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COMMUNITY
Sep 24, 2000

Creative outsider paints orderly inside of chaos

Yuji Oki lives in a big house and paints increasingly large paintings -- by Japanese standards at least.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2000

Diesel linked to birth defects in mice

A group of Japanese researchers said they have recorded abnormalities in electrocardiograms and increased incidents of miscarriages in mice that breathed in harmful particles present in diesel-fuel exhaust fumes.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2000

Debt relief key to poor nations' progress

NEW YORK -- A pledge by wealthy nations, to be announced officially this week in Prague, to provide substantial economic aid to poor nations, is an important step in the right direction. To be truly effective, however, economic aid should be part of a more general aid package -- including cancellation...
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Sep 23, 2000

Stopped in my flippin' tracks by a Shino tea bowl

I'm lucky enough to live only five minutes away from one of my favorite Mino potters -- and I don't even live near the Mino area. That's in Gifu Prefecture, whereas I reside in the potting wasteland of Numazu. I'm always asked about how I ended up here and I can only say that it was the will of something...
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2000

Flood of Chinese tourists expected

Tourism promoters backing the first authorized Chinese package tour to Japan say they foresee 1 million people from Beijing, Shanghai and other parts of China visiting each year.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 20, 2000

The mysterious power of the moon

Each northern autumn, the days shorten and the nights lengthen until they reach a point of balance at the autumnal equinox in late September. The full moon at this time of the year is known as the harvest moon. During these evenly matched days and nights of fall, as the sun sinks beneath the western...
EDITORIALS
Sep 20, 2000

Changes in crime -- and punishment

Profound changes in the way Japan dispenses criminal justice are either forthcoming or under consideration. Many people are ready to accept changes, even to welcome some of them, given the rising tide of serious crimes by minors and an apparent breakdown in police discipline. Calls to ensure the rights...
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2000

World Bank warns lack of reforms may sabotage East Asian recovery

The World Bank said Monday that East Asian economies could slip back into another recession if lingering weaknesses in the banking and corporate sectors continue to be ignored.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2000

U.S. whaling sanctions smack of hypocrisy

Japan's whale-research vessels are now scheduled to return to port after completing their observations and sampling in the northwestern Pacific. Meanwhile, the United States continues to criticize Japan's research program and threaten trade sanctions. One can't help but suspect that all the antiwhaling...
COMMUNITY
Sep 17, 2000

Fusing technology, arts in fabulous future shocks

Omote-sando's cafe-restaurant Las Chicas needs no introduction. But few realize that the two-floor building in which it is situated was once a consulate, designed to wrap around the central courtyard -- one of the nicest places to eat in town. Under the umbrella organization Vision Network, the complex...
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2000

Korean residents' groups agree to start mending relations

Two major groups of Korean residents of Japan that were at loggerheads have been showing signs of mending relations since South Korean President Kim Dae Jung visited Pyongyang in June for the first-ever summit between the two Koreas.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2000

Lung cancer forum adopts declaration against smoking

An international conference on lung cancer in Tokyo attended by 2,500 doctors and researchers adopted a declaration Thursday calling for governments around the world to implement policies against smoking.
COMMUNITY
Sep 14, 2000

Part-timers reshaping Japan's work ethic

Yoshinori Ogawa, 27, is a bassist in the rock band Dusty Rose. He considers himself a professional musician, but like many other would-be musicians or thespians, he has not yet reached the point where he can support himself on his music alone.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 14, 2000

Bruised flowers: China's hidden army of child laborers

BEIJING -- Hu Changjun was desperate to escape the poverty trap in Wuxi County in southwest China's Sichuan Province. So she couldn't believe her luck when a fellow villager named Changyan offered her work at a joint-venture factory in distant Beijing. "A joint venture means a foreign company, where...
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2000

Lung cancer forum eyes no-smoking declaration

An international conference on lung cancer opened in Tokyo this week with some 2,500 doctors and researchers expected to adopt a declaration calling for nonsmoking government policies around the world.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2000

Panel seeks transparent career system for judges

A government panel on judicial reform will work to make the career system for judges more transparent and objective, following a Supreme Court report saying the current system lacks a legal framework for assessing those serving on the bench.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 13, 2000

Of Zen, scriptures and fireflies

If the Yamaguchi post office were looking for an image to place on a commemorative stamp of their prefectural capital, they would probably choose the city's magisterial five-story pagoda, built on the grounds of the Ruriko Temple. Made from Japanese cypress, the pagoda is typical of the Muromachi Period...
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2000

Smiling seen as key to economy

Make people laugh -- that should make the economy better and lead to a bright future for Japan, according to Masao Kimura, board director of the Osaka-based major entertainment firm Yoshimoto Kogyo Co.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 10, 2000

Cambodian art regains its youth

"It's my everyday passion," says Phloeun Prim, the 24-year-old commercial manager of Les Artisans d'Angkor, a Siem Reap-based school which is training young people in skills such as silk weaving and stone carving.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2000

Yamamoto resigns from Diet

Disgraced lawmaker Joji Yamamoto, under arrest on suspicion of using public money to help finance his political activities, submitted a letter of resignation Friday through a lawyer to House of Representatives Speaker Tamisuke Watanuki.
COMMENTARY
Sep 7, 2000

Gore presidency could be a taxing time

WASHINGTON -- In U.S. Vice President Al Gore's mind, nothing is riskier than letting taxpayers keep more of their money. Which makes his election the riskiest action U.S. voters could take.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Sep 6, 2000

The horror, the horror

We're back. Did you miss us? That question isn't the product of an (especially) insecure soul. I mean it.
JAPAN
Sep 5, 2000

Miyake schoolchildren get fresh start in western Tokyo

Schoolchildren from Miyake Island began the new school term Monday at Akikawa High School in Akiruno, western Tokyo, where all 356 of the young evacuees are staying in dorms.
BUSINESS
Sep 4, 2000

Japan fails its universities, which in turn fail industry

Japan's economic doldrums in recent years have triggered an outcry over the declining technological competitiveness of its industries, and the government has taken technology-promotion steps that would lead to the creation of new businesses or markets.
COMMUNITY
Sep 3, 2000

Kennedy gives answers with Tokyo Q online

Rick Kennedy loves Tokyo. He has been here for years, yet still can't get over the kindness of its citizens, the flawless attention to detail, the sensory feast to be partaken of at every twist and turn -- much of which can be eaten and drunk! So great is his enthusiasm that we missed our stop, Hamamatsucho,...
COMMENTARY
Sep 3, 2000

New Zealand let down by laissez-faire

The collapse of the New Zealand dollar, now worth only a fraction of its former value, says a lot about the sorry state of economic punditry nowadays.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 3, 2000

Charles Hampden-Turner

LONDON -- "I believe in understanding people as they see themselves, in a positive light. I try very hard to see in the same way as they. Then everything begins to make sense through an opposite point of view," said Charles Hampden-Turner.
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2000

GPS satellites enlisted to help predict earthquakes, eruptions

In their quest to accurately predict earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, Japanese scientists have discovered that the satellite-based system that helps motorists navigate is an invaluable -- though as yet imperfect -- aid.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan