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JAPAN
Aug 22, 2001

IT can cut power costs 20%: institute

The Energy Conservation Center said Monday that the use of information technology in home electricity networks has the potential to reduce home electrical power costs by 20 percent.
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 22, 2001

Noda's kabuki brings the house down

The lobby of the Kabuki-za in Higashi Ginza -- the mecca of kabuki -- was swarming with people last week, ahead of the start of this year's noryo kabuki (summer festival of kabuki).
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2001

Contractors may get job subsidies to hire engineers

The labor ministry may subsidize construction companies as part of a program to create jobs for construction engineers forced out of work as banks strive to dispose of their bad loans, ministry officials said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 22, 2001

'We all felt this could be a masterpiece'

Midway through the triumphant two-week run of his summer-festival kabuki classic "Togitatsu no Utare," cutting-edge director Hideki Noda took time to reflect on his remarkable crossover from contemporary theater to the Kabuki-za in Ginza (no less).
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2001

Cooperation in education key to poverty reduction

UNESCO chief Koichiro Matsuura is convening an unprecedented meeting of government leaders from 30 major industrialized and developing countries in autumn to discuss the promotion of primary education in the fight against poverty, according to Japanese government sources.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2001

Europe's help sought for hooligans

The National Police Agency has asked European police to help deal with soccer hooligans at next year's World Cup finals, agency officials said Monday.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2001

Sewage access up but still low at 62%

Sixty-two percent of the population had access to public sewage facilities in fiscal 2000 through March, up 2 percent from the previous year, the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry said Monday.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 21, 2001

The diamond town that time forgot

Morning dawns on Luderitz, but you'd barely notice. A dense bank of sea fog has rolled in overnight, and the small German colonial town near the southern tip of Namibia is lost; a place of shadows, half-glimpsed Gothic churches, haunted-house mansions and the ghostly glimmer of muted lights.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2001

Accuracy of cedar pollen data to get boost

The Forestry Agency will create a nationwide system to more accurately forecast cedar pollen counts to help people with allergies be more prepared.
EDITORIALS
Aug 20, 2001

Macedonians give peace a chance

A deal has been struck to end the six-month insurgency in the tiny, impoverished country of Macedonia. Now everything depends on whether a genuine peace can be established. Serb and ethnic Albanian leaders signed an agreement, which embodies the essence of the demands of the guerrilla Albanian forces....
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2001

Ending Chinese interference

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 13, backtracking on his vow to make the visit Aug. 15, the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II. Although he signed his name and title in the visitors' register, Koizumi would not say whether his visit to the shrine...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2001

Yasukuni still casts a long, ugly shadow

The annual official visits to Yasukuni Shrine by Japanese government dignitaries in recent years have raised controversy and negatively affected Sino-Japanese relations. This summer was no exception, as Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi paid homage at the shrine on Aug. 13, two days before his previously...
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2001

Nakatani climbs Fuji to warm ties with U.S.

Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani on Sunday climbed Mount Fuji, Japan's highest peak, along with about 40 U.S. servicemen stationed in Okinawa in an effort to improve relations between Japan and the United States.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2001

Kim Jong Il's quaint trip to Moscow

BANGKOK -- Decades before European socialism crumbled, taking the Soviet Union down with it, young Russian communists were already having a hard time taking North Korea seriously. There on the distant Pacific coast was this bizarre and demanding little client state; extreme in its isolation, brutal in...
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2001

Ministry set to launch 'green' car plans

The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry has decided to introduce action plans in nine regions in Japan to boost the use of less-polluting "green" vehicles, ministry officials said Sunday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Aug 19, 2001

The greatest show on Earth?

There have been only three notable 20th-century leaders who were addicted to trains: Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, Chinese leader Mao Zedong and North Korean founder Kim Il Sung. These venerable gentlemen would readily expose their tender flesh to the inconveniences of a long railway journey rather...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2001

Suicide bombers targeting peace process

LONDON -- Fifteen Israelis, half of them children, were killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber in Sbarro's pizzeria in Jerusalem on Thursday. A comparable number were killed by a suicide bomber at a Tel Aviv disco in June. These outrages have a far greater impact on public opinion at home and abroad...
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2001

New memorial to war dead planned after Yasukuni furor

The government has come up with a plan to build a nondenominational cenotaph for the nation's war dead in the wake of the diplomatic furor caused by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, government sources said Saturday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 19, 2001

Light at the end of the tunnel

For Cho Kyong Hee, artists displaying work in public spaces have a special responsibility: Installations should not impose.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 19, 2001

Going public

In a dirty little public square just a cigarette-butt toss from Yurakucho Station in Tokyo, workmen are putting the finishing touches to their restoration of a long-neglected feature of the Ginza landscape.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Aug 19, 2001

The little brewery that wouldn't die

Since time immemorial sake has been brewed only in the winter. But in the last 40 years or so a handful of the nation's breweries pioneered shiki jozo (year-round brewing), cranking out sake in large, climate-controlled factories. For various reasons, only the largest breweries can pull this off. The...
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Aug 19, 2001

Grant-oh puts the grrr in martinis

Mizu shobai is a fickle business at best. And these troubled economic times tend to heighten the sense of risk. So when I first heard of a plot to hatch a fun and funky martini lounge on a quiet back street in Roppongi, it struck me as downright dangerous. As I sipped a classic 007 at the opening of...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 19, 2001

Kao Tai: Getting down to the Thai essentials

You don't have to go far in Tokyo for good Thai restaurants these days. But when it comes to tracking down no-frills, down-home cooking -- the kind of simple snacks prepared by countless market stalls and sidewalk eateries in Bangkok -- then it pays to dig deep. Some of the best Thai street food is served...
EDITORIALS
Aug 18, 2001

Grim forecast for the Mideast

The low-grade war between Israel and the Palestinians continues. The number of victims increases every day, but the greatest casualty may be the hopes for any resolution of the violence. Real peace will require some measure of trust and goodwill between the two parties. Both these qualities are practically...
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2001

Yokota Air Base to host Tokyo drill

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government said Friday that it will use the U.S. Air Force's Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo as a transportation hub for emergency vehicles when it conducts a disaster simulation drill Sept. 1.

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.