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BUSINESS
Aug 9, 2001

Shiokawa vows to prevent negative growth

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa reiterated Wednesday that the government will take all necessary measures to prop up the economy if it falls into negative growth on an annual basis.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 7, 2001

Rubbing noses with a musk ox

The Northwest Territories cover approximately one-third of Canada. Given that Canada is the second-largest country in the world, it can therefore be said without fear of contradiction that the NWT is rather large.
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 31, 2001

Dammed by the state: Displaced Chinese fight for their rights

JIANGSU, China -- Last August, the great Chang river (formerly known as the Yangtze) washed a modern day Noah's Ark from the heart of southwest China to the mouth of the Yellow Sea. Crowded aboard the ferry were 800 peasant farmers, nursing children, animals and seedlings on their three-day voyage to...
COMMENTARY
Jul 29, 2001

U.S. Asian policy takes shape

HONOLULU -- Slowly but surely, the Bush administration's Asia policy is taking shape. And, some changes in emphasis and approach notwithstanding, it shows a great deal of continuity with Clinton administration policy objectives. The U.S.-Japan relationship remains the "linchpin" of U.S. security strategy...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2001

Malnutrition plagues Tibet's children

NEW YORK -- Recent studies on children's health in Tibet reveal that almost half of them suffer from malnutrition. As a result, they suffer from stunted growth and their mental development has potentially been damaged.
COMMENTARY
Jul 28, 2001

Chirac defends credibility of leadership

PARIS -- Once again, the French people celebrated their national feast July 14, which marks the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille royal jail -- the beginning of the great 1789 Revolution.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2001

Why Japan won't back down on whaling

LONDON -- "They do not allow them free for a moment -- not even at cocktail parties," said Atherton Martin, former Environment and Fisheries Minister of Dominica, describing how the Japanese ride herd on the representatives of countries whose votes they have bought at International Whaling Commission...
EDITORIALS
Jul 24, 2001

A turning point for the G8?

At this year's G8 summit of advanced industrialized nations in Genoa, Italy, history was made. Not because anything concrete was done, but for the worst possible reason: A demonstrator lost his life during protests against the meeting. Now the antiglobalization movement has a martyr, and the G8 must...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 18, 2001

Edith Frost: 'Wonder Wonder'

As an artistic reference point, the music of Will Oldham -- he of the deathly pale complexion, tubercular Appalachian croak and sex-unto-death lyrics -- might teach you something valuable about mood and atmosphere, but you'd have to be crazy to copy his execution. Even Oldham himself has managed a few...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jul 15, 2001

A journey back to old 'new Japanese cuisine'

This week I saw a program on television that showcased shin-washoku, or "new Japanese cuisine," as the latest restaurant trend. The show visited several eateries where the chef/owners had gone abroad, mostly to America, to work in Japanese restaurants and since come back to Japan with a new twist on...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 15, 2001

Dismantling stereotypes surrounding Japan's sacred entities

SHINTO IN HISTORY: Ways of the Kami, edited by John Breen and Mark Teeuwen. Richmond, Surrey, U.K.: Curzon Press, 1999, 368 pp., 45 British pounds (cloth); 15 pounds (paper). "Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami" is the first attempt in any Western language (and possibly even in Japanese) to offer...
EDITORIALS
Jul 15, 2001

What's in a domain name?

As children, we were told that names could not affect us. Words were not instruments of power; sticks and stones were. "What's in a name?" Shakespeare scoffed. "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." As we grew up, though, we learned better. The act of naming, or controlling the assignation...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2001

Remember Pearl Harbor?

There's been a lot of talk about historical revisionism in Japan lately, given the history textbook controversy and other attempts by rightists to gloss over past aggression in favor of a Reaganesque, feel-good imagining of history.
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2001

Sense, censors and sensuality

Romance Japanese title: Romance X Rating: * * * * Director: Catherine Breillat Running time: 99 minutes Language: FrenchNow showing Caroline Ducey in "Romance" As anyone who's seen the provocative poster for "Romance" (a woman's hand placed between her thighs, with an electric "X" branded...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2001

Survey offers solid treatment of history

THE MAKING OF MODERN JAPAN, by Marius B. Jansen. Harvard University Press, 2000, 896 pp., $35 (hardback). "The Making of Modern Japan," Marius Jansen's last work, is a reliable, solid and authoritative interpretation of Japan's recent past. It is a fitting testament to a learned man whose scholarly...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2001

Slaying the 'monsters' of Meiji Era modernity

CIVILIZATION AND MONSTERS: Spirits of Modernity in Meiji Japan, by Gerald Figal. Duke University Press, 1999, 290 pp., $49.95 (hardback); $17.95 (paperback). In his prologue to "Civilization and Monsters," Gerald Figal defines Meiji modernization within the context of the fantastic and supernatural...
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2001

Panel drafts debt-waiving guidelines for troubled corporate borrowers

A panel of debtors and creditors on Friday drafted a set of guidelines for debt waivers in an effort to raise transparency in a system accused of distorting market principles.
COMMENTARY
Jun 29, 2001

Bush's Korea policy: old wine, new bottle

SEOUL -- "Things have begun moving slowly," South Korea's President Kim Dae Jung recently said in reaction to the Bush administration's announcement it will open negotiations with Pyongyang. No doubt, the government in Seoul is trying hard to sound upbeat. Foreign Minister Han Seung Soo added, "Bush's...
COMMENTARY
Jun 28, 2001

The right to collective defense

WASHINGTON -- Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is scheduled to meet U.S. President George W. Bush June 30 at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland. Most likely Koizumi will receive an enthusiastic welcome amid expectations that Japan will change.
COMMENTARY
Jun 25, 2001

How to best honor Clinton? Forget him

WASHINGTON -- "Since Bill Clinton left office, we've been through a lot together," writes political consultant James Carville in his letter to me. But Clinton supporters "have much to be proud of." So please give to the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation.
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2001

Public firms approach day of reckoning

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi may be on the verge of opening a Pandora's box in his drive to pursue government reforms.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jun 20, 2001

'Miss E . . . So Addictive': Missy Misdemeanor Elliott

Picking up on the drug reference in the title of the former Hefty Bag Queen's third album, we can easily wonder if Missy Misdemeanor Elliott hasn't lately been feeding her head as much as she'd previously fed every other part of her body. "I looked down at my stomach," she deadpans in the liner noters,...
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2001

No plans to join U.S. missile initiative: Nakatani

Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani on Sunday ruled out any imminent plans for Japan to join the newly proposed U.S. missile defense initiative.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2001

Government to revise 2001 growth downward to 0.5%

The government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy plans to effectively revise downward Japan's fiscal 2001 economic growth target to a real 0.5 percent from the current 1.7 percent, government sources said Saturday.
COMMENTARY
Jun 16, 2001

Urgent tasks for Koizumi

Peace and stability in East Asia in the coming years will hinge on Japan's political and economic leadership, North-South rapprochement on the Korean Peninsula, China's policies as an emerging regional power and strategies of the United States, the sole superpower.
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2001

Bush not so dismissive of Kyoto pact: Kawaguchi

Environment Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Tuesday that she does not interpret U.S. President George W. Bush's recent comments on climate change as an outright rejection of the Kyoto Protocol, and again called on the United States to return to the negotiating table.
LIFE
Jun 10, 2001

Joseph Conder: Enduring legacies of a 'high-collar' expat

Japanese domestic architecture has changed a lot in the last 100 years, but Western-style architecture was slow taking off and in fact the modern Japanese architectural establishment owes its organization, training system and much of its sense of style to one man: Josiah Conder.

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it