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JAPAN
Apr 27, 1999

Construction chief links dam's fate to plebiscite

The controversial Yoshino River dam project will be scrapped if residents of Tokushima hold a plebiscite and a majority of the voters oppose it, Construction Minister Katsutsugu Sekiya said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 27, 1999

Haiku as a tether to life and emotional safety net

HAIKU: This Other World, by Richard Wright, edited by Yoshinobu Hakutani and Robert L. Tener, with an introduction by Julia Wright. Arcade Publishers, distributed by Little, Brown, 1998, 320 pp., $23.50 (cloth). Richard Wright (1908-60) author of the classic 20-th-century novels "Black Boy" and "Native...
JAPAN
Apr 26, 1999

Analysis: Defense changes dodged public debate

Staff writers
JAPAN
Apr 26, 1999

Ready for 2000?: Expert questions official Y2K stats

Fourth in an occasional series on Japan's Y2K preparedness
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 1999

Mixed feelings greet U.S. aid in Russia

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- A cloud of wheat billows across the Sea of Japan as the U.S. freighter Juneau vacuums its hold and unloads 80 tons of grain onto a smaller Russian vessel capable of navigating shallow ports in the region.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 25, 1999

Shake and bake with Guido's kitchen aerobics

There's a little man inside my oven. I call him Guido. He lives in the LCD display on my new Sharp convection oven. Guido can do all sorts of things, such as juggle apples, chop giant radishes and do aerobics. Guido has become my kitchen aerobics partner.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 1999

NATO steps into a quagmire

Call it the first humanitarian empire. For a moment, look beyond the horrific slaughter and the terrible plight of ethnic Albanian refugees. The immediate crisis obscures a host of profound long-term -- and largely unintended consequences -- of the current Balkan intervention that will impact U.S. foreign...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Apr 25, 1999

Getting around

Last week, when I wrote a few paragraphs about the new Getty Museum in Los Angeles, I thought, How inadequate! There is so much more, and so brief a mention cannot begin to give even the concept of so huge a complex. Perhaps all I can do is make you want to go, and perhaps that is enough. Fortunately,...
EDITORIALS
Apr 24, 1999

Big hopes for small business

The latest government annual report on small enterprises bears out an important fact that is often overlooked amid news-breaking moves by big businesses: Small corporations continue to play a vital role in the Japanese economy. The report, submitted this week to the Cabinet by the Ministry of International...
COMMENTARY
Apr 24, 1999

Test Pyongyang's sincerity

Senior officials from North and South Korea, China and the United States reassemble in Geneva April 24 for the fifth round of four-party talks aimed at replacing the existing 1953 Korean War armistice with a permanent peace treaty. The odds of a breakthrough appear slim, however, given North Korean Deputy...
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 24, 1999

Royal Ballet showcases core repertory

The Royal Ballet is currently touring Japan with the productions "Swan Lake," "Manon" and "La Fille Mal Gardee," showcasing the lyrical Royal Ballet style.
CULTURE / Art / ARTS AND ARTISANS
Apr 24, 1999

Combing through antiquity for quality

Unlike in those days when everyone wore kimono, Tsutomu Takeuchi's customers today are somewhat limited in number: hairdressers for sumo wrestlers, theatrical coiffeurs and makers of Japanese coiffure bridal wigs, and a few longtime aficionados.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 1999

Support, not coercion, for Indonesia

What Indonesia needs from the United States and the rest of the West is more "carrot" and less "stick." Devastated by an economic crisis not unlike the Great Depression, its principal requirement right now is leadership.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 1999

Ready for 2000?: ANA plugging away at 'millennium bug'

Third in an occasional series on Japan's Y2K preparedness
JAPAN
Apr 23, 1999

The Asahara Trial: Guru ordered gassing, disciple claims

One-time Aum Shinrikyo biologist Seiichi Endo told the Tokyo District Court on Friday that he believes cult founder Shoko Asahara ordered the June 1994 sarin gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, although other top cultists claimed the late cult scientist Hideo Murai ordered it.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 1999

Women in power still few in number: white paper

Japanese women's participation in the decision-making process is still far lower than that of women in other developed nations, according to a white paper released by the government Friday.
EDITORIALS
Apr 22, 1999

When the military says 'enough'

Going on appearances, there is little reason to compare the elections held in recent days in Algeria and Turkey. Algeria's ballot, held last week, was marked by the withdrawal of all major opposition candidates two days before the poll; not surprisingly turnout was a lackluster 60 percent, although the...
JAPAN
Apr 22, 1999

Scholar criticizes biased slant in history textbooks

Japanese high school students are subjected to ideologically biased history lessons through their textbooks, a Santa Lucian scholar researching Japanese school textbooks said Thursday.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 1999

New Finance council tasked to study money flow

The Finance Ministry will launch a new advisory council today to study the changing nature of the nation's money flow from saving and investment patterns in the graying society to ongoing financial system reform, Vice Minister Koji Tanami said Thursday.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 1999

Hitachi, Siemens join on flash memory chip

Hitachi, Ltd. and a semiconductor unit of Germany's Siemens AG announced Thursday they have agreed to jointly develop and manufacture an advanced compact memory chip suitable for portable digital products.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 1999

Yunnan pins tourism hopes on expo

Staff writer
JAPAN
Apr 22, 1999

Aum biologist unfazed by cult's sarin sample

An Aum Shinrikyo biologist testified at cult founder Shoko Asahara's trial Thursday that he did not think much about the sarin produced at an Aum facility when he was first shown a sample.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 1999

Sharp-tongued Aoshima exits Tokyo tight-lipped

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Apr 21, 1999

MOF by any other name

The long-running debate over breaking up the Ministry of Finance has ended with a compromise that will keep the ministry more or less as it is -- the most powerful of Japan's government offices. The MOF will be renamed the "Treasury Ministry," and will be charged mainly with fiscal and budgetary affairs,...
JAPAN
Apr 21, 1999

Japan to pledge loans to Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan

Staff writer
JAPAN
Apr 21, 1999

Hewlett Packard chief talks of split

The chairman and chief executive officer of Hewlett Packard Co. on Wednesday talked about the most difficult question his firm faced in deciding its future -- whether to keep the hard-copy unit with the computing unit.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Apr 21, 1999

Under your skin

Take a second, forget about trash-can icons and QWERTY keyboards and ponder the real interface -- our future interaction with technology. How will we navigate the infosphere in 10 years? Will we use mouses or cursors controlled by biofeedback? Will our browser windows be square and scrolled or dynamically...
JAPAN
Apr 21, 1999

Professor brings POW drama to stage

Staff writer
JAPAN
Apr 21, 1999

'Sokaiya' Koike sentenced to the max nine months

The Tokyo District Court sentenced "sokaiya" corporate extortionist Ryuichi Koike to the maximum nine-month prison term Wednesday for extorting 12.4 billion yen in loans and payoffs from the nation's four top securities houses and Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank.
JAPAN
Apr 21, 1999

Empress, Foley laud CWAJ feats

Several hundred past and present members of the College Women's Association of Japan, which promotes international education and cross-cultural exchange, celebrated the group's 50th anniversary Wednesday at a luncheon with the Empress and U.S. Ambassador Thomas Foley.

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