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CULTURE / Stage
Sep 16, 2000

A gentler, softer Dairakudakan

It is tempting to look at the new Dairakudakan production, "Kanzen-naru Hitobito (Complete People)," as being in some way connected to the title. Searching for meaning in butoh performances has always been a mad sport, though, and the premiere by the largest butoh company extant, at Tokyo's Art Sphere...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Sep 16, 2000

Japanese music millennium: new music for the Heisei Era

As the days grow shorter and evenings cooler, the hogaku season begins to pick up. September, October and November are the best months for experiencing the arts in Japan as the creative impulses, stifled by the summer's oppressive humidity, break forth in an array of interesting concerts, recitals and...
COMMENTARY
Sep 16, 2000

Public TV in the digital era

LONDON -- The British Broadcasting Corporation was a pioneer of public-service broadcasting when it was established in the 1920s. It built up a strong reputation in its early years under its first director, General Lord Reith, although it also earned the nick-name of "Auntie" because it was regarded...
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2000

Elderly population reaches record high of 21.9 million

The number of Japanese 65 or older stands at 21.9 million, accounting for 17.3 percent of the population, or one in 5.8 people, the Management and Coordination Agency said in a report Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2000

Koreans welcome 'cultural invasion'

SEOUL -- The Japanese are coming -- but this time they're being welcomed with open arms.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 15, 2000

An activist Emperor, pulling the strings

HIROHITO AND THE MAKING OF MODERN JAPAN, by Herbert P. Bix. New York: HarperCollins, 2000, 800 pp, $28 (cloth). This is a blistering and persuasive reassessment of Emperor Showa's reign, debunking the various myths that have accumulated about his allegedly powerless role in Japan's prolonged period...
BUSINESS
Sep 14, 2000

Nifty to tie up with German firm T-Online

Nifty Corp., Japan's largest Internet service provider, said Wednesday it will tie up with Germany's Online, the largest ISP in Europe.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Sep 14, 2000

The ups and downs of the clematis clan

Clematis is a well-known group of beautiful flowering climbing plants. The clematis group includes evergreen, deciduous, shrublike and herbaceous perennial forms. Today I wish to draw your attention to a couple of native clematis species that deserve better recognition.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Sep 14, 2000

Hatsu-nomikiri still a summer ritual for brewers

Sake breweries are usually fairly quiet in the summer. Except for the few large breweries where brewing continues all year, most places are dark and quiet and empty, as the brewers themselves have gone home for the summer. Traditionally, the kurabito (brewers) traveled great distances from their rural...
OLYMPICS
Sep 13, 2000

Matsuzaka, Nakamura give Japan a shot at gold in baseball

Baseball is one of only three team competitions Japan will be contesting in Sydney (along with men's soccer and softball), and Japan has a good chance of taking a medal home just as it did in Barcelona (bronze) and Atlanta (silver). The question is, what color will it be this time?
LIFE / Travel
Sep 13, 2000

Thunder god romps in Katmandu

For eight wild, magical and sometimes disconcerting days each September the great festival of Indrajatra turns Katmandu into a raucous celebration.
EDITORIALS
Sep 10, 2000

Old friends are the best

Reports from the United States tell us that some Americans are having their faith restored in a popular postwar Japanese export. The subject of their revived affection is not a car or a motorcycle, not a camera or an audiovisual device, not a laptop personal computer or other advanced information-technology...
COMMUNITY
Sep 10, 2000

East-West cooking talent stirs with a clipping from Chives

My first day back in London, on the Food and Drink page of The Evening Standard, a headline caught my eye: Keep Jun and Beautiful. Below, a color photograph of -- it has to be said -- a truly dishy Japanese 29-year-old clad in whiter than whites with a long striped apron.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 10, 2000

Chris McDonald

To commemorate his having lived for 50 years in Japan, Chris McDonald produced an engaging book of memories. In it he wrote: "If I were asked to single out one aspect of Japan that I have found more rewarding and enjoyable than any other, I would not hesitate to answer quite simply: 'Its people.' From...
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2000

Home-care show draws record firms

A record number of companies from Japan and overseas will take part in a three-day Tokyo exhibition of home care and rehabilitation equipment for the disabled and elderly that starts Tuesday, organizers say.
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2000

FRC approves banks' plan to set up Mizuho Holdings

The Financial Reconstruction Commission approved a plan Thursday by Fuji Bank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan to set up a holding company as well as a plan by a Sakura Bank-led consortium to form an Internet bank.
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2000

Chip makers plan huge investment

Japan's five major semiconductor chip makers plan to invest a record 954 billion yen this fiscal year to expand or improve manufacturing facilities, company officials said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Sep 7, 2000

Net data center outsourcing could ease growth headaches

Fast-growing Internet companies have to frequently upgrade and expand computer servers and related facilities to remain competitive.
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2000

Buddhist icon left 3 billion yen estate

Nikkyo Niwano, cofounder of Rissho Koseikai, Japan's second-largest lay Buddhist organization, left a taxable estate worth 2.954 billion yen following his death last year, it was learned Tuesday.

Longform

The building of new high-rise residential buildings has some alarmed that they could empty and fall into disrepair as Japan's population shrinks.
The high cost of letting Japan's condos crumble