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ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Apr 19, 2000

Too harsh for humans, perfect for birds

Think of the automobile and which country comes to mind first? America, of course.
EDITORIALS
Apr 18, 2000

Drawing the line in Peru

In most countries, a runoff ballot in a presidential election is unwelcome. It means the public is divided, and it delays the crucial business of putting together a government. In Peru's case, news of a runoff is a positive sign. It means that President Alberto Fujimori is heeding the concerns of international...
MORE SPORTS
Apr 18, 2000

Cowboys-Falcons tilt set for Tokyo Dome

The five-time Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys make their second appearance in Japan when they take on the Atlanta Falcons on Aug. 6 at the Tokyo Dome in NFL Tokyo 2000, a National Football League international preseason game which was formerly known as the American Bowl.
COMMUNITY
Apr 18, 2000

Japanese maps Mayan shamanism

As a university student in the early 1970s, little did Katsuyoshi Sanematsu know that picking up a Carlos Castaneda book would propel him on a nearly three-decade odyssey culminating in the publication this month of the first exhaustive account of Mayan shamanism by a Japanese scholar.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 18, 2000

The art of hearing what lies behind words

HEART OF BAMBOO: Poetry and Music in the Zen Tradition, by Sam Hamill, Elizabeth Falconer, Christopher Yohmei Blasdel. CD and Listener's Guide (32 pp.), Copper Canyon Press, 1999; $12. "The roots of poetry inevitably return us to music," Sam Hamill writes in "Listening in the Zen Tradition," one of...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 18, 2000

Reflective poems from well-lived lives

IN THE NINTH DECADE, by Edith Shiffert, distributed by Katsura Press, P.O. Box 275, Lake Oswego, OR 97034, USA, 1999; 78 pp., $14.95. KOMAGANE POEMS, by David Mayer, SVD, Techny Mission Books, Divine Word Missionaries, The Mission Center, Techny, Illinois, 1999; 93 pages, unpriced. "In the Ninth Decade"...
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 18, 2000

Festival of fools makes its Tokyo debut

In Europe, clown and mime performances have always been acknowledged as respected forms of entertainment, with some countries even establishing national circus schools. These types of entertainment have never enjoyed the same level of recognition in Japan, however, where clowning and mime have traditionally...
MORE SPORTS
Apr 18, 2000

Cowboys star Emmitt Smith running after NFL records

Nobody will argue that Emmitt Smith of the Dallas Cowboys is one of the premier running backs in National Football League history.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Apr 18, 2000

Heaven knows it's miserable with psyche-scarring Neurosis

Waking up to find Tokyo's governor is a racist pig is a little unnerving, especially if you are foreigner scum like me who at the first rumble of an earthquake will be out on the streets raping schoolgirls, pillaging sushi shops and torturing puppy dogs.
EDITORIALS
Apr 18, 2000

Help for the neediest

In a change of position, the Japanese government last week announced that it would forgive 100 percent of the debt owed to it by the world's poorest countries. The news is welcome: The countries involved are in desperate straits. But reports that accepting the offer would mean forfeiting future assistance...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 18, 2000

Lessons of the Nanjing debate

THE NANJING MASSACRE IN HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY, edited by Joshua Fogel. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000; 238 pp, $49 (cloth), $15.98 (paper). Did the Nanjing Massacre really happen? In a review of Katsuichi Honda's excellent book on this subject last year ("The Nanjing Massacre:...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2000

Living in a high-tech world

Trading in the shares of Internet-related venture businesses is booming on the Japanese stock market. The media are full of reports on information technology and Internet-based e-commerce. Computer and telecommunications technologies are bringing revolutionary changes to society, but Japan and the United...
EDITORIALS
Apr 17, 2000

URL burial is grave news

Is there anyone who still really thinks the Internet is not transforming the world -- or at least those spreading patches of the planet that are connected to it? Every day, some new swath of mental territory falls prey to the Web, as if a gigantic, benevolent spider had suddenly taken control of humanity...
COMMENTARY
Apr 17, 2000

Time for a grand strategy

The new Cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori should start mapping out a grand design for Japan's national-security policies for the first half of the 21st century.
ENVIRONMENT
Apr 17, 2000

Germinating a new attitude toward brown rice

A new way of eating rice may revolutionize the Japanese diet in the next century.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2000

Alternative nuclear futures

The world community will gather in New York from April 24 to May 19 for the first review of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty since it was indefinitely extended in 1995. Unfortunately, the nuclear future looks a lot less rosy than it did five years ago. Since then, India and Pakistan have crashed through...
ENVIRONMENT
Apr 17, 2000

Southern white rhino comes back

HLUHLUWE-UMFOLOZI, South Africa -- The ample white rhino sighted on a visit to Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park might lead one to believe that they are plentiful in the wild.
MORE SPORTS
Apr 17, 2000

Backwell wins Tsuruya Open in playoff

Australian Richard Backwell captured his first title in eight years on the Japanese pro tour Sunday, defeating Hidemichi Tanaka in a playoff to win the 100 million yen Tsuruya Open golf tournament. Backwell rolled in a par putt on the fourth extra hole at the Sports Shinko Country Club to pocket the...
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 17, 2000

Giants alone atop CL

Domingo Martinez smacked a three-run clout and the Yomiuri Giants held on for a 6-4 victory over the Yokohama BayStars to move atop the standings in the Central League on Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2000

China clamps down on Hong Kong press

SYDNEY -- While the rest of the world debates the terms under which they might engage China, Beijing is busy trampling on its agreement with the British over Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty. In the handover agreement, both parties agreed upon Hong Kong's mini-constitution, the Basic Law, as...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 17, 2000

Chance meeting provides valuable insights on Japan and environment

In early April I had a chance to meet with Rea Litty, an environmentalist from the Netherlands, and Fushi Zen, president of the Association for the Conservation of Humans Against the Natural Environment, and former director of Humans First!
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 16, 2000

Kiyohara engaged

Yomiuri Giants slugger Kazuhiro Kiyohara, whose exploits as a bachelor have been followed closely by the media, is finally planning to tie the knot. He's engaged to 31-year-old model Aki Kimura, sources close to the veteran infielder said Saturday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 16, 2000

Giants tied for CL lead after beating 'Stars 4-3

Yomiuri right fielder Yoshinobu Takahashi belted a two-run come-from-behind blast in the sixth inning to lift the Giants over the Yokohama BayStars 4-3 at the Tokyo Dome on Saturday.
SOCCER / J. League
Apr 16, 2000

Edmilson helps Marinos win

YOKOHAMA -- Brazilian forward Edmilson celebrated his debut with Yokohama by scoring a second-half goal and South Korean forward Yoo Sang Chul added another in the F. Marinos' 2-0 win over Nagoya Grampus Eight in Division One action Saturday at Yokohama International Stadium.
COMMENTARY
Apr 16, 2000

A challenge to democracies

Democracies pride themselves on their efficient transfer of power from one elected leader to the next. But death or disability can strike a leader and cause immediate crisis.
EDITORIALS
Apr 16, 2000

When the safety net breaks down

In what has regrettably become a matter of routine recently, a senior regional police official has again publicly apologized for the ineffective handling by local police of a major case of alleged criminal activity. The latest instance involves the slowness of the Aichi Prefectural Police to begin investigating...
COMMUNITY
Apr 16, 2000

Learn to draw on the right side

Once upon a time, there was a Japanese salaryman who truly believed he was 100 percent uncreative. Then he took an intensive workshop in Tokyo called "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" with an American teacher named Kristin Newton. Every evening he returned home, moved beyond words to discover...
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Apr 16, 2000

The silken soul of modern poetry in Japan

At the Power of the Spoken Word reading at Ben's Cafe last month, Yasuo Fujitomi, John Solt, Masafumi Suzuki and Misako Yarita read from their works. Scholar and poet Fujitomi read from poems published in his CD of the highmoonoon spoken literature series, "whatnever" (3,500 yen), a sophisticated production...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 16, 2000

Picasso, magic and childhood

You may not like Picasso very much. You may even agree with the American who said, "If I can do it, it ain't art!" But you would have to be very thick-skinned to remain unmoved by "Picasso's World of Children."
CULTURE / Music
Apr 16, 2000

When is a concert not a concert?

Many concert programs follow the standard format familiar to concertgoers everywhere: overture, concerto, intermission, symphony. It's not the only way to arrange a program, but it's the commonest.

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