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CULTURE / Books
Oct 17, 2000

A celebration of interracial marriages

GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER?, by Brenda Lane Richardson. Wildcat Canyon Press/Circulus Publishing Group, Inc., 2000, Berkeley, Calif., $14.95. Brenda Richardson is an award-winning African-American writer and partner in a 16-year marriage to a Swedish-American Episcopalian priest. She set out nearly...
CULTURE / Music
Oct 17, 2000

Badly drawn but beautifully sketched

Until I saw Damon Gough, the singer-songwriter better known as Badly Drawn Boy, in concert, it never occurred to me that the audience might be there for the performer's amusement rather than the other way around. At one point, Gough started handing out roses to women in the front row while he serenaded...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 17, 2000

Japan's pop culture conquers the world

JAPAN POP Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture, edited by Timothy J. Craig. M. E. Sharpe, 235 pp., $58.95 (cloth). Japan is undergoing a quiet revolution. Long known for its talents in miniaturization and for the mass production of electronic consumer products, Japan is gaining a new image:...
EDITORIALS
Oct 16, 2000

A Nobel lesson for Japan

The selection of Mr. Hideki Shirakawa, professor emeritus of Tsukuba University, as a recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry is wonderful news. It has cheered up the nation in a difficult moment. We extend him our hearty congratulations. The prize is shared by two American professors, Mr. Alan...
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2000

12 injured in firework explosion at Okayama shrine

OKAYAMA - Twelve people were injured Sunday when a firework rocket exploded near the ground during a festival at a shrine in Okayama Prefecture, police said.
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2000

Hatoyama calls for 'national forces'

Yukio Hatoyama, leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, on Sunday said that the Constitution should provide for "national forces" rather than "self-defense" services.
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2000

Rail firms to beef up mobile-phone ban

A Tokyo subway operator and six major private railway firms plan to launch a joint campaign today to stress their ban on mobile-phone use in trains during rush hour, due to the danger of interference with pacemakers, the companies announced Sunday.
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2000

Japan eyes wider role in war games

Japan will try to persuade its allies to let it participate more in multilateral military drills in the Asia-Pacific region despite the limitations imposed on its forces by the Constitution, Defense Agency sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2000

Court asked to settle H-II rocket bill

In a rare move, the National Space Development Agency of Japan is requesting court arbitration to settle the bill for the failed launch last November of an H-II rocket, NASDA officials said Sunday.
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2000

Zhu backs Doi's plan

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji on Sunday expressed support for a nuclear weapons-free Northeast Asia, a plan proposed by Japan's Social Democratic Party.
COMMENTARY
Oct 16, 2000

Reorganization isn't reform

Japan's central bureaucracy will be reorganized, effective Jan. 6, to mark the start of a new administrative system. The reform will have significant influence on local governments and the public, too. It is part of efforts to restructure Japanese society, which has been bound by webs of restrictions...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 16, 2000

Globalization proves a taxing issue

Listening to the bureaucrats at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and in other transnational organizations like the European Union, it appears that the most pressing issues about globalization is the impact upon governments' ability to collect taxes. Of course, these international...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 16, 2000

The Net surviving in China

CAMBRIDGE, England -- China is in the process of establishing the rule of law. Not common law as in England or civil law as in most other countries, but socialist law. The basic difference between socialist law and other forms of law, it seems from recent practice, is that only the Chinese Communist...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 16, 2000

South Korea grapples with rapprochement

SEOUL -- Some days ago I received an e-mail from a friend I hadn't heard from for a while, who teaches North Korean affairs at one of the major universities in Seoul. "I am worried," he wrote. "This is not a good time for South Korean scholars dealing with North Korea to express their views freely."...
COMMUNITY
Oct 16, 2000

Tasty seeds have hidden health benefits

Sprinkled on hamburger buns, bagels and cooked vegetables, sesame seeds add extra zest with their nutty flavor. Recent research has found, however, that there is much more to the humble sesame seed than just its good taste.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 16, 2000

Halard-Decugis, Schalken claim Japan Open tennis titles

It was death by a thousand cuts or, to put it another way, victory by a thousand errors.
EDITORIALS
Oct 15, 2000

Turning the clock back

The Middle East continues its descent into violence. The immediate task is ending the bloodshed that has occurred throughout Palestinian territory and restoring order. The question hovering over the carnage is whether the peace process can be resurrected. Nearly 100 people have been killed in a little...
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2000

Search for Blackman clues moves to beach

Police searched a beach in Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture Saturday in connection with the case of missing British bar hostess Lucie Blackman, who disappeared in July.
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2000

Strong links crucial to Asia stability: Zhu

Visiting Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji said Saturday that ties between China and Japan are crucial to peace and security in northeast Asia, according to Japanese government officials.
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2000

Ministries at odds on greenhouse gas

The Environment Agency and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry are at odds on how to handle junked automobile air conditioners and the ozone-depleting greenhouse gases they contain, sources said.
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2000

BOJ tour aims to educate the public

KOBE -- Some words of advice for those who dream of laying their hands on 100 million yen -- don't spend money on lottery tickets, just join a tour organized by the Bank of Japan's Kobe branch.
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2000

Dioxin in mother can shrink son's prostate gland: report

Even minute quantities of dioxin in a pregnant woman may cause shrinkage of her son's prostate gland and weaken his immune system, according to the results of recent experiments on rats conducted by a Japanese scientist.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 15, 2000

Former Carp farmhand making impact with Mets

It's always nice to see a player from Japan make it in the major leagues, whether it be a Japanese pitcher such as Hideo Nomo or Kazuhiro Sasaki, or a foreigner such as Matt Stairs, Rob Ducey or Lee Stevens getting another shot at the Bigs after spending time in the Central or Pacific Leagues in Dai...

Longform

Capsule hotels were created as a way to deal with the amount of overwork employees tend to do in Japan. Can't commute home? Then spend the night in an tiny, affordable sleeping space.
Japan wakes up to the market for a proper sleep