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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 1, 2000

The art of losing isn't that hard to master

Once foreigners move to Japan, they take on a new image -- that of international traveler. Friends back home start describing you as "worldly," and suddenly you are an authority on all things global.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2000

The right WTO strategy for the wrong reasons

U.S. President Bill Clinton's victory in getting Congress in line on the WTO question was capped by a triumphant New York Times Op-Ed piece by him about why China should be in the World Trade Organization. There are many good reasons why, but Clinton's argument that this will "save" China and make it...
EDITORIALS
Sep 30, 2000

Denmark says 'No, thank you'

The Danish people voted this week against adopting the euro. With nearly 90 percent of eligible voters going to the polls, Denmark rejected the European Union's single currency by a narrow 53-47 margin. The result is a bitter disappointment for the country's political and business establishment, which...
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2000

Nation remains at risk to nuclear disaster

A year after Japan's worst nuclear power disaster struck the village of Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, a nuclear safety critic said Friday that sufficient measures have yet to be taken to prevent a similar accident from occurring.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2000

Japan should look toward FTAs: report

Japan should actively explore the possibility of concluding free-trade agreements with some developing countries while forging closer economic relations with the United States and other industrialized countries through other types of new bilateral arrangements, according to a government report.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 30, 2000

Koto player has tales to tell

Elizabeth Falconer, a former Japan Times hogaku columnist, lives in Seattle now, but in the many years she spent in Japan she steeped herself in Japanese culture, including winning a koto teacher's certificate from the late Tadao Sawai, one of the greatest koto masters of the 20th century. Since her...
EDITORIALS
Sep 29, 2000

Mr. Mori's missing road map

Six months after he took office, what is Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori aiming to achieve? Equally important, what does the opposition have to say about his policy -- or the lack thereof? These questions went largely unanswered during the Lower House debates that took place this week. The exchanges proved...
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2000

Abductees' kin slam Pyongyang aid

Staff writer
OLYMPICS
Sep 29, 2000

Jones bags 200 meters

SYDNEY -- It was billed as the showdown between Australia's indigenous darling, Cathy Freeman, and U.S. star Marion Jones.
OLYMPICS
Sep 28, 2000

Nagata is Japan's unlikely hero in 69-kg wrestling

SYDNEY -- Katsuhiko Nagata was the unlikely hero for Japan at the Sydney Olympics on Wednesday when he lifted a silver medal to save the nation from embarrassment in the world's oldest competitive sport.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2000

Japan's nonprofits carve out a space of their own

When the Nature Conservancy's Lori Forman addressed the College Women's Association of Japan at a luncheon earlier this year, the topic was supposed to be nongovernmental organizations in Japan. But instead of providing a nuanced description of Japan's not-for-profit movement, Forman seemed more interested...
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2000

Cuba looks forward to expanding ties with Japan

Cuba hopes for strengthened relations with Japan in a wide range of areas and also wants to normalize ties with the United States, its longtime nemesis, sometime in the future, Vice President Carlos Lage said in a written interview with The Japan Times.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2000

Chile pushes free-trade deal

The new Chilean ambassador to Japan, Demetrio Infante, said Tuesday he is hopeful that a free-trade agreement will be concluded to help further expand bilateral trade, which is expected to top $3.5 billion this year.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2000

Food-shopping Web site targets Japan's housewives

NTT Communications Corp. President Masanobu Suzuki (left), actor Yuzo Kayama and management consultant Kenichi Ohmae pose for a photo Tuesday. Kayama will be the image character for a new online shopping venture. EveryD.com Inc., led by management consultant Kenichi Ohmae, said Tuesday it will launch...
LIFE / Travel
Sep 27, 2000

Cultivating coral gardens

IHURU, Maldives -- A sudden change in the weather sends staff at the resort on Ihuru Island grappling for the groins. Jetty-like piles of sand-bags that jut out from various parts of the island, these "groins" help lessen the effect of destructive tides. For the time being at least, they are Ihuru's...
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2000

Hatoyama calls 'e-Japan' nonsense

Opposition leader Yukio Hatoyama lashed out Monday against Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's latest catchword "e-Japan," telling Mori at a Diet question-and-answer session that the public has no idea what the term means.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 26, 2000

Welcome return of four classics

THE IZU DANCER, by Yasunari Kawabata, translated by Edward Seidensticker. THE COUNTERFEITER; OBASUTE; THE FULL MOON, by Yasushi Inoue, translated by Leon Picon. Singapore, Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 2000, 144 pp., $14.95. Here is a new, reset quality-paperback edition of one of the staples of modern...
EDITORIALS
Sep 25, 2000

The Whitewater washout

The independent counsel investigating U.S. President Bill Clinton in connection with the Whitewater scandal has determined that neither the president nor his wife "knowingly participated in any criminal conduct . . . or knew of such conduct." The investigation, announced Mr. Robert Ray in a summary released...
COMMUNITY
Sep 24, 2000

Dog (paddle) days of summer in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO -- On a recent Saturday, BARK was working McCovey Cove, an inlet some 120 meters from home plate of the San Francisco Giants' new bayside ballpark.
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."
OLYMPICS
Sep 23, 2000

Shinohara loses in controversy

SYDNEY -- Was he robbed? Reigning world champion Shinichi Shinohara thought so, standing on the mat in protest at the judge's decision to award defending Olympic champion David Douillet a "yuko" that won him the Olympic gold medal in the over-100-kg class at the Sydney Exhibition Center on Friday night....
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2000

Spy scandal undercuts Putin's diplomacy

The atmosphere of intrigue has been as thick as homemade borscht in Tokyo's diplomatic quarter since police caught a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force officer passing confidential documents to the Russian Embassy naval attache in a posh local restaurant.
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 23, 2000

An old tradition with a modern twist

NEW YORK -- Puppet troupes from around the globe are taking to New York stages this month as part of the Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater. The Japan representative is the extraordinary yet little-known OtomeBunraku Troupe, an all-female puppet troupe which derives from the mainstream male...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2000

No German blueprint for the two Koreas

SEOUL -- The relationship between local autonomy and unification is becoming an increasingly hot topic in South Korea, as more and more local authorities aspire to an active role in the process of rapprochement with the North. It is clear that this nation is passing through a historic moment. Hardly...
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2000

Continued aid for Chernobyl sought

While memories of the 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl have faded in the international community, continued assistance is still needed for the disaster-hit region, according to the head of the United Nations relief program still dealing with the tragedy.
OLYMPICS
Sep 22, 2000

Inoue takes 100-kg gold

SYDNEY -- The closest thing to Kosei Inoue's heart as he took to the winner's podium Thursday night was not that he had won Olympic gold but that he had fulfilled his mother's dying wish.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2000

Crown Princess' dad named as possible U.N. ICJ judge

The government will field former Japanese ambassador to the United Nations and the Crown Princess' father, Hisashi Owada, in an election for the post of a U.N. International Court of Justice judge, scheduled for late 2002, government sources said Wednesday.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat