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LIFE / Travel
Apr 3, 2000

Up close and personal with wildlife

HOEDSPRUIT, South Africa -- There are lots of animals inside fenced enclosures at Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, but the education in wildlife one gets here is very different from what one gets at a zoo. A few hours visiting with the very knowledgeable and dedicated staff and the animals...
COMMENTARY
Apr 3, 2000

Readying for future warfare

LONDON -- Could the Cold War be about to begin all over again? That is the gloomy question being asked by a number of defense analysts and gurus as they contemplate a possible decision this summer by outgoing U.S. President Bill Clinton to give the go-ahead for a new National Missile Defense system for...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2000

United Nations takes Australia to task

SYDNEY -- Oh, the disgrace of it. Just as we were on our best behavior to receive the queen, the United Nations had to go and tell the whole world that Australia's treatment of its Aborigines is discriminatory and unsatisfactory.
EDITORIALS
Apr 2, 2000

The sense of taking leave

You have to feel a spark of sympathy for British first lady Cherie Blair. Never having sought the spotlight herself, she was in it anyway, as the wife of the prime minister -- although she managed to avoid the worst of the glare by focusing on her legal career and her three children. But the wattage...
SOCCER / J. League
Apr 2, 2000

Troussier clears the air with JFA

Japan coach Philippe Troussier apologized for criticizing the Japan Football Association in midweek when he met senior JFA official Kunishige Kamamoto for clear-the-air talks Friday.
COMMUNITY
Apr 2, 2000

Museum strives to keep kanji alive

KYOTO -- With the spread of word processors and computers, more and more Japanese are forgetting kanji. In an effort to curb this trend and increase interest in the characters, the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation in Shimogyo Ward here will open a kanji museum Monday.
SOCCER / J. League
Apr 2, 2000

FC Tokyo loses tough one in extra time

KASHIWA, Chiba Pref. -- J. League Division One debutant FC Tokyo's winning streak ended at three matches after losing to Kashiwa Reysol 3-2 in extra time on South Korea international Hong Myung Bo's controversial goal Saturday at Kashiwa-no-ha Stadium.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 2, 2000

IPO's Tokyo performance unforgettable and provocative

Israel Philharmonic Orchestra: Feb. 23, Zubin Mehta conducting in Suntory Hall -- Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21 (Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770-1827); Symphony No. 4 in E-flat Major "Romantic" (Josef Anton Bruckner, 1824-96)
COMMUNITY
Apr 2, 2000

Europe cheese fan driving wedge into parochial taste buds

OSAKA -- It was love at first bite when Hisaji Taketomo discovered the joy of European cheese more than 20 years ago.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2000

Clinton wins a C grade in South Asia

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- U.S. President Bill Clinton's recent visit to South Asia had both positive and negative moments.
COMMUNITY
Apr 2, 2000

Activist monthly comes to Japan

When Caitlin Stronell first came to Japan in 1984 to spend a year in Tochigi Prefecture, her father gave her a subscription to the U.K. cooperatively produced monthly magazine New Internationalist. "He thought it'd keep me in touch with social and political activism in the rest of the world, while giving...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 2, 2000

Benchapa Krairiksh

This year's Asian Festival charity bazaar, organized by the Asian Ladies Friendship Society, will be held April 27. Benchapa Krairiksh, wife of the ambassador of Thailand to Japan, says she is "honored and delighted to serve as chairperson of the festival in the year 2000."
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Apr 2, 2000

Time traveling

There have been many observations about nostalgia. Nostalgia's not what it used to be, There's no "stalgia" like nostalgia -- but nostalgia is where I am today. I have just returned from three weeks in California, and it is a nostalgia mix, what I have left behind, what I have gained, from living so...
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 2, 2000

Lions open season with late win

TOKOROZAWA, Saitama Pref. -- It's too early to say it's the sophomore jinx, but for the second day in a row, last season's Rookie of the Year couldn't win a 2000 season opener.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 2, 2000

Parisian revolution in graphic art

Fashionable and pretty, a shapely young woman lifts her long skirts above the pavement, stranded by puddles of rain. In 1893 it was irresistible, and on the strength of this one print alone a hundred middle-class Parisians bought the first issue of l'Estampe originale. This was a novel project by the...
EDITORIALS
Apr 1, 2000

Tokyo's new tax raises big questions

The tax debate sparked by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara has reached a milestone now that the metropolitan assembly has almost unanimously approved his plan to impose a new asset-based tax on large banks operating in the capital. The bank tax, which is good for five years and replaces the current business...
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 1, 2000

BayStars open 2000 with a bang

YOKOHAMA -- The Yokohama BayStars began the post-Kazuhiro Sasaki era with a bang on Friday night, opening the 2000 season with a 7-6 victory over the Hanshin Tigers in 11 innings before a capacity crowd of 30,000 at Yokohama Stadium.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2000

Kim Dae Jung faces a crucial election

If South Korean parliamentary elections were to be held tomorrow instead of April 13, the party of President Kim Dae Jung would suffer a rude defeat, according to opinion polls.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Apr 1, 2000

Music for both young and old

Tokyo boasts several quality professional and amateur Western-style orchestras, as my colleague Robert Ryker keeps reminding us. The elite music schools of the nation's capital turn out highly competent piano, string and woodwind players who are active around the world. American pop songs are heard and...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 1, 2000

Nagoya-Boston Museum of Fine Arts

A portion of the 13th-century picture scroll depicting the Battle of Heiji will return to Japan for the first time in 17 years, to be shown at the Nagoya-Boston Museum of Fine Arts, April 11-May 7.
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 1, 2000

Something Royal this way comes

"Stars, hide your fires. Let not light see my black and deep desires." True to the play's dark imagery, the Royal Shakespeare Company's new production of "Macbeth" is steeped in visions of the night.
LIFE / Travel
Apr 1, 2000

English guide to Japan travel launched on Web

The Japan National Tourist Organization this week launched a powerful tool for English-speaking foreign visitors to Japan.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 1, 2000

Speed quits after 44 months on top

The teenage Okinawan pop group Speed dissolved Friday after three years and eight months in show business.
ENVIRONMENT
Apr 1, 2000

Magnolias thrive with sakura where once warriors bled

In late March when most deciduous trees are still bare, the buds of kobushi (Northern Japanese magnolia) shed their gray fur coats and burst into bloom. Each pure white flower has six petals faintly tinted pink peeping deep inside, sending forth a delicate fragrance. Farmers in northern Japan used its...
EDITORIALS
Mar 31, 2000

A good first choice from Mr. Chen

In a surprise move, Taiwan's president-elect, Mr. Chen Shui-bian, picked the current defense minister, Mr. Tang Fei, to serve as his prime minister. It is a good move: It ensures continuity in government, provides the new Cabinet with much-needed experience and will help reassure Chinese on both sides...
EDITORIALS
Mar 31, 2000

Familiar faces in a new Cabinet

In France, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin resorted to a compromise strategy in a Cabinet reshuffle announced earlier this week. Rattled by a series of missteps, Mr. Jospin needs to rebuild public confidence. To do so, he appointed two prominent rivals from his Socialist Party to key positions. It is a...
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 31, 2000

Cubs' catcher no ordinary Joe

Life has come full circle for Chicago Cubs catcher Joe Girardi and he seems pretty happy about it. The owner of three World Series rings -- earned during his last four seasons as a member of the New York Yankees -- Girardi is a profile in success.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 31, 2000

Feud between managers the talk of Tokyo

The cool relationship between New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine and Chicago Cubs skipper Don Baylor was the main topic of discussion Thursday as the two teams prepared for Game Two of their season-opening series in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2000

Factional fighting set to split Liberal Party

The Liberal Party, the smallest member of the ruling coalition, appears to be splitting up.
BUSINESS
Mar 31, 2000

2,582 guaranteed-loan recipients fail

The number of companies that went bankrupt despite taking advantage of a special public loan guarantee system for small and midsize firms introduced in October 1998 reached 2,582 at the end of February, according to data made available Thursday by Teikoku Databank.

Longform

Dul Saroth (left) and Soeum Samrach, deminers with the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority, practice using the Advanced Landmine Imaging System in Cambodia’s Siem Reap province in August.
The Japanese tech that could one day make Southeast Asia landmine-free