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LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Sep 20, 2000

I want my RTV

While on vacation in the States, I found myself watching the finale of "Survivor," the climax of a summer of reality TV. I could have turned it off. I could have returned to my book. But no. I had been (blissfully) ignorant of all that had gone on before, but that didn't matter. I watched both it and...
EDITORIALS
Sep 20, 2000

Changes in crime -- and punishment

Profound changes in the way Japan dispenses criminal justice are either forthcoming or under consideration. Many people are ready to accept changes, even to welcome some of them, given the rising tide of serious crimes by minors and an apparent breakdown in police discipline. Calls to ensure the rights...
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2000

Radio stargazer's key to quakes

Astronomer Yoshio Kushida believes he will receive forewarning should a major earthquake hit.
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.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Sep 19, 2000

Rockin' without fear or favor

I'm often asked what kind of misfits bother writing to Fuzzy Logic and what they say and as I'm busy lying on a beach in Thailand -- having my toes sucked by a bunch of cherry-lipped ladyboys while sipping a sexy cocktail and sucking on a big fat exotic stoogie -- I've decided to give you a few examples...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 19, 2000

Laos' fractured human map

LAO HILL TRIBES: Traditions and Patterns of Existence, by Stephen Mansfield. Images of Asia: Oxford University Press, 2000. 120 pp., 21 color plates, 24 monochrome, unpriced. In a sense, Laos remains closer to a conglomeration of tribes than it does to a conventional state composed of a unified people....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 17, 2000

Never enough thanks for living in Japan

Santi, a reader in the United States, will be moving to Japan soon. He wants to know how to prepare for living in Japan. Here are some of my suggestions for anyone who wants to acclimate quickly to life in Japan.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 17, 2000

Ted Turner

CNN says that for 20 years it has been bringing you the world. As the world's first 24-hour news network, it signed on the air in June 1980 to 1.7 million cable households in the U.S. Since then it has gone on to notch up an impressive list of more firsts. Its news services around the world now reach...
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Sep 17, 2000

Tokyo poets get a night out to Howl

Howl, the bar in Aoyama, was founded just after Allen Ginsberg's death in 1997.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 17, 2000

Fusing technology, arts in fabulous future shocks

Omote-sando's cafe-restaurant Las Chicas needs no introduction. But few realize that the two-floor building in which it is situated was once a consulate, designed to wrap around the central courtyard -- one of the nicest places to eat in town. Under the umbrella organization Vision Network, the complex...
BUSINESS
Sep 16, 2000

Economic institutes more optimistic about fiscal 2000 growth

Revised projections by several private think tanks show that many of them believe the economy will expand by about 2 percent during this fiscal year, greater than the government target of 1 percent growth in real terms.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2000

UNICEF ambassador blames politics for plight of children

In 17 years as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi has seen the worst of what could happen to children around the world.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2000

Wealthy seniors should pay social security: panel

A private advisory panel to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has proposed that the government force better-off retirees to pay into social security again to prevent the system from collapsing and to ease the growing burden on younger, working people.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 16, 2000

Pointing a laser at a detached future

Marcel Duchamp, the supreme artist's artist, was often asked about his role in the making of art. The line of inquiry was inspired largely by the enigmatic Frenchman's series of "ready-mades," store-bought objects such as shovels or coat racks he exhibited under his name.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2000

Coalition to change Juvenile Law

The ruling coalition on Thursday reached a final agreement on a draft of a bill that will revise the Juvenile Law to reduce the age of criminal responsibility from 16 to 14.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 15, 2000

Ever-unfashionable Akutagawa

JAPANESE SHORT STORIES, by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, translated by Takashi Kojima, foreword by John McVittie. Singapore: Tuttle Publishing, 1981, 240 pp. with 15 illustrations, $14.95. THE ESSENTIAL AKUTAGAWA, by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, edited by Seiji Lippit, foreword by Jorge Luis Borges. New York: Marsililio...
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2000

Coast guard pushes global piracy fight

Japan needs to join hands with other countries to fight increasing maritime-related crime worldwide, particularly pirate attacks in Southeast Asian waters, according to an annual report the Japan Coast Guard released earlier this week.
OLYMPICS
Sep 14, 2000

Smile, take a bath and visualize the gold

SYDNEY -- Yasuko Tajima said she was swimming faster than ever in the 400-meter individual medley relay, Masami Tanaka staked her claim on gold and Takashi Yamamoto might just smile his way into the medals. But head coach Koji Ueno seemed to be hanging on, white-knuckled, to the hope that new training...
BUSINESS
Sep 14, 2000

Future holding firm sets terms

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and Mitsubishi Trust & Banking Corp. on Wednesday announced the terms for the April consolidation of their units under a single holding company, a move that will form the nation's fourth-largest banking group.
COMMENTARY
Sep 14, 2000

Paving the road to failure

LONDON -- If good intentions could guarantee good results, the recently concluded Millennium Summit at the United Nations in New York would merit nothing but unreserved praise.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Sep 14, 2000

Hatsu-nomikiri still a summer ritual for brewers

Sake breweries are usually fairly quiet in the summer. Except for the few large breweries where brewing continues all year, most places are dark and quiet and empty, as the brewers themselves have gone home for the summer. Traditionally, the kurabito (brewers) traveled great distances from their rural...
OLYMPICS
Sep 13, 2000

'The Greatest Show on Earth' hits Sydney

The "Greatest Show on Earth" is back and badly in need of an image makeover.
OLYMPICS
Sep 13, 2000

Arimori advises Japan marathoners to stay focused

Imagine this: The moment you have waited a lifetime for has finally arrived. Years of blood, sweat and tears have been invested to bring you to your date with destiny -- the women's Olympic marathon final.
OLYMPICS
Sep 13, 2000

Web sites offer a different Olympic view

Want an alternative perspective of the Sydney Olympics? Look no further than the World Wide Web, where everyone from subversives to satirists are poking criticism and fun at the biggest sporting show on earth. Fired by a sense that Australia and the Games are not all sugar-coated harmony and joy -- or...
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2000

Reclamation project delayed again

A 50 billion yen-plus land reclamation project in Tokyo Bay was postponed for a second time Tuesday amid sea-borne protests by local fishing boat operators, who say the plan will destroy the last haven for gobies and other sea creatures in the metro area.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 13, 2000

Of Zen, scriptures and fireflies

If the Yamaguchi post office were looking for an image to place on a commemorative stamp of their prefectural capital, they would probably choose the city's magisterial five-story pagoda, built on the grounds of the Ruriko Temple. Made from Japanese cypress, the pagoda is typical of the Muromachi Period...

Longform

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