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CULTURE / Books
Nov 15, 2000

Textbooks in the service of the state

CENSORING HISTORY: Citizenship and Memory in Japan, Germany and the United States, edited by Laura Hein and Mark Selden. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2000, 301 pp., $24.95. History loomed over the recent visit of Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji like a threatening storm cloud. But other than some scattered...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 15, 2000

Developing a finer sense of pace: the evolution of a party animal

When I was younger, I used to be a party animal.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 15, 2000

Russia's Baltic outpost

Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin was not one of Russian history's shining stars. An unpleasant figure, he found favor with dictator Josef Stalin and rose to become Soviet president before dying in 1946. Nonetheless, in the fashion of those times, his surname was given to two major Russian cities and their accompanying...
CULTURE / Music
Nov 14, 2000

Dub mix-meister Sherwood back on a musical roll

Thanks and praise for some of the most challenging and innovative dub music of the '80s and '90s should go to Adrian Sherwood. From his label, On-U Sound, spring the likes of Tackhead, African Head Charge, Bim Sherman and a host of other dub renegades.
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2000

Playing princess dress-up in Himeji

HIMEJI, Hyogo Pref. -- When tourists visit the city of Himeji, they should not miss the opportunity to visit Himeji Castle, a national treasure and the first historical property in Japan registered on the U.N. World Heritage List.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 12, 2000

Robert Whiting

For the last 50 years Japan has come under intense Western scrutiny from many quarters. Scholars, writers, professional men and women in different pursuits have contributed observations and analyses of Japanese thoughts and lifestyles and behavior. Bob Whiting crafted a way of his own to add to the body...
CULTURE / Art
Nov 12, 2000

Investing in life beyond the grave

The Museum of the University of Tokyo has changed and modernized in recent years, emphasizing particularly the use of up-to-date information technology. It is no longer an ivory tower but is reaching out beyond the university community to the general public. Its exhibitions have received favorable attention...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 12, 2000

On taking the eightfold path to environmental awareness

Environmentalists are a hard breed to pin down, much less to classify. They come in all shapes and sizes, and some even reject the name.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 11, 2000

Japan invited to play in World Cup

Japanese baseball officials said Friday they have received an offer from major league officials to play in the inaugural baseball World Cup tournament.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

Women give each other boost at business forum

SASEBO, Nagasaki Pref. -- Female business leaders from 10 countries shared their experiences Friday and encouraged each other with the knowledge that their roles in business and society will be more important in the coming century.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

Japan-Sri Lanka ties to focus on IT

The Sri Lankan Ambassador on Friday said the relationship between the two countries will be further strengthened through cooperation in information technology.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

Economic development key for Mideast: Jordan envoy

The new Jordanian ambassador to Japan, Samir Issa Naouri, emphasized Friday that economic development would be a more effective way to solve problems in the Middle East.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2000

The special mandate of peace research

This is the eleventh month of the year, on the eleventh day of which, at the eleventh hour, the world pays homage to those who died in the first great war in the century of wars.
EDITORIALS
Nov 10, 2000

Down to the wire and beyond

We knew that the U.S. election was going to be close, but no one could have dreamed up the drama that has unfolded in the last 36 hours. The American public is as neatly divided as is possible: With over 96 million people going to the polls, the two candidates are separated by less than 1 percent of...
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

Two suspected of harboring Shigenobu

The two men who were with Japanese Red Army founder Fusako Shigenobu when she was arrested Wednesday morning in Osaka Prefecture are believed to be key supporters of the group in the Kansai region, police sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

Politician arrested in teen-sex probe

The Metropolitan Police Department has arrested a 48-year-old Tokyo ward assembly member on suspicion of paying to have sex with teenage girls, in violation of the law banning child prostitution.
EDITORIALS
Nov 8, 2000

Reform is key to winning IT race

The world is gripped with IT fever. Despite linguistic differences, IT, shorthand for information technology, is a buzzword even here. It is believed to hold the key to the future development of the Japanese economy. That is why Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is leading the drive for an IT revolution. ...
LIFE / Travel
Nov 8, 2000

Blood brothers, blood feuds

"In the year Sakalat 185, year of the Horse, the Thai came to tattoo all the inhabitants of the Lao cities." -- Oden Meeker, "The Little World of Laos"
LIFE / Travel
Nov 8, 2000

Wreck and return of the Mary Rose

The man o' war, moving gracefully under billowing canvas sheeting, moved purposefully through the water. The pride of King Henry VIII of England's navy, HMS Mary Rose was a state-of-the-art warship tasked with repelling a French invasion across the Channel.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 8, 2000

Catching Dolly Varden trout in Hokkaido's Churui River

After quickly catching my daily limit of pink salmon during a recent fishing trip to eastern Hokkaido's Churui River, I spent the next couple of hours pursuing smaller game, the oshorokoma, Japan's little native Dolly Varden char. This is a fish that makes up in looks and spunk what it lacks in size....
LIFE / Travel
Nov 8, 2000

Cracked earth: A journey through Thailand's arid and impoverished Northeast

"In a bad year, it is not only the plows that break, but the hearts too." -- Pira Sudham, "People of Isan"
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 7, 2000

No chippie off the old block

WOODBLOCK KUCHI-E PRINTS: Reflections of Meiji Culture, by Helen Merrit and Nanako Yamada. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2000, 284 pp., profusely illustrated, $65. That category of woodblock print called the "kuchi-e" has not been widely investigated. In the large bibliography that concludes...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Nov 7, 2000

A fine fuzzy day out at Rocktober

The inaugural Rocktober festival on Sunday, Oct. 15, at Shiokaze Park in Odaiba, confounded my expectations: I had a great time.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2000

China refuses to let history be

The recent visit to Japan by Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji has certainly created a favorable impression among the Japanese -- a contrast with Chinese President Jiang Zemin's visit two years ago -- but it has had no significant politi cal impact on public opinion in this country.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 6, 2000

Sexual wounding, kicking and early death

Sex can sometimes be awkward in humans, and sometimes painful, but rarely do human females have to put up with what females of the bean weevil endure. The male's penis carries a formidable array of sharp spines which lacerate the female reproductive tract during copulation.
COMMENTARY
Nov 6, 2000

Profit, but at whose expense?

Amartya Sen, winner of the 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in economics, says consumers who seek maximum gains and companies that seek maximum profits are "rational fools." The Oxford University professor also says behavioral standards of consumers and companies should be based on "commitment and sympathy."...
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2000

Police take action to fight surge in lock-pickings

There was a time not so long ago when it wasn't even necessary to lock the front door in Kenichi Sonada's neighborhood in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2000

Do the Japanese have a sense of humor?

A Jewish peddler boldly visits the house of a rich nobleman. The place is Rome and the time, well, about 2,000 years ago, plus or minus a few decades here or there.

Longform

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