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JAPAN
May 10, 1999

Kofuku Bank to seek 60 billion yen replenishment

OSAKA -- Kofuku Bank, a second-tier regional bank, said Monday that it will request about 60 billion yen in public funds under the government recapitalization program as its capital-to-asset ratio was about 0.5 percent as of the end of March.
JAPAN
May 10, 1999

Landowners delay second Narita runway

The Transport Ministry officially dropped plans Monday to build a second runway at Narita airport by March 2001 after failing to break an impasse with landowners opposed to the expansion.
JAPAN
May 10, 1999

Protesters march on U.S. embassy in Tokyo

About 100 Chinese students demonstrated in front of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo's Minato Ward for the second straight day Monday, protesting Friday's NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade and demanding an immediate halt to the airstrikes.
COMMENTARY
May 8, 1999

Japan remains a military laughingstock

After much political wrangling, the House of Representatives has passed the bills relating to the new defense guidelines between Japan and the United States. Deliberations in the House of Councilors got under way April 28. With the full cooperation of the Liberal Party and Komeito, and with the partial...
CULTURE / Music
May 8, 1999

Beethoven's global harmony ballet

Ludwig van Beethoven is not the composer that springs to mind when trawling the classics for a composition to accompany dance, but in "The Ninth Symphony" choreographed by Maurice Bejart, the doughty chords are given a vivid and fresh life with mid-century choreography.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
May 8, 1999

Kawai exhibit shows grace under fire

The term mingei (folk art) was coined by Soetsu Yanagi in 1926 to refer to common crafts that had been brushed aside and overlooked by the industrial revolution.
CULTURE / Art
May 8, 1999

The tip top of a beautiful craft

At the corner of a room in their house in Iriya, Tokyo, Isamu Sase and his wife Hatsue work day and night making glass pens. They have had a surge of orders from shops all over Tokyo such as Tokyu Hands, Matsuya department store and Itoya in Ginza, which will keep them busy straight until June.
EDITORIALS
May 7, 1999

A brush with history

Mallory, Hillary.... The airwaves have been buzzing this week with two of the best-known names in mountain-climbing history. Some people even reportedly got confused, thinking the body found near the summit of Mount Everest May 1 was that of Sir Edmund Hillary (who is very much alive in New Zealand)...
JAPAN
May 7, 1999

Dioxin: Levels high in incinerator-happy Japan

Last in a series Staff writer
JAPAN
May 7, 1999

Honda set to build third plant in North America

Honda Motor Co. announced Friday that it will invest $400 million to build a new manufacturing facility in Lincoln, Ala., boosting annual production capacity in North America from 960,000 to 1.13 million units by 2003.
JAPAN
May 7, 1999

Mercury hits year's highs

A high pressure system brought clear skies to most of the archipelago on Friday, giving Tokyo and other parts of the country their highest temperatures this year.
JAPAN
May 7, 1999

State plans aid bills to help industry slim down

The government hopes to enact bills to reinvigorate Japanese industry by the end of the current Diet session, including measures such as tax breaks for manufacturers disposing of unnecessary facilities accumulated during the asset-inflated bubble economy, a top government official indicated Friday.
JAPAN
May 6, 1999

NPA reports rise in crimes by foreigners

Felonies committed by non-Japanese last year numbered 228, an increase of 41, or 21.9 percent, over the previous year, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
JAPAN
May 6, 1999

Dioxin: Seveso disaster testament to effects of dioxin

Third in a series
JAPAN
May 6, 1999

C&W makes new takeover bid for IDC

Britain's Cable & Wireless PLC on Thursday upped the stakes in its war with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. to buy International Digital Communications Inc., announcing a new bid of 107,372 yen per share.
JAPAN
May 6, 1999

Nikkei surges to 17,300 on new stimulus hopes

The Tokyo Stock Exchange's benchmark Nikkei average ended above 17,000 for the first time in almost 14 months Thursday as share prices shot up on expectations the government has additional economic stimulus measures in the works.
EDITORIALS
May 5, 1999

All smiles at the summit

Judging from the mood at this week's summit between Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and U.S. President Bill Clinton, the bilateral relationship is on its best footing in years. The Japanese economy appears poised for a rebound, and the security alliance has been strengthened. It is a reassuring...
COMMENTARY
May 5, 1999

Hold off on U.S.-style layoffs

Japan's big businesses once had a reputation for not firing workers even in hard times. Not anymore. Now major corporations are going full blast to restructure, with older workers bearing the brunt of the austerity drive. The lifetime employment system, once touted as a symbol of corporate Japan, is...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 5, 1999

Looking for something?

Run a Web search and what do you get? Often it's a lot more than you bargained for. I'm not talking about the reams of irrelevant, redundant and irretrievable data that often gets tangled in your throw net. (You should know by now that you're bound to get a certain amount of this stuff no matter how...
COMMENTARY
May 5, 1999

A game plan for Ishihara

I was not surprised at all by Shintaro Ishihara's overwhelming victory in the April 11 Tokyo gubernatorial election. Several journalist friends of mine and I had correctly predicted the election results, including the order of all the major candidates by the number of votes. More than anything else,...
JAPAN
May 4, 1999

Purse-snatch leader Osaka sees fall

OSAKA -- Purse-snatchings in Osaka Prefecture have drastically declined in the first quarter of this year, but the prefecture maintains its 23-year reign at the top of the list in terms of incidence of such crimes, police said Tuesday.
JAPAN
May 4, 1999

Daiei says aloha to Ala Moana for $810 million

Debt-ridden supermarket chain Daiei Inc. has finished negotiations to sell the upscale Ala Moana Center mall in Hawaii to major U.S. shopping mall operator General Growth Properties Limited Partnership, company officials said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 4, 1999

India rightly resists the Chinese model

India has often been advised to follow the path of China in public investment in human capital. China has done well in the last decade, but it would be a disaster if India were to follow her example. China's approach can be called "two quick steps forward, one slow step back." India's approach, in contrast,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 4, 1999

Childhood memories of Calcutta under the Raj

CHILDHOOD DAYS: A Memoir, by Satyajit Ray, translated by Bijoya Ray. New Delhi: Penguin Books (India), 174 pp., with b/w photos and pen drawings by Satyajit Ray, Rs 200. The memoirs of film directors are often confined to early memories. Ingmar Bergman writes of his childhood, Akira Kurosawa gets up...
CULTURE / Books
May 4, 1999

A dose of reality for Asia's high-flyers

TIGERS TAMED: The End of the Asian Miracle, by Robert Garran. Allen Unwin, 1998, 228 pp. (paper). "Tigers Tamed," "The Trouble with Tigers," "Asian Contagion." It's hard to miss a touch of what seems like gloating in the attempts to chronicle Asia's recent misfortunes.
CULTURE / Books
May 4, 1999

Artistry lost in translation

WHITE LETTER POEMS, by Fumi Saito, translated by Hatsue Kawamura and Jane Reichhold. AHA Books, 1998, 110 pp., $10. The title of this well-produced selection of tanka by the venerable poet Fumi Saito is taken from the first tanka in the book's first section, which contains work from "Gyo ka" (Songs...
JAPAN
May 3, 1999

Reforms mean more than a new name, banking leader says

Staff writer
JAPAN
May 3, 1999

Financial sector new link in environment chain

Staff writer
JAPAN
May 3, 1999

Ready for 2000?: Japan's efforts overlooked when not in English

Sixth in an occasional series on Japan's Y2K preparedness
JAPAN
May 3, 1999

Kan's policy quest undeterred despite party's slump

Staff writer

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