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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 19, 2000

Family life full of give and take

After 20 years of wedlock, my Japanese wife and I usually see things eyeball-to-eyeball, especially when staring at each other. Yet, there is one case where we match up like sushi and whipped cream.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Apr 14, 2000

Communing with Kerouac

Spoken word, the increasingly hip combination of poetry and music, has never really cut it in Tokyo. While New York, Chicago and London boast regular spoken-word club nights and poetry slams, one of Tokyo's few regular events is the Johnbull-sponsored event dubbed Bookworm.
COMMUNITY
Apr 13, 2000

Striving to fulfill a real whale of a task

FUKUOKA -- Each year during the colder months (about December to February) a variety of whales pass northern Kyushu on their way south to warmer waters and richer feeding grounds, following the Tsushima Warm Current down from Okhotsk along Japan's west coast. Larger whales tend to trail the Pacific Ocean...
LIFE / Travel
Apr 12, 2000

Follow the pilgrims' road to where past and present meet

When the warm spring winds riding the Kuroshio (Black Current) reach Shikoku, the island is at its best for visitors. Shikoku in the spring attracts both tourists and pilgrims. The pilgrims come to visit some or all of the island's 88 temples dedicated to Kobo Daishi, who introduced Shingon Buddhism...
COMMENTARY
Apr 12, 2000

No sympathy for politicians

I have sometimes said to my wife about a prominent politician, "Poor old so and so! He must be exhausted keeping to such a hard schedule. It's a tough life being a peripatetic politician." My wife's invariable response has been, "Don't waste your sympathy on politicians. They didn't have to accept their...
SOCCER / J. League
Apr 11, 2000

Decision on Troussier expected May 25

Whether or not Japan manager Philippe Troussier's contract will be extended is to be decided at a Japan Football Association executive committee meeting slated for May 25, Kunishige Kamamoto, JFA vice president and chief of the JFA's technical development department for the 2002 World Cup, said Monday...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 9, 2000

Jane Marwick

In the late 1980s the Tokyo International Learning Community began in a very small way as a support group for parents of children with special needs. TILC opened a school in a church room, where children suffering from a wide range of disabilities were brought together in a learning environment.
SOCCER / J. League
Apr 2, 2000

FC Tokyo loses tough one in extra time

KASHIWA, Chiba Pref. -- J. League Division One debutant FC Tokyo's winning streak ended at three matches after losing to Kashiwa Reysol 3-2 in extra time on South Korea international Hong Myung Bo's controversial goal Saturday at Kashiwa-no-ha Stadium.
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...
EDITORIALS
Mar 30, 2000

The real need for foreign workers

Japan must soon get ready to accept, even to welcome, a far greater number of legal foreign workers in its midst. The possibility is not remote, in view of plans just announced by the Justice Ministry's Immigration Bureau to relax visa procedures for non-Japanese workers in a wider range of fields than...
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 30, 2000

Aaron says time is right for 'real' World Series

It's been more than a quarter of a century now since he surpassed baseball's most hallowed record, but Hank Aaron still carries a big stick when it comes to his thoughts on the future of the game.
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.
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 29, 2000

Troussier lashes out at lack of cooperation by JFA

A day before the Japan Olympic team's friendly against New Zealand, Japan manager Philippe Troussier expressed his frustration with the Japan Football Association for its lack of cooperation in setting his preparation schedule with the Olympic team.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2000

Postwar taxation architect Shoup dies

Carl S. Shoup, a U.S. scholar who laid the foundation of Japan's postwar tax system, died in New Hampshire of unknown causes last Thursday, (March 23) the Finance Ministry said Tuesday. He was 97.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2000

No stopping the IT revolution

Most economic experts seem to agree that the information-technology revolution will bring profound changes to the global economy, and to the Japanese economy as well. Some people still believe that the revolution and the development of multimedia communications technology are only a bubble. However,...
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2000

KDD set to lead new advance overseas

The three-way merger of KDD Corp., DDI Corp. and IDO Corp. in October will turn the new firm into a competitive mobile phone and Internet business that will enable KDD to shine, KDD President Tadashi Nishimoto says.
COMMENTARY
Mar 26, 2000

All eyes on nuclear energy

It is axiomatic that any group in Japan -- doctors, dentists or candlestick makers -- will want to turn itself into a tightly bound community, closed off from the outside world. It will be concerned almost entirely with its own survival and prosperity.
COMMUNITY
Mar 26, 2000

Lebanese Marie-Rose has a lot to say on love

Last Tuesday Marie-Rose Ishiguro was at odds with her handbag. Dressed in a bright red suit, with gold jewelry and matching buttons, she looked every inch the power executive. But her battered brown leather bag -- more a holdall really, handles secured with string and spilling papers, books and clothes...
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2000

Obuchi puts G8 before election

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi indicated Saturday that he will not dissolve the Lower House for elections before the Okinawa summit of the Group of Eight major nations in July.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2000

Former Iran diplomat accused in arms case

Police sent papers to prosecutors accusing a former Iranian ambassador to Japan and a former embassy staff member of being directly involved in illegal weapons exports to Iran, Metropolitan Police Department officials said.
COMMUNITY
Mar 24, 2000

Women's lib pioneer Hiratsuka -- feminist or individualist?

"In the beginning, woman was the sun," is the famous manifesto issued by Raicho Hiratsuka, Japan's pioneer feminist, nearly 90 years ago. Her character, however, remains little known except among researchers of her achievements.
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2000

Entry to be made easier for legal foreign workers

Japan will aim to promote smoother acceptance of legal foreign workers, while at the same time taking stronger measures to weed out illegal aliens, according to a revised edition of the Basic Plan for Immigration Control to be released today by the Justice Ministry.
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2000

Domestic slump cuts Brazil's chances of gaining funds

Brazil is turning to Japan to raise badly needed funds for a new four-year development program that is expected to go into effect this year.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2000

Beijing all bark and no bite? Think again

Tensions over the Taiwan Strait are palpable after China did its best to intimidate Taiwanese voters in the runup to last weekend's election. First, the Cabinet released a white paper that drew an unmistakable line -- thickened with a new condition -- regarding the limits of acceptable Taiwanese behavior...
JAPAN
Mar 22, 2000

More female politicians key to gender equality, Swedish politician says

Increasing the number of female politicians may be the key to encouraging Japanese women to continue working after marriage and creating a gender-equal society in Japan, Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Lena Hjelm-Wallen said.
LIFE / Travel
Mar 22, 2000

Dejima getting back into shape

First-time visitors to Dejima, Nagasaki's historic artificial island, are usually puzzled on arrival. Looking around for water, they find only a kitsch scale model of the island and several oldish buildings. Although Dejima's front sea wall looks authentic enough, landfills have gradually enclosed the...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2000

Time to chase 'two hares'

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, citing a popular proverb, says his administration will not "run after two hares": It will first achieve economic recovery and then tackle fiscal reform. The official scenario is that the economy will pick up soon. The question is what will happen next. Without fiscal props,...
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2000

Biotech gap underlines need to foster Japanese innovation

In the early 1980s, a research report in the United States said that Japan was the most formidable competitor of the U.S. in the field of biotechnology.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat