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LIFE / Travel
Nov 1, 2000

A stroll through ceramic country

FUKUOKA -- Driving from Fukuoka to the fertile northeast of Saga, the landscape suddenly changes. Gently stepped rice terraces and fields give way to short hills that rise abruptly like sugar lumps and end in craggy, chalky rocks. Towns with square brick chimneys loom, and signs begin pointing to artsy...
JAPAN / LIFE OFF MIYAKE
Oct 31, 2000

Evacuees long for home, gird for worst

Namiko Morishita did not expect it to last this long. She and her family fled their home on Miyake Island in late August as volcanic activity on Mount Oyama intensified.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 31, 2000

Hot off the press

THE JAPANESE PRESS 2000. Nihon Shinbun Kyokai, 2000, 154 pp., 2,000 yen. Nihon Shinbun Kyokai, the Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association, has released its annual survey of the Japanese press. As always, it includes a summary of industry trends, as well as a media directory.
JAPAN
Oct 31, 2000

Singer appointed UNEP ambassador

Singer Tokiko Kato on Monday was appointed as the first Japanese goodwill ambassador to the United Nations Environment Program.
JAPAN
Oct 31, 2000

French light Tokyo torch of friendship in Odaiba

A sculpture that rises like a knife blade has found a place in Tokyo's fashionable Odaiba district.
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2000

Lawmaker reveals Mori made rice vow

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori secretly promised North Korea 500,000 tons of rice aid in 1997 when he visited Pyongyang as the head of a delegation composed of Japan's three then-ruling parties, the head of a small opposition party told Kyodo News on Saturday.
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2000

Western Pacific declared free of polio

KYOTO -- The World Health Organization on Sunday declared the western Pacific region free of the virus that causes polio, an important step in international efforts to eradicate the crippling childhood disease from the world.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Oct 30, 2000

U.S. reporter misses the mark on Japan

"Given America's willingness to avert its eyes from the most troubling chapters of its history and to resist critical self-evaluation and discussion of the country's atrocities against native Americans and African Americans . . ."
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2000

Japan hopeful ahead of North Korea talks

Japan and North Korea will hold talks in Beijing from Monday, with the focus of discussions likely to be on North Korean demands for compensation for Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 29, 2000

No shortage of fruits and vegetables at university

The first thing I do when I have a new class of university students is separate them into fruits and vegetables. This is because when you stand up at the podium and look out at a hundred students with black hair and black eyes, it's like addressing a crowd of straight pins with black heads. It's practically...
CULTURE / Music
Oct 29, 2000

Two chamber orchestras go for Baroque

Johann Sebastian Bach, who died in 1750, 250 years ago this year, has been lovingly remembered with significant performances of his great masterworks throughout the year. Recently eminent ensembles from Europe presented performances of the monumental "Saint Matthew Passion" almost simultaneously here....
JAPAN
Oct 28, 2000

Adult smokers at record-low 32.9%

The proportion of Japanese adults who smoke has fallen to a record low for the fifth consecutive year, dropping to 32.9 percent from 33.6 percent last year, according to the latest survey by Japan Tobacco Inc.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Oct 28, 2000

Coal-crusted, ash-glazed, long-fired

From aspiring lawyer to automatic washing machine salesman to master potter, life has been an interesting but rocky road for Shigaraki ceramist Shiho Kanzaki.
COMMENTARY
Oct 28, 2000

Luck gets Clinton out of a Balkan jam

Seldom have events more dramatically demonstrated that it is better to be lucky than smart. The popular uprising that ousted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic happened despite, not because, of Clinton administration policy. A U.S. foreign policy based on humility, as suggested by Republican presidential...
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2000

Palau president to visit Japan

Palau President Kunio Nakamura will visit Japan as an official government guest next month in a symbolic move aimed at deepening Japan's relations with Pacific island countries.
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2000

Japan-funded dam is a threat, Filipino lawmaker says

A Philippine congressman on Thursday called on Japan to put pressure on Japanese organizations funding the San Roque Dam in the Philippines to make sure that environmental considerations are taken into consideration.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Oct 27, 2000

'Tis fall, and the brewers gather around their vats

In sync with the new colors and cooler weather of fall, the brewing season begins. Except for a few dozen brewing factories operated by the largest sake-brewing companies, sake is brewed in the colder months, generally from the end of October to the beginning of April. Larger brewers' facilities keep...
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Oct 27, 2000

How to find the very best goat eggs

"Any goat eggs today?" I asked with mock anxiety, and a face to match.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Oct 27, 2000

'Soul music' comes naturally to OOIOO

Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth once described her position as a woman between two boys with guitars as like being in the center of a circle jerk. Yoshimi P-We, the Boredoms' minxy drummer, could probably relate. As the rhythm section for the Boredoms' musical onslaught, she is at ground zero between both...
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2000

Net becoming venue for political participation

In the United States, the Internet has become a key communication source in the political equation, as evidenced by President Bill Clinton's televised e-mail "net conference" in August.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2000

Former chief of Net firm held in exec's abduction

A former president of Liquid Audio Japan, an Internet-based music delivery firm, was arrested with four other people Wednesday on suspicion of kidnapping and confining a former executive of the firm.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2000

Police raid Todai lab linked to apprehended Aum cultist

An Aum Shinrikyo member under arrest was recently hired as a contract employee by a corporation affiliated with the Science and Technology Agency and had been involved in the development of computer systems at the University of Tokyo's graduate school, police said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2000

Mori recants as friends, foes slam abduction plan

Retracting comments made earlier by his government, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori admitted during Tuesday's Diet session that a controversial proposal for finding Japanese nationals allegedly abducted by North Korean agents was not merely the personal opinion of a ruling party lawmaker.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Oct 25, 2000

Chrysanthemum by any other name

The chrysanthemum (kiku) is the seal of the Imperial family, and along with the cherry blossom (sakura) is symbolically used as the national flower by the Japanese people. Chrysanthemums have been cultivated in Japan since the Heian Period (794-1185). In the olden days autumn used to be called the "chrysanthemum...
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
Oct 25, 2000

A Thrush perches between two worlds

One foot in the past, one foot in the present.
COMMENTARY
Oct 25, 2000

Western policies ignore Serbia's history

Japan can be criticized for its simplistic, one-track mind at times. But over problems like Yugoslavia, the one-tracked Western mind, hardened by ideology and moralistic bias, can do far more harm.
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2000

Honohana cultists admit to fraud

Four former members of the Honohana Sanpogyo foot-reading cult on Monday pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring with cult founder Hogen Fukunaga to swindle 15 people out of 750 million yen.

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go