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JAPAN
Mar 21, 2001

Estimates not examined before Matsuo given funds

The Cabinet Secretariat failed to examine cost estimates and other details of prime ministers' overseas trips before it handed discretionary state funds to a former Foreign Ministry logistics chief arrested earlier this month on suspicion of fraud, police sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2001

Midday shooting in Shinjuku hotel leaves gangster dead, cop injured

Two gunmen opened fire Monday on gangsters and police meeting in the lobby of a Shinjuku hotel, killing a gangster and injuring a policeman and one other man.
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2001

Poll shows public concerned about safety, education

A rising number of Japanese are concerned that public safety and education have worsened over the past few years, according to a government poll.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Mar 18, 2001

Corey Paul: King of the Eastern League

Hoping to make the Seibu Lions' opening day roster is Corey Paul, a third-year-in-Japan American outfielder who also happens to be the third foreign position player on the team's roster. He's competing with teammates Alex Cabrera and Scott McClain in a system where non-Japanese player quotas allow each...
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Mar 18, 2001

Kan Mikami's 30 years of recording in a box

Kan Mikami has just released a CD box set to celebrate his 30-year recording history, here covered in 19 CDs.
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2001

Youths expect parental help in future

About 70 percent of public high school students in Tokyo say they are likely to count on their parents for financial or other support 10 years from now, according to a recent survey of public school students.
BUSINESS
Mar 17, 2001

NEC plans Japan's biggest job site

NEC Corp. said Friday it will launch the largest job Web site in Japan next Thursday in cooperation with 14 major employment agencies, including Recruit Co. and Pasona Softbank Inc.
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2001

171 fires per day in 2000: agency

There were 62,418 fires in Japan last year, up 3,892, or 6.7 percent, from 1999 for a second straight year of increase, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2001

Saving the forests through photos

KYOTO -- The blue mushrooms in the Australian state of Tasmania seemed like windows onto the soul of the forest to French photographer and environmentalist Jerome Hutin.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 15, 2001

Let Tokyo Q be your guide

TOKYO 2001-2002: Annual Guide to the City, by the staff of Tokyo Q with Rick Kennedy. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2001, 160 pp., 130 b/w images, $9.95. Tokyo, the largest city in the world, cornucopia turned upside-down, has always required a guide book. Not only are there competing attractions,...
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Mar 15, 2001

Storm on the mountaintop, wind in the pines

The Japanese archipelago is home to five or six species of pine tree. The number is debated because among these species are geographical subspecies, varieties, ecotypes and "physiological races," the last expression referring to pine varieties that look similar, but are physiologically different, as...
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2001

Opposition tells Mori to resign now, not later

The opposition camp on Monday called for Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's immediate resignation, while Mori himself continued to deny that he offered to step down when he proposed moving up the Liberal Democratic Party election.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2001

Hedges, rooftop gardens grow in Tokyo

While you won't find any virgin forests in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward, you will find hedges -- nearly 30 km of them. Ironically, these strips of greenery were planted to combat the problem of the ward's dearth of other vegetation. These verdant stripes, bordering roads and buildings, are part of a ward-engineered...
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2001

Tokyo's homeless population up: survey

The number of people living on the streets of Tokyo has increased 1.7-fold in five years to about 5,700 as of August, according to a white paper on the homeless released Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2001

SOFA changes mulled to calm Okinawa

Despite persistent demands from Okinawa Prefecture for sweeping revisions to the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, the central government is hoping the most recent surge in anti-American sentiment can be appeased by improvements in the implementation of the pact.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Mar 10, 2001

An innovative, magical potter

Meiji Era craftsmen lived in a world of divergent influences: Galle glass, French bronzes, Art Nouveau designs, Chinese celadons and tenmoku tea bowls, as well as their own traditions, whose product was at the crossroads between being an industrial export or the aesthetic vision of the individual artist....
COMMENTARY
Mar 9, 2001

The LDP just doesn't get it

Japanese politics is in a state of dysfunction. Symbolic of the problem is the fact that even though Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's Cabinet survived an opposition-sponsored no-confidence motion, there are moves in the governing Liberal Democratic Party to unseat him.
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 9, 2001

J. League bets on Toto

This year, Japanese soccer fans (and others) can take part in "Toto," the nation's first soccer "lottery," which, effectively, is a form of betting on J. League games.
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 9, 2001

They might be giants -- or 10 players who should be

Still don't know who's got what to offer in the J. League? Here's a quick guide to some of the players who should pique your interest in the coming season.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2001

Crime rise fuels quest for security

Increasing numbers of people are flocking to the home-security sections of their local hardware and do-it-yourself stores on weekends amid reports of a growing crime wave in Japan.
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2001

Father of train crash victim accepts graduation certificate

The father of a 17-year-old boy killed a year ago in a collision between two subway trains in Tokyo's Meguro Ward received a graduation certificate in his son's name on Wednesday from the high school the boy attended.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Mar 8, 2001

Life after sake's zing has gone

Just like wine, sake has a very short life span once the bottle has been opened. In fact, like wine, sake should be consumed soon after opening to ensure that delicate fragrances and flavors remain intact. Although this varies from sake to sake, in most cases the more delicate and refined the flavor...
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2001

KSD paid Murakami's 'rent' in cash: prosecutors

Masakuni Murakami, a senior LDP lawmaker who resigned before being arrested in connection with the KSD bribery scandal, had an affiliate of the mutual aid organization hand over the monthly rent for his offices in cash rather than having it paid into a bank account, investigative sources said Saturday....
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2001

No quick fixes for Japan's ills

TOKYO and LONDON -- The 17th annual meeting of the U.K.-Japan 21st Century Group -- the bilateral think tank set up by Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher way back in the '80s -- took place this year on Awaji Island in Kobe Bay, island of gods and puppets and,...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Tokyo monument honors victims

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government unveiled a peace monument Friday at Sumida Ward park, honoring some 100,000 people who died or were listed as missing as a result of the firebombing of Tokyo during World War II.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Budget passage offers Mori no relief

Normally, a prime minister will breathe a sigh of relief when the annual budget package clears the Lower House. But for Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, the chamber's approval of the 82.65 trillion yen fiscal 2001 budget could mark the beginning of the end for his administration.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Union wants to pressure Myanmar

The secretary general of a major global trade union body wants the international community to review its relations with Myanmar to pressure the military leadership to stop using its people as forced laborers.

Longform

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