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COMMUNITY / How-tos
Mar 19, 2000

Getting away

A gentleman asks about shipping a four-wheel-drive car to Namibia on the southwest coast of Africa. The most appealing way would be to ship it first to Cape Town and then drive it to Namibia. I remember a visit to Cape Town a number of years ago, where a former Tokyo resident told me of the elephants...
CULTURE / Art
Mar 19, 2000

Feeling the past through your skin

How can we be intimate with the past? Human beings have always yearned to know the ways and feelings of those who came before. History books, old folk music, paintings and petroglyphs: All of these tell us about how our ancestors thought and felt. For textile craftswoman Eiko Noda, the way to feel what...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2000

Japan, human rights and the WTO

The 135-member World Trade Organization has announced that it will start global negotiations on trade in agriculture beginning March 20. There is yet to be agreement on the negotiating format, scope of discussions and time frame. But we do know the talks will take years -- and that they will be very...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2000

Taiwan goes to the polls at a critical time

Four years ago, Taiwanese cast votes in the island's first ever direct presidential election as China lobbed missiles into the Taiwan Strait. This time around, the fireworks are coming not from the Chinese mainland, but from a three-way, neck-and-neck race that has Taiwan's ruling Nationalist Party (KMT)...
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 18, 2000

Rules said key to easing modified-food fear

MAKUHARI, Chiba Pref. -- As the trade in biotechnology-derived foods increases, consumer concerns over the safety of such foods are growing.
EDITORIALS
Mar 17, 2000

Even recovery will be painful

The Japanese economy faces a bumpy road. Japan's gross domestic product in the last quarter of 1999, October through December, shrank 1.4 percent from the previous three-month period, posting negative growth for two straight quarters. In annual terms, that works out to minus 5.5 percent, according to...
COMMUNITY
Mar 17, 2000

Lighting life's gloom with the gem of joy

While sitting in the shadow of death, which one does daily amid the troubles and tribulations of this world, I mused anew upon some phases of human life. In my ponderings, I seemed to hear a voice within declare, "Life is simply a mauvais quart d'heure (wretched quarter of an hour) made up of exquisite...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2000

Clinton comes to India, though somewhat too late

NEW DELHI -- U.S. President Bill Clinton arrives in India on Sunday, the region that he recently termed the most dangerous place on Earth. There may be an element of truth in that.
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2000

Central Asian states to meet in Sapporo

Ministerial-level officials from five former Soviet republics in Central Asia will meet in Sapporo, probably early next month, for what Japan hopes will be the last round of negotiations on a treaty creating a nuclear weapons-free zone in the region.
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2000

Man held over fatal stabbing that mimicked Kyoto killing

OSAKA -- A 23-year-old unemployed man has been arrested on suspicion of randomly stabbing to death a passerby on a street in Moriguchi, Osaka Prefecture, police said Wednesday.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Mar 16, 2000

NBA meets 'The Truman Show'

"And for tonight's halftime entertainment, Marv, let's go to the Blazers locker room and catch a glimpse of Detlef Schrempf undressing."
LIFE / Style & Design
Mar 16, 2000

Want to know your fortune? Go fish

In the West you might scan your tea leaves for a peek at what the future may hold, but in Japan you are more likely to grab your chopsticks (OK, mouse) for the latest craze -- sushi fortunetelling.
LIFE
Mar 16, 2000

Slowing down to the pace of nature

When he first came to Rebun Island, wilderness guide and temple carpenter Miyuki Kobayashi was struck speechless with the natural pageantry before his eyes.
JAPAN / Media
Mar 16, 2000

Mercian salutes cluelessness with New Frontier awards

Spring is in the air, and a young publicist's thoughts turn to awards ceremonies. Across the sea, we've seen the Golden Globes and the Grammys, and at the end of the month there's the Oscars.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 15, 2000

Wild animal tales -- with a pinch of salt

The image of wild animals visiting a salt lick is probably a familiar one to you if you are a regular watcher of television natural history documentaries. The scene is repeated over and over again, as large African or Indian mammals approach this particularly rich source of minerals.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 14, 2000

Celtic music takes a sure-footed stand in Tokyo

For anyone interested in "world music," gigs in Japan have been comparatively thin on the ground during the last five years or so, compared to the first years of the '90s. This is a situation that is perhaps set to change.
SUMO
Mar 12, 2000

Osaka to see yokozuna battle

For the first time ever, the four current yokozuna -- Takanohana, Akebono, Musashimaru and Wakanohana -- are expected to compete in the same basho when the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament (Haru Basho) gets under way in Osaka today.
COMMUNITY
Mar 12, 2000

Retailer joins big boys with Little Me for kids

If there was one thing Ron Kessler was sure of growing up in Chicago, he was not the corporate type. Yet surrounded by uncles in business, he really liked the idea of being an entrepreneur, working for himself. The irony, he said, is that "success forces you to become a manager. Starting up something...
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 12, 2000

Jubilo, Grampus crash in openers

J. League champions Jubilo Iwata, winners of the season-opening Xerox Super Cup last week, came down to Earth with a bump Saturday when they were beaten 1-0 in extra time at home to Kashiwa Reysol.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Mar 12, 2000

Day of reckoning

The question of sexual harassment -- "seku hara" -- has, after years of neglect, become one of the hottest media topics. Not that suddenly men are beginning to harass women. It is that women are making accusations while before many tended to view it as inevitable, something that went along with employment...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 12, 2000

NHK Symphony Orchestra performs American classics

The world of music is global indeed. Great musicians have originated from a bewildering array of places, studied far from home and made their careers around the world. The United States of America can claim its share of eminent instrumentalists and singers, giving birth to some, training others and nurturing...
EDITORIALS
Mar 11, 2000

La resistance is futile

Once again, France is attempting to draw a line in the sand against the encroaching tide of English. This time, reportedly, the language police are focusing on business and computer-related vocabulary. Marketplace and cyberspace must now be conceived of en francais, thank you, even if that means talking...
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2000

Aum cultists told to pay 668 million yen for attack

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday ordered former members of Aum Shinrikyo to pay a total of 668 million yen to survivors and the next of kin of those killed in the March 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system.
EDITORIALS
Mar 9, 2000

Pyongyang's intransigence must end

The Japanese government on Tuesday formally announced that it will provide 100,000 tons of rice to North Korea through the U.N. World Food Program. Japan is taking humanitarian action to follow up an agreement that the countries recently reached to resume the normalization talks -- which broke down in...
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
Mar 9, 2000

FIFA's unified calendar needs flexibility

The problem for people who come up with good ideas is that these pearls of wisdom are often put into practice by people with no idea.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 9, 2000

Adventures in global dining with Tokyo's restaurant king

From stand-and-slurp ramen shops to authentic French cuisine, Tokyo is a diner's paradise. Certainly, finding places that appeal to your palate isn't a problem; hoping they'll be there the next time around is. Tokyo restaurants go out of business faster than Shibuya girls change their nail colors.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 9, 2000

No stereotypes in 'the House of Weeds'

So you think Korean food is all smoky yakiniku, meat-laden stews and fiery, spicy kimchi? That's a bit like saying Chinese people eat nothing but ramen and gyoza; or that Thai cuisine begins and ends with tom yam kung. Or that there's nothing to eat in Japan except sushi, tempura and sukiyaki.
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2000

Life of North Korean spy laid bare

When Pak Chung Sun met her former boyfriend in Seoul in January, he was no longer the reticent, tender-hearted gentleman with whom she had lived a quarter of a century ago in Tokyo.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 8, 2000

The check's in the e-mail

My wallet bulges, but it isn't because of money. No, it is a hefty critter because it's stuffed with train passes, metro passes, telephone cards, bank cards, credit cards, ID cards, point cards for individual stores, video store cards, meishi from people and restaurants, and random scraps of paper littered...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2000

Educating girls means better lives for all

Shalina is a Bangladeshi girl who is about to finish school. But for Shalina, there will be no pre-exam jitters, no university applications, no diplomas, no career plans. There will not even be a graduation. Shalina is 13, and she is about to join 73 million school-age girls around the world who are...

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Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat