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JAPAN
Feb 21, 2000

Standards needed for granting residence status: rights activist

Staff writer An advocate of foreigners' rights says he has seen indications that Japanese authorities are beginning to regard those who overstay their visas as human beings -- not as mere laborers or scofflaws. However, Katsuo Yoshinari, head of the Asian People's Friendship Society, said there is a...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 20, 2000

Through 'Different Gates' of expression

For nearly a decade, Tom Dow has coordinated and helped organize the Tokyo Writers Workshop in Takadanobaba every third Sunday 1-5 p.m. TWW was founded as the Tokyo English Literary Society by Thomas Ainaly in 1977 and the publication that contained many of the members' work became Printed Matter.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 19, 2000

Modern Japanese painting's other capital

The figure of Kakuzo Okakura, better known in Japan by his pen name Tenshin, looms large over modern nihonga (Japanese-style painting). Not a painter of distinction himself, his importance was as a critic, curator and organizer. As the founder of what is now Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and...
EDITORIALS
Feb 17, 2000

Russian treaty talks need a boost

The groundwork for continuing peace treaty negotiations between Japan and Russia was laid during last week's visit here by Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. Mr. Ivanov renewed Moscow's commitment to signing a long-pending peace pact in talks with Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and Foreign Minister Yohei...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Feb 17, 2000

Somebody stick a fork in the J. League; it's done

Some things are just not meant to be: the Buffalo Bills will never win the Super Bowl, Hideo Nomo will never develop a personality, Ichiro Suzuki will never trade in his bat for a sumo mawashi, and Fred Varcoe will never grace the cover of GQ magazine.
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2000

Kono restates North Korea stance

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono reiterated Tuesday that the issue of alleged abductions of Japanese by North Korea must be resolved if Tokyo and Pyongyang aim to improve relations, a Foreign Ministry official said. Kono addressed Japan's long-standing concern over the abduction issue in his talks Tuesday...
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2000

Battle over Constitution begins

Breaking a postwar taboo, politicians started a full-scale parliamentary discussion Wednesday on whether to rewrite parts of the nation's hitherto untouchable Constitution. In the first session of an Upper House Constitution study panel, parties remained sharply divided over the premise of the panel...
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Feb 16, 2000

Computers, continued

Continuing with computer questions, a gentleman asks where he can find an iMac with an English language operating system (OS). The manufacturer explains that English OS Macs are not sold here because of various U.S. and Japanese regulations. Still, they want to help their hopeful customers so there is...
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 16, 2000

Rambling after migrating bramblings

The many seed-bearing plants of the temperate region, the grasses and the herbs, the trees and the shrubs, produce an enormous volume of seed each year. Typically of the natural world, a vast amount of effort is rewarded by very few successes. In the game of chance that is life, relatively few seeds...
MORE SPORTS
Feb 12, 2000

The life and times of a sumo giant

Continuing The Japan Times' exclusive interview with yokozuna Akebono, 30, in which he talks about his life and relationships in sumo.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2000

'Greedy' Myanmar requests $1.45 billion

Staff writer How greedy Myanmar's cash-strapped military regime is! It is trying to wheedle Japan, the world's largest aid donor, for a huge amount of money that it probably would not be able to digest. The Myanmar military regime, struggling to survive deep economic trouble amid continued isolation...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2000

Turnout low at Founding Day ceremony

Diet members and foreign dignitaries on Friday attended a ceremony to celebrate National Founding Day at the Hibiya Public Hall in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. Yet, despite the efforts of organizing officials to emphasize the historical significance of the ceremony, the occasion was marked more by the prevalence...
COMMENTARY
Feb 10, 2000

Democracy under attack

When I first read that the Japanese coalition government had decided to force through a bill to reduce the number of seats elected by proportional representation, my first thought was, since they had a majority of votes in both Houses for this measure and as democracy generally implies majority rules,...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Feb 10, 2000

Olympics strike out with baseball format

In last week's installment of Sports Scope, my esteemed colleague David Picker took Orix BlueWave star center fielder Ichiro Suzuki to task for showing no interest in going to the 2000 Olympics. Well, I'm with Ichiro.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2000

Symposium on bilateral direct investment to be held

Japan and the United States will discuss ways to better cope with the rapidly increasing foreign direct investment in Japan by cosponsoring a government-private sector symposium March 1 in Tokyo, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry announced Thursday. The symposium will focus on mergers...
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2000

M-5 rocket fails to reach orbit; satellite feared lost

UCHINOURA, Kagoshima Pref. -- In another serious blow to Japan's space program, an M-5 rocket carrying an astronomical observation satellite failed Thursday to reach its expected orbit. The rocket was supposed to reach an orbit of between 270 km and 550 km from Earth after lifting off at 10:30 a.m....
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2000

Kyoto business seminar kicks off with eye on reform

KYOTO -- The two-day Kansai Business Seminar opened here Wednesday with organizers calling on business leaders to reform Japan's business practices and to revitalize the Kansai economy in the face of global competition. Before about 380 business leaders, government officials and university professors,...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 8, 2000

Life during wartime through a child's clear eyes

A BOY CALLED H: A Childhood in Wartime Japan, by Kappa Senoh, translated by John Bester. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1999, 528 pp., 3,200 yen (cloth). In Roddy Doyle's "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha," and again in Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes," we are told of life in poverty-ridden back streets of Ireland's cities...
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 7, 2000

Craning for a look at a natural monument

TSURUI VILLAGE, Hokkaido -- The meandering local bus takes over an hour to reach this quiet hamlet of dairy farms in southeastern Hokkaido. For out-of-town passengers, the approach to Tsurui comes as something of a shock. Those black-and-white creatures stepping delicately across the pasture most definitely...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 6, 2000

Philip Harper

To be billed as Japan's only foreign sake brewer conveys a claim unusually intriguing. Even the man in question, Philip Harper, expresses some surprise at the way things have gone for him as he gets close to achieving the status of master brewer in Japan.
COMMUNITY
Feb 6, 2000

The best parents are both parents

David Brian Thomas (who with a name like that can only owe his heritage to Welsh Wales) carries two photos in his wallet. One shows a baby; the other a gravely sweet 3-year-old -- the age Thomas last saw his son seven years ago.
COMMUNITY
Feb 3, 2000

Tarento Shepherd bids farewell after two decades in show biz

When they walk into a room, heads turn, tongues wag, fingers point. They've got something no one can define but everyone recognizes. If anybody's got it, it's gaikokujin tarento Joan Shepherd.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2000

Landmark decision grants residency to Iranian family

In a landmark decision Wednesday, three members of an Iranian family were granted special residence permission by Justice Minister Hideo Usui. The three, having overstayed their visas, petitioned immigration authorities for special status in September. It is the first time the government has issued...
LIFE / Travel
Feb 2, 2000

New winter travel bargains opening domestic flight doors

Winter brings Japan's best travel bargains, and this millennium year the bargains are better than ever.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Feb 2, 2000

Maintaining traditions

A gentleman is doing research on fireflies and asks about a service that provides fireflies for parties. He tells us he lives on a small hill surrounded by trees with a huge expanse of rice fields below. Ideal for fireflies, he says, but they are exceedingly rare; his son has seen more on a single night...
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2000

KEDO ready to begin construction on nuclear reactors

Staff writer Full-scale construction of two light-water reactors in North Korea is set to begin by mid-February, Desaix Anderson, executive director of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, said in an interview. On Monday in Tokyo, Japan signed a loan agreement with KEDO to provide up...
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Jan 30, 2000

Success story

While no one can possibly take in all the exhibitions in Tokyo, some of you may be interested in a showing of Yoshihiro Kubo's oil paintings today through Tuesday at Ginza Art Plaza, phone (03) 3289-2345 for directions. If you don't know, Dr. Kubo opened what was perhaps the first dental clinic in Japan...
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 29, 2000

Maintaining Shiiba's proud history

A good chance to enjoy a glimpse of visual and performing arts of rural old Japan will come to Tokyo Feb. 19-20. The Kioi Small Hall will present a special program titled "Traditional Performing Arts of Shiiba, Miyazaki" to introduce rarely seen dances and chants performed in front of a profusely decorated...
COMMENTARY
Jan 28, 2000

Debate kicks off on the Constitution

As the ordinary Diet session opened Jan. 20, the tripartite ruling bloc and the opposition forces squared off over a proposal to cut the number of Lower House seats. With a dissolution of the Lower House for a snap election looming, sharp rivalry is brewing between the coalition, made up of the Liberal...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 27, 2000

Wineries to complement your travel plans

In the dead of winter, what's a wine lover to do? I'm almost tempted to say "Bring back the hot, spicy wine," the body-warming concoction quaffed at stalls in town center squares all over Europe toward year's end. It's a splendid custom, but actually what I had in mind is winery visits in California....

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