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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 30, 2000

Nigel Mortimer

When he was a youth, Kiyomu Shimomura found his mentor in the late scholar Masahiro Yasuoka. Yasuoka wrote the draft of the statement made by the Emperor Showa at the end of World War II. That was the first time for a Japanese emperor to speak to the people, and in his radio address to the nation he...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 30, 2000

Brown as they wanna be -- ganguro phenomenon on film

Katrin Paul is making good use of her time studying photography in Tokyo. Full of intense Germanic energy, Paul observes the social environment of Tokyo from the perspective of an outsider in "Playing Summer," her second exhibition in as many months. A closer look at the Shibuya youth scene, the exhibition...
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2000

Judge sentences third Aum cultist to death for role in Sakamoto killings

A key Aum Shinrikyo figure was sentenced to death Friday for playing an important role in the murders of an anticult lawyer, the lawyer's family and another member who wanted to leave the cult.
COMMUNITY
Jul 29, 2000

The miracle of life awaits at the end of a long, hard road

Organ donation is not something most of us have to think much about. But for Fernando, a Peruvian with a life-threatening kidney condition residing in Tokyo, the only option that offers any hope for the future is a kidney transplant.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 29, 2000

Foreigners are key to economic reform

There are several indications that the Japanese economy is recovering from a serious depression. It seems that a large number of people share the opinion that structural reform is necessary to continue this recovery and put the economy on a steady and sustainable growth path.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 28, 2000

Free tickets to AYO concerts

The Asian Youth Orchestra returns to Japan next month, for concerts on Aug. 7 and 8 in the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space (Tokyo Geijutsu Gekijo). This is the 10th year that AYO will perform in Japan. The 104 talented young men and women of the AYO represent the finest young musicians in Asia. The San...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2000

Pessimists in the mist: Japanese still mired in crisis of confidence

It's hard to find a word that has so traumatized a generation as has "globalization." The term has become a convenient shorthand for all the uncertainties and unknowns of daily life, a catch-all for the problems that tug at economies and threaten to unravel traditional social structures.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2000

Female civilians get intro to SDF boot camp

NARASHINO, Chiba Pref. -- The First Airborne Brigade is widely known as Japan's toughest Ground Self-Defense Force unit. But a recent two-day training session for "new recruits" did not appear to be as rigorous as its reputation.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2000

J-pop group to sing in Seoul

Japanese pop duo Chage & Aska will perform live in Seoul on Aug. 26 and 27, the group announced Tuesday.
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
Jul 26, 2000

Seattles's Best has just joined the rest

It must be something in the water. What else could account for the fact that three of the most popular gourmet coffee chains in Japan originate in Seattle, Wash.? First there was Starbucks, then Tully's and now Seattle's Best Coffee has brought its "pleasing to the palate" brew to Shinjuku, minutes from...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2000

Swastikas under the onion domes

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia It is a muggy Wednesday afternoon in the nation's largest Pacific seaport, and as people meander home, a handful of men and boys position themselves around the central square, an asphalt plaza decorated with a monument to the communist revolutionaries who conquered the Far East.
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2000

G8 summit boosts Nago businesses

The summit boosted business for many in Nago, but fishermen voluntarily stopped working. NAGO, Okinawa Pref. (Kyodo) Some businesses in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, saw their sales triple before and during the three-day Group of Eight summit, which ended Sunday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 25, 2000

Fenollosa's study of art is art

EPOCHS OF CHINESE AND JAPANESE ART, by Ernest F. Fenollosa. A facsimile of the 1913 edition. New York, Tokyo, Osaka: ICG Muse, Inc. 440 pp., with original plates, 2,100 yen. Ernest Fenollosa, the man who taught the West about traditional Japanese art, first came to Japan in 1878, when he was invited...
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2000

Magnitude 5 quake hits isles; no casualties seen

An earthquake measuring a preliminary magnitude of 5 hit the Izu Islands chain south of Tokyo on Sunday, the Meteorological Agency said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
SUMO
Jul 24, 2000

Nagoya Basho ends in both triumph and disappointment

Akebono wrapped up the Nagoya Basho on both triumphant and disappointing notes, losing to fellow-yokozuna Musashimaru in the final bout but finishing his first yusho in more than three years with an excellent 13-2 record and reaching his long-awaited goal of 10 championships.
EDITORIALS
Jul 23, 2000

As mighty as the mouse

Here is an odd thing: The more people use electronic means of communication -- PCs, Internet-linked cell phones and organizers, and the like -- the more stationery stores there seem to be and the more customers they attract. These are not all mauve-haired old ladies in kimono either, although if you...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 23, 2000

I am, therefore who am I? An artist's search for self

What is the link between a 12-meter-long bronze snake slithering into the future as part of an exhibition for the physically and mentally challenged and the 20 brains (made from materials as diverse as pebbles and chili peppers), eight costumes, pieces of body armor and fragments of temple roof tile...
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 23, 2000

Petagine propels CL stars past PL

Before the All-Star Series opener, Pacific League manager Sadaharu Oh gave his team a pep talk.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 22, 2000

Frozen moments of photographers' lives

They might have been shot in a shadowy New York street in the '30s, at a Parisian cafe in the '50s, or in the middle of a Vietnamese battlefield in the '60s . . . The settings and contexts of the 260 photographs currently on display at "The Century of Photography Exhibition" at Ginza's Matsuya department...
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Jul 22, 2000

When a woman tends the flame

Women potters have been on the move in recent years in Japan, which is quite a contrast to bygone days when they weren't even allowed near a kiln.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2000

Groups hit G8 inaction on illegal logging

As the Group of Eight major nations kick off three days of summit meetings in Okinawa today, environmentalists are mounting an effort to steal a slice of the limelight.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2000

Clinton set to arrive in time for G8 start

Despite delays, U.S. President Bill Clinton is expected to arrive today in time for the beginning of the Group of Eight summit in Okinawa, and will bring to the table such issues as debt relief and bridging the digital divide, U.S. government sources said.
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2000

Corporate Japan needs concierges, group head says

OSAKA -- Not many Japanese know this, but the corporate concierge business is booming in the United States and Sara-ann Kasner predicts the same will soon happen in Japan.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2000

Once-needed water tanks now a concern

NAHA, Okinawa Pref. -- In times when the water supply was chronically short, locals learned to cope by storing water on their own. Today, even though the supply is secure, they keep up the practice, saving it for a rainy day, as it were.
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2000

Stimulus policy should continue: Imai

While acknowledging that the much-anticipated economic recovery has become more evident, Takashi Imai, chairman of the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren), is emphasizing that the government should continue its current stimulus-oriented fiscal and monetary policies for the foreseeable...
BUSINESS
Jul 20, 2000

Enron plans power-ful inroad

As business opportunities loom with the deregulation of Japan's mammoth electricity market, Enron Corp. of the United States is preparing to launch comprehensive energy services in the world's second-largest economy.
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 20, 2000

Fears for Okinawa's unique ecosystem

Okinawa Prefecture punctuates the Japanese archipelago as the period on its southern border. Stretching westward like an island path leading to Taiwan, the island group, though small, is teeming with a diverse abundance of plant and animal life.
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
Jul 20, 2000

Euro 2000: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Euro 2000 maybe fading into the memory banks, but before it disappears it's worth recapping the tournament's pluses and minuses and, where applicable, what Japan and South Korea might learn for the 2002 World Cup. So here then is the Good, the Bad and the Ugly rundown of Euro 2000.

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