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COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2000

Korean Peninsula's political awakening

Special to The Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 3, 2000

Picture-book village looks to the children

Once upon a time, sometime in 1992, there were two communities, Kijo-cho and Ishikawauchi, nestled high in the mountains of Miyazaki Prefecture. As in many such rural communities, the sound of children's voices was becoming a rarity as young families left to find their fortune in the city of Miyazaki,...
JAPAN
Dec 31, 1999

Obuchi tasked to dissolve Lower House

Even if Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi manages to see New Year's Day pass without serious Y2K problems, a big decision lies ahead of him — when to dissolve the Lower House and call a general election.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 30, 1999

Explore high-tech versions of Japanese classics

GENJI MONOGATARI (THE TALE OF GENJI). Nihon Koten Bungaku Series 1. Released by Fujitsu Social Science Laboratory Ltd. Windows/Macintosh Hybrid CD-ROMs. Kawasaki, Japan and San Jose, CA: Fujitsu Software Corp., 1996. Bilingual Japanese-English. Two disks boxed separately. 6,000 yen or $68 each. HEIKE...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 17, 1999

Flaming Lips dampen the fire with absurdity

Though it's sad that major labels no longer have the patience to actively develop deserving artists, they at least know who's good and seem willing to allow musicians with something interesting to say to say it. How else do you explain the career of the Flaming Lips?
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

DDI, KDD and IDO merge against NTT

DDI Corp., KDD Corp. and IDO Corp. have agreed to form a three-way merger in October in an effort to create a comprehensive telecom carrier that can compete with the dominant NTT group, top officials of the three carriers announced Thursday. The merger will combine the corporate resources of the three...
COMMUNITY
Dec 9, 1999

Social power, social pressure in the playground community

On sunny afternoons, I strap my baby Rio in a carrier and we go to swing on the swings at the local park. He giggles as the wind blows through his hair.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 5, 1999

Down Under music with Asian flair

The renowned Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe vividly recalls gifts he received as a young boy growing up in 1930s rural Tasmania, given to him by family friends on return from Japan. One gift was a much-thumbed children's version of the "Tale of Genji," the other a cardboard-cutout castle.
EDITORIALS
Dec 4, 1999

An empty place at the Washington Zoo

People in Washington were saddened this week by the death of a local favorite. By all accounts, so were people much farther afield -- as far away even as China, where the deceased was born 28 years ago. If that sounds young, it wasn't: This was no scion of an American dynasty, no rising political star,...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 1999

In Britain now, 'tis the season to be silly

Not with a bang but a whimper, last month Britain's hereditary lords slid out of their ermine robes and off the scarlet-padded benches and retired to their country seats. A line of continuity from feudalism has finally been broken.
EDITORIALS
Dec 1, 1999

ASEAN's confidence returns

Southeast Asia is back. That is the message sent by leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations last weekend after their annual two-day summit. With member economies set to expand between 2 and 3 percent this year and looking forward to "higher and sustainable growth" in the future, the heads...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 1, 1999

Kawabata and great truths

FIRST SNOW ON FUJI, by Yasunari Kawabata. Translated by Michael Emmerich. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 227 pp., $24. This collection of stories, plus an essay and a dance-drama, was originally published in 1958 as "Fuji no Hatsuyuki." It is late Kawabata -- most of the major works had already appeared,...
COMMENTARY
Nov 27, 1999

Tough times again for Ozawa

While I was away from Japan on a recent overseas trip, the nation was plunged into political confusion following Liberal Party leader Ichiro Ozawa's threat to leave the ruling three-party coalition. Ozawa suggested that his party could quit the alliance -- which also includes the Liberal Democratic Party...
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Nov 26, 1999

Salon Music goes back to basics, but still way ahead of the curve

One of the great curiosities of the Japanese music scene is the tendency to eat up the latest indie rock innovations from the U.K. or U.S., leaving home-grown talent unknown and uncelebrated.
COMMENTARY
Nov 24, 1999

Japan's Middle East role

In January 1996, I was dispatched by the Japanese government to observe the election of the Palestine Council and the president of the Palestinian Authority. Because Palestine was still under Israeli occupation, it was not a sovereign state: Sending international observers to such a region was unprecedented....
JAPAN
Nov 16, 1999

Tax panel stuck between state finances, election

Staff writer
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 13, 1999

Three views of some troubled history

In March 1942, the Japanese Imperial Army took possession of the Dutch East Indies. The occupation lasted until Japan's surrender in mid-August 1945, although the disarmament and repatriation of Japanese troops took several months more to accomplish.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Nov 13, 1999

A cynic's guide to survival

For a writer, Russia is a treasure trove. It generates the most improbable story lines, the characters it harbors make Hollywood action heroes seem anemic, and its history is a thrilling mixture of triumph and tragedy. The country has seen the apostle Andrew and Adolf Hitler, Emperor Napoleon and Mongol...
JAPAN
Nov 12, 1999

LDP stalls on foreign resident suffrage bill

The Liberal Democratic Party told its coalition partners Thursday that it needs time to form a consensus on granting suffrage to permanent foreign residents, and that it will be impossible to submit the bill during the current session, a New Komeito executive said.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 3, 1999

Photographic record of a trail-breaking career

I sometimes eat lunch with a close friend who has but one child, a toddler aged 2. He likes to show me photographs.
COMMUNITY
Oct 30, 1999

Web site attaches yen sign to one's personal worth

Staff writer Reiko Ishikawa feels worthless, but it has nothing to do with having no boyfriend, disliking her job, or misplacing her Prada handbag.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 30, 1999

Two billion light years of poetry

SHUNTARO TANKIAWA SELECTED POEMS, translated by William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura. Manchester: Carcanet, 1998, 115 pp. + preface, 12.95 British pounds In early November 1998, Shuntaro Tanikawa and his translators took part in Britain's Poetry International. Among the bards contributing with Tanikawa...
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1999

Web site attaches yen sign to personal worth

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Oct 26, 1999

Money talks in U.S. politics

Ms. Elizabeth Dole last week ended her trailblazing bid for the U.S. Republican Party's presidential nomination. Hers was the first serious run for the presidency by a woman in either party. Yet Ms. Dole's withdrawal from the race highlights not only the failure of American voters to take a woman candidate...
JAPAN
Oct 21, 1999

War-dead group's use of city funds ruled secular

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected charges by seven residents of Minoo, Osaka Prefecture, that municipal subsidies paid in fiscal 1976 to a local organization of relatives of the war dead violated the separation of church and state as stipulated in the Constitution.
JAPAN
Oct 21, 1999

Top court rejects Fujinami appeal, ends Recruit saga

The Supreme Court has turned down an appeal by Liberal Democratic Party legislator Takao Fujinami in the 1980s Recruit bribery scandal, finalizing a high court ruling that gave him a suspended jail term and a fine of 42.7 million yen, it was learned Thursday.
LIFE / Travel
Oct 20, 1999

Trying times for bees

VANCOUVER, Canada -- For millions of years, honeybees have been doing what they do best -- transforming the nectar from blossoms into thick, sweet honey. Since the development of agriculture, they have also been ensuring that the pollination necessary for the production of the world's fruits and vegetables...
EDITORIALS
Oct 14, 1999

The limits in Pakistan

The coup that deposed Pakistan's prime minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, was a long time coming. It had many causes, the most immediate of which was the animosity between Mr. Sharif and the military. But by almost every measure, Mr. Sharif's term in office has been a disaster. That does not excuse the military's...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Oct 14, 1999

Yeast developments give rise to wonderful new possibilities

Yeast has been one of those great technical advances in the sake world -- one factor that separates great ginjo of today from the run-of-the-mill sake of yesteryear. Over the last 10 years or so, dozens of new yeast strains have been developed and incorporated into sake brewing.
CULTURE / Art / ARTS AND ARTISANS
Oct 9, 1999

Whisked away by an age-old tradition

IKOMA, Nara Pref. -- "It is totally handmade and finely crafted work, but no matter how well it is made, chasen (a bamboo tea whisk) is a commodity with a limited life span," says Keizo Kubo, 59, who has been manufacturing the tea-ceremony utensil for 36 years.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan