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LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 12, 1999

What's in store

Everyone in my family is in retail, except me -- unless you consider this journalism gig equivalent to selling snake oil. My mother and sisters have run wearable-art galleries and design-centered shops for a couple of decades, and they seem to be pretty good at it. They travel around the United States...
COMMENTARY
May 8, 1999

Hope returns to Lebanon

LONDON -- While the lights go out and buildings collapse in one great European city -- the Serbian capital, Belgrade -- some 1,500 km to the east, in another once war-ravaged metropolis, a glittering reconstruction obliterates the recent past.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
May 8, 1999

Kawai exhibit shows grace under fire

The term mingei (folk art) was coined by Soetsu Yanagi in 1926 to refer to common crafts that had been brushed aside and overlooked by the industrial revolution.
JAPAN
May 6, 1999

Dioxin: Seveso disaster testament to effects of dioxin

Third in a series
COMMENTARY
May 5, 1999

Hold off on U.S.-style layoffs

Japan's big businesses once had a reputation for not firing workers even in hard times. Not anymore. Now major corporations are going full blast to restructure, with older workers bearing the brunt of the austerity drive. The lifetime employment system, once touted as a symbol of corporate Japan, is...
JAPAN
May 4, 1999

Dioxin: Proximity to Tokyo dooms Tokorozawa

Second in a seriesStaff writer
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 1999

Cultural understanding holds the key

In a recent article in The Japan Times, former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa dealt with a topic rather unusual for a politician: the importance of culture and the awareness of it in post-1970s Japan. I endorse his view wholeheartedly. A few years ago I wrote similar thoughts in one of the first articles...
COMMUNITY
May 2, 1999

Relaxation therapy for busy people

Shiatsu, acupuncture and moxibustion are for older men -- at least, that's what was believed.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 2, 1999

A remarkable lady

There should be trumpets. On May 8 at 10 a.m., Music for Youth will celebrate its 60th anniversary. The program with the New Japan Philharmonic will repeat MFY's first concert in 1939, which was designed to help young people enjoy and appreciate classical music. In this program, Schubert's "March Militaire"...
EDITORIALS
Apr 29, 1999

Break the stalemate with Russia

During a recent meeting in Moscow, former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and Russian President Boris Yeltsin reaffirmed a 1997 Russo-Japanese agreement that the two nations will do their utmost to sign a long-pending peace treaty by 2000. Mr. Hashimoto, who enjoys a close personal relationship with...
LIFE / Travel
Apr 29, 1999

Humanities offer power to the people

SEATTLE -- Journalist and author Earl Shorris believes the real difference between the haves and have-nots is political power.
LIFE / Style & Design / BEAUTY EAST AND WEST
Apr 29, 1999

Wake up and smell the roses with refreshing floral remedies

It's spring, and springtime means flowers, blossoms and blooms. Today we'll devote this column to a beauty-and-health celebration of spring flora, with a sweet-scented selection of recipes with which to make yourself happier, healthier and more lovely.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 25, 1999

Shake and bake with Guido's kitchen aerobics

There's a little man inside my oven. I call him Guido. He lives in the LCD display on my new Sharp convection oven. Guido can do all sorts of things, such as juggle apples, chop giant radishes and do aerobics. Guido has become my kitchen aerobics partner.
CULTURE / Art / ARTS AND ARTISANS
Apr 24, 1999

Combing through antiquity for quality

Unlike in those days when everyone wore kimono, Tsutomu Takeuchi's customers today are somewhat limited in number: hairdressers for sumo wrestlers, theatrical coiffeurs and makers of Japanese coiffure bridal wigs, and a few longtime aficionados.
EDITORIALS
Apr 18, 1999

Goodbye to all that

Sometimes -- make that usually -- the range of rational reactions to life on this planet seems dismally narrow, beginning with bafflement, passing through exasperation and rage, and ending in sorrow. We may distract or console ourselves with the doings of babies and small animals, the pleasures of music...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 1999

Silicone Valley clones lack the right stuff

All over Asia, governments are trying to replicate California's Silicon Valley. Each of the projects, so far, is a failure. The main reason for the failure is that Asian leaders have not yet realized that it takes more than a plot of land, an impressive budget, a graduating class of computer engineers...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 1999

Mortality caught in the blink of a shutter

Death. We don't like it, but sooner or later we all have to face it. British photographer Cesca Sims, however, has been looking it straight in the eye (through the lens of her camera) ever since she began shooting. Her first major exhibition was set in Canterbury Prison, Kent, and narrated by snippets...
LIFE / Travel
Apr 15, 1999

Healing society's ills from the roots up

BANGKOK -- As Thailand rapidly converts from agrarian state to economic dragon, a growing number of Thai people are looking for solutions to modern society's own brand of ills. The Bangkok-based Spirit in Education Movement (SEM) points to the country's traditional Buddhist roots for answers.
JAPAN
Apr 14, 1999

Miyazawa shrugs off dying support for debt scheme

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa on Wednesday played down the eroding enthusiasm within the private sector toward a debt-for-equity scheme that would help industries out from under mountains of debt.
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Apr 13, 1999

A Japanese musician's songs in 'The Homes of Donegal'

Hiroshi Yamaguchi of the group Heat Wave looks like any other worker at his manager's office. He sits at a desk, busily working away on a computer. After a few words, however, it's clear he could never be just any other worker. "I hate it here," he half confesses, half jokes. "I've never had to come...
CULTURE / Art / ARTS AND ARTISANS
Apr 10, 1999

The cutting edge of artisanship

Edo-kiriko craftsman Shuseki Suda does not blink while engraving intricate lines on the surface of glassware. Sometimes he can even keep his eyes open as long as five minutes.
COMMENTARY
Apr 9, 1999

Zhu's U.S. visit kicks off strategic dialogue

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji came to Washington at the worst possible time, what with the current anti-China feeding frenzy in the press and on Capitol Hill. China's recent spate of human-rights violations and alleged espionage activities have made it open season on China -- "innocent until proven guilty"...
EDITORIALS
Apr 8, 1999

A reprieve, not a recovery

There are growing signs that Japan's protracted economic slump may be finally coming to an end. Fiscal and monetary measures for recovery are already in place. The fiscal 1999 government budget, with its large public-works outlays and tax cuts, has cleared the Diet ahead of schedule. The Bank of Japan,...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Apr 8, 1999

Soaking up the atmosphere enhances the sake experience

Sake pubs tend to have certain similarities of theme running through them. Whether it be a modern expression of these threaded themes or a more classical version, the look, feel and menu are often not all that different. While it all works for a reason, over the last few years there has been a trend...
LIFE / Travel
Apr 7, 1999

Preserving a pocket of Fiji

LEVUKA, Fiji -- Thirteen-year-old Una Turaganicolo's strong, clear voice filled her family's timber-frame home, rising to the corrugated roof visible through the rafters. Her sister, Rose, hummed along as she battled with her math homework by the light of a flickering candle.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 1999

The autonomy imperative

In these post-Cold War days, the governments of the United States and its allies still routinely expose their citizens to the risks of death and destruction in the name of national security. The people of northern Italy complained for years about low-flying U.S. military aircraft, but Rome simply ignored...
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Apr 2, 1999

Sonic adventures in mixed media

Samm Bennett's ideal record store would be organized alphabetically, each floor dedicated to a segment of the alphabet rather than a particular musical genre. This would be perhaps the only way of finding all of his work in the same place.
COMMUNITY
Apr 1, 1999

Study shows boiled rice main cause of cancer

April Fool! In Japan, April 1 is a day of beginnings and renewals, a sort of second New Year's. It's the first day of a new school year; and the start of careers for newly hired graduates. It's also the start of a new fiscal year in business. For Japanese baseball fans, April 1 is the first day of regular...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 1, 1999

Can the education escalator be derailed?

There's a debate going on in government and in the media about revising the Japanese system of education. The forces for change want to do away with rote, test-based instruction, which they blame for all the youth-related problems we read about now, and replace it with something more individual-oriented...
JAPAN
Mar 25, 1999

Local Elections '99: Showdown in cash-dry Tokyo

Staff writer

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?