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JAPAN
Mar 26, 2000

Development reaches the east

Today, it's free and takes only five minutes. But getting to the other side of JR Shinagawa Station was once no easy matter.
COMMENTARY
Mar 26, 2000

All eyes on nuclear energy

It is axiomatic that any group in Japan -- doctors, dentists or candlestick makers -- will want to turn itself into a tightly bound community, closed off from the outside world. It will be concerned almost entirely with its own survival and prosperity.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2000

13-story project spells doom for Fuji view

There is, it seems, an unwritten law on Fujimizaka slope that every conversation must start with the following question: "Can you see it?"
CULTURE / Music
Mar 24, 2000

Teacher takes a radical route to nurturing the shamisen

Some Westerners might be surprised to learn to what extent Japanese people have little or no interest in traditional Japanese music. Many young people simply prefer to listen to contemporary pop music, but it is also not uncommon to come across those who are not even sure what traditional Japanese music...
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2000

Keidanren urges Asia to back yen

Japan must enlist the support of Asian governments and private sectors to promote the yen as an international currency, the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) said in a recommendation Wednesday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Mar 22, 2000

NTT then and now

Last week's column dealt with NHK's fees and why we should pay them. Similarly, there are complaints from readers about paying the initial 72,000 yen plus 2,184 yen consumption tax and 800 yen contract charge to NTT for the standard telephone installation fee. None of this amount is refundable although...
BUSINESS
Mar 21, 2000

Myanmar's SPDC signals economic, not political, reforms

Myanmar's military regime is stubborn as a mule. It continues to ignore loud calls from much of the international community to democratize and protect human rights.
EDITORIALS
Mar 20, 2000

Mr. Chen's historic victory

In a historic election Saturday, Taiwanese voters gave Mr. Chen Shui-bian of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party a convincing victory. In electing Mr. Chen, the Taiwanese people defied threats from Beijing and brought an end to 50 years of Nationalist rule in Taiwan. His win in Taiwan's second...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 20, 2000

Valuable guide through the legal thicket in Japan

JAPANESE LAW (second edition), by Hiroshi Oda. Oxford University Press, 1999, 16,900 yen. First and foremost, this is a book about the commercial law of Japan. Initially published in 1992, the second edition endeavors to reflect the many changes that have occurred in Japanese law in the years since...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 19, 2000

Royal Concertgebouw does its own thing, which is anything

The orchestras of America are headed by the "Big Five," after which come all the others. They are so well known that just the names of the cities get a nod of affirmation: Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York and Philadelphia.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 19, 2000

Tsutomu Yoshioka

Tsutomu Yoshioka's life has come full circle. In the early 1940s, he was a teenage student at Jiyugakuen, the Freedom School founded in 1921 by Yoshikazu and Motoko Hani. Now he is director of Myonichikan, Jiyugakuen's original buildings, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The American architect said at...
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 18, 2000

GMO foe sees standards as WTO lever

MAKUHARI, Chiba Pref. -- If the international community can set up strict safety standards on genetically modified foods, it would give countries a tool to stop the import of such foods to protect their people, said Jean Halloran, a representative of Consumers International.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2000

A new era of democracy in Taiwan

TAIPEI -- On Saturday, the Republic of China will hold its second direct election for the presidency and the vice presidency. Throughout Chinese history, the concept of popular sovereignty has never been so strong as it is now. Therefore, this election will surely demonstrate to the international community...
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.
EDITORIALS
Mar 15, 2000

Chile's new beginning

In one of his first moves upon taking office last weekend, Chile's new president, Mr. Ricardo Lagos, reopened the presidential palace to the Chilean people. It is a symbolic gesture by the country's first socialist president since former Gen. Augusto Pinochet launched a coup against Salvador Allende...
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2000

GMO standards talks kick off amid protests

MAKUHARI, Chiba Pref. -- A four-day conference opened here Tuesday to discuss international standards for genetically modified organisms and foods, bringing together some 300 participants from 36 countries.
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.
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 7, 2000

Looser restrictions on foreigners eyed

Japan is planning a major shift in its stringent immigration policy that would accept foreign workers in substantially wider areas, including agriculture and nursing care services, it was learned Monday.
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 5, 2000

Who's afraid of August Strindberg?

If a single metaphor could speak for the career and life of Sweden's greatest playwright and author, it would be the following taken from one of his novels: "We were dancing on the edge of the volcano."
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2000

IOC wining-dining ban puts Games bid in bind

OSAKA -- Enthusiasm for Osaka's 2008 Olympic bid continues to fade after the International Olympic Committee announced strict conditions on candidate cities.
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2000

Nine staff of Hiroo hospital charged

A case credited with shedding light on a tendency within the medical community to cover up malpractice has taken another step into uncharted waters.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Mar 1, 2000

Conversation: enough said

I heard once that the average male speaks 2,000 words a day, while the average female speaks 7,000.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2000

Defusing tension in the Spratly Islands

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- The tiny Spratly Islands are dwarfed by the magnitude of the sovereignty and demarcation problems that surround them.
EDITORIALS
Feb 27, 2000

The imitable Jeeves

Correct us if we are wrong, but we seem to have detected a certain half-veiled annoyance recently on the part of a British literary agency named A.P. Watt. The trouble is, these Watt chaps' duties include looking after the estate of the late, great comic novelist P.G. Wodehouse, creator of the supposedly...
MORE SPORTS
Feb 25, 2000

End of rugby road for Suntory warrior Ennis

For the past 20 years, Glenn Ennis has loved throwing his weight around the rugby pitch.

Longform

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