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EDITORIALS
Aug 8, 1999

Bringing peace to the Balkans

The avowed aim of the Sarajevo summit Aug. 6 was simple in its grandeur: to promote peace and prosperity in the war-ravaged region and prepare it for eventual membership in the European Union and NATO. Whether the means and the commitment exist to achieve this lofty goal remains to be seen.
JAPAN
Aug 5, 1999

Ban lifted on Belgian egg whites, dairy goods

The Health and Welfare Ministry on Thursday lifted its temporary ban on the import of egg whites and dairy products from Belgium after it confirmed that these shipments were not contaminated with dioxin.
JAPAN
Aug 5, 1999

UNDP hopes to work more with Japan

Staff writer
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Aug 4, 1999

Consider the alternatives

A woman asks about cats. She would like to do something to help them. She doesn't tell us what kind of help she would like to provide, but it is a reasonably safe assumption to think she wants to help homeless cats, the ones that gather in any neighborhood where residents will give them food. Mine is...
JAPAN
Aug 3, 1999

Yasuda Kasai CIGNA eyes 5% of 401(k) market

Staff writer
COMMENTARY
Jul 31, 1999

Provocation or extortion?

The latest North Korean crisis, now that the mysterious underground facility at Kumchang-ri has proven to be nothing more than a huge hole in the ground, centers on the reportedly imminent launch of another multistage long-range missile. The last launch, on Aug. 31, 1998, involved an overflight of Japan...
JAPAN
Jul 30, 1999

One year down as Obuchi firmly hits political stride

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi expressed his determination Friday to successfully stage the 2000 summit of the Group of Eight major nations in Okinawa, indicating his readiness to stay at the helm for at least another year.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 1999

Service helps toothbrush maker clean up

Staff writer
JAPAN
Jul 28, 1999

Osaka man brings color to a gray industry

Staff writer
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 22, 1999

The new alfresco hits the pavement

It was not so long ago that alfresco dining here meant choosing between a raucous, roof-top beer garden or the cosy, elbow-rubbing confines of a funky pavement yatai. And if oden or ramen and a glass of cheap sake was not quite what you had in mind for a romantic evening out, too bad.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 1999

Experts ponder state's next great spending project

Staff writer
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jul 20, 1999

Mr. Famous Fuzzy Logic's bumpy roller Coastersride

Sometimes you get a 24-hour spell where everything feels like a mad surreal nightmare and you end up seriously contemplating spending the rest of your life as a monk sitting under icy waterfalls naked on a lonely mountain and eating nothing but nuts and honey.
COMMUNITY
Jul 8, 1999

Lepidoptera farming for fun and profit

SEATTLE -- In 1994, Lt. Sheri Moreau took early retirement from the navy and put to the test her belief that "your goal in life should be to figure out what you most love to do, then figure out a way to make a living doing it." With a goal of connecting with nature and wildlife, she began her second...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Jul 8, 1999

Oasis of serenity found in rowdiest Roppongi

One of Tokyo's greatest charms, and one of its greatest oddities, is its occasional lack of congruency. Like architectural hiccups, you often see a building where you would least expect it, completely unrelated to everything around it. Aburaya in Roppongi is like that, albeit it is more a matter of atmosphere...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 8, 1999

'Wabi-sabi' with a modern edge

Wasabiya epitomizes the very 1990s genre that has come to be known in Japanese as "dining bars." That means you can treat it as a restaurant, as an izakaya or even as a kind of designer drinking hold; it just depends on how hungry or thirsty you are.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jul 7, 1999

Technoborrrring

With rare exceptions, no one likes being called a Luddite. Steve Talbott, the thoughtful, somewhat skeptical philosopher who writes the Netfuture e-mail newsletter, for example, takes offense at being labeled "pessimistic." I thought it was a fair beef, but he devoted considerable space in his last missive...
COMMUNITY
Jul 1, 1999

The Hunt for ultimate beauty is on

Makeup artist Maggie Hunt is a wanted woman.
JAPAN
Jul 1, 1999

NTT-West hefts ax as cost-cutting option

OSAKA -- NTT-West Corp. President Kazuo Asada on Thursday said job cuts are one option for trimming costs and putting the firm's business into the black within three years.
LIFE / Style & Design / BEAUTY EAST AND WEST
Jul 1, 1999

Be prepared to relax on summer break

It's summer, that getaway time of year when we are allowed a bit of an escape from it all. It is the time we want a break, relaxation of the deepest sort, freedom from everything by which we are ordinarily burdened. Not that I foresee any holiday for myself in the near future, but it is precisely the...
JAPAN
Jun 29, 1999

Japanese passports big ticket for forgers, scam artists

Staff writer
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jun 29, 1999

The Super Furry Animals engage in 'Guerrilla' warfare

In 1996, I began visiting another planet when an album called "Fuzzy Logic," by an unknown Welsh band called Super Furry Animals, opened up a wormhole in my mind which enabled me to cross into a weird mangalike dimension whenever I switched on my stereo. Oh, and also I got a name for this column.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 1999

Ishihara now wants all base land back

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara on Monday asked Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi to take steps to achieve one of his most important election pledges: the return of Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo or its joint use by airlines.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

Recession not sole cause of suicide

All Daisuke Tajima could think about was ending it all. One day the 49-year-old salaried worker walked out of his office in a city in northern Japan, and for weeks his family had no clue as to his whereabouts.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 1999

Year's traffic deaths top 4,000

The nation's traffic death toll for the year topped the 4,000 mark Wednesday, two days behind last year, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jun 23, 1999

On the fringe of the fray

I had dinner with two friends last week and eventually the conversation came around to the Web (I generally try to avoid the topic in polite conversation but what can you do?). Anyone overhearing our conversation might have thought we were a trio of hopeless geeks, or digerati wannabes, but the truth...
JAPAN
Jun 16, 1999

Okinawa ruins targeted for heritage status

The government will nominate a group of ancient monuments in Okinawa Prefecture for inclusion on the World Heritage List, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jun 16, 1999

Vocal as we wanna be

"The process of tying two items together is the important thing," wrote Vannevar Bush in a seminal essay titled "As We Think," published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1945. Bush described a hypothetical device that would allow the storage and retrieval of data, the memory of mankind. It would be constructed...
JAPAN
Jun 15, 1999

Dream school shuns educational norms

ONNA, Okinawa Pref. — A healthy techno beat pounds against the walls of the studio where dancers groove, their motions sharp as they study their moves critically in the mirror.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 1999

Sri Lankans find way to share the scholarship

In the small southern Sri Lankan town of Kataragama, high school student Gamini Nawaratne eagerly awaits his monthly mail from Japan.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 1999

Hopes ride high on ibis chick's wings

After teetering on the edge of extinction domestically for several years, the Japanese crested ibis took a small step away from the brink when a chick cheeped its way into the world on May 21.

Longform

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