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CULTURE / Music
Feb 4, 2000

Rescuing abandoned electones from a grim fate

The electone, better known as the home organ, might recall memories of drunken uncles playing shambolic versions of Christmas songs, or upwardly mobile parents forcing a bit of culture down junior's throat. In many family homes, it is a dust-gathering fixture, a hulking monument to the musically dasai....
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2000

Emperors of the rag trade

"Haute couture" -- high fashion -- has long been good for a laugh. One of the best therapies for gloom in Tokyo is to stroll along the southeastern end of Omotesando, in Aoyama, where the fashion boutiques cluster. The prison-block architecture (rain-streaked cement tastefully accessorized with rust)...
COMMUNITY
Jan 20, 2000

Multifaceted legacy is rock solid

The public will never know what Ronald Winston looks like. Until he dies, that is.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 1999

Intimidation charge spurs more Nichiei raids

OSAKA -- Osaka Prefectural Police raided the Kyoto head office and Osaka branch of moneylender Nichiei Co. as well as four other sites Wednesday in connection with the scandal-tainted firm's alleged involvement in heavy-handed loan-collection tactics by its employees. Investigators were acting on a...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 5, 1999

Down Under music with Asian flair

The renowned Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe vividly recalls gifts he received as a young boy growing up in 1930s rural Tasmania, given to him by family friends on return from Japan. One gift was a much-thumbed children's version of the "Tale of Genji," the other a cardboard-cutout castle.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 1, 1999

Kawabata and great truths

FIRST SNOW ON FUJI, by Yasunari Kawabata. Translated by Michael Emmerich. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 227 pp., $24. This collection of stories, plus an essay and a dance-drama, was originally published in 1958 as "Fuji no Hatsuyuki." It is late Kawabata -- most of the major works had already appeared,...
JAPAN
Nov 15, 1999

Nichiei affiliate denies pressuring borrowers

The president of a Nichiei Co. subsidiary has denied any involvement in alleged extortion by an arrested former employee of the nation's leading lender of "shoko" high-interest loans, police said Monday.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Nov 10, 1999

Brighten up your balcony with spring bulbs

No garden, no matter how small, is complete unless it has some spring bulbs, and this is the time to buy and plant your garden or container with your favorites. Bulbs are inexpensive, especially considering the joy they give. In recent years more and more bulb varieties have become available in garden...
JAPAN
Nov 9, 1999

NCB's deficit expands to 3.1 trillion yen

The government-backed Deposit Insurance Corp. said Tuesday that the capital deficit of the failed Nippon Credit Bank has widened to some 3.1 trillion yen -- 110 billion yen more than an earlier estimate.
JAPAN
Nov 4, 1999

FSA quizzes banks on 'shoko' lender ties

The Financial Supervisory Agency is stepping up pressure on 13 domestic and foreign banks to review their lending policies toward "shoko" lenders, financial sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 1999

Nichiei wage system was based on aggressiveness

OSAKA -- Nichiei Co., the nation's largest lender of "shoko" high-interest loans for small businesses, effectively encouraged its employees to extend excessive loans to customers by introducing a merit-based wage system, it was learned Wednesday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Nov 3, 1999

For better or worse

November? Already? How different it is for little kids who think there is a generation between one Christmas and another. November is a stepping stone to the yearend holiday celebration, which this year will have both special meaning and reasons for concern. Regardless of assurances, people wonder what...
COMMUNITY
Oct 27, 1999

A walk through the Kyoto antiques district

KYOTO -- Long a Mecca for fans of Japanese antiques, Kyoto is more enticing than ever these days. Unscathed by the bombs of World War II, old family storehouses continue to yield a small but steady stream of somewhat dusty delights, while a host of new shops plying the antiquity trade promises something...
JAPAN
Oct 25, 1999

Parties to freeze health premiums for elderly

The three ruling coalition parties agreed in principle on Monday to temporarily freeze collection of premiums for a planned public-care insurance system for the elderly, to be launched in April, party officials said.
JAPAN
Sep 29, 1999

Miyazawa defends use of public funds in LTCB sale

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa on Wednesday defended the planned use of additional public funds to sell Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan to a consortium led by Ripplewood Holdings L.L.C. of the United States, calling the burden nothing new.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 1999

FRC gives Ripplewood go-ahead to buy LTCB

The Financial Reconstruction Commission on Tuesday effectively named an investment consortium led by Ripplewood Holdings L.L.C. of the United States as the buyer of the nationalized Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 1999

Kicking butt, collecting cards -- it's Magic

Staff writer
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Jul 14, 1999

Sendai garden lets it all hang out

Garden designers around the country could take a few ideas from the Sendai Yasoen (Wild Flower Garden) by using more native plants in their own designs.
LIFE / Travel
Jul 14, 1999

Memphis, where the 'King' still rules

In reference to the legacy of Elvis Presley, Neil Young once sang "The King is dead, but not forgotten."
CULTURE / Books
Jul 6, 1999

Glimpses of Indonesia after Suharto

THE POLITICS OF POST-SUHARTO INDONESIA, edited by Adam Schwarz and Jonathan Paris. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1999, 120 pp.. $17.95 MILITARY DOCTRINES AND DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION: A Comparative Perspective on Indonesia's Dual Function and Latin American National Security Doctrines, by Jun...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 29, 1999

American haiku now holds its own

THE HAIKU ANTHOLOGY, by Cor van den Heuvel. W. W. Norton, pp. 363, $27.50. Cor van den Heuvel is the most important anthologist of haiku composed in English in North America. He has published three collections, all simply called "The Haiku Anthology" and all through prominent commercial houses: Doubleday,...
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 19, 1999

Exploring tropical forests of poetry

Stephen Forster has released a new volume of poetry titled "The Good Mouth." In this collection of poems, Forster takes the reader on an imaginative journey to distant lands where conquistadors in tropical forests meet their savage doom, or to places where the omniscient voice of a child uttering the...
CULTURE / Art
Jun 19, 1999

A little madness goes a long way

Madness sells.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 1999

NCB picks up Morgan Stanley as adviser

Nippon Credit Bank, currently under state control, has selected U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley as its financial adviser, NCB President Takuya Fujii said Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
May 27, 1999

Respect for the forest's elders

The Hokkaido University Botanic Garden is situated right in the heart of Sapporo, within easy reach of Sapporo Station. I really love to see trees grown at their best, and for those of you who feel the same, a visit to this garden is essential.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 26, 1999

Privacy? Get over it

In one of those snide comments that only people worth hundreds of millions of dollars are capable of making with any credibility, Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, dismissed the whole privacy controversy with: "Get over it.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 20, 1999

Soseki's deep well of sadness

CHAOS AND ORDER IN THE WORKS OF NATSUME SOSEKI, by Angela Yiu. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1998, 251 pp., $42 (cloth). This, the first full-length study of Soseki in English, is based upon the proposition that "beneath the emphasis on order, responsibility and a clear sense of morality, [there]...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 24, 1999

Frustration and anger produce great Korean fiction

A READY-MADE LIFE: Early Masters of Modern Korean Fiction, selected and translated by Kim Chong-un and Bruce Fulton. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998, 191 pp., $38 (cloth), $15.95 (paper). "What's driving me to drink isn't anger and isn't the dandies. It's this society -- our Korean society...
JAPAN
Feb 24, 1999

Accept 'jusen' role, HLAC to tell banks

The government-backed firm tasked with collecting debts owed by borrowers of the failed "jusen" mortgage lenders will urge 10 banks to take legal responsibility for the jusen fiasco, Housing Loan Administration Corp. President Kohei Nakabo said Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 6, 1999

Ethical standards for bankers

In a landmark suit involving a bank's responsibility for bad loans, Sumitomo Bank earlier this week agreed to pay 3 billion yen to the Housing Loan Administration Corp., the public debt-clearing body for bankrupt home-loan companies. The HLAC had initially demanded 5 billion yen in damages, saying the...

Longform

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