Search - reference

 
 
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 27, 2000

Old memo presages present struggles

Japan wasn't an "unprovoked aggressor" in the 1930s. China and the United States were to a considerable extent responsible for a sequence of events that led to Japan's actions in Manchuria and, to a lesser degree, in China.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 24, 2000

The powerful influence of Japan

Western artists of the mid-19th century were both entranced and distracted by their turbulent times. Many sought fresh ways to see the world around them, "savoir voir" as distinct from "savoir faire."
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Sep 20, 2000

Harry Potter, Castles and Voodoo

www.cesnur.org/recens/potter_00.htm One of the best Harry Potter sites comes from an organization that fights censorship of modern-day culture. There's chapter-by-chapter notes for "The Goblet of Fire," the latest in the series. But most of the site is dedicated to news articles (culled from all over...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 19, 2000

Poetry that brings countries together

THE WEATHER IN JAPAN, by Michael Longley. Jonathan Cape, 2000, 70 pp., 8 British pounds. HAY, by Paul MULDOON. Faber & Faber, 140 pp., 7.99 British pounds. A SMELL OF FISH, by Matthew Sweeney. Jonathan Cape, 2000, 64 pp., 8 British pounds. Irland and Japan: two countries at the far extremities of the...
COMMENTARY
Sep 19, 2000

Dispute defies quick solution

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed in their recent Tokyo summit to resolve the bilateral territorial dispute over the Northern Territories, stirring mixed reactions in the two countries. Although they agreed to continue peace-treaty talks toward the yearend deadline,...
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...
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2000

Smiling seen as key to economy

Make people laugh -- that should make the economy better and lead to a bright future for Japan, according to Masao Kimura, board director of the Osaka-based major entertainment firm Yoshimoto Kogyo Co.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 10, 2000

East-West cooking talent stirs with a clipping from Chives

My first day back in London, on the Food and Drink page of The Evening Standard, a headline caught my eye: Keep Jun and Beautiful. Below, a color photograph of -- it has to be said -- a truly dishy Japanese 29-year-old clad in whiter than whites with a long striped apron.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Sep 9, 2000

Putting no price on the beautiful

If all the pottery that I live with and use suddenly disappeared from my home, I would find myself quite blue. Those pieces, in their silent voices, spark my imagination and encourage me to live each day with grace and style; they are good friends. Someday I know I will have to part with them; that is...
LIFE / ALTERNATIVE LUXURIES
Sep 7, 2000

Seeding philosophy in the rice paddies

The zapping racket of cicadas rising and falling, undulating in and out of sync wakes me up soon after sunrise. Although it's not yet 7 a.m., the thick, steamy heat pours in through the open window in waves, and seems fused into one substance with the yazz and clatter of the insects.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 5, 2000

Making love is making freedom

TABOU: Scenario, by Nagisa Oshima. Traduit du japonais par Nathalie Cazier et Katsuko Tsuchiya. Paris: Petite bibliotheque des Cahiers du Cinema, 2000, 144 pp., FFr69. This is a bilingual edition (French and Japanese, printed back to back) of Nagisa Oshima's scenario for the film "Gohatto," which was...
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2000

Kasumigaseki to be kid-friendly with new day care center

The Education Ministry is planning to set up a day care center within the National Education Center in the heart of Tokyo's Kasumigaseki administrative district in April, it was learned Saturday.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Aug 23, 2000

Rare cacti thriving in Kansai subtropics

The cactus and succulent house at Amagasaki Botanic Garden is a virtual gene bank of rare and endangered plants. AMAGASAKI, Hyogo Pref. -- Once the site of a factory, Kami-Sakabe Nishi Park is a compact botanical garden with an interesting collection of plants, set in the heart of a large industrial...
COMMENTARY
Aug 18, 2000

World War II lessons go unlearned

On Aug. 15, 1945, Japan unconditionally surrendered to the U.S.-led Allied Powers, ending World War II. An estimated 3 million Japanese military personnel and civilians died in the war.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 7, 2000

Muslims under fire in Russian Far East

PETROPAVLOSK-KAMCHATSKY, Russia -- When Usman Usmanov laid the cornerstone of the first mosque in the Russian Far East last summer, he was thrilled to see the start of a spiritual center for 30,000 Muslims in the Kamchatka region.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 6, 2000

A step forward in Asian cooperation

SEOUL -- Asia is gradually moving toward a security framework dramatically different from that in Europe, consisting of processes rather than institutions between and among nation-states -- many of which have outstanding political, ideological or territorial conflicts. And in Asia, unlike the case in...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2000

ASEAN slowly embraces human rights

BANGKOK -- When ASEAN agreed in 1993 to consider creating a regional human-rights monitoring body, some member countries that weren't really enthusiastic about the idea probably thought they were safe. At the time, there seemed no way it could ever happen. For ASEAN, human rights was so sensitive that...
JAPAN
Aug 4, 2000

Drink machines called handy polluters

They never sleep, gripe about overtime or quibble over paychecks. And -- with more than 5 million of them scattered around the nation -- they are ubiquitous.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 31, 2000

Russians cheer thaw with Pyongyang

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- Until recently, the leader of North Korea's Stalinist state had never been known to meet a noncommunist, travel abroad as head of state or publicly utter more than a single slogan at a military parade.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2000

Russia gets back into the Korean fray

At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union re-established itself as a major player on the Korean Peninsula largely as a result of U.S. initiatives in dividing the country, for administrative convenience, between two zones of military occupation. In doing so, the Americans displayed great ignorance...
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2000

G8 chiefs' script covers debt relief, 'digital divide'

Helping developing countries ride the global wave of the information technology revolution will top the economic agenda at the Friday-Sunday Group of Eight summit in Okinawa.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 17, 2000

Dioxin found deadly for sure -- and they're pumping it out

First, the good news.
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Jul 16, 2000

When dream makers walk among us

Socrates' bestial laugh washes into the cosmic map where Blake digs with his spade and Sam stands bathed in the sparks of his youth Among colored shapes, Sam embraces the warmest softest things a woman's spirit in the shape of clouds in the shape of foam in the shape of a womb The white space of the...
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2000

Miyazaki Initiative caps talks

MIYAZAKI-- The Group of Eight foreign ministers ended their two-day gathering here Thursday by adopting a statement covering a wide range of international political issues and a comprehensive "Miyazaki Initiative for Conflict Prevention."
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2000

HIPC debt deal unlikely at summit

Jubilee 2000 seeks action before 2001 but doubts Japan's sincerity Staff writer After two years of vain efforts to get the Group of Seven countries to cancel all debt owed by Third World countries, the organizers of Jubilee 2000 plan one last push at the upcoming Okinawa summit.

Longform

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