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EDITORIALS
Apr 14, 2000

Mr. Mori fails to articulate a vision

With a new Cabinet at the helm, the Diet has completed a round of plenary debates following a policy speech by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. The first order of business for the Mori Cabinet, despite the extraordinary events preceding its inception, is to present its political vision to the nation. But...
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Apr 13, 2000

Labels: required reading for wine appreciation

When a standard 750-ml/75-cl bottle of wine looms before you in a wine shop, a supermarket or on a restaurant table, a story is about to unfold. The bottle shape usually provides at least a clue to the producing region and the labels should be able to fill in all the basic data and sometimes more. In...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 12, 2000

The wellspring of pacifism in Japan

PROPHETS OF PEACE: Pacifism and Cultural Identity in Japan's New Religions, by Robert Kisala. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999, 242 pp., $24.95 (paper). The so-called Peace Constitution is a defining feature of modern Japan. In the aftermath of World War II, Japan has perceived itself, and...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2000

EU knocking down the Tower of Babel

BRUSSELS — The European Union brings together 15 states with a total population of 380 million people. Thirteen other countries have applied to join. Europeans speak some 45 different languages, of which 11 are recognized as official languages for the purposes of EU business. But millions of European...
COMMUNITY
Apr 9, 2000

Financial services fly at Banner

Some loudmouth once said that anyone who was in Japan during the bubble years of the late 1980s and had not made money -- a lot of money -- was a fool. Well, that makes me a dunce of the first order.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 5, 2000

Take your vitamin C -- but how much?

The message is everywhere -- take vitamin C.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 5, 2000

Howai notto aborisshu katakana?

According to a survey from late last year, over 80 percent of the Japanese population has some difficulty reading katakana, the syllabary specially used for foreign terms.
COMMUNITY
Apr 4, 2000

Mongolian educator building Japan-style school back home

YAMAGATA -- When Galbadrakh Janchiv returns to his home country later this month, his souvenir from this snowy prefecture will be a lesson for future generations.
COMMENTARY
Apr 3, 2000

No tolls on the e-commerce highway

The electronic superhighway is becoming an ever more important forum for commerce, and states want a piece of the action. But just as American colonists resisted British attempts to tax paper and tea, American citizens should bar states from taxing online transactions.
COMMUNITY
Apr 2, 2000

Activist monthly comes to Japan

When Caitlin Stronell first came to Japan in 1984 to spend a year in Tochigi Prefecture, her father gave her a subscription to the U.K. cooperatively produced monthly magazine New Internationalist. "He thought it'd keep me in touch with social and political activism in the rest of the world, while giving...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 2, 2000

Benchapa Krairiksh

This year's Asian Festival charity bazaar, organized by the Asian Ladies Friendship Society, will be held April 27. Benchapa Krairiksh, wife of the ambassador of Thailand to Japan, says she is "honored and delighted to serve as chairperson of the festival in the year 2000."
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Apr 2, 2000

Time traveling

There have been many observations about nostalgia. Nostalgia's not what it used to be, There's no "stalgia" like nostalgia -- but nostalgia is where I am today. I have just returned from three weeks in California, and it is a nostalgia mix, what I have left behind, what I have gained, from living so...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 2, 2000

Parisian revolution in graphic art

Fashionable and pretty, a shapely young woman lifts her long skirts above the pavement, stranded by puddles of rain. In 1893 it was irresistible, and on the strength of this one print alone a hundred middle-class Parisians bought the first issue of l'Estampe originale. This was a novel project by the...
COMMENTARY
Mar 31, 2000

Obuchi heading for trouble

The sun may be setting on the administration of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi. Recent polls indicate that the Obuchi Cabinet's approval ratings have fallen sharply while its disapproval ratings have risen. The phenomenon is generally blamed on the continuing recession, a growing public-debt burden stemming...
COMMENTARY
Mar 30, 2000

For Taiwan and China, patience is key

BEIJING -- Now what? Since Taiwan has elected Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party as its next president, despite heavy-handed Chinese efforts to discourage this outcome, what does Beijing do next?
LIFE
Mar 30, 2000

A gathering of cultures and characters

Surrounded by trees, birdsong and a riot of cherry blossoms as you head up the hill into the nature preserve surrounding Tokurinji Temple, you can easily forget that a moment ago you were in the middle of Nagoya, one of Japan's largest cities. When you enter the temple grounds during the annual Hana...
JAPAN / Media
Mar 30, 2000

Medium is the message, no matter the language

The government's recent proposal to make English Japan's official second language has generally been met with approval. The proposal takes on quixotic overtones, however, when you consider the fact that almost no one in the government itself can actually speak English.
BUSINESS
Mar 29, 2000

Keidanren wants private sector in postal services

The Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) proposed Tuesday that private entities be allowed to get involved in state-run postal services early in order to accelerate the system's streamlining.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2000

Science agency takes away JCO's license

The Science and Technology Agency formally notified JCO Co. on Tuesday that it will revoke the firm's business license because it is responsible for causing Japan's worst nuclear accident at its uranium-processing plant in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2000

NTT to offer early warning to allergy-sufferers via phone

Come next spring, your cell phone may tell you how runny your nose and how itchy your eyes will be the next day -- a warning of what might happen if you walk outside.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2000

Dioxin in Fujisawa river 16 times official standard

Samples taken from the Hikichi River in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, late last year showed dioxin levels up to 16 times the recently-set environmental standard, the Environment Agency announced on Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2000

State slow in Tokai fiasco, report notes

The government reacted slowly last year to the nuclear disaster in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, which resulted in the first fatality from radiation exposure in postwar Japanese history, according to a government report obtained by Kyodo News.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 26, 2000

Impressions of an overlooked artist

In February 1866, three young artists tramped along the frosty paths of Fontainebleau, declaring that nature would ever be their muse. One, handsome, rich and carefree, would follow that muse until he lost everything except the respect of his friends. He died in poverty, in a home stacked with unsold...
CULTURE / Art
Mar 26, 2000

Vast private collection housed in London's 'unofficial attic'

LONDON -- Museums in Britain are nervously awaiting the results of the Internet publication of an official inventory of 350 works of art in British national collections whose provenance in the period between 1933 and 1945 is unclear. More than half belong to the National Gallery and the Tate, 109 and...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2000

Ethanol: a green opportunity for Japan

Bad things can sometimes yield good. Loss of the Saudi Arabian oil-producing contract and the rise in the price of oil from $10 to $30 a barrel in the past year should therefore be a wakeup call to Japan to follow the United States' lead in investing in research and development of alternatives to petroleum-based...
BUSINESS
Mar 24, 2000

Daiwa's rogue trader dreams of a return

ATLANTA -- The culprit in a financial scandal that rocked Japan nearly five years ago now has his eye on a second shot at the financial arena from a most unlikely place -- a small town some 60 km northeast of Atlanta.

Longform

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