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JAPAN
Aug 31, 1999

Sexologist to speak on medical ethics

Milton Diamond, a leading sexologist and professor at the University of Hawaii Medical School, will give a lecture on medical ethics concerning intersexualism, the study of people born with sexually ambiguous genitals, Friday at Tokyo Women's Plaza in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 1999

Yosano protests U.S. steel trade retaliation

Trade Minister Kaoru Yosano said Tuesday he would send a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky later in the day to protest Washington's move to apply a safeguard measure to Japanese steel wire-rod imports.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 1999

LDP race unofficially under way

Staff writer
CULTURE / Music
Aug 31, 1999

Songs you can hum on the Pavement

The opening act at Akasaka Blitz on Aug. 24 was an earnest Danish group called Thau, who offered a thumping and searing sound reminiscent of the Meat Puppets. The audience awarded their 20-minute set with a warm and noisy ovation, prompting effusive gratitude from the band's drummer, who mentioned what...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 31, 1999

Shakespeare comes as you like it in Japan

SHAKESPEARE AND THE JAPANESE STAGE, edited by Takashi Sasayama, J.R. Mulryne and Margaret Shewring. Cambridge University Press, 1998, 357 pp., 45 British Pounds. More than 50 years ago I went to my first Japanese staging of Shakespeare. It was "Hamlet," in Tokyo, and what I remember best is that when...
JAPAN
Aug 30, 1999

U.S. foreign service test deadline September 24

The 1999 Foreign Service Written Examination required for entry-level career appointments as foreign service officers with the U.S. State Department will be given Nov. 6 at approximately 200 locations in the U.S. and at Foreign Service posts, the U.S. Embassy said.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 1999

Osaka recruits killifish for clean water campaign

HIRAKATA, Osaka Pref. -- Children and teachers from 42 elementary and junior high schools in Osaka Prefecture learned the importance of clean water through a study of the Japanese killifish at a lecture held here Monday by the prefectural government and freshwater fish experimental station.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 1999

Firms duped by MITI-sanctioned co-op

A Tokyo-based cooperative association sanctioned by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry charged companies 1 million yen as an initial membership fee, in violation of its founding contract, MITI said Monday.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 1999

Japan confident of victory in auto row with Ottawa

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Aug 28, 1999

The slow road to gender equality

Barely two months have passed since the govern ment enacted the Gender Equality Law. While defenders of the new law insist that is hardly enough time for its effectiveness to be tested, many women's groups, and their male supporters, disagree. The reason, they say, should be obvious: Like the Equal Employment...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 28, 1999

Rooting for a new life on the open road

After a bad day, I pamper myself by mapping out, hour by hour, scene by scene, a fantasy date with Jean Reno.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Aug 28, 1999

Fall's ceramic finds fire up auction

The summer drought of pottery exhibitions is slowly ending and the wonderful autumn season, so full of good exhibitions, is about to start. Come September, exhibitions too numerous to list will fill gallery spaces throughout Japan and pottery enthusiasts will have their hands full -- with a few good...
CULTURE / Art
Aug 28, 1999

Getting past the glitter in daily life

In Japan heavily forested mountains cover over 70 percent of all the land, and the Japanese have taken advantage of wood since ancient times.
EDITORIALS
Aug 27, 1999

Jitters in Central Asia

The information is sketchy, but this much is certain: Islamic guerrillas have taken hostages, including four Japanese, in the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan. The number of hostages, the number of guerrillas, their nationality and their demands are uncertain. This incident set the stage for the Central...
JAPAN
Aug 27, 1999

Educators seek funds for computerization

The Education Ministry will ask for nearly double its previous share of tax money in fiscal 2000 to put more of the nation's schools online, according to its draft budget request for next year, released Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 1999

Day laborers slam plans for tent city

OSAKA -- A group of local day laborers slammed the Osaka Municipal Government's plans to erect a tent village to provide evening shelter for the city's growing homeless population, citing insufficient conditions and limited capacity, it was learned Friday.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 27, 1999

The beat keeps getting stronger for music personality Barakan

"Being on the radio was always what I had wanted to do," a sleepy Peter Barakan told me while sitting in the InterFM lobby. It was 11 a.m. on a Sunday. He had just finished his show, "The Barakan Beat," and after offering me coffee, we sat and talked about what brought him to Japan and his success here....
JAPAN
Aug 27, 1999

Budget requests likely to expand by 2%

Budget requests from government ministries and agencies for fiscal 2000 will total 83.54 trillion yen, 2 percent higher than the initial budget for the current year, the Finance Ministry said Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 1999

IOC warns Osaka over bidding conduct

Staff writer
JAPAN
Aug 26, 1999

Earthquake concerns Turkish restaurateur

Staff writer
JAPAN
Aug 26, 1999

Ward funds residents in suit against cultists

Tokyo's Toshima Ward has extended 3.8 million yen in loans to a group of residents who are preparing a lawsuit to have members of Aum Shinrikyo evicted from an apartment complex, ward officials said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 1999

Hatoyama declares entry into DPJ presidential race

Yukio Hatoyama, deputy secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, officially declared his candidacy Thursday for the DPJ's presidential election next month, seriously clouding the prospect of incumbent leader Naoto Kan's re-election.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 1999

Chiba car spotted in abduction case

A car with Chiba Prefecture license plates was seen parked in front of Aum Shinrikyo's Nagoya chapter building about 12 hours after a woman was set free in the city after being abducted in Narashino, Chiba Prefecture, investigative sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 1999

East Timor monitor urges a bigger global presence

A member of the U.N. volunteer team to monitor the referendum in East Timor next week called for a stronger international presence in the violence-ridden territory as the historic poll approaches.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 1999

Testing of genetically modified food on rise

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Aug 25, 1999

The hidden war against Iraq

Last December, the United States and Britain launched Operation Desert Fox, a four-day bombing campaign on Iraq that effectively ended the inspections regime established by the United Nations after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The U.N. Security Council had been divided over the meaning and implementation...
JAPAN
Aug 25, 1999

Kobe airport foes mull last-ditch options

Staff writer
JAPAN
Aug 25, 1999

Students call for halt to child conscription

Twenty students on Wednesday called on the government to take concrete steps to outlaw the recruitment of child soldiers.
JAPAN
Aug 25, 1999

Exec nabbed in armored car holdup

Police apprehended a man Tuesday night after he allegedly assaulted three armored car guards who were picking up between 6 million yen and 7 million yen from an electrical appliance shop in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.
JAPAN
Aug 25, 1999

NPOs hit ambiguous application procedure

More than 80 percent of nonprofit groups that have applied for corporate status under a new law said regulators asked them to make changes to their application documents, with some instructions criticized as being ambiguous, according to a survey by NPO support organizations released Wednesday.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan