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EDITORIALS
Nov 26, 1999

The computer giant stumbles

In the era of globalization, the management mantra seems to be "bigger is better." From automakers to securities traders, every business aspires to the size and weight that would allow it to influence -- if not dictate -- developments in its particular industry. In the fast-moving world of high-technology,...
JAPAN
Nov 26, 1999

It's WTO vs. budget for Cabinet trio

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 26, 1999

Tokyo to urge scolding as solution to societal ills

Staff writer
CULTURE / Music
Nov 26, 1999

Proyecto Uno -- viva Zapata!

Everybody knows that foreign artists can only have a hit in the States as long as they sing in English. Conversely, Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony are credited with spearheading a "Latin boom" not only in America, but all over the world, by singing poppish variations of Afro-Cuban styles...
JAPAN
Nov 26, 1999

Retailers rev up for holiday shoppers

Staff writers
EDITORIALS
Nov 25, 1999

Racing toward the unwired world

I n 1990, there were 11 million mobile phones in the entire world. Today, there are 50 million in Japan alone. Nearly 400 million people around the globe carry the various makes and models of wireless phones; those ranks swell by about 1 million more every week. Experts predict that within five years,...
COMMENTARY
Nov 24, 1999

Japan's Middle East role

In January 1996, I was dispatched by the Japanese government to observe the election of the Palestine Council and the president of the Palestinian Authority. Because Palestine was still under Israeli occupation, it was not a sovereign state: Sending international observers to such a region was unprecedented....
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Nov 24, 1999

Web's blog, stardate 1999

The Internet could be blamed for empowering armies of blowhards, chatterboxes and gas bags. While you probably have no shortage of these around you in the real world, you are just as likely to bump into them online, boasting, preaching, whining, ranting, blathering on about whatever has crossed their...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 24, 1999

Ghostly tanka with a steely brightness

HEAVENLY MAIDEN: Tanka, by Akiko Baba, translated by Hatsue Kawamura and Jane Reichhold. AHA Books, 1999; 115 pp., $10. More expressive than the briefer haiku, tanka can more easily incorporate the flow of events and thoughts that make up ordinary life:
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Nov 24, 1999

A mountainous garden undertaking for all

Rikugien in Tokyo is the last in this series on gardens built in old Edo (modern Tokyo) by daimyo under the Tokugawa military government (bakufu) between 1603 and 1868.
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.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 24, 1999

Sights above and below watermark

Diving enthusiasts have no doubt heard of Belize, a sliver of land bordered by Mexico in the north and Guatemala to the west, for its spectacular barrier reef. The Caribbean reefs, located on the eastern side of the island, offers endless walls and undulating coral ridges. It stretches a few hundred...
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 / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 24, 1999

Gilded lilies of the Tokugawas

EDO: ART IN JAPAN 1615-1868. Edited by Robert Singer, foreword by Earl A. Powell III. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998, with assistance from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs and the Japan Foundation. 480 pp., 281 color plates. Unpriced. THE EYES...
COMMENTARY
Nov 24, 1999

New Luddites at the gates

LONDON -- Ned Ludd was the leader of a mob, circa 1815, who went around smashing up new textile machinery in factories. Ludd calculated, correctly, that traditional jobs would be lost and familiar ways of life destroyed for thousands, even millions of British workers if the machines prevailed.
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 1999

Terror for the 21st century

A few weeks ago, New York was hit by an outbreak of the West Nile virus. Five people died and another 50 were sickened before authorities were able to respond. West Nile fever is a rare, encephalitic virus that is common in Africa and Asia, but had never before been diagnosed in the Western Hemisphere....
JAPAN
Nov 23, 1999

ASDF aid flights climb to legalistic threshold

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 23, 1999

Foreign carmakers wedge feet in door at Toyohashi

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 23, 1999

Car crash culprit held in slaying

AKITA -- A 49-year-old man fatally stabbed an insurance salesman here Monday night and seriously injured a woman in a head-on collision with her car an hour later, police said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Nov 23, 1999

Tips sought in search for Ise reporter

TSU, Mie Pref. -- Family and friends of a female reporter who has been missing for nearly a year called on citizens of Ise Tuesday to come forward with any information regarding her disappearance.
JAPAN
Nov 23, 1999

Pension reform plan draws flak

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Two die in ASDF jet crash; power cut to 800,000

Power was cut to about 800,000 households in Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture on Monday afternoon after an Air Self-Defense Force jet severed a power line before it crashed, killing its two crewmen.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Life Space guru denies suggesting man leave hospital

The founder of the Life Space self-enlightenment group on Monday denied responsibility for moving a member of the group from a hospital in Hyogo Prefecture to a hotel in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, where the man's mummified corpse was found earlier this month.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Matsushita, Daikin plan AC alliance

OSAKA -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Daikin Industries, Ltd. announced plans Monday to collaborate in the air conditioning business that will include establishing a joint venture company in April.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 1999

Restructuring of Nissan brings 323 billion yen loss

Struggling Nissan Motor Co. announced Monday a consolidated net loss of 323.5 billion yen for the first half of fiscal 1999. The automaker said the losses were due to pension and retirement expenses as well as the cost of a massive restructuring program.
EDITORIALS
Nov 20, 1999

Only disconnect

Way back in the Orwellian year of 1984, James Cameron's movie "The Terminator" gave us a glimpse of a future swarming with cyborgs -- machines that have taken on a life of their own and turned against human beings.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 1999

Australia's republic: If not now, when?

Australian Prime Minister John Howard recently had an "audience" -- as some Australian media described it -- with Queen Elizabeth II at the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting in Durban, South Africa. During the meeting, the prime minister of Australia personally informed the queen of the United...
JAPAN
Nov 20, 1999

LTCB execs plead not guilty to window-dressing

Three former top executives of the failed Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan pleaded not guilty Friday before the Tokyo District Court to hiding 313 billion yen in losses in the bank's financial report for fiscal 1997.
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 20, 1999

Accidental oceanographer takes Kyoto Prize for lifework

Staff writer

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