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LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Dec 27, 2000

Reay for the end of the year?

www.nenga.co.jp One of the biggest New Year's traditions is entering your friends in a lottery by sending them special nengajo greeting cards printed by the post office. This year it moves to the Internet. Sort of. You're not gonna make any of your friends a millionaire, and the prizes come from the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 27, 2000

Thermal underwear comes out of the fashion closet

Until a few years ago, most young women abhorred long-sleeved undershirts, commonly derided as babashatsu (granny shirts).
MORE SPORTS
Dec 27, 2000

Tatsuyoshi plans return to ring

OSAKA -- Former World Boxing Council bantamweight champion Joichiro Tatsuyoshi said Monday he will come out of retirement to take a shot at a third world title next year. Tatsuyoshi, a popular 30-year-old boxer who announced his retirement after a crushing defeat in August 1999, said he has already started...
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2000

Mitsui Sumitomo plans to repay public funds

Sumitomo Bank and Sakura Bank on Tuesday said the merged entity they will form in April, Mitsui Sumitomo Banking Corp., aims to repay by the end of fiscal 2007 all the 1.501 trillion yen in public funds they have received.
SOCCER / World cup
Dec 27, 2000

World XI side enlists Chilavert, Matthaeus

World Cup veterans Jose Luis Chilavert of Paraguay and Lothar Matthaeus of Germany have been named to a World XI side for the Jan. 3 friendly against a joint squad of 2002 World Cup cohosts Japan and South Korea, organizers said Monday.
COMMUNITY
Dec 27, 2000

Hard for many to fight the big chill

Winter is a painful season for Satoko Kojima (not her real name), a Tokyo office worker who says she cannot tolerate cold temperatures.
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2000

Teachers losing jobs over indecency

A record 115 teachers at public schools were reprimanded for sexually indecent acts in fiscal 1999, with a record 67 losing their jobs, according to an Education Ministry survey released Tuesday.
LIFE / Travel
Dec 27, 2000

Running on Soviet time

In December 1991, Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian leaders met at a hunting lodge in western Belarus. There they signed the Belavezha Agreement, which had no small historical significance. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was being consigned to the dustbin of history -- the same contemptuous...
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2000

Shipowners issue warning on Haneda expansion

The Japanese Shipowners' Association on Tuesday asked the Transport Ministry to ensure that any possible expansion plans for Tokyo's Haneda airport do not adversely affect navigation in Tokyo Bay.
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2000

Heavy snowfall swathes Sea of Japan coast

The Sea of Japan coast early Tuesday recorded its heaviest snowfall this winter, the Meteorological Agency said.
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
Dec 27, 2000

Brewing up a winning formula: Starbucks hits it big in Japan

I admit it: I had a breakdown. It probably happened sometime after Starbucks Store No. 100 opened in the cavernous Tameike-Sanno subway station. My first reaction was: What, another one? How many more of these places, full of smiling, happy crowds, nursing "bold expressions" and munching on brownies...
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2000

More ministry appointees named

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono on Tuesday appointed the ministry's Treaties Bureau Director General Shotaro Yachi as deputy vice minister for foreign policy and Japanese Minister to the United States Shin Ebihara to take Yachi's place, the ministry said.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Dec 27, 2000

The many moods of Koko-en

Any time of the year is ideal to visit Koko-en, next door to Himeji Castle, a World Heritage Site.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2000

Surging arms sales exacerbate Third World poverty

NEW YORK -- In recent public statements, world leaders such as the pope, U.S. President Bill Clinton and World Bank President James Wolfensohn have called attention to the urgent need to end world poverty. Almost lost among their proposals to remedy the situation was any mention of the need to curb arms...
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2000

Nippon Steel moves to improve efficiency in realty

Nippon Steel Corp. on Tuesday said it will spin off its urban development division in April 2002 and merge it with its wholly owned real estate subsidiary to improve the group's efficiency in the realty business.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2000

Signs of hope in Kashmir

LONDON -- Eleven years of killing, over 50,000 dead, and the highest ratio of soldiers to civilians in the world, with a nuclear war between India and Pakistan as the payoff if things get out of hand: The conflict in Kashmir dwarfs every other global confrontation in its potential for harm. But the prospects...
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2000

Tokyo prices fall by record 1%

Consumer prices in Tokyo in 2000 logged the largest decline on record, 1 percent on a preliminary basis, the central government said Tuesday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 27, 2000

Lions make Matsuzaka 100 million yen man

Seibu Lions right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka became the youngest 100 million yen player in Japanese baseball Tuesday when he signed a new one-year deal with the Pacific League club.
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2000

Talks begin on redrawing constituencies

A government panel has begun work toward redrawing the single-seat constituency boundaries in 10 prefectures for House of Representatives elections.
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2000

Wholesalers outdo retailers

Combined sales by Japanese retailers and wholesalers rose 0.9 percent in November from a year before to 45.919 trillion yen to mark the second consecutive month of growth, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2000

Japan to spend less on environment

Japan's global commitment to environment protection will drop 0.9 percent from this year in fiscal 2001, which begins April 1, to a combined 639.9 billion yen, the Environment Agency said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 27, 2000

Common interest warms KMT-CCP ties

TAIPEI -- The reopening of the so-called three links -- trade, transportation and communication -- between Taiwan and China may still be some way off, but in the meantime it appears Taiwan's opposition Nationalist Party (KMT) has sidestepped the ban and forged its own direct link with China.
LIFE / Digital
Dec 27, 2000

PlayStation2 shortage buoys up Sega

Sega started off on the wrong foot when it launched its 128-bit Dreamcast game console in Japan Nov. 27, 1999, and has been unable to regain its balance ever since.
LIFE / Travel
Dec 27, 2000

Hot springs by the Vienna Woods

BADEN, Austria -- More than most European capitals, Vienna, which bears a rich legacy as the one-time heart of the old Austro-Hungarian empire, has enough monuments and museums (not to mention restaurants and coffee houses) to keep you hopping from morning until night.
LIFE / Travel
Dec 27, 2000

In a gray concrete world, a city of beautiful churches

GRODNO, Belarus Most Belarusian cities get a bad press, at least for good looks, in foreign guidebooks. Polatsk is notable for "what was once there," Mogilev is decidedly "uninspiring," Homel's biggest drawing card is a bust of its most famous son, the late Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, and...
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2000

Number of temporary workers up 19% in 1999

The number of temporary workers in Japan surged 19.3 percent in fiscal 1999 from a year earlier to 1,067,949, according to the Labor Ministry.
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2000

Teen in shop-bombing faces charge of attempted murder

Police on Monday served a fresh arrest warrant on a 17-year-old boy from Tochigi Prefecture arrested earlier this month over an explosion caused by a homemade bomb at a video shop in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward, suspecting him of attempted murder.
BUSINESS
Dec 26, 2000

Honda to surpass Nissan in domestic sales

Honda Motor Co. is likely to surpass Nissan Motor Co. to become the second largest automaker in terms of domestic sales this year for the first time since its establishment in 1948, according to reports released Monday by the automakers.
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2000

Nippon Mitsubishi, Teikoku in gas venture

Nippon Mitsubishi Oil Corp. and Teikoku Oil Co. have agreed to form a joint venture to retail natural gas in Japan, the two firms announced Monday.

Longform

The students at Mitaka Municipal No. 7 Junior High School have access to various cooling devices for when they play sports.
Japan's extreme heat is causing a rethink of school sports