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LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Jul 27, 2000

Memory of a rebel ages well in Californian wine

Sailboats frolicked in the bay like impish elves, rocking lightly in the wake of yachts that cut through the water like dolphins, as the sun slipped out of sight in Sausalito. I was back in this same little haven-by-the-sea in north California, in the Ondine restaurant with good friends, sipping good...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Jul 27, 2000

For new sake sensations, seek out the 'brat pack'

After tasting sake for some time, we begin to search for sake we have not yet tried. Of course, we have our favorites, sake we can fall back on and drink any day of the week. And we already know about good, well-publicized sake, be they blue chips such as Kubota or powerful upstarts like Juyondai.
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2000

Putin to make Sept. 3-5 Tokyo visit

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. — Russian President Vladimir Putin will make an official visit to Japan from Sept. 3 to Sept. 5, Tokyo and Moscow formally agreed Sunday.
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2000

Microsoft, Hitachi tie on systems solutions

Major Japanese electronics maker Hitachi Ltd. and U.S. software giant Microsoft Corp. said Thursday they have agreed to cooperate in the systems solutions business.
BUSINESS
Jun 14, 2000

Oracle, KDD debut info Web site

Oracle, KDD Oracle Corp. Japan and KDD Corp. jointly announced Tuesday that they will start operating a Web site from today where users can receive advice from registered computer experts for fees ranging from 10 yen to 1,000 yen per question.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jun 14, 2000

Gateways to synergy

Every time I visit a particular convenience store, I wince at the repeated announcement of its Web site: "Eichi chi chi pi koron surashu surashu daburyu daburyu daburyu dotto . . . " It is supposed to be such a cutting-edge play, but it only reminds me of how clumsy the analog world can be, and of how...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Jun 13, 2000

Beyond the Buena Vista Social Club

Ever felt you missed out on an opportunity? When working as a talent scout for a record company in the U.K., I once stumbled upon U2 in the band's infancy. Somehow negotiations never got started and they were soon snapped up elsewhere. After that, in U2's words, I never did find what I was looking for....
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2000

DoCoMo tieup eyes i-mode-friendly ads

Mobile phone giant NTT DoCoMo Inc. and major ad agency Dentsu Inc. announced Thursday they have jointly set up an agency specializing in ads to be posted on DoCoMo's i-mode wireless Internet service.
BUSINESS
May 12, 2000

Japan Telecom to unify Nissan info networks

Nissan Motor Co. announced Thursday that its group will start receiving total information network services from Japan Telecom Co. next month in an effort to cut telecommunications costs and establish seamless global networks.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 11, 2000

French with a difference

We have no shortage of bargain-basement French-accented bistros scattered around the metropolis. But for my money, Tete-a-tete is the cream of the current crop. I could reel off about a dozen cogent reasons why I rate this little place so highly. But there's only one that you really need to know -- it...
CULTURE / Books
May 9, 2000

Testing times for Japan-U.S. alliance

ALLIANCE ADRIFT, by Yoichi Funabashi. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1999, 501 pp., $49.95 (cloth). The jacket of this hefty chronicle of the recent history of Japan-U.S. security relations proclaims that Japan has found its Bob Woodward. Consider yourself warned.
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2000

PlayStation2 order site has info security breach

Customer information was accidentally made accessible to anyone entering the Japanese Web site of a Sony group company handling sale reservations of PlayStation2 game consoles, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. said Thursday.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 10, 2000

Filling up an empty month with wine

Bring out the wine! It's National Foundation Day! (Well, tomorrow.) Are any of Japan's official nation-builders building reputations as wine connoisseurs? If so, I've yet to hear of it, but I did notice that on a state visit to Mexico a few years ago the then-Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu had no idea...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 6, 2000

Philip Harper

To be billed as Japan's only foreign sake brewer conveys a claim unusually intriguing. Even the man in question, Philip Harper, expresses some surprise at the way things have gone for him as he gets close to achieving the status of master brewer in Japan.
BUSINESS
Jan 25, 2000

Info-tech boom to stay hot

The Tokyo stock market is maintaining its upward trend amid expectations of a global economic recovery led by information technology-related investment and a favor- able supply-and-demand balance of stocks.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 22, 2000

Partying the century right on out the door

I don't know about you, but I am glad to see the 20th century out the door! And I hope all those crooks out there that made millions on the Y2K scare choke on all that cash -- taking advantage of a bad situation like that is shameful, like selling shovels to rescue workers at the site of an earthquake....
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jan 19, 2000

Space on the range

When the deliciously innovative iMacs were unveiled last year there was a collective gasp: What?! No floppy drive? How do I transfer files?
JAPAN
Nov 20, 1999

Hitachi plans info-systems investment

Hitachi Ltd. announced Friday it will invest 300 billion yen in the next two years to strengthen its foothold in the fast-growing information systems business.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Nov 3, 1999

Marketing witchcraft

"The Blair Witch Project," which will finally appear at a theater near you this month, is one of the scariest movies of the '90s.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 1999

IBM to handle Mazda info systems

Mazda Motor Corp. has reached a basic agreement with IBM Japan Ltd. on a 50 billion yen contract to outsource its information system operations to the computer giant, the automaker announced Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 1999

Y2K info on yearend flights on ministry Web site

The Transport Ministry today will begin posting information on foreign countries' Y2K preparations for New Year's flights on its Web site, amid high expectations of computer problems during the annual changeover.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jul 14, 1999

Lost and found fnords

The Net is a terrific reference tool. There, I said it, the obvious. It's like stating that you should use a saw to cut down a tree. But have you ever tried to do an online search for the currency of Bhutan in the 18th century, who did the music for "The Third Man," the meaning of CLEP, DHCP or DQMOT...
JAPAN
May 12, 1999

Organ donor's private info kept under wraps

Following criticism that protection of privacy was lacking when organs were donated in late February in the nation's first legal transplants involving a brain-dead patient, cautious steps have been taken to avoid an excessive release of information on the second such donor.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Apr 30, 1999

Buffalo Daughter reinvents new rock again

After more than a year of touring, remixing, producing and more touring, Buffalo Daughter has returned home to the more mundane matters of daily life. Bassist and Moog player extraordinaire Yumiko Ohno recently tied the knot with longtime paramour Zak (producer of the Fishmans among others) while DJ...
JAPAN
Apr 28, 1999

Upper House clears porn, info bills

Two key bills -- one aimed at allowing public access to records of government ministries and agencies, and the other seeking to ban prostitution and pornography involving minors -- were approved Wednesday by the full Upper House.
JAPAN
Apr 27, 1999

LDP, DPJ strike deal on info disclosure

The Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Japan agreed Tuesday to amend the information disclosure bill, now under debate at the Upper House, allowing for the review of a key provision four years after its enactment.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 24, 1999

Degrees of separation

You could say they have an affliction. You've probably bumped into them on the street. That is, they bump into you, because they often walk with their eyes fixated on their task, oblivious to any obstacles in their path. You've definitely overheard them chatting on trains, in coffee shops, perhaps even...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 17, 1999

The doctor is in

Steve Chang has a fondness for viruses. It's not as ghoulish as it sounds; he's obsessed with the computer variety, not the human kind. Fortunately for him -- unfortunately for us -- there are a lot out there.
JAPAN
Nov 25, 1998

Japan, China agree on joint info infrastructure study

Japan and China on Wednesday agreed to begin a joint study on developing an information infrastructure in China with Japanese technology, according to officials of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

Longform

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