makes for grim reading....
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2000

Updated environment plan to add new economic options

The Basic Environment Plan -- Japan's 5-year-old master plan for a more environmentally sustainable society -- is in the middle of a seismic revision.
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2000

Government unveils guidelines for axing works projects

The three ruling parties have adopted a set of four criteria for deciding whether to scrap or suspend ongoing public works projects as part of a plan to make Japan's huge construction budgets more effective, according to coalition officials.
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2000

MITI to abolish subsidy for solar power in homes

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry plans to scrap government subsidies for solar power generation equipment for household use at the end of fiscal 2002 in order to boost competition in the industry, ministry sources said Wednesday.
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Aug 24, 2000

Sampling the best the world of wine writing has to offer

Next to a good wine, I might settle for a good wine book, if only I had time to read them. Having just finished writing a 20,000-word thesis last week on a rather weighty subject, I decided to reward myself with a little wine reading. Fate recently fed my bibliophilia with a few wine books, some of them...
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2000

Toshiba revises sales forecast upward to 120 billion yen

Thanks to favorable performance in the electronic device business, Toshiba Corp. has revised its consolidated sales forecast to 2.9 trillion yen, up 120 billion yen from its initial forecast, for the six-month period through Sept. 30, the company announced Monday.
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2000

Sogo collapse hits banks, construction stocks

Bank and construction stocks have taken a battering in the wake of the collapse of department store chain Sogo Co. in July.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2000

Panel approves new reactor

An advisory panel on Monday endorsed a plan by Chugoku Electric Power Co. to build a new nuclear reactor in Shimane Prefecture.
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2000

Bandai Music approved for liquidation

The Tokyo District Court has approved the start of liquidation of Bandai Music Entertainment Inc., a unit of major toy maker Bandai Co., a leading private credit-research agency said Monday.
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2000

Minicar popularity climbing

Some 40.8 minicars were owned by every 100 households as of the end of March, 1.1 more cars than the previous year, marking the first time the figure has topped 40, according to a report compiled Monday by an industry association.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 22, 2000

Soseki never dreamed of this

TEN NIGHTS' DREAMS, by Natsume Soseki. Translated by Takumi Kashima, Kyoko Nonaka, Hideki Oiwa, Horikatsu Kawashima and Katsunori Fujioka. London: Soseki Museum in London, 2000. 64 pp., unpriced. In 1908, and already an established popular writer, Natsume Soseki turned to more experimental forms of...
EDITORIALS
Aug 21, 2000

Public works should serve the public

Highly conscious of public criticism of the role played by public-works projects in its politics, the Liberal Democratic Party is overhauling the much-maligned system. The party is supposed to be trying to phase out programs that have outlived their usefulness and to classify those related to information...

Longform

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