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BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2000

Sony to enter market for handheld computers

Sony Corp. in September will launch two types of handheld computers that it says are strategic items in the Japanese market's coming broadband network era, the company announced Thursday.
LIFE / Travel
Jul 12, 2000

A taste of the good life in Izu

SHIMODA, Shizuoka Pref. -- There is no shortage of ryokan in Izu. The hot springs run unbroken down the coast from Atami to the tip of the peninsula, and some towns seem to have more onsen than houses.
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2000

Alternative school targets dropouts

KYOTO -- Parents whose sons or daughters stop attending school often research methods to encourage their children to return by reading books and attending lectures by experts.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2000

1932 essays recall patriotism of nisei

When 31-year-old Californian Joyce Hirohata was having difficulty writing her high school valedictory speech, her father handed her a book published by her grandfather, Paul Tsunegoro Hirohata.
LIFE / Style & Design / SIMPLY DIVINE
Jul 6, 2000

Art and design meet status and money

Ignore the rainy season and dream that you are sweating by the sea rather than on the subway. Hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, magazines . . . You probably already protect your skin with Clarins, shield your eyes with Gucci sunglasses, flaunt your bits in a Ralph Lauren bikini, but would you shell out over...
EDITORIALS
Jul 5, 2000

New Cabinet must earn its mandate

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori reorganized his Cabinet on Tuesday. It continues the tripartite ruling alliance of the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the Conservative Party, even though each party lost seats in the June 25 Lower House election. This new Cabinet is officially referred to as the...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jul 5, 2000

The tyranny of the square

When talking to Ted Nelson, strap in tight. It's quite a ride. Trained as a philosopher and film director, he is equal parts visionary and crank. Many consider him to be one of the fathers of the World Wide Web. He coined the word "hypertext" in 1965, but he has become a scathing critic of the Web and...
BUSINESS
Jul 1, 2000

Japan offers compromise in NTT dispute

Posts minister now suggests that 22.5% cut in less than three years possible Japan on Friday offered a compromise in the long-standing dispute with the United States over telephone connection rates, bringing the two nations closer to resolving the bilateral trade row before the upcoming Group of Eight...
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 30, 2000

Real characters, made in Japan

KYOTO -- Humor may be, along with art and music, universal, but it often doesn't travel across borders very well. What has them rolling in the aisles in London may leave them rolling their eyes in Laos. A comedian who brings down the house in Athens, Greece, may receive only polite applause in Athens,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 29, 2000

Marriage guide for men begs the question, 'Et tu, Brutus?'

In the cultural wars secular liberalism continues its slow, laborious march toward victory (two steps forward, one step back), but one bastion of male-centered tradition remains inviolate: the marriage proposal. Men do the asking, and women wait for them to ask. The vector indicated by this dynamic mimics...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jun 28, 2000

All thumbs

In past columns, I've expressed my support for those people you've probably seen silently staring at their cell-phone screens, furiously typing away or intently scrolling. I recently joined their growing number. I think of it as a test drive; others might call it an occupational hazard. At any rate,...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 27, 2000

For domestic help, it's the same old world order

HOME AND HEGEMONY: Domestic Service and Identity Politics in South and Southeast Asia, edited by Kathleen M. Adams and Sara Dickey. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 2000, 307 pp., $49.50 (cloth). Dirty? Maybe. Degrading and dangerous? Certainly not what you'd expect to be part of a servant's...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2000

No easy fix for Japan's economic woes

The debate over monetary policy in Tokyo is shaping up to be the mother-of-all-battles over economic policy. The latest skirmish began when Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami spoke out in favor of ending Japan's zero-interest policy.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2000

A portal to style and fashion

Tokyo's Harajuku district — encompassing Omotesando Boulevard, modeled on the Champs Elysees, and the countless side streets and alleys that surround it — hosts some of the nation's most fashionable cafes and restaurants.
COMMUNITY
Jun 18, 2000

Commemoration of a musical pilgrimage

"A Shakuhachi Odyssey -- Enchanted by Timbres of Heaven" is a collection of autobiographical essays, cultural musings, musical stories and more. It beat out over 200 competitors to receive last year's Rennyo Sho, a nonfiction literature prize sponsored by the Honganji Temple Foundation and supported...
CULTURE / Music
Jun 18, 2000

All in the Phish phamily

At first, I felt sorry for the Americans who followed Phish across the Pacific for the band's Japan tour. I live here, and even I find the prices intolerable and the infrastructure unforgiving.
CULTURE / Art
Jun 18, 2000

Japan's premier graphic designer revisited

One of the most striking aspects of city life in Japan is the bold use of graphics: Posters and magazines continually shout for our attention on busy trains and streets. Artistically, we see the good, the bad and the ugly, but the work of Japan's first great graphic designer was consistently impressive....
MORE SPORTS
Jun 18, 2000

Bolivia hopes for surprise

Taking advantage of a similar playing style, Bolivia manager Carlos Aragones said he is looking for "a surprise" in Sunday's Kirin Cup final against Japan at Yokohama International Stadium.
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Jun 18, 2000

Cafe's tempting literary brew

Cafe Independent, a "rattle-bag collection of poetry, art, pearls of prose . . . ," is produced by Oliver Kinghorn and Shannon Smith in Kyoto.
LIFE / Travel
Jun 14, 2000

The best mechanics in the world

Canada's Inuit have many talents, but one of the most impressive is their mechanical ability. With or without training, they have a reputation as the world's best natural mechanics.
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Jun 13, 2000

Beyond the Buena Vista Social Club

Ever felt you missed out on an opportunity? When working as a talent scout for a record company in the U.K., I once stumbled upon U2 in the band's infancy. Somehow negotiations never got started and they were soon snapped up elsewhere. After that, in U2's words, I never did find what I was looking for....
CULTURE / Art
Jun 10, 2000

Filmmaker lights a fire under corruption

Well known for kaiju (monster) films populated by giant luminaries such as Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan, Toho Inc. now brings us "Cross Fire," an sf thriller about a pyrokinetic office lady at odds with Japanese corruption. Adapted from a novel by best-selling author Miyuki Miyabe, the movie is directed...
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2000

Poll to pit Young Turks against old nepotism

Minoru Fujimoto, 31, has wavy, dyed brown hair. He is one of the new breed of "smiling" Japanese Communist Party members, whose appearance may surprise longtime party supporters who are used to more traditional-looking candidates.
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...
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2000

G8 chiefs' wives to pray for peace at memorial

The wives of the leaders of the Group of Eight nations will visit a peace memorial in Okinawa while in the prefecture for the G8 summit slated for July 21-23, government sources said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 6, 2000

Some rules were made to be broken

THE IRON BOOK OF BRITISH HAIKU, edited by David Cobb and Martin Lucas. Iron Press, 1998, 112 pp., 6.50 British pounds. A NEW RESONANCE: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku, edited by Jim Kacian and Dee Evetts. Red Moon Press, 1999, 201 pp., $14.50. Reading these anthologies of English-language...
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 6, 2000

Inspecting society's 'little people'

Ever since the first performance of Nikolai Gogol's "The Inspector" took place on April 19, 1836, Russia and the world have been fascinated by Khlestakov, a character in the play who poses as a government inspector and gets away with murder.

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