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LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Dec 22, 1999

The accidental ambassador

Stop me if you've heard this one: A mustachioed fun-loving Turkish guy throws up a personal Web page that, in simple, bad English, depicts him as a regular Renaissance stud muffin, who loves to travel, plays numerous instruments, is single, and -- the kicker -- he states, "I like sex." He offers a picture...
JAPAN
Dec 22, 1999

Kidnapped girl freed without payment of ransom

OSAKA -- An 8-year-old girl was safely reunited with her parents Wednesday morning, 42 hours after she was apparently kidnapped while on her way home from school. Sayaka Teranishi had been held for a 42 million yen ransom, but was reunited with her parents outside a convenience store near her home in...
JAPAN
Dec 22, 1999

New game rides in the slow lane

Staff writer After test-driving a simulation game and ramming right into a curb, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara announced Wednesday, "I guess I wasn't meant to be a bus driver." "Tokyo Bus Guide," created for Sega Enterprises Ltd.'s Dreamcast game console, focuses on an ungainly, slow-plodding mode of...
JAPAN
Dec 22, 1999

JCO worker succumbs after 83 days

One of three JCO Co. workers exposed to massive radiation in September in the nation's worst nuclear accident died of organ failure at a Tokyo hospital late Tuesday night, becoming the first fatality of his kind in Japan. Hisashi Ouchi, 35, was critically injured during an accident Sept. 30 at the JCO...
JAPAN
Dec 22, 1999

Judicial Reform: Change vital to elite training process

Last of three parts Staff writer The push for judicial reform in Japan is prompting universities and bar associations to consider introducing postgraduate programs that will not only increase the number of legal professionals but also improve their skills. Unlike the United States, Japan does not have...
JAPAN
Dec 22, 1999

Ikebukuro and Shimonoseki killers are insane, lawyers argue in separate cases

Lawyers for Hiroshi Zota, who went on a rampage in September on a street in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, killing two people and injuring eight others, claimed Wednesday that their client was probably insane at that time.
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
Dec 22, 1999

Seattle's other coffee house goes for Tokyo market share

Can we talk?
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Dec 22, 1999

Getting away from it all on Izu's Big Island

Ura-Izu-Oshima Part 1
LIFE / Travel
Dec 22, 1999

Sun shines again for the city on the Neva

If it wasn't for me, the terrace of the bar would be deserted. The leaves on the plane trees are just beginning to take on their autumn colors, a breeze off the River Neva is blowing in through the massive gateway to the Peter and Paul Fortress and directly in front of me rises the almost sheer golden...
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 1999

India's future prosperity lies with IT

NEW DELHI and LONDON -- The image of India that too many people still have in their minds is one of teeming millions, timeless customs, monstrous poverty and a giant, sluggish economy.
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

Protect business accounts: panel

There should be an exemption to the planned end of the government's full protection of bank deposits, an advisory panel to the finance minister said Tuesday. Bank accounts for business settlements should be fully protected for a "limited time" even after the current scheme expires, the Financial System...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

Nichiei strong-arm collector faces 18 months

Prosecutors are demanding an 18-month prison term for a former employee of nonbank moneylender Nichiei Co. for trying to pressure a loan guarantor sell body parts to repay a debt. In Monday's Tokyo District Court hearing, Eisuke Arai, 25, pleaded guilty and tearfully apologized to the plaintiff. "If...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

Tokyo, Riyadh to sign deal on seat for Saudi Arabia at WTO

Staff writer Japan and Saudi Arabia are very likely to conclude a deal by next month on the oil-rich country's admission to the World Trade Organization, government sources said Tuesday. The agreement would be the first of its kind between Saudi Arabia and a major industrialized nation, the sources...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

Citizens tout proof U.S. base in mid-Tokyo is trespassing

Citizens demanding the return of a U.S. base in central Tokyo cited a written agreement Monday that they claim proves the heliport section of the compound is trespassing on Japanese soil. The Executive Committee for the Removal of the Azabu Heliport released a statement on an accord regarding the 4,300-sq.-meter...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

Jury system for criminal trials urged

Second of three partsStaff writer Lawyers and other experts are calling for introduction of a jury system for criminal trials, arguing that it would change not only the makeup of the bench, which is exclusively run by legal professionals, but also the Japanese mind-set. "If the system is successfully...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

Gov. Yokoyama resigns before indictment

OSAKA -- Osaka Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama was indicted Tuesday on charges of molesting a female campaign aide. The indictment followed a letter of resignation that he had submitted from his hospital bed to the prefectural assembly earlier in the day. The Osaka District Public Prosecutor's Office indicted...
EDITORIALS
Dec 20, 1999

Less-than-inspiring politics

The extraordinary Diet session that ended Thursday brought to the fore the simmering discord within the tripartite ruling coalition. The Liberal Party threatened to quit the coalition because a bill to slim down the Lower House, which was one of the conditions for the party's joining the coalition, was...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 1999

A diplomatic 'paper tiger'?

In recent years, we have seen active debate on Japan's sanctions-based diplomacy. Discussions focused on the justifications for and effects of sanctions, as well as changes in the balance of power resulting from the lifting of such measures. The lifting of sanctions against North Korea Dec. 14 renewed...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 1999

European rule comes to an end in Asia

CANBERRA -- Macau presents the last outpost of European colonial empire remaining anywhere in the Asia-Pacific region. Apart from Hawaii, now a state of the United States, and leaving aside Australia and New Zealand, no other territory in the Asia-Pacific region will be held or ruled by a European state...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 1999

Citizens tout proof that U.S. base is trespassing

Citizens demanding the return of a U.S. base in central Tokyo cited a written agreement Monday that they claim proves the heliport section of the compound is trespassing on Japanese soil. The Executive Committee for the Removal of the Azabu Heliport released a statement on an agreement regarding the...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 1999

Yakult exec in tax dodge hid 140 million yen

The former vice president of lactic drink maker Yakult Honsha Co., arrested on suspicion of tax evasion, had some 140 million yen hidden in a bank account in Singapore as of the end of September, sources revealed. Last spring, Naoki Kumagai, 69, was ordered by tax authorities to pay about 100 million...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 1999

Pachinko manager stabbed in heist

Investigators are looking for two men who allegedly broke into a pachinko parlor office in Tokyo's Taito Ward on Monday morning and stabbed the manager before making off with about 20 million yen in cash, police said. According to police, the pair broke into the office, located in a building near JR...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 1999

Calls for overhaul of judge system mount

First of three parts Staff writer Discontent with the judicial system among lawyers, politicians and businesspeople has prompted a Cabinet advisory panel to launch discussions aimed at giving the system its first overhaul of the postwar era. Hiroshi Saito of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 1999

Prison eyed for Nichiei worker

Prosecutors on Monday demanded an 18-month prison term for a former employee of nonbank moneylender Nichiei Co. for suggesting that a customer sell body parts to repay a loan. Earlier in the hearing, at the Tokyo District Court, Eisuke Arai, 25, pleaded guilty to the charges and tearfully apologized...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 1999

In the aftermath of the WTO debacle

WASHINGTON -- In the aftermath of the failed WTO meeting in Seattle last month, the big question is, "What now?"
EDITORIALS
Dec 18, 1999

The need for policing the police

It is a sad commentary on the times when the nation's police forces, which must rely on the public's trust to be effective, find themselves under a cloud of suspicion over repeated incidents of questionable, even criminal, behavior by their members. Yet that is the situation confronting Japan's law-enforcement...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Dec 18, 1999

A banquet of deities and genres

In January 1993, a group of like-minded young and mid-career performers of traditional Japanese music and dance got together and created Tokiza. Their aim was to create new group venues and markets for their music and dance, while maintaining their individually high standards of excellence.
CULTURE / Art / ARTS AND ARTISANS
Dec 18, 1999

Thickly lacquered with tradition

As foreign merchants once linked products and countries (china from China, for example), the term "japanning" first appeared in a 1688 text by John Stalker and George Parker that described the superiority of Japanese lacquerware. However, the technique of applying lacquer on various objects as a protective...
COMMUNITY
Dec 18, 1999

An era passes on with the foreigner who saved kabuki

Faubion Bowers, the theater expert credited with saving kabuki after World War II, died in New York of heart failure Nov. 16, aged 82.
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.

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it