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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 14, 2000

Kyogen's hero is Everyman

KYOGEN COMPANION, by Don Kenny, with a brief history by Kazuo Toguchi. Tokyo: National Noh Theater, 1999. 308 pp. with b/w plates. 1,800 yen. Kyogen are short comic plays sometimes a part of, but more often sandwiched between, the longer and often tragic noh dramas. They are spoken in the vernacular...
BUSINESS
Jun 9, 2000

Smaller, more mobile PS one to slowly replace PlayStation

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. will launch a new portable game console in July called PS one, which will gradually replace its mainstay PlayStation video game consoles, SCE President Ken Kutaragi announced on Thursday.
MORE SPORTS
Jun 8, 2000

Jagr's Penguins to take on Predators in Japan

Hockey's been called the best-kept secret in pro sports.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jun 7, 2000

A beginning

A recent column question dealt with a problem that faces many parents today: Their children have completely lost interest in school. These are often bright, motivated students who are dissatisfied with the system. Foreigners tend to feel that Japanese kids are too occupied, that something is planned...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Jun 3, 2000

Drumming to a Japanese beat

The drum is easily Japan's most popular instrument.
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2000

Sony to license PlayStation2, increase semiconductor output

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. said Thursday it will invest 125 billion yen to expand its production capacity for semiconductors, mainly for its PlayStation2 game console.
BUSINESS
May 27, 2000

Sega president to step down over weak business showing

Major video game console maker Sega Enterprises announced Friday that President Shoichiro Irimajiri will step down as of June 1 to take responsibility for the firm's poor business performance.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 24, 2000

Shopping with the herd

We track the tickers of global auctions. We flock to comparative shopping sites seeking the deal of the century. We sign up for sweepstakes galore and even occasionally invite vendors into our in-boxes to inform us of their latest discounts.
EDITORIALS
May 21, 2000

American moms bite the bullet

Amillion moms -- give or take a few hundred thousand -- spent a sunny Mother's Day last Sunday on the Mall in Washington, D.C. demonstrating in support of stricter gun-control laws in the United States. The event was predictably marked by equal parts media gush and public yawns. The question is, was...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
May 20, 2000

New made old, old new at Manabiya

I waited for the performance to begin, sitting amid the audience of 30 people or so, packed into the ground-floor room of a new building in the sprawling, nondescript suburbs of Yokohama.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 17, 2000

Street entertainment

Honoring Golden Week, Omotesando lined its streetside with wondrous bamboo sculptures. I recognized the deft hand of flower master Hiroshi Teshigahara; he had once filled his Sogetsu headquarters building with similar fanciful forms, a display that visitors could walk among, and those of us who did will...
JAPAN
May 17, 2000

Nagoya community to hold walk-a-thon

Each year for the past nine years, Nagoya's foreign community has gathered in the city's Meijo Park district for an annual charity walk-a-thon. Thousands of people, from members of the local expatriate business community to players from the Chunichi Dragons to ordinary citizens, participate in a day...
CULTURE / Art
May 13, 2000

Tate residency builds a cultural bridge

Johnnie Walker, a self-declared champion of the avant-garde, has made big strides through the Tokyo art scene. For many years Walker, through his foundation Za Moca, has made it his purpose to support artists in various ways, from monthly parties to celebrate artists exhibiting in Tokyo, through accommodation...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 10, 2000

Sea of love

Ponder, if you will, these two recent headlines:
JAPAN
May 9, 2000

Osu survives with blend of old and new

NAGOYA -- Young people browse through the shirts and jeans at a used clothes store, while an elderly woman picks up some tea at a shop around back. On the street, a young couple eating ice cream pass a man with a computer.
COMMUNITY
Apr 23, 2000

JR East's No. 20 'just your average station'

Like many Yamanote Loop stations, Gotanda's name speaks of the area's past. Gotanda literally means 5,000 sq. meters of rice paddies, "tan" formerly being a measure for land area equivalent to 1,000 sq. meters.
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 15, 2000

Illusion meister's imagination creates world of visual fantasy

When we were children, the world was a place full of magic and mystery. In our minds, Santa Claus really existed; a ghost lived in the attic; and we could easily imagine our favorite doll coming to life overnight.
COMMUNITY
Apr 13, 2000

Striving to fulfill a real whale of a task

FUKUOKA -- Each year during the colder months (about December to February) a variety of whales pass northern Kyushu on their way south to warmer waters and richer feeding grounds, following the Tsushima Warm Current down from Okhotsk along Japan's west coast. Larger whales tend to trail the Pacific Ocean...
LIFE / Travel
Apr 12, 2000

Follow the pilgrims' road to where past and present meet

When the warm spring winds riding the Kuroshio (Black Current) reach Shikoku, the island is at its best for visitors. Shikoku in the spring attracts both tourists and pilgrims. The pilgrims come to visit some or all of the island's 88 temples dedicated to Kobo Daishi, who introduced Shingon Buddhism...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 5, 2000

Howai notto aborisshu katakana?

According to a survey from late last year, over 80 percent of the Japanese population has some difficulty reading katakana, the syllabary specially used for foreign terms.
BUSINESS
Mar 31, 2000

Sony ties up with Sakura on Net bank

Sony Corp. announced Thursday that it has formally decided to set up an Internet-only bank in cooperation with Sakura Bank and J.P. Morgan of the U.S.
BUSINESS
Mar 30, 2000

Sony eyes Sakura as key Internet bank partner

Sony Corp. plans to have Sakura Bank become a major investor in an Internet-based bank it hopes to set up next year, industry sources said Wednesday.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 30, 2000

Exhibition ticket giveaway

Ten pairs of tickets to the "National Treasures of Japan" exhibition, being held at the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park through May 7, will be given away to 10 Japan Times readers.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 28, 2000

Tried and true not always the way to go

As mentioned last time in this column, a new restaurant/venue, Tribute to the Love Generation, will open in Odaiba on Tokyo Bay next month. It is not, as you may expect, a hangout for "Dead-heads," or ex-flower power hippies hiding out in Tokyo, but in fact will host mainly "world music" concerts. With...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 24, 2000

Tony Bennett: a true master of the fine art of sincerity

Hyperbole becomes Tony Bennett. His effusiveness is all-encompassing, gathering his audience, his musicians, the people who wrote the songs he sings, and even the singers who covered those songs before him into a warm, gushing embrace. Performing more than 90 minutes' worth of material at Suntory Hall...
BUSINESS
Mar 22, 2000

0.2% increase in capital spending seen

Major Japanese corporations are planning to invest 0.2 percent more on equipment in fiscal 2000, the first increase in four years, the government-affiliated Development Bank of Japan said Tuesday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Mar 22, 2000

NTT then and now

Last week's column dealt with NHK's fees and why we should pay them. Similarly, there are complaints from readers about paying the initial 72,000 yen plus 2,184 yen consumption tax and 800 yen contract charge to NTT for the standard telephone installation fee. None of this amount is refundable although...
BUSINESS
Mar 21, 2000

Sanwa, DigiCube in e-commerce deal

Sanwa Bank and game software distributor DigiCube Co. plan to set up a joint venture with other partners to install e-commerce terminals in shops across the nation to offer financial services and sell game and music software, sources at the companies said Monday.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.