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CULTURE / Music
Jan 7, 2001

Beyond technical perfection: the best from 2000

It is time once again to look back over some of the most significant musical events of the year 2000.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jan 7, 2001

Yoshitami Arai

As a precocious 15-year-old in 1946, Yoshitami Arai looked around at a Japan that was, he said, "totally destroyed." Then at school in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, he was already beginning to understand the need of the nation to produce businessmen who would rebuild the economy. From that time on, he...
COMMUNITY
Jan 7, 2001

Good manners make comfortable relations

In Japan, there has been much discussion of late of both morals and manners. Indeed, one national newspaper on Jan. 1, in a section devoted to scrutinizing how Japanese have changed in recent years, devoted a whole page to the question: Are good manners a thing of the past?
BUSINESS
Jan 5, 2001

Cooperative-style condos let owners realize dreams

New condo owner Emiko Kaji says her brand new color-coordinated kitchen keeps her happy while she slaves over the stove cooking for her family.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 5, 2001

Have Japanese novelists lost touch with readers?

The fading interest in reading among younger Japanese first caused alarm several years ago in Japan, but I was recently startled to see a full page devoted to the topic in The New York Times' Book Review section (Dec. 10).
JAPAN
Jan 4, 2001

Public wants coalition dropped a peg

Forty percent of the Japanese electorate hopes the House of Councilors election scheduled for July will end in a tie between the ruling and opposition parties, and 87 percent would like to directly elect the prime minister, according to a Kyodo News poll released Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Jan 3, 2001

The dangers that lie ahead

One of the biggest holiday gifts last year was the Sony PlayStation2 video game console. Good luck trying to find one. Hundreds of thousands of gamers around the world are still waiting to get their hands on the elusive item. But, according to news reports, one customer managed to collect about 4,000...
BUSINESS
Jan 3, 2001

Let Aibo tell you about brand image

Ku-Ku the kitten was top cat in the battle of the robo-pets in 2000, but guess which bionic beast got to snuggle up to Janet Jackson?
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2001

Five-year, muscle-pumping defense plan passed easily

The Cabinet approval last month of the 25-trillion yen medium-term defense buildup program came without heated debate among lawmakers or the public, to the apparent surprise of some Defense Agency officials.
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

Children of Asahara forced to pay for guru's alleged crimes

RYUGASAKI, Ibaraki Pref. -- Watching them play on the floor amid scattered toys and books, it's hard to believe that these two boys were once hailed by thousands of Aum Shinrikyo members as holy children and heirs to their guru's legacy.
EDITORIALS
Dec 29, 2000

A good year for democracy

In a triumphant conclusion to a tumultuous year, reformers concluded their rout of the old order in Yugoslavia. In parliamentary elections held last weekend, an alliance of democratic parties won nearly two-thirds of the vote, crushing former President Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party which took...
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2000

Vice ministers named for merging ministries

The Cabinet on Tuesday named the career bureaucrats who will take up posts as vice ministers at the Cabinet Office and the seven ministries to be created under sweeping reforms that will take effect Jan. 6, when the current 23 government entities will be reduced to 13.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Dec 27, 2000

Reay for the end of the year?

www.nenga.co.jp One of the biggest New Year's traditions is entering your friends in a lottery by sending them special nengajo greeting cards printed by the post office. This year it moves to the Internet. Sort of. You're not gonna make any of your friends a millionaire, and the prizes come from the...
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
Dec 27, 2000

Brewing up a winning formula: Starbucks hits it big in Japan

I admit it: I had a breakdown. It probably happened sometime after Starbucks Store No. 100 opened in the cavernous Tameike-Sanno subway station. My first reaction was: What, another one? How many more of these places, full of smiling, happy crowds, nursing "bold expressions" and munching on brownies...
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 26, 2000

Giants open vault for MVP Matsui

The Yomiuri Giants on Monday signed slugger Hideki Matsui to a new one-year contract that made him only the third 500 million yen player in Japanese baseball history.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 26, 2000

Korean baseball owners under fire as support for players union grows

SEOUL -- The continuing saga of the Korean pro baseball players union has taken another series of twists and turns as players, many of whom were livid at the firing of six key members of the union, have started signing up as an act of solidarity with their fellow professionals.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2000

Arms policy playing into China's hands

WASHINGTON -- As tensions continue to simmer between the People's Republic of China and Taiwan, the Bush administration will come under increasing pressure to provide Taiwan with a firm security guarantee. That could be dangerous and put the United States directly at risk. Instead, the U.S. should increase...
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2000

DPJ to seek 30% cut in public works spending

Executives of the Democratic Party of Japan adopted a pledge Thursday to seek a 30 percent cut in public works expenditures over five years in the runup to next summer's House of Councilors election.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 21, 2000

Success of discount barns should come as no surprise

" 'Tis the season," and while many a crabby gaijin points out that Japan's decidedly commercial spin on Christmas excludes its religious meaning, shopping makes a lot of people happy, so why knock it?
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2000

Arson tops fire list for third year

Arson was the main cause of fires in 1999 for the third successive year, with 7,481 cases, according to an annual government white paper endorsed Tuesday by the Cabinet.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Dec 20, 2000

Real democracy, anyone?

Have we learned our lesson in democracy? God forbid anyone should ever weasel out of voting again with the claim that their ballot doesn't count, that it doesn't make a difference. There is almost no way the margin in the U.S. vote could have been narrower, and with the divisions elsewhere in the country,...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 20, 2000

Jingle bills and other ghosts of Christmas past and present

There is a hereditary disease that stalks each member of my family. Even now I can feel it ticking maliciously through my bones, fully aware there is nothing I can do to stop it. Sooner or later it is going to strike.
LIFE / Digital
Dec 20, 2000

Gifts galore for the gadget lover

Japan constantly churns out high-tech gadgets, and Christmas is a great time to buy the best.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2000

Societal barriers facing disabled may prove the most formidable

As deputy chief of the Japanese delegation at the Sydney Paralympic Games this summer, Tsunenobu Wakana was impressed with the handicapped-friendly facilities and transportation system.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2000

Local civil servants grow fewer

The number of local public servants across Japan as of April 1 was 3,204,297, down 27,861 from a year earlier, the largest decline since the Home Affairs Ministry began surveying their numbers in 1975, the ministry said in a report released Sunday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 18, 2000

Sea cucumbers: radially different

Sea cucumbers.

Longform

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