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CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Nov 11, 2000

Bringing a new shine to old Kutani

When I first looked at the work of Yasokichi Tokuda III (b. 1933) I had to put on a pair of sunglasses -- I was almost blinded by the intensity of his kaleidoscopic Kutani porcelain.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Nov 10, 2000

Kobe's FBI investigates improvisation

Improvisation is a tricky business. In mediocre hands, it is interminable at best, masturbatory at worst. But with skilled practitioners, improvisation becomes the haute couture of the music world, each piece tailored on the spot to a particular confluence of musicians, audience, time and place.
COMMUNITY
Nov 5, 2000

Missing piece of puzzle in story of 'Ms.'

It was the American futurologist Larry Taub who rang to ask whether I was interested in writing about Sheila Michaels. So began a three-way conversation by e-mail between Japan, New York and wherever Larry was landing to promote his latest book.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2000

OECD seeks more Japan input

Visibility is the key for both Japan and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in their efforts to enhance mutual cooperation, according to senior officials at the world's largest policy think tank.
JAPAN
Oct 31, 2000

Former KSD chief faces accusers

The former head of KSD, a government-linked insurance group under criminal investigation for alleged lending irregularities, has voluntarily visited prosecutors to deny the allegations against him, sources close to the case said Monday.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 28, 2000

Identity found among shifting personas

A tour-group traveler posing in front of the Empire State Building; a junkie punk jonesing on a dirty park bench; a mail-order bride photographed standing beside her snaggletoothed, shotgun-toting redneck husband -- Nikki S. Lee is all of these people, and then some.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2000

Net becoming venue for political participation

In the United States, the Internet has become a key communication source in the political equation, as evidenced by President Bill Clinton's televised e-mail "net conference" in August.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2000

Net-based group helps NPOs rake in donations

LOS ANGELES -- A San Francisco-based foundation is raking in donations over the Internet for nonprofit organizations -- and paving the future path for Japanese NPOs in the process.
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2000

KSD donated huge sums to LDP as 'member fees'

A scandal-tainted mutual aid organization for small enterprises made annual payments of up to 200 million yen -- disguised as party membership fees -- to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party from 1991 to 1999, sources familiar with the case said Saturday.
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2000

Dermatitis forum gets doctors, patients to chat

A group of Japanese atopic dermatitis patients and their families set up an online conference room to exchange information on treatment -- then asked doctors for their opinion.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2000

11 trillion yen plan gets official nod

The government adopted a comprehensive stimulus package Thursday worth nearly 11 trillion yen in its latest bid to place the long-stagnant economy on a full-fledged recovery track.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Oct 18, 2000

Singing a different tune

With the Oct. 3 release of "Kid A," Radiohead's hotly anticipated but allegedly "difficult" album (i.e., no guitar solos, love ballads or sing-along chants), the British band accomplished quite a feat: It shot to the top of album charts worldwide, including Billboard's U.S. album charts, the holy grail...
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Oct 18, 2000

One homestead, two squatters

www.arab.net/palestine/history/pe_zionism.html To understand the beginnings of the decades-old Jewish-Muslim conflict in the Middle East, Spudberg decided to first look up the definition of a word for which he only understood the connotations. Arabnet quickly and clearly defines "Zionism" in a historical...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 17, 2000

Calm rejoicing in simple, ordinary things

OLD TAOIST: THE LIFE, ART, AND POETRY OF KODOJIN (1865-1944), by Stephen Addiss, with translations of and commentary on Chinese poems by Jonathan Chaves, Columbia University Press, 2000, 173 pp., $27.50. The photograph of Kodojin inside this book is very much what the title leads us to expect -- an elderly...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 16, 2000

The Net surviving in China

CAMBRIDGE, England -- China is in the process of establishing the rule of law. Not common law as in England or civil law as in most other countries, but socialist law. The basic difference between socialist law and other forms of law, it seems from recent practice, is that only the Chinese Communist...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 16, 2000

South Korea grapples with rapprochement

SEOUL -- Some days ago I received an e-mail from a friend I hadn't heard from for a while, who teaches North Korean affairs at one of the major universities in Seoul. "I am worried," he wrote. "This is not a good time for South Korean scholars dealing with North Korea to express their views freely."...
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Oct 12, 2000

What bulging waistline? Let's talk about cheese

When your 8-year-old son suddenly starts thumping your belly gleefully like a bongo drum, chances are it means you've put on some weight. I confess that I've added 2-3 kg to my 190-cm frame since arriving more than a year ago in Belgium, a gastronomic paradise blessed with a tremendous variety of wines,...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Oct 12, 2000

A long, reflective sip of sake's craft and science

Sake's history goes back centuries and centuries, but just how many is a matter of debate. Regardless of the answer, over the last century or so gains in sake-brewing methods and technology have been exponential.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 5, 2000

Celebrate the elderly when they stop saving

On Sept. 15, the country "celebrated" Respect for the Aged Day, when we honor our elders, who pass their wisdom and experience down to us so that our lives and those of our children will be happier and more fulfilling. Of course, nothing is farther from the truth. We in the industrialized world seem...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Oct 3, 2000

We've got a personality crisis

If you go to a live event you don't just want to listen to music, you want to witness a show, right? You want the people on stage to be rock stars for the night. And you want to be swept away on a flood of shared adrenalin.
COMMUNITY
Oct 1, 2000

A life spent on the edge

It's not entirely clear which of his visits to Japan Jim Whittaker remembers the most. The latest, earlier this year, was to promote his autobiography and attend the opening of the first overseas branch of Recreation Equipment Inc., the outdoor goods cooperative he helped set up in Seattle in 1950.
COMMENTARY
Oct 1, 2000

Log on to network politics

Events can act often as an illuminating light. Predictions, warnings and expert forecasts of which no one took much notice suddenly become obvious to everyone.
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...
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2000

Mori targets damage control, economic stimulus in session

During the extra Diet session convening today, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori hopes to fix the damage done to his ruling bloc by recent money scandals and boost the fragile economic recovery with a stimulus package worth more than 10 trillion yen, including 4 trillion yen in new spending.
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2000

Boat license class offered in English

The Tokyo Sail and Power Squadron is holding a series of classes in English to prepare individuals for registering as well as taking both the written and underway examination for the Class IV boating license.
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2000

Mori to promote budget, IT when extra Diet session opens

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will promote the extra budget, the development of information technology and the continuation of talks with North Korea and Russia in his policy speech Thursday when an extraordinary session of the Diet begins, government sources said Sunday.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 17, 2000

2000 Noma Concours for book illustrations

The Noma Concours for Picture Book Illustrations is accepting works from nationals of UNESCO-member states in Asia, the Pacific, Africa, the Arab world, Latin America and the Caribbean for the 2000 contest. Organized by the Asia-Pacific Culture Center for UNESCO (ACCU) in Tokyo, the biennial contest...
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Sep 17, 2000

Tokyo poets get a night out to Howl

Howl, the bar in Aoyama, was founded just after Allen Ginsberg's death in 1997.

Longform

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