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JAPAN
Apr 29, 2001

Former senator from U.S. among award recipients

Japan will present the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun, one of the country's top honors, to a former U.S. senator for improving bilateral ties, the government said in announcing a list of 28 foreign nationals to be decorated this spring.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 29, 2001

Cinema Italiano paradiso

Award-winning movie director Takeshi Kitano said Friday that the very mention of the word Italy brings to mind the kind of culture that puts present-day Japan to shame.
COMMUNITY
Apr 29, 2001

My friend, my life, my ferret

They're furry. They're fun. They're portable. They're Japan's fastest-growing pet craze. Ten years ago they were nowhere on the pet scene; today they edge out rabbits for third place after dogs and cats.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 29, 2001

Armchair travel to Italy and beyond

Tatsuo Umemiya used to be one of the hardest-working yakuza actors in Japan. Nowadays, he is mainly known as the father of model/talent Anna Umemiya and as "the cooking king" of Japanese show business. He even owns a popular chain of stores that sell all sorts of Japanese foods. The stores are easy to...
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2001

Hiranuma reiterates themes toward economic revitalization

Reappointed Economy Minister Takeo Hiranuma said a comprehensive approach of combining the disposal of problem loans and assets, creating new businesses and implementing regulatory reforms is needed to revitalize the economy.
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2001

Kan urges removal of war criminals from shrine

Naoto Kan, secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, said Friday that Class-A war criminals enshrined at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which is dedicated to Japan's war dead, should be enshrined at a different location.
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2001

North Korea seeks 4 billion yen for its atomic bomb survivors

North Korea has asked Japan for 4 billion yen in compensation for victims of the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, government sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2001

Tanaka outlines foreign policy goals in maiden speech

Newly appointed Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka said Thursday that Tokyo should avoid actions that could lead to a deterioration in ties between Taiwan and China, an apparent refernce to Tokyo's approval of a visit by former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui.
COMMUNITY / THE PARENT TRIP
Apr 27, 2001

Being completely fair

When I brought my children to Japan a year ago, I expected they'd pick up on certain things faster than me. I did not, however, anticipate that they'd so quickly succumb to the Japanese national obsession with janken.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2001

Koizumi dons many hats, fancies a good hairdo, too

Junichiro Koizumi, the Liberal Democratic Party's new president, has been dubbed by fellow lawmakers a maverick, an eccentric, a heretic and "the Don Quixote of the political world."
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 26, 2001

New land law still ignores public voice

Owning property in Japan is a constitutional right, but it has its limits. The government can take private property for uses that advance the public welfare.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Apr 26, 2001

Monument to 800 years of daimyo power

Sengan'en, a garden and former residence of the Shimazu lords of Kagoshima, is located on the shores of Kinko Bay, the innermost part of Kagoshima Bay. Officially called Sengan'en, it is also known as Iso Gardens. It was designated a national scenic landmark in 1958.
BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2001

Necktie maker folds amid import glut

OSAKA -- Apparel wholesaler Asakurashoji Co. has applied for court protection from creditors under a fast-track corporate rehabilitation law, a private research institute said Monday.
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Apr 24, 2001

Crisis of confidence grips Marinos

The Yokohama F. Marinos, last year's first-stage champions in the J. League, are struggling -- and struggling badly.
BUSINESS
Apr 23, 2001

Seven rules for privatizing government assets

When approaching a major decision relating to new laws or measures, leaders should give careful consideration to existing examples of efforts by other countries to solve the same underlying issues and their subsequent success or failure.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2001

Emergency agricultural import curbs invoked

Japan will invoke a temporary emergency import curb today on three agricultural products, mainly from China, marking the first time Japan has invoked such measures under the ordinary safeguard mechanism of the World Trade Organization.
COMMENTARY
Apr 22, 2001

LDP must reform for the nation's good

For the past decade, the Japanese political scene has remained extremely unstable. Things have gone from bad to worse since the Liberal Democratic Party formed a coalition government. The root cause of the instability was the LDP's loss of majority status in both Houses of the Diet.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 22, 2001

A bird's-eye view of history

JAPAN: A Short History. Supervised by John Gillespie. New York/Tokyo: ICG Muse Inc. 2001, 80 pp., map, profusely illustrated, 950 yen. When Ralph Waldo Emerson remarked that "there is no history, only biography," he was implying that our annals are really only accounts. Like so much else, history...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 22, 2001

Okinawan writers provide a breath of fresh air

SOUTHERN EXPOSURE: Modern Japanese Literature from Okinawa, edited by Michael Molasky and Steve Rabson. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 362 pp., $27.95 (paper). Okinawa consists of just .6 percent of the total landmass of Japan and contributes 1 percent to the population, according to the introduction...
CULTURE / Music
Apr 22, 2001

Musicians take it back to the bridge

It's Saturday night, and the basement rock 'n' roll club Penguin House in Koenji is packed to bursting. As late-coming guests crowd down the stairs, the performer, Dai Yamamoto, takes the stage and tunes up his instrument.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 22, 2001

Big novels get the small-screen treatment

Jiro Asada won Japan's prestigious Naoki Prize for literature in 1997 for his novel "Poppoya," which was later made into a hit movie starring Ken Takakura. His followup, "Tengoku made no Hyaku Mairu (The One Hundred Miles to Heaven)," was published in the fall of 1998. Veteran TV director Katsumi Oyama...
JAPAN
Apr 21, 2001

Contorted system spells short-term leaders

Unless one is a political analyst or blessed with an excellent memory, it is close to impossible to correctly rattle off the names of Japan's prime ministers since the late 1980s. There have simply been too many in that time.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 21, 2001

Speaking in tongues for a national day of prayer

At 82, and a spirited minister to world leaders, Harald Bredesen may be forgiven his excesses. Not only does he have a gift of the gab, but an enthusiasm for quoting so loudly from Scripture in public places that it turns heads. (In our hotel coffee shop, he has to be thrice shushed.)
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 21, 2001

Jane Best Cooke

In Queen Elizabeth II's New Year's honors list, Jane Best Cooke was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire. She was awarded this distinction in recognition of her contribution to the promotion in Japan of British culture, and to a wide range of charitable and international friendship activities....
COMMENTARY
Apr 21, 2001

U.S. must seek three-way balance in Asia

LOS ANGELES -- China is about to get a new U.S. ambassador. But will it get a new U.S. China policy?
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2001

Seoul sends back ambassador after textbook protest

South Korean Ambassador Choi Sang Yong returned to Japan on Thursday and urged Foreign Minister Yohei Kono not to spoil bilateral relations, a Foreign Ministry official said.

Longform

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