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JAPAN
May 2, 2000

Asian Wall Street Journal goes bilingual

Competition in the newspaper industry is intensifying, and The Asian Wall Street Journal, as part of efforts to woo more readers in Japan, is addressing the challenge with a new look that started with its April 3 editions.
JAPAN
May 2, 2000

Kin connect with long-lost mariner

When 94-year-old Californian John Ramsay was asked by his daughter-in-law if there was anything he wanted to do before he died, he said yes.
COMMUNITY
Apr 30, 2000

'English Patience' thickens plots

I found Yukichi Arai eating fruit sherbet in the lobby of the Tokyo Station Hotel. It was hot, I agreed, whereupon he ordered another. After four days sitting in a booth at the Tokyo Book Fair at Tokyo Big Site, promoting his book (titled in "katakana" as "English Patience"), he felt the world deserving...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2000

A literary love affair: Graham Greene's brief encounter with Shusaku Endo

LONDON -- For oddly different reasons the names of two not so long dead Catholic novelists from East and West are prominently, simultaneously, in the news. Because of two books dealing with his sexuality and the release of a quirky film based on "The End of the Affair," the ambivalent nature of Graham...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 30, 2000

Colin McCulloch

"Those of us in New Zealand interested in live theater used to rely on shows put on by companies coming on tour from London. Over the last 30 years, all that has changed. Provincial professional theater groups grew up overnight. New Zealand now has its own flourishing theater," said Colin McCulloch....
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2000

Containing authoritarianism in Myanmar

The answer to Myanmar's problems is obvious: The sooner the will of the majority of its people is respected, the better for all concerned in the country, the region and beyond.
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
Apr 26, 2000

Stirring up the dust of a Classic era

This column marks the one-year anniversary of Kissa Kultur. What started as a way to help freelancers find interesting spots to enjoy a coffee between jobs has now become a fascinating historical dig through postwar Tokyo.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 25, 2000

Marco Polo's fantastic truths

MARCO POLO AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE WORLD, by John Larner. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999, 250 pp., with plates (14) and maps, unpriced. In 1271, a mere 17 years old, Marco Polo left Venice in company with his uncle and several other merchants. Twenty-four years later, in 1295, he returned,...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 25, 2000

Salute to a life of honesty, humanity and hard work

A SUMMER FOR A LIFETIME: The Life and Times of George I. Purdy, as told to Thomas Caldwell. Foreword by Michael J. Mansfield. Lost Coast Press, 2000, 144 pp., $24.95. When I was a librarian I was assigned to inventory a business biography collection. I didn't expect to find much excitement in the stacks,...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Apr 25, 2000

Virtuosos from the fringes of Europe

Perhaps it's still too early to be talking about gigs of the year but the upcoming Altan Festival might prove hard to beat. There will be three outstanding acts. All come from the fringes of Europe, from peoples with a history of persecution, but all have an equally long and proud music tradition that...
COMMENTARY
Apr 24, 2000

Help Japan: take time off

Japan's unemployment rate remains disturbingly high, as companies step up job-cutting efforts and bankruptcies increase. Although there are signs that the economy is recovering, there are no indications that the serious job shortage is easing. The Federation of Employers Associations, in recent negotiations...
EDITORIALS
Apr 23, 2000

A nation of chatterboxes

People who at first glance seem to be carrying on animated conversations with themselves, complete with bows and gestures and sometimes so loudly they annoy anyone near them, are a common sight nationwide. Of course, they are not conversing with imaginary listeners. As most of us know because we are...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 23, 2000

New York-style soup bars offer tasty stock options

New York-style coffee and bagel shops have been on the scene for years now, but another Manhattan staple is just beginning to spill into Tokyo's streets: soup cafes.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 23, 2000

Collection shows Warhol's scope

Andy Warhol's death, 13 years ago, was an ignominious one: A man who had access to the best medical care, Warhol died after a routine but botched gall bladder operation.
COMMUNITY
Apr 23, 2000

Man of many parts puts dreams in action

It's not unusual to meet people who are adept at juggling. But dish-spinning is a whole new ball game -- the ability to conjure up one form of creative activity and set it in motion while starting up a second, third or more. Yet according to Milton Katselas, an American of Greek parentage based in Los...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 22, 2000

World of freeze-framed flowers at Mitsukoshi

Despite a long history dating back to the 16th century, when botanists in England and Italy began systematic collection of specimens, the art of flower pressing still tends to be treated as a mere hobby or handicraft in many countries. In Japan, too, although the number of oshibana (pressed flower) artists...
COMMUNITY
Apr 20, 2000

Calligraphy with a global message

Tim Jensen confesses that the first time he saw Mitsuo Aida's calligraphy poems his immediate reaction was "I could do that!" Now Aida's greatest fan and translator of three volumes of his work into English, Jensen is not alone in his initial reaction. According to Aida's son Kazuhito, director of the...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Apr 19, 2000

E-nough already

Ahh, a blast of sanity from Scandinavia. The Swedish government recently announced that the Patent and Registration Office would no longer allow companies to register with the suffix .com in their names. And no se., www. or @ marks either.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Apr 19, 2000

The first to go

The outlook for the economy may be brightening, but the glow is not apparent among museums. First to close was Seibu's museum in Ikebukuro, followed by the Roppongi Arts and Crafts Museum in 1998 and Mitsukoshi's Shinjuku museum which closed last year. Next will be Tobu's Ikebukuro museum, which will...
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Apr 16, 2000

The silken soul of modern poetry in Japan

At the Power of the Spoken Word reading at Ben's Cafe last month, Yasuo Fujitomi, John Solt, Masafumi Suzuki and Misako Yarita read from their works. Scholar and poet Fujitomi read from poems published in his CD of the highmoonoon spoken literature series, "whatnever" (3,500 yen), a sophisticated production...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 16, 2000

Cindy Fueki

More than 70 years ago, a group of women living in Yokohama founded the International Women's Club. They devised lively social programs and gave their attention to welfare work. The outbreak of World War II meant that the club ceased its activities.
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 15, 2000

Flamenco Fiesta: Andalucia in Japan

Iberia, a company that has brought Spanish culture to Japan for 29 years, is presenting Fiesta Andalucia 2000. As a part of the festival, Israel Galvan, 26, one of the world's most popular male flamenco dancers, and four female dancers, Isabel Bayon, Rosario Toledo, Manuela Reyes and Pastora Galvan,...
COMMUNITY
Apr 13, 2000

New ideas brewing for green tea

Although coffee and black tea have made broad inroads into Japanese people's drinking habits, the traditional green tea is holding its own and is poised to make a major comeback.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Apr 13, 2000

Fish, sake and crowds come together at Uoshin

Like the indigenous beverages of most countries, sake developed along with its national cuisine. Indeed, there are great differences in Japanese cuisine from region to region, small country though Japan may be, and these differences are reflected in the subtle differences in the sake.
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Apr 11, 2000

Femi, from Fuji to Tokyo

In Nigeria there is a music called Fuji. In the early 1990s, Fuji was the most popular music in Nigeria. The music's originator, Sikiru Barrister, named it after seeing a postcard of Mount Fuji. He said it was the most beautiful mountain he had ever seen, and dreamed of playing or recording in view of...
CULTURE / Film
Apr 11, 2000

Lessons learned from the master

"What I really want to do is direct." This phrase, heard everywhere in Hollywood from interviews with A-list stars to conversations between waiters at Hamburger Inn, has become a joke -- to everyone but the legions of gottabe directors themselves. Among this crowd, scriptwriters have traditionally been...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Apr 9, 2000

At the top

There is little need to write what a wonderful city San Francisco is, how much there is to do. On the day I arrived, I could have joined a ghost hunt, had a tour of a teddy bear factory, heard a lecture explaining how California once was an island, seen an exhibition of Japanese "shibori" fabrics at...
EDITORIALS
Apr 8, 2000

The game of the name

There are hints in the spring air of a diplomatic thaw: The Clinton administration is poised, they say, to let Libya out of the doghouse. Sanctions may be lifted, and Americans may once again vacation in Tripoli. Modest celebrations are in order, but there is one caveat. Washington should not let the...

Longform

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