search

 
 
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 8, 2000

Plenty to get antsy about at your local bank

Today we will examine something I refer to as Anthill Economics. The other day when I entered the local anthill, i.e., the bank, the usual staff of 33 employees greeted me. The most customers I've ever seen inside the bank is 10, but that's not the point. The anthill employs as many ants as possible...
CULTURE / Art
Oct 8, 2000

History and literature both enrobed

It is a mystery. How people took threads of silk and steeped them in poetry, passion and pride. How the line between art and life blurred in the weaver's hands. How, in short, Japanese artisans created garments that went far beyond fashion to enter the timeless realm of beauty.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Oct 8, 2000

Toru Hirota

For the cover of its catalog for this year's 45th annual print show, the College Women's Association of Japan chose a print with a musical theme. "Polonaise Fantasy" depicts miniature cyclists and runners racing over a fanciful keyboard against a back cloth of an even more fanciful musical score. "I...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 2000

Localities urge Tokyo to lead on suffrage issue

Almost 50 percent of major municipalities believe the central government should determine whether foreigners are granted suffrage in local elections rather than leaving the decision to local authorities, a Kyodo News survey said Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 8, 2000

Bush's energy plan is a lot of hot air

Another day, another energy plan. On Sept. 29, Texas Gov. George W. Bush rolled out his third (by my count) action plan for reducing high energy prices. It's basically plan No. 2 modified with a handful of bad ideas borrowed from Vice President Al Gore: additional tax credits for renewable energy and...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 8, 2000

Can Arafat turn Mideast violence to good?

BEIRUT -- With a few exceptions, the Israelis contend that the bloody tumult in Israel and the occupied territory has been instigated and stage-managed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as a means of strengthening his hand in the faltering peace process.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 8, 2000

La Scala: Get what you pay for

One might well think that 58,000 yen is an excessive amount to ask for a single seat in Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, even for grand opera.
COMMENTARY
Oct 8, 2000

The Japanese people really are different

This year there were two Olympics. One was for the world generally. The other was for Japan, with audiences glued to events where hysterical announcers could declare a Japanese victory.
JAPAN
Oct 8, 2000

China's Zhu to talk with Japanese for the cameras

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji will appear on a special program to be aired by Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. during his six-day visit to Japan that begins Thursday, TBS officials said Saturday.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 8, 2000

Curator takes the J-way to Stockholm

"The J-Way" sounds like another example of Japanese-English, but if you thought so, like me, you would be mistaken. It is, in fact, the title of a high-octane exhibition of over 40 Japanese artists that was held Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at the Lydmar Hotel in Stockholm.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 7, 2000

Daiei blows it again; Lions stay in the hunt

Kiyoshi Hatsushiba helped put on hold the Daiei Hawks' title celebration for the second straight night as his tie-breaking homer lifted the Lotte Marines to a 5-4 victory over the Pacific League leaders on Friday at Chiba Marine Stadium.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2000

Better links to Pyongyang seen if Tokyo and Seoul get closer

One of the winners of this year's Japan Foundation Award said he hopes promoting closer ties between South Korea and Japan will also lead to stronger links between Tokyo and Pyongyang.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 7, 2000

Catching up on Japanese baseball

With the Sydney Olympics now history, let's take a look at what happened in Japanese pro baseball while most of the sports world focused its attention on Australia and the Summer Games.
EDITORIALS
Oct 7, 2000

The U.S. gets a real choice

There are complaints aplenty about U.S. politics, but the first debate between this year's presidential candidates was a reminder of what is right with the system. Rarely do voters anywhere have the opportunity to see their candidates square off and discuss issues in an intelligent and direct manner....
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2000

Panel eyes reform of state-conferred honors system

A government panel has proposed that the state-conferred decoration system be simplified and the government address the fact that more honors go to people in the public sector than in the private sector, government officials said.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2000

KSD probed in breach of clients' trust

Tokyo public prosecutors launched an investigation Friday into an alleged breach-of-trust case involving the head of a Tokyo-based mutual aid organization for small enterprises.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2000

Magnitude 7.3 quake rocks western Japan

A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 hit the Chugoku region near the Sea of Japan coast in western Japan at 1:30 p.m. Friday, injuring at least 34 people and damaging several buildings, the Meteorological Agency and police said.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2000

State files a new appeal to avoid pollution redress

OSAKA -- The government filed a request Friday with the Osaka High Court, in an effort to reopen an appeal which resulted in a lower court ruling that the state and a highway operator pay compensation to residents of Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, for air polluted by vehicle exhaust emissions.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2000

Emergency voice-mail set up

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone West Corp. said Friday it has set up an emergency voice-mail service for people worried about friends and family in regions of western Japan affected by a powerful earthquake earlier in the day.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2000

Japan to give Pyongyang rice aid despite kidnap claims

The government on Friday officially announced plans to send 500,000 tons of rice as additional food aid to North Korea.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2000

Osaka seeks interpreters for hospitals

OSAKA -- Osaka Prefecture will take steps to increase the number of volunteer interpreters at its hospitals in an effort to better deal with the variety of foreign languages spoken by patients, it was learned Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2000

Classroom rankings could go

An Education Ministry panel proposed Friday that elementary and junior high schools scrap relative ranking of students' academic achievements within a classroom in favor of absolute criteria.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2000

Coast guard red-faced over dent

The pride of the Japan Coast Guard was dented Friday when one of its patrol boats took on water after colliding with a much smaller fishing boat in calm water and with good visibility.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 7, 2000

Ten of the best from Australia

Australian Nicola Townsend's Nanpeidai apartment looks different from my last visit. The furniture is the same, but there is a subtle change in the atmosphere and light. Then I realize that it's the paintings. After a sell-out show of works from her native soil earlier this year, the independent curator...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Oct 7, 2000

Tales of romance and bloodshed come alive in Shinnai song

Some of the performing arts of Japan are so spectacular that they grab your attention and immediately make you feel a part of the music. Taiko drumming is one; rhythm speaks directly to our bodies, and the beating of a stick on a drum has a physical appeal to all, regardless of language or culture.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2000

Agency to target whale poaching with revised rules

The Fisheries Agency will clamp down on the possession and sale of illegal whale meat by revising regulations to impose fines and prison sentences amid criticism that poached whale meat is being sold in Japan, sources said Friday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Oct 7, 2000

And now, the green peril?

Today, the green banner of Islam inspires almost as much fear as the red Soviet flag did several decades ago. This fear is not entirely unjustified. Of course, it would be silly to label Muslim culture "aggressive" or "intolerant"; yet too many acts of aggression and intolerance have been conducted under...
MORE SPORTS
Oct 7, 2000

Purple princess outdukes Dokic

Serena Williams might aspire to be the queen of women's tennis, but for now she's merely aiming to be a Toyota Princess.

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