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CULTURE / Art / ARTS AND ARTISANS
Aug 21, 1999

Fanning the flame for sensu

When you open up a sensu (folding fan), or ogi as they are also known, a unique little world opens up in front of you.
CULTURE / Art
Aug 21, 1999

'20th-century American Prints' complement permanent collection

The Kawamura Museum opened in 1990 to house and exhibit works of art from the collection of Dainippon Ink and Chemicals. The permanent collection is a varied one, containing many fine examples from different periods of Western and Japanese art. Included among the major works are pieces by Rembrandt,...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Aug 21, 1999

Cool sounds for a hot season at Japanese music recitals

Summertime is usually a slow time for hogaku performances. In the old days, the halls weren't air-conditioned, and neither the performers nor the audience cared to sit for hours in the heat. The serious hogaku performance season and music festivals began in the autumn months, along with the cool breezes...
COMMENTARY
Aug 20, 1999

A season for political typhoons

The Japanese political world entered a summer recess when the extended ordinary Diet session closed Aug. 13. The session, convoked in January and extended in June for 57 days, passed a series of important bills, thanks to a legislative tieup among the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the Liberal Party...
JAPAN
Aug 20, 1999

Officials hard-pressed for river disaster solutions

Local government authorities have not found any solution to prevent accidents similar to the one that took place a week ago when 18 campers on the Kurokura River were swept away in the town of Yamakita, Kanagawa Prefecture.
JAPAN
Aug 20, 1999

Will wiretap law catch mob off guard?

Staff writer
CULTURE / Music
Aug 20, 1999

Plotting the return of a '70s icon

Prodigy's Keith Flint declared himself a big fan. Gary Barlow says, "he was my reason for getting into the business. The man is a God." Britain's most infamous tabloid, The Sun, chimes in with, "The legend is reinstated for a whole new generation."
JAPAN
Aug 19, 1999

DKB, Fuji, IBJ plan to create world's biggest bank

Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, Fuji Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan on Thursday acknowledged they are talking about forming an alliance to create the world's largest banking group in terms of assets.
JAPAN
Aug 19, 1999

Tokyo to host U.N. regional hearing

Staff writer
JAPAN
Aug 19, 1999

Nippon Life feeling assured of 401(k) role for small firms

Staff writer
JAPAN
Aug 19, 1999

Kobe seabed survey begins amid airport protests

KOBE -- City officials Thursday began surveying the sea bottom off Port Island to prepare for construction of Kobe airport, scheduled to begin in mid-September, while airport opponents continued to call on the mayor to stop the project.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Aug 18, 1999

Faster, faster, faster

The vast majority of people access the Internet through a telephone modem. Plug it in, turn on your machine and ... wait. And wait. And wait a little more. First, there is the search for the modem, then the connection, then the handshaking. Once you're online, you wait for the software to load, the right...
JAPAN
Aug 18, 1999

Transport plans 'green tax' as bait for cleaner cars

Staff writer
JAPAN
Aug 18, 1999

Prof gives shtick a shot to loosen up academia stodge

Staff writer
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 1999

High price of blood politics

You see it in Kosovo and you see it in Taiwan -- indeed it is everywhere. International disputes are shaped by disputes about blood. Sometimes, as in Kosovo, the argument is that Serbs and Albanians cannot live together because they are deeply divided by blood and resulting ethnicity. Sometimes, as in...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 18, 1999

Yes, there was a Nanjing Massacre

Did the 1937 Nanjing Massacre really happen? This might seem like an absurd question, but then the recently elected governor of Tokyo is on record as having denied that the looting, rape and assembly-line murder reported by eyewitnesses ever took place. The Dr. Feelgoods of Japanese history, Yoshinori...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 18, 1999

You're only as old as you tell

Here is a scenario that happens in the first hour of every single new English conversation class in Japan _ a sort of annual rite of spring.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 18, 1999

Re-enactors make history come alive

I was buying a jar of jam at the sutler's tent when the cannon went off, close enough and loud enough to make my teeth rattle and my eyes widen into an excellent impersonation of fear. The salesman, a stout, bearded fellow in the woolen blues of a Union soldier, barely blinked. As he handed me my credit...
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Aug 18, 1999

Refuge of the world's wildest rabbit

The wildlife of the Nansei Shoto is a fascinating mixture of species, and as is clear from recent research on the spiny rats that are unique to the central islands, there may be more species there than we realize.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Aug 18, 1999

Another farewell

It was a sad Monday last week when I saw the name Andre Lecomte in the obituary column. He was invited to come to Japan in the '60s to be the head pastry chef at the Okura Hotel. Before Andre, the taste of bread and pastry available for those with a Western preference was always somewhat askew. After...
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 18, 1999

A big bang, and then there was life

Five days and 116 years ago, a small island in the Sunda Straight between Java and Sumatra exploded.
EDITORIALS
Aug 17, 1999

The good fight against war crimes

On Aug. 12, the world observed the 50th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, four international agreements that set limits on the conduct of participants in armed conflicts. At first glance, the conventions seem quixotic: How can we apply the rule of law to war itself, where the goal is to bend an...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Aug 17, 1999

Missile Girl Scoot freaks out for all to see

Junn's a freak and she's proud of it.
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 17, 1999

Kankuro's multiple personae in order

The Kabukiza theater in Ginza is offering its summer program in three parts this month, starring Kankuro Nakamura and his brothers-in-law Fukusuke and Hashinosuke. Participating also in this program are Yasosuke Bando, Kasho Nakamura and Somegoro Ichikawa.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Aug 15, 1999

Entrapments

It is essential to have a file of fillers to turn to in times of need, like when I suddenly decide to take a trip, this one to Honolulu to stay in a friend's apartment while she is away and need to have seven completed columns before departure (tomorrow). This is the last one. It starts with a repeat...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 15, 1999

Food with an attitude coming to a table near you

Irritated? Feel like having an argument? Argue with your food. And don't presume that just because you'll get the last bite, that you're going to win the argument every time. Linda Matthie-Jacobs, author of two cookbooks about "food with an attitude," has followed up her previous "Fire 'n' Ice" cookbook...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 1999

Angola: A catastrophe in the making

One of the consequences of the Balkan conflict has been the distraction of international attention from other equally serious conflicts worldwide. Such is the case of Angola, a country that for the last several years has been plagued by a ruthless civil war. While world nations and international aid...
EDITORIALS
Aug 14, 1999

Wiretap with care

Toward the close of the Diet session this week, lawmakers affiliated with the ruling parties, riding on their coalition's majority, rushed through several controversial bills that could infringe on basic human rights in a free and democratic society. One of them is a package of three bills designed to...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 14, 1999

Erratic leader dismays Russian far east

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin's sacking of his fourth prime minister in 17 months left Far Eastern residents shaking their heads and complaining that the aging president is unfit to rule the country.
CULTURE / Art
Aug 14, 1999

Forging ahead into the new millennium

Summer in Japan is notorious for being hot, humid and unpleasant. If you are a blacksmith, however, even the summer air is probably refreshing.

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it