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JAPAN
Apr 12, 2001

Man sentenced for aiding Red Army

OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court sentenced a 49-year-old former hospital employee Wednesday to a suspended one-year prison term for harboring Fusako Shigenobu, founder of the Japanese Red Army guerrilla group, before her arrest in November.
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2001

Over 70% want to try Web shopping: poll

More than 70 percent of consumers said they want to try online shopping, while 90 percent said they are concerned about the security of online systems, according to a survey by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
LIFE / Travel
Apr 8, 2001

How to find your climbing inner child

"We enjoyed climbing trees as kids, but it's difficult to keep on doing that as an adult. Rock climbing is good because you can become a kid again and climb as much as you like," says Makoto Kitayama, president of the Japan Freeclimbing Association.
ENVIRONMENT
Apr 8, 2001

Twitching to get out in the field and bird

Birders, bird-watchers, bird-spotters, ornithologists, listers, twitchers or birding dudes: Whatever you want to call them, they are the people -- a friend, a family member or maybe an eccentric relative -- who creep about at all hours of the day spotting, studying, grilling, scoping, twitching or, in...
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2001

Civil servants' suicide rate rises

The number of government officials who committed suicide in fiscal 1999 rose for the fifth straight year to 138, 14 more than the previous year, according to a survey released Friday by the National Personnel Authority.
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2001

Ministry to up number of inspectors

The Foreign Ministry will increase the number of inspection officials in the wake of a scandal in which a former diplomat was indicted on suspicion of defrauding the government out of public funds, a senior ministry official said.
JAPAN
Apr 6, 2001

Japan Inc. moves toward true accounting of books

The true standing of Japanese firms in relation to their foreign rivals is slowly becoming clear.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Apr 5, 2001

Halfhearted effort at hosting half a World Cup

Why not let South Korea host the whole thing?
MORE SPORTS
Apr 5, 2001

IMG adds Takahashi to client list

The International Management Group has signed up Japanese marathon runner Naoko Takahashi, 48 hours after the women's Olympic champion got the nod to begin commercial activities, IMG officials said Wednesday. The sports management giant will manage out-of-competition commercial deals for Takahashi, the...
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2001

Lower House opens lounge for female politicians

Female lawmakers in the Lower House will have exclusive use of this newly opened lounge in Tokyo's Nagata-cho. The first women-only lounge has opened in the House of Representatives building, allowing female Diet members, secretaries and employees to rest without men being present.
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Apr 4, 2001

And the Gold Disc goes to... well, what did you expect?

Show-biz awards ceremonies -- who needs 'em? They're formulaic, plastic, inane, banal, maudlin, crass . . . There's no end to the pejoratives one can use to describe them.
MORE SPORTS / THE DUKE OF HAZARDS
Apr 3, 2001

Tiger's rivals finally get on the ball

Tiger Woods may be the runaway favorite for this week's Masters, but don't expect everything to go Tiger's way. His "slump" showed that the gap between him and the competition is not as great as some people thought.
LIFE / Travel
Apr 3, 2001

Escape to the Victorian age in the town time forgot

SIDMOUTH, England -- If one holds the sepia-tinted postcard and stands in the same spot where the photographer stood at the start of the last century, one is stunned by the changes to the facades of the hotels and shops that line Sidmouth's seafront. There are virtually none.
COMMENTARY
Apr 2, 2001

Close the book on censorship

Since the end of World War II, the censorship of history textbooks in Japan has raised political and diplomatic issues. Recently, a social-studies textbook edited by a nationalist group again stirred controversy, offending the Chinese and South Koreans.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Apr 1, 2001

Just how much will a field yield?

Did you ever look at a field of rice, and wonder how many bottles of sake could be made from it? Maybe not. Regardless, it is not an easy question to answer, because there are way too many variables in the brewing process that affect yield. One is how much the rice was milled before brewing. Obviously,...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Apr 1, 2001

Only rock 'n' roll, but I loathe it

If you are gagging in disgust at the thought of Fuzzy Logic from now on contaminating your Sunday with lurid tales of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll . . . fear not.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 1, 2001

Barraca: A cure for the Andalucian blues

Just recently back in town after a leisurely sojourn in Andalucia and suffering bad withdrawal symptoms, we headed down to cozy old Barraca. It's not the most creative Spanish restaurant in Tokyo, perhaps, nor the best-known. Nor does it operate at anything like those late, late Spanish hours. But for...
BUSINESS
Mar 30, 2001

State closes in on NTT monopoly

A state panel on information technology agreed Thursday to a review of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. to allow for fair competition in the telecom sector, while using IT to promote public welfare and regain economic competitiveness.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 29, 2001

Reform out of reach for Kim Dae Jung

SEOUL -- Some weeks ago, I attended an academic conference that attempted a critical evaluation of the performance of administration of South Korea President Kim Dae Jung three years after its inception. I sat on a panel with probably the most prominent liberal political scientist in South Korea today,...
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2001

Japan stuck between Mori and a hard place on farm trade

If the world's poorest countries harbor high expectations about any fresh trade concessions from industrialized countries at a key international conference in May, Japan will probably turn out to be a real letdown.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 27, 2001

Poetry for every mood and season

RYOKAN: Selected Tanka, Haiku, translated by Sanford Goldstein, Shigeo Mizuguchi & Fujisato Kitajima. Kokodo, 2000, pp. 218, 2 ,000 yen. LOVE HAIKU: Masajo Suzuki's Lifetime of Love: Translations by Lee Gurga & Emiko Miyashita. Brooks Books, 2000, pp. 112, 1,600 yen. UTSUMUKU SEINEN /LOOKING DOWN:...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 25, 2001

Covering Japan on foot, for abused women, kids

In late 1999, photojournalist Mary King and IT systems analyst Etsuko Shimabukuro began to get itchy feet. Back in 1996 they had completed a two-year trip that took them through three continents. This time they decided to stay closer to home.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 24, 2001

Ritchie's rogues return

"Snatch" is more than a movie: It's a bubbling, babbling comic strip on wheels. Not fitting into the usual British movie mold -- it's neither a Merchant-Ivory rendition of upper-crust angst, nor a working-class saga passed on by Ken Loach -- "Snatch" is in a genre by itself, showcasing a crack ensemble...
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2001

Japanese shortwave services fading out in cyberspace age

For Michiteru Takagi, 76, Sunday will signal the end of a daily ritual he has practiced for 42 years.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Mar 24, 2001

Jagged little pots dictating form

Asia week had New York City awash with auctions, gallery openings and lectures. Two major auction houses had Japanese art on the block, and five Kyoto potters were exhibiting at the Barry Friedman Gallery in an exhibition organized by Joan Mirviss.
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2001

Straining under their weight, bank behemoths strive to survive

All-out competition will break out among Japan's four major banking groups next month in an arena that will host some of the world's largest banks in terms of aggregate assets.
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Mar 22, 2001

Raimat's verdant vineyards produce rich variety of wine

I recently enjoyed a trip to the Raimat wineries in Catalonia in Spain's northeast.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Mar 22, 2001

What's in a number?

At the end of each Nihonshu column, a recommended sake is introduced to readers. Along with the name and grade, three "vital statistics" are also given. These numbers -- the nihonshu-do, the acidity and the seimai-buai -- are supposed to give a clue as to how the sake might taste.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 21, 2001

Confessions of an outsize fashion cretin

If it is true that clothes make the man, then I confess to being poorly constructed.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?