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JAPAN
Dec 13, 1999

Century of Change: Marriage sheds its traditional shackles

Staff writer When Kumiko Nishimura wed two years ago, she thought that registering her marriage with the city office was a natural course of things. But she postponed the registration because she felt it too burdensome to go though the process of changing names on everything -- from her driver's license,...
EDITORIALS
Dec 9, 1999

This pension reform slights Japan

When a Lower House committee voted late in November in an attempt to enact a bill to reform the nation's pension system, many Japanese must have been pained to see politicians play games with a national issue that will affect the livelihood of almost every one of us in our old age. The bill passed the...
COMMUNITY
Dec 9, 1999

How to learn more in less time

One of the great things about living in Tokyo is the opportunity to participate in the vast array of workshops that are offered every season. With Glenn Fraser's Accelerated Study Techniques Workshop, students and adult learners of all stripes will really be hitting the jackpot.
JAPAN
Dec 7, 1999

Net, video help preserve sailor's POW ordeal

Regional correspondent Stanley Willner's wartime odyssey began on Nov. 29, 1942, when the merchant vessel he was serving on was torpedoed by a German raider in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Madagascar. He was plucked from the water by the German crew and spent a few months on board his captors'...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 4, 1999

Folk painting from roadside to museum

The world of the minga, "folk painting," is one of subtle beauty created by the countless unknown artists who draw on rich crafts traditions for inspiration. The end result of these unknown artists is refreshingly simple, unaffected works of art. Opportunities to view the work of these unheralded artists...
JAPAN
Dec 1, 1999

Grocers' group aids family businesses

Staff writer
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Nov 27, 1999

Unwelcome companions

Thanks to e-mail, a vast assortment of unsolicited information comes my way. Some of it is even interesting and occasionally I share it with you. My amazement is not so much with the information I am sending your way today as it is with the person who noticed it and then did the necessary projection....
CULTURE / Art
Nov 26, 1999

Reflecting prosperity, deflecting evil

Every year in the middle of December, thousands of people flock to Tokyo's Asakusa Sensoji Temple for the annual hagoita market to buy oshie hagoita, a decorative battledore that serves as both a New Year's decoration and a good-luck charm.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 1999

Forester decries ranger shortage, U.S. whaling

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 15, 1999

Nissan auto mall aims to enhance buying experience

ZAMA, Kanagawa Pref. -- Nissan Motor Co. unveiled a new automotive mall here Monday, the largest of its kind in Japan, as one of its efforts to offer customers easy access to new and used cars and improve sales efficiency.
COMMUNITY
Nov 13, 1999

Goodwill ambassador delivers hope

Akasaka Prince Hotel's Crystal Palace Room was filled with billowing arcs and floating columns of peach, rose and violet balloons Nov. 9 to help celebrate the opening of the stage play "Friendship (Yujo)" and the release of "The Paradise of Angels (Tenshi no Paradaisu)," a five-volume set of children's...
JAPAN
Nov 11, 1999

Government unveils 18 trillion yen stimulus

The government unveiled an 18 trillion yen economic stimulus package Thursday that it hopes will put the economy on a full recovery track in the second half of fiscal 2000.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 1999

Economists give stimulus plan mixed reception

Staff writer
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Nov 10, 1999

Soaring voice of modern Africa unifies the world music scene

Youssou N'Dour, one of Africa's (and the world's) greatest singers, makes a welcome return to Japan this month. The last time he was in Japan was for the 1994 WOMAD festival in Yokohama. World music was still on a roll back then, with some African artists such as Papa Wemba becoming genuinely "big in...
JAPAN
Nov 4, 1999

Naked minicar enters booming market

Daihatsu Motor Co. has launched a new minicar, the Naked, on the domestic market in an effort to take advantage of favorable sales of minicars, the automaker announced Thursday.
JAPAN
Nov 4, 1999

Nissan launches minivan, mulls minicar entry

In a move designed to tap into the current popularity of multipurpose vehicles in Japan's domestic market, Nissan Motor Co. on Thursday introduced the Bassara minivan.
EDITORIALS
Nov 2, 1999

An unconvincing debut

The extraordinary Diet session that convened last Friday is the first parliamentary sitting since the tripartite coalition administration of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi was launched about a month ago. The public's main concern is with what Mr. Obuchi is trying to accomplish under the expanded coalition...
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 1999

New angles on contemporary art

One of the foremost exhibitions of contemporary art in Japan, the International Contemporary Art Festival, will be held at the Tokyo International Forum Nov. 3-7.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 26, 1999

This 'East Wind' blows ill

RIDING THE EAST WIND, by Otohiko Kaga. Kodansha International, 1999, pp. 518, 3,500 yen (cloth). The history of Japanese-American soldiers who fought for the United States in World War II is well-documented, but the story of an American-Japanese pilot who served in the Japanese Imperial Army remains...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 26, 1999

Enjoy the neglected noh plays

DRAMATIC REPRESENTATIONS OF FILIAL PIETY: Five Noh in Translation, by Mae J. Smethurst. Cornell East Asia Series, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 1998, pp. 172, unpriced. Most Western writings on noh have been concerned with that category known as "mugenno," visional noh -- highly poetic, spiritually...
JAPAN
Oct 25, 1999

Nasdaq is ready to go head-to-head with Mothers

Staff writer
JAPAN
Oct 20, 1999

Tokyo Motor Show looks both to future, past

MAKUHARI, Chiba Pref. -- The 33rd Tokyo Motor Show is set to begin Saturday, bringing together automobile enthusiasts, automakers and auto parts manufacturers from around the world.
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1999

Obuchi, Rouhani discuss investment expansion

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and Hasan Rouhani, Iran's first deputy speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, agreed Tuesday that Japanese investment in Iran should be expanded to strengthen bilateral ties.
JAPAN
Oct 13, 1999

Regional Special: KYUSHU

Reclamation project splits locals, power elite> Staff writer
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Oct 13, 1999

Not just for kids anymore

I was never much of a video-game player, although I did have a brief infatuation with Missile Command. (It ended when a pal proceeded to stomp me every time we went head to head.) I must be one of the few: Video games are reckoned to be a $20 billion-a-year industry and revenues now outpace movie-ticket...
JAPAN
Oct 7, 1999

Diplomat corps offers fresh views of Japan

An exhibition of 71 photographs by foreign diplomats in Japan opened Thursday at the Printemps Department Store in Ginza, Tokyo, for a 10-day run through Oct. 16.
EDITORIALS
Oct 6, 1999

Familiar features of a new Cabinet

The reshuffled Cabinet of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi will literally have to lead Japan into a new millennium fraught with uncertainties. Its immediate task is to solidify the nascent recovery of the long-foundering Japanese economy and put it on the path of sustained growth. To meet this demand, Mr....
CULTURE / Art
Oct 2, 1999

Winged labors of love

Bird carvings have typically been thought of as a Western art form, but Haruo Uchiyama is challenging this assumption. Even the birds that have come into contact with his carvings have been made believers.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Oct 2, 1999

New audiences for Japanese music

It takes a lot of planning and creative effort to successfully present a public concert, and hogaku is no exception.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 1999

Amnesty International fetes the Year of Child

Amnesty will stage its annual Tokyo charity concert Oct. 3 with one of Tokyo's longest-running bands, the Howling Loochie Brothers, providing music to get people up and dancing.

Longform

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