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JAPAN
Aug 17, 2000

Normalization talks to be held in Tokyo, Chiba

Next week's second round of normalization talks between Japan and North Korea on establishing diplomatic ties will be held in Tokyo and Chiba Prefecture, government sources said Wednesday.
COMMUNITY
Aug 17, 2000

Paper wings that bear dreams aloft

It is a bright, sunshiny day in Musashino Central Park in Tokyo's Musashino City, but the wind is a little strong for the participants in the Japan Paper Airplane Association semifinal flyoffs.
EDITORIALS
Aug 17, 2000

The power of people

It is difficult, if not impossible, for anyone who is not Korean to comprehend the intensity of the reunions held this week in Seoul and Pyongyang. The photographs and news reports convey only a sliver of what happened as families were reunited after a half-century of division. Even the delicate choreography...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 17, 2000

U.S. military is no paper tiger

Is the U.S. military ready? Texas Gov. and Republican presidential nominee George Bush brought this important issue into the political spotlight at the Republican convention, when he criticized the administration of President Bill Clinton and, by implication, vice president and Democratic nominee Al...
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2000

7,000 attend ceremony to remember war dead

Some 7,000 people prayed Tuesday for the souls of the 3 million Japanese killed in World War II and wished for peace in the 21st century during a government-sponsored memorial ceremony in Tokyo.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 16, 2000

Making a run for the horse mackerel

Abundant, easy to catch and good to eat: an apt description of the scrappy little Japanese horse mackerel. Records show that the fish has been a Japanese favorite since the Nara Period, over 1,000 years ago, and it still has its aficionados today. Many Japanese anglers pursue this popular fish in preference...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 13, 2000

Seven key ways to enjoy the rest of your days

I've finally figured out why Japanese people don't take more vacations -- they don't want to. Work is comfortable and safe for them. Vacations offer too much adventure. Japanese people try to avoid using the "f" word: Fun.
COMMUNITY
Aug 10, 2000

Japan's favorite schlemiel goes international

The great manga artist Fujio Akatsuka sits casually, a glass of Chivas Regal in one hand, for all the world as if he were drinking at an izakaya with friends rather than sitting in his hospital room in Tokyo.
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Aug 10, 2000

Let the sleeping dog lie, but don't miss Slovenia

Before I'd even had a chance to say hello to Kim he was stretched out in the sunlight with indulgent abandon and was either snoring or thinking out loud very audibly. A guest began to chat with Boris Lieber, epicure, buckwheat cooking buff and owner-proprietor of Slovenia's highly regarded Pension Lieber....
LIFE / Travel
Aug 9, 2000

Kyoto welcomes back the dear departed

Bon, the Buddhist Festival of the Dead, is celebrated throughout Japan, but exact dates vary from region to region. Kyoto traditionally observes Bon Aug. 7-16, and, not surprisingly, given its more than 1,200 years of history and strong Buddhist traditions, the town has some unique ways of paying tribute...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 8, 2000

Japan's media watchdog is a lap dog

CLOSING THE SHOP: Information Cartels and Japan's Mass Media, by Laurie Anne Freeman. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000, 256 pp. $39.50 (cloth). This excellent book lays bare the mechanisms of the information cartels in Japan that prop up the state, insulate the elite from sustained critical...
COMMUNITY
Aug 6, 2000

Pundits ponder whether Japanese have sense of humor

The question of whether Japanese really have no funny bone was tackled by pundits at a recent gathering at Kansai University.
JAPAN
Aug 4, 2000

Drink machines called handy polluters

They never sleep, gripe about overtime or quibble over paychecks. And -- with more than 5 million of them scattered around the nation -- they are ubiquitous.
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2000

Native birds' habitats are disappearing

The breeding grounds of a number of native bird species, including skylarks and shrikes, have sharply decreased over the past two decades, but several species imported originally as pets are becoming established in the wild, according to an interim report on bird habitats released Tuesday.
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 2, 2000

Part 2: Jealousies, revenges and tradeoffs

European soccer chief Lennart Johansson has never shied away from attacking FIFA boss Sepp Blatter, especially since being defeated in the race for the FIFA presidency two years ago.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 2, 2000

Nature bites back in the Everglades

There isn't another river like it anywhere else in the world.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 1, 2000

Sowing authentic 'seeds of peace'

HIROSHIMA WITNESS FOR PEACE: Testimony of A-Bomb Survivor Suzuko Numata, by Chikahiro Hiroiwa. Translated by Tadatoshi Saito. Tokyo: Soeisha Books/Sanseido, 1,000 yen. Thirty-six years ago, not two decades after an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Kenzaburo Oe was already writing about the imperative...
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2000

Hair care for all the community . . . with a twist

Most people are a bit weary of hair salons; it's difficult to get what you want. Granted this may have something to do with the desired image you want. Yourself with say, Julia Robert's hair. It just can't be done. In a parallel universe maybe, but not this one.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 30, 2000

A cell phone lets you say 'hello kitty' anytime

My suspicions have been confirmed: Cats need cell phones. If you think cats aren't smart enough to have cell phones, think again. Intelligence has never been a requirement for using a cell phone.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Jul 27, 2000

For new sake sensations, seek out the 'brat pack'

After tasting sake for some time, we begin to search for sake we have not yet tried. Of course, we have our favorites, sake we can fall back on and drink any day of the week. And we already know about good, well-publicized sake, be they blue chips such as Kubota or powerful upstarts like Juyondai.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2000

Testing times for Sino-Pakistani friendship

ISLAMABAD -- There was a familiar ring to recent allegations in U.S. newspapers, reportedly based on intelligence sources, that China is continuing to aid Pakistan's plans to build long-range nuclear-capable missiles. It is not the first time such allegations have surfaced in the United States, especially...
EDITORIALS
Jul 25, 2000

G8 shapes up for a new century

Despite presummit speculation about possible exchanges of views on issues not on the summit agenda, the leaders of the Group of Eight countries generally focused their debates over the past three days on issues contained in the scenario developed by working-level officials. Such speculation had preceded...
COMMUNITY
Jul 23, 2000

Fair dinkum, no drongos at the Strine Olympics

The Japan Olympic Committee and official sponsor NOVA have struck upon the bright idea of offering free English lessons to athletes in the peak of their training for the Sydney Games.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 23, 2000

Something's in the air, but it isn't very deep

Vacant space is the subject -- and the content. Chie Yasuda's exhibition at Taro Nasu Gallery is a pallid, melancholic affair of photographs of empty, vacant spaces. Quite clearly some of these places -- the three largest photographs were taken inside the desolate, tiled interior of a ruin flooded with...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 22, 2000

Frozen moments of photographers' lives

They might have been shot in a shadowy New York street in the '30s, at a Parisian cafe in the '50s, or in the middle of a Vietnamese battlefield in the '60s . . . The settings and contexts of the 260 photographs currently on display at "The Century of Photography Exhibition" at Ginza's Matsuya department...
BUSINESS
Jul 22, 2000

Carmakers get in gear to offer online service, sales

Growing enthusiasm for information technology is spurring Japanese carmakers to introduce online automotive services in an effort to cultivate new customers and establish efficient procurement systems.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2000

Amerasian kids get short shrift in divorce capital of Japan

Staff writer GINOWAN, Okinawa Pref. -- After dropping out of junior high school here, Steve Oakley, 16, spent all his time at home because it was the only place he would be understood.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 19, 2000

Hats on where the seabirds nest

Wheesh! Crack! Something furious hit me on the back of the head.
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 19, 2000

Really roughing it in the wilderness of Sakhalin

Few people would associate "tourist paradise" with "Sakhalin." The lobster claw-shaped island lying just 40 km from Hokkaido is best known for the rush to exploit resources on its northeastern shelf, a repository of crude oil and natural gas.

Longform

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