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COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2001

Fruits of U.S. economic expansion eluded many American families

FREDRICKSBURG, Virginia -- We're supposed to remember the 1990s as a period of economic expansion unlike anything the United States had ever seen. But to Oya Oliver and the rest of the staff at the Fredericksburg Area Food Bank, that decade always looked a little different than the official story that...
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2001

Decline in busts belies widespread drug use: NPA

A total of 8,986 people allegedly violated the Stimulants Control Law in the first half of this year, down 632 from the same period last year, according to a recent police survey.
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2001

State considers installation of train platform barriers

In an effort to equip more urban train platforms with automatic sliding gates to prevent people from falling onto the tracks, the transport ministry will request funds in the fiscal 2002 budget to conduct a survey on the matter, ministry officials said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2001

BOJ further eases credit policy

In a bid to improve the corporate outlook and fight falling prices, the policy-setting panel of the Bank of Japan decided Tuesday to further ease its grip on credit and boost liquidity by 1 trillion yen.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2001

War historian cuts past flag-waving gloss

Historian Tadatoshi Fujii has one main worry about today's Japanese: their ignorance of the basic facts about the Imperial armed forces and the nature of the wars they waged.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2001

Japan considers retaliating over saury fishing issue

Japan will consider retaliating against Russia's granting of fishing rights to other countries in waters around Russian-held islands claimed by Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2001

Cleaning up roadside litter cost state 328 million yen in '00

The government spent 328 million yen in fiscal 2000 to remove garbage that was either dumped deliberately or had fallen from moving vehicles from beside national highways, according to a Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry report.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 7, 2001

On a quiet crusade to end a tradition of injustice

BANGKOK -- On the first lunar cycle of the first month of this year, Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, an eminent Buddhist scholar, threw away her makeup, gave up eating meals after midday and relinquished the luxury of a comfortable bed. A month later, one day before the auspicious date of Buddha's holy Makhapuja...
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2001

Attitudes shifting on separate names for married people

The government sees a big change in attitudes about separate surnames by married couples and plans to discuss the possible introduction of a two-name system, the top government spokesman said Monday.
BUSINESS
Aug 6, 2001

Wine exporters focus on Asia

BORDEAUX, France -- Japan is firmly back on the agenda for many wine exporters despite its continued economic slump, and value for money at the lower end should improve further. However, futures prices already indicate the prestige 2000 Bordeaux vintages won't be cheap.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Aug 4, 2001

Felix

Most passengers boarded the RMS St. Helena in Cardiff, South Wales. Some went on board in Tenerife, Canary Islands. Felix, who is of Spanish-Cuban descent, joined the ship in Tenerife, as the resort island is his home. He had never set foot on St. Helena.
BUSINESS
Aug 4, 2001

METI to test hydrogen fuel gas stations

Hydrogen gas stations for fuel-cell vehicles will open in April on a three-year trial basis.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 1, 2001

American talking the talk down in Hiroshima

Most interpreters working for Japanese baseball teams are Japanese. Though there has been a need for translators in a variety of languages in recent years as the suketto (foreign "helpers") hired by Central and Pacific League teams have come from various countries, most of the men hired to change Nihongo...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 1, 2001

There's 'cheerleader angst'

Bring It On Rating: * * * Director: Peyton Reed Running time: 98 minutes Language: EnglishNow showing Thank you, O Lord. Such was my reaction after viewing "Bring It On," a bouncing-with-exuberance tale of high school cheerleaders. Hey, where are you going? Don't put down the paper just because...
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2001

Elderly seen warming to overseas home-stays

Yujiro Hamada, 77, is typical of a rising number of middle-aged and elderly Japanese who have rejected more common overseas package tours in favor of extended stays abroad.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2001

Chen seeks a 'middle way' for Taiwan

TAIPEI -- March 2000 saw a sea change: the election by universal suffrage of Chen Shui-bian as president of the Republic of China. The Nationalist Party (KMT) no longer ruled Taiwan. This finally put to rest the trite old misconception that ethnic Chinese are not ready for democracy.
COMMENTARY
Jul 30, 2001

Foreign policy falls short

LONDON -- Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi cannot afford to let Japanese foreign policy become a hostage to nationalist agitation and populist pressures. Japan needs friends in Asia as well as in the rest of the world. Its relationship with the United States remains crucial. Koizumi has worked hard to...
COMMUNITY
Jul 29, 2001

Every breath you take

The children were considered lucky when they were admitted a place at the popular Sashigaya public nursery in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward. Little did their parents know what a high price their young ones might have to pay for the privilege.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2001

Legalization: The drug war's best weapon

LONDON -- In Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Switzerland it is practically impossible to get arrested for buying or using "soft drugs." In the Netherlands, users may buy up to five grams of cannabis or hashish for private use at 1,500 licensed "coffee shops," and they are opening two drive-through outlets...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2001

Something for everyone under the big blue sea

Dykkerne Rating: * * 1/2 Director: Ake Sandgren Running time: 91 minutes Language: DanishNow showing This is my second week in a row writing on a film from Scandinavia, so I'm suffering somewhat from Big Blonde People Overload. Especially since the latest involves apple-cheeked, sturdy-boned youngsters...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 22, 2001

Thanks to 'doken kokka,' are Japan's best decades behind it?

THE EMPTINESS OF JAPANESE AFFLUENCE, by Gavan McCormack. Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe, 2001 (2nd edition), 311 pp., $27.95 (paperback). What went wrong? A decade ago few would have predicted the sustained malaise that has gripped Japan since the early 1990s.
SOCCER / World cup
Jul 21, 2001

Oita gearing up to play World Cup host

Oita, one of the 10 World Cup hosts in Japan, expects two things from hosting the World Cup next year -- to promote the southern city around the world and to make Oita Stadium recognized as a major sporting and cultural destination.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 21, 2001

Life through the lens in Seoul, Paris and Tokyo

It is hard to imagine Mi-Yeon producing art prints of such emotion and refinement amid the familial clutter of her apartment, but maybe this is the mark of the true artist: beauty can be created against all odds. "My daughter's at kindergarten," she offers as explanation.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 18, 2001

Painting all the layers of knowledge and color in the Buddhist universe

'There is no room for originality in thangka painting," says Yumyo Miyasaka. "The iconography, the colors, even the way you hold the brush -- everything must be done just so." Self-expression is not the goal here; the pictures are an aid, a tool for meditation. The self is what you are trying to lose....
CULTURE / Art
Jul 18, 2001

Nature not nurture links Japan and Art Nouveau

Anyone writing about Art Nouveau here in Japan is expected to deferentially mention the strong Japanese influences on this late 19th-century art and design movement. Indeed, the exhibition now at Shibuya's Bunkamura of furniture and glassware from the important French Art Nouveau center of Nancy goes...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 18, 2001

A breakfast to blow your mind

I recall reviewing a group exhibition at an embassy gallery last year and referring to it as a "hodgepodge" of styles and media. So incensed were the amateur curators that they fired off a complaint to the paper protesting the use of the word. When the husband of one of them caught up with me in public,...

Longform

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