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JAPAN
Apr 14, 1999

JICS handles nuts and bolts of foreign aid

Staff writer
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Apr 14, 1999

Cyberlife during wartime

My hanami last week started grimly. One participant, when asked why he looked so glum on such a happy occasion, explained that he was thinking of the Kosovo refugees. He had once been in the hills where they have fled, and even though he was prepared for it, he still remembers the cold and the discomfort....
JAPAN
Apr 14, 1999

Regulated 'amakudari' takes effect

The National Personnel Authority on Wednesday approved a former ministry official's private sector posting in the first application of a newly introduced system regulating former bureaucrats who take positions at private firms.
JAPAN
Apr 14, 1999

NTT eyes IDC buyout as C&W stands by

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. will buy out International Digital Communications Inc. if the international service carrier unanimously agrees to the deal, NTT President Junichiro Miyazu said Wednesday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Apr 14, 1999

It's the little things

Cultural contrasts! Everywhere there are traps. I was late when I left home yesterday so I quickly kicked off my slippers as I ran out the door. Later, I returned with a Japanese friend. She laughed when she saw my slippers. "We would never do that!" she said. Do what? I asked. Of course. I should have...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 14, 1999

A British art gallery finds an answer to a perennial problem

SOUTHAMPTON, England -- The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is generally acknowledged to be the world's first modern museum worthy of the title. Unlike its predecessors, it was not just a cabinet of curiosities -- archaeological relics and anthropological wonders amassed by some explorer and shown in his...
LIFE / Travel
Apr 14, 1999

Where the roof of Europe scrapes the sky

The pictures in the tourist pamphlet showed an ideal mountain scene in the French Alps, almost too good to be true: a lake of purest blue in the foreground surrounded by bright green hills leading up to spectacular snow-capped mountains under cloudless skies. If this were real, I doubted I could afford...
EDITORIALS
Apr 13, 1999

Bad news for party politics

What role did the nation's political parties play in the first round of the current nationwide local elections Sunday? True, the parties supported many candidates who ran for gubernatorial or mayoral posts in some prefectures or for seats in prefectural or municipal assemblies. But in most of those local...
JAPAN
Apr 13, 1999

BOJ remains optimistic in economic report

The Bank of Japan is sticking to a slightly upbeat assessment of the economy, reiterating in a report released Tuesday that economic conditions appear to have stopped deteriorating at present.
JAPAN
Apr 13, 1999

Hayami urges new deposit insurance plan

Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami said Tuesday that a new depositor-protection system should replace a "payoff" plan scheduled to begin in April 2001.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 13, 1999

Death and the maiden filmmaker

Death can do wonders for one's reputation. James Dean was a hot young actor with one hit -- "East of Eden" -- when he crashed his Porsche on a California back road and became an instant legend.Would his admirers have become so devoted -- and in some unfortunate cases, suicidally deranged -- if he had...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Apr 13, 1999

A Japanese musician's songs in 'The Homes of Donegal'

Hiroshi Yamaguchi of the group Heat Wave looks like any other worker at his manager's office. He sits at a desk, busily working away on a computer. After a few words, however, it's clear he could never be just any other worker. "I hate it here," he half confesses, half jokes. "I've never had to come...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 13, 1999

Despair and disillusionment, after the revolution

SPIDER EATERS, by Rae Yang. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1998, 296 pp. w/ 10 pp. photos, $16.95 (paper). In her memoir "Spider Eaters," Rae Yang writes about how she wasted years of her life in China's northern countryside during the Cultural Revolution. She was an educated youth who,...
COMMUNITY
Apr 13, 1999

Dancing to make the world keep turning

Excuse me, has anyone seen Steven A. Haynes today? No? That's funny, he seems to be everywhere: on TV, on posters, in the papers, and in plays, movies and discos -- even on cruise ships. He acts, sings and dances his way around Japan, as if he's afraid the world might suddenly stop turning.
JAPAN
Apr 13, 1999

Osaka police work to get rape victims counseling

OSAKA -- Osaka Prefectural Police, in cooperation with a nonprofit organization, will on Thursday debut on a trial basis a program to introduce victims of rape to professional counselors.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 13, 1999

Writer forever true to himself

THE LEGEND OF GOLD and Other Stories, by Ishikawa Jun. Translated by William J. Tyler. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1998, 300 pp., $46 (cloth), $27.95 (paper). Jun Ishikawa (1899-1987) remains less known in the West than other Japanese writers of equal stature. With the publication of this...
JAPAN
Apr 12, 1999

'Knock' named in staffer's sex harassment suit

OSAKA -- A female university student has filed a complaint with the Osaka District Public Prosecutor's Office alleging that she was sexually harassed by Osaka Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama.
JAPAN
Apr 12, 1999

Airport foes gain ground in Kobe assembly race

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Apr 11, 1999

Spring, the sweet spring

"Nothing is so beautiful as Spring," declared a poet looking about him at this time of year more than 120 springs ago. He wasn't a Japanese poet; he was an English one. Still, he seems to have grasped the essence of the season pretty well, even though in this particular sonnet he was recommending the...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Apr 11, 1999

Along the way

When we think about takeout lunches in Japan, we must go back a long way. Surely you have seen in museums the beautiful lacquer lunch boxes the nobility used when they went to the countryside on excursions. These picnics were quite elegant occasions with poetry writing and incense ceremonies. But long...
COMMENTARY
Apr 11, 1999

Shadows of Vietnam in Europe

The shadow of Vietnam hangs heavily over events in Yugoslavia. Once again Western policymakers have proven unable to grasp the reality of events in distant lands with complex backgrounds.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 10, 1999

Making the grade from the couch

When I think of the wealth of America, I think of its national concern for psychological well-being. People will actually set aside a number of hours each week to talk to therapists or attend group. They will go to court to demand justice for such crimes as "emotional damage" and "acute psychological...
CULTURE / Art / ARTS AND ARTISANS
Apr 10, 1999

The cutting edge of artisanship

Edo-kiriko craftsman Shuseki Suda does not blink while engraving intricate lines on the surface of glassware. Sometimes he can even keep his eyes open as long as five minutes.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Apr 10, 1999

A keen ear for the voice of the clay

Japanese ceramists often talk of the materials they use as having spirits and souls. A kiln, for instance, has its own kami, and the clay has a voice that if listened to carefully will reveal a shape that has lain dormant for centuries.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 10, 1999

Angelic voice heals wounded hearts

Jochen Kowalski has the voice of an angel. A Berlin chamber singer, Kowalski, from the former East Germany, is a countertenor, or more precisely a male alto. The high range of these lovely voices makes it fairly difficult to discern whether they are male or female; hence, they are sometimes called "the...
EDITORIALS
Apr 9, 1999

Justice for victims of Pan Am 103

On Dec. 21, 1988, Pan Am flight 103 exploded in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. Three years after the blast, a Scottish court petition named two Libyan officials, Mr. Al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah and Mr. Abdel Basset Ali al Megrahi, as the individuals responsible for the atrocity. Earlier...
JAPAN
Apr 9, 1999

More students get serious about part-time work

OSAKA -- More students are taking their part-time jobs seriously as training for the future despite decreasing pay during Japan's economic slump, according to a survey released Friday of 500 students in the Kansai region.
JAPAN
Apr 9, 1999

Improved information systems may reduce regulation

Staff writer
COMMENTARY
Apr 9, 1999

Zhu's U.S. visit kicks off strategic dialogue

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji came to Washington at the worst possible time, what with the current anti-China feeding frenzy in the press and on Capitol Hill. China's recent spate of human-rights violations and alleged espionage activities have made it open season on China -- "innocent until proven guilty"...

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