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CULTURE / Books
Mar 20, 2000

Built on a foundation of fear

THE SHOGUN'S PAINTED CULTURE: Fear and Creativity in the Japanese States -- 1760-1829, by Timon Screech. London: Reaktion Books, 2000, 312 pp., with 33 color plates and 111 b/w photos, 19.95 British pounds. The argument of this prodigiously detailed study is that Japan as we now know it did not exist...
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2000

Thousands turn out for Flora 2000

AWAJI ISLAND, Hyogo Pref. -- Under a bright sunny sky and with a cool breeze blowing off the bay, the Japan Flora 2000 international flower, gardening and landscape exhibition opened Saturday morning on Awaji Island.
BUSINESS
Mar 18, 2000

Oil firms to integrate operations to trim costs

Japan Energy Corp. and Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K. said Friday they have reached a basic agreement to integrate their oil refining and distribution operations.
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2000

Aichi 'to be flexible' on expo

Aichi Prefecture will be flexible in revising its proposal for razing a forest in Seto for the World Expo 2005, although it has not yet committed to shelving the controversial housing plan, Gov. Masaaki Kanda said during a meeting with environmental group heads in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS
Mar 17, 2000

NTT, gas firms eye power retail business

Tokyo Gas Co., Osaka Gas Co. and a power facility under Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. may jointly enter the electric power retailing business, industry sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2000

Foreigner fingerprinting to end

The government plans to stop its discriminatory treatment of foreigners who refused to be fingerprinted for residency registration when it ends fingerprinting for all aliens next month, Justice Ministry officials said.
BUSINESS
Mar 17, 2000

Opening of insurance market on target for 2001 schedule

Japan will open up a segment of its insurance market to Japanese firms in January 2001 as planned, government officials reaffirmed Thursday.
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2000

British nuclear activist fights for disarmament

A 48-year-old British antinuclear activist proved that direct action by citizens can contribute to global disarmament and even prevent potential mass murder when, in a landmark ruling, she was acquitted for vandalizing a British warplane and a nuclear submarine research facility.
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2000

Central Asian states to meet in Sapporo

Ministerial-level officials from five former Soviet republics in Central Asia will meet in Sapporo, probably early next month, for what Japan hopes will be the last round of negotiations on a treaty creating a nuclear weapons-free zone in the region.
BUSINESS
Mar 16, 2000

Hong Kong still 'gateway to China'

With its accelerating economic recovery and shift toward a balanced budget, Hong Kong will continue to be "the gateway to China" for businesses from Japan and around the world in the coming century, according to the principal representative at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2000

Russian writes about postwar Japanese prisoners

At the end of World War II, Soviet troops imprisoned hundreds of thousands of Japanese soldiers and civilians in Asia, sending them to labor camps in Siberia. Tens of thousands subsequently died in brutal conditions.
BUSINESS
Mar 15, 2000

eBay may herald an online revolution

The recent arrival of major U.S. online auction operator eBay Inc. may bring another online revolution to Japan, the world's second-largest Internet market.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Mar 15, 2000

No way out

Sometimes it seems my mailbox is a place for complaints. Today it is NHK fees. Wednesday's column will consider NTT's high initial charge for phone service. Don't look for ways to avoid the inevitable; your daily life entails certain obligations.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 15, 2000

Fertile soil for Japanese environmentalist groups?

ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS IN JAPAN: Networks of Power and Protest, by Jeffrey Broadbent. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, 418 pp., $13.95, (paper). Given Japan's economic growth after World War II -- a period often termed "miraculous" -- it is not surprising that the worst problems of ecological...
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 15, 2000

Wild animal tales -- with a pinch of salt

The image of wild animals visiting a salt lick is probably a familiar one to you if you are a regular watcher of television natural history documentaries. The scene is repeated over and over again, as large African or Indian mammals approach this particularly rich source of minerals.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2000

Tokyo hails progress in North Korea talks

Japanese leaders welcomed on Tuesday the results of a meeting Monday between representatives of the Red Cross societies of Japan and North Korea in which Pyongyang agreed to take appropriate steps if it locates any missing Japanese nationals.
COMMENTARY
Mar 15, 2000

The task of policing the police

Sections of the Japanese police force have recently been sharply and justifiably criticized, as have police in other countries from time to time. The maintenance of high ethical standards in police forces worldwide should be a high priority for all governments. Yet it is not an easy thing to achieve....
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2000

Sanwa, Asahi, Tokai to merge

Sanwa Bank, Tokai Bank and Asahi Bank are expected to create Japan's second largest financial group through a merger, and an announcement could come as early as today.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 12, 2000

Muriel Jolivet

A year ago, Muriel Jolivet said, "Briefly, the subjects I studied up to now were, first, the social integration of Japanese male students through work. Then I focused more on women, and their social integration through work. I got interested in women and maternity in Japan, and wrote the book 'Japan:...
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2000

Reactor cutback eyed in energy policy shift

The government will overhaul the nation's energy policy and probably cut back on its plan to build 16 to 20 new nuclear plants by fiscal 2010 in the wake of mounting opposition to such facilities and a fatal atomic accident last September, trade chief Takashi Fukaya said Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2000

Ishihara denies China influenced Falun Gong decision

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara denied reports that political pressures from China affected the metropolitan government's recent decision to deny nonprofit organization status to the Japanese branch of China's outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement.
BUSINESS
Mar 11, 2000

Toshiba-EMI considers merging with Time Warner

Toshiba Corp. is considering merging its music software company with that of U.S. media and entertainment giant Time Warner Inc. in a deal that would create Japan's biggest music software firm, a Toshiba official said Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2000

Ministers to work on Atsugi dioxin case

Three Cabinet ministers reconfirmed Friday their plan to cooperate closely to resolve an air pollution problem at a U.S. military base in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture.
EDITORIALS
Mar 9, 2000

Pyongyang's intransigence must end

The Japanese government on Tuesday formally announced that it will provide 100,000 tons of rice to North Korea through the U.N. World Food Program. Japan is taking humanitarian action to follow up an agreement that the countries recently reached to resume the normalization talks -- which broke down in...
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2000

MOX OK with Kepco, scandal or no

OSAKA -- After five months of denial and public assurances that nothing was wrong, Kansai Electric Power Co. has admitted it failed to properly investigate charges of data falsification at a British manufacturer of uranium-plutonium mixed oxide fuel intended for use in Fukui Prefecture nuclear reactors....

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat