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CULTURE / Books
Jan 8, 2001

When two worlds collide

JAPAN AND THE DUTCH 1600-1853, by Grant K. Goodman. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2000, 304 pp., 40 pounds. Thanks to the Tokugawa shogunate's decision at the beginning of the 17th century to expel the Portuguese and other Christian missionaries who had started to meddle in Japanese affairs, the...
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2001

U.S. halted base cuts in '60s due to Soviet threat

The United States considered scaling down its military bases in Japan due to difficulties in deploying nuclear weapons here in 1962, but scrapped the idea because of fears of a nuclear war with its communist enemies, declassified U.S. government documents showed Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 29, 2000

Arms sales exacerbating global poverty

At the U.N. Millennium Summit held in September, world leaders pledged both to "free our peoples from the scourge of war, whether within or between states" and to halve global poverty by 2015.
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Dec 28, 2000

Terrific turkey dish fit for a robust red

Season's greetings as the Year of the Snake, 2001, prepares to slither in. By this time of year, some of us have eaten so much turkey in so many guises that we'd gladly throttle the next bird we see and pray for a fowl-free New Year. Banish the thought! Before you curse the very mention of roast fowl,...
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2000

Societal barriers facing disabled may prove the most formidable

As deputy chief of the Japanese delegation at the Sydney Paralympic Games this summer, Tsunenobu Wakana was impressed with the handicapped-friendly facilities and transportation system.
EDITORIALS
Dec 16, 2000

Draw the line at human clones

It all started with the announcement of the birth of Dolly the sheep, the first clone of an adult mammal, in February 1997. That breakthrough experiment has led to the cloning of cows and mice, creating the perception that humans might eventually also be cloned. The big challenge, of course, is drawing...
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2000

Monju touts safety campaign in restart bid

TSURUGA, Fukui Pref. -- Five years after a sodium leak and fire shut down the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor here, the battle over whether it should be put back into operation still rages.
COMMENTARY
Dec 3, 2000

Britons going nowhere fast

LONDON -- Is Britain in crisis? Many people think so, after a month in which large swathes of England have been inundated by filthy flood water. Television news showed comic snippets of boats in the streets rescuing old ladies and dogs, snaps of sturdy men and women counting their blessings as the flood...
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2000

Law permits SDF to inspect foreign ships in emergencies

The House of Councilors passed and enacted a number of bills Thursday, including one that allows Japanese authorities to inspect foreign vessels within or beyond its territorial waters as part of international economic sanctions and another outlawing human cloning.
JAPAN / FREEDOM OF PRESS IN THE BALANCE
Nov 29, 2000

Media considering best way to handle public's loss of faith

An amendment in June to Japan's 54-year-old Canon of Journalism apparently reflects the sense of crisis within the nation's news organizations over the apparent growing public dissatisfaction with the industry.
CULTURE / Art
Nov 15, 2000

Taking inspiration where you find it

TOKUSHIMA -- Californian furniture maker Cynthia Kingsbury works in a 100-year-old timber storage building at the foot of a lushly forested mountain in Tokushima Prefecture. Dried sticks are piled like kindling beneath her worktable. Her dog Tingi, a black Labrador-Doberman mix, is sprawled across a...
COMMUNITY
Nov 9, 2000

Dignity and happiness in the final stretch

Hokkaido, specifically the southern coastal area -- Hidaka, Niikappu, Shizunai, Urakawa -- comprises the breeding and training center of Japanese racing. Farms filled with stallions and broodmares, foals and youngsters dot the area.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Oct 25, 2000

Chrysanthemum by any other name

The chrysanthemum (kiku) is the seal of the Imperial family, and along with the cherry blossom (sakura) is symbolically used as the national flower by the Japanese people. Chrysanthemums have been cultivated in Japan since the Heian Period (794-1185). In the olden days autumn used to be called the "chrysanthemum...
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2000

How dead is dead enough?

The line between life and death has grown increasingly obscure in the United States, the world's most active organ-transplant community, as surgeons grapple with a delicate problem: Organs available for transplant may become less viable if pronouncement of a donor's death is delayed until death is beyond...
COMMUNITY
Oct 15, 2000

Honesty is JAL president's policy

Entranced by the view from the windows of an executive meeting room on the 24th floor of the headquarters of Japan Airlines in Tokyo's Tennozu Isle, I almost missed the entrance of JAL's president, Isao Kaneko. Luckily he is not the kind of man to take offense. Slightly built, in a pale gray suit, he...
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2000

Japan, U.S. forces to hold troop evacuation drill

Japan and the United States will hold their first joint evacuation of U.S. troops escaping from a battlefield in large-scale maneuvers in November, sources at the Self-Defense Forces said Monday.
COMMUNITY
Sep 24, 2000

Dog (paddle) days of summer in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO -- On a recent Saturday, BARK was working McCovey Cove, an inlet some 120 meters from home plate of the San Francisco Giants' new bayside ballpark.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 20, 2000

Taiwan is worthy of a place in the U.N.

The United Nations' Millennium Summit in New York, attended by about 150 heads of state and governments earlier this month, pledged to make globalization a positive force for all the people of the world. It published a list of central values for 21st-century international relations. It also admitted...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 19, 2000

Program laying groundwork to conserve rivers and trails

John Monroe jokingly refers to himself as a "conservation venture capitalist." Unlike most investment bankers, however, Monroe is investing for the long term.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Sep 6, 2000

The horror, the horror

We're back. Did you miss us? That question isn't the product of an (especially) insecure soul. I mean it.
BUSINESS
Aug 25, 2000

RCC waiving billions of yen in debts

The Resolution and Collection Corp. has given up its claims on loans worth dozens of billions of yen it inherited from failed financial institutions since its inception in April 1999, it was learned Thursday.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 16, 2000

China stays focused on the big picture

INTERPRETING CHINA'S GRAND STRATEGY: Past, Present, and Future, by Michael D. Swaine and Ashley J. Tellis. RAND 2000, Project Air Force, 2000, 283 pp., $35 (cloth), $20 (paper). Dealing with China is the chief foreign-policy challenge of the 21st century. Governments in Tokyo, Washington and elsewhere...
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2000

All must help clean the pork barrel

The government is planning to introduce a policy appraisal system in January in a move apparently aimed at cutting wasteful spending.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan