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LIFE / Travel
May 22, 2001

Visiting the Little Prince at Hakone

Breathtaking mountain scenery, a walk through a French village, Provencal cooking and a meeting with the doppelganger of a world-famous author -- sounds like a nice day trip. Especially when you can do it all without leaving Kanto.
LIFE / Travel
May 22, 2001

Mists of time and fable fade at Janakpur

JANAKPUR, Nepal -- There are few places where history and allegory blur more easily than the Indian subcontinent. The line dividing fact and fable meanders and shifts like the great Ganges River that figures so prominently in both.
COMMENTARY
May 21, 2001

Better a wooden chicken than a tornado

As soon as Diet member Makiko Tanaka was sworn in as foreign minister, a powerful "Tornado Makiko" rampaged throughout the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sending some of the officials way up in the air and forcing others to retreat to hospital. For onlookers, the greater the chaos the more fun it was to...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
May 20, 2001

Now that's what I call internationalism

Beginning in the 1970s and continuing into the "bubble" years of the 1980s, one of the buzzwords heard often in the media and from the mouths of politicians was "internationalization." Internationalization supposedly meant that the Japanese would become confident world citizens, fluent in English and...
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2001

Koreans' dream of unity is still remote

SEOUL -- In less than a month, Koreans will commemorate the first anniversary of the historic inter-Korean summit. In mid-June last year, the leaders of the divided country met for the first time and vowed to open a new chapter in peninsular relations. Numerous political and academic events will take...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 19, 2001

Dancing with rubbish leads to dancing with rice

It is easy to pick out dancer Firak di Bello in a crowd. Slight of build and all skin and bone, his shaven head mirrors the sun. Equally distinctive are his eyes (as wary as they are warm and all-seeing), the hawklike nose (which leads the way) and a gait that bobs rather than glides.
JAPAN
May 17, 2001

IOC: Osaka can continue bid

From wire and staff reports The IOC late Wednesday decided in Lausanne, Switzerland, to let Osaka and Istanbul, Turkey, stay in the race for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
BUSINESS
May 16, 2001

Drinkers guzzle more 'happoshu'

The nation's beer market grew 3.9 percent in April from the previous year, helped by the popularity of low-malt "happoshu" drinks, according to data released Tuesday by the country's five major brewers.
JAPAN / EMBASSY ROW
May 15, 2001

Unaware Japan digging into Canadian produce

Want a taste of Canada while in Japan? According to Ambassador Leonard Edwards, all you have to do is dig into a plate of pasta, bite into a sandwich or use canola oil in your cooking.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
May 13, 2001

Reading, writing and fermenting

It is likely that few of us remember -- or put much value on -- our high school curriculum. After all, the three Rs and a dollop of foreign language is hardly a memorable course of study. Now, of course, if we were able to study and practice something like, say, sake brewing, well that would be fun --...
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
May 13, 2001

Last night a radio DJ saved my life

The foreign contribution to Tokyo's nightlife is not all Roppongi sleaze. Take Guy Perryman, for example, who has created a unique lounge-cum-event space around a radio station. Guy had just started his career as an FM disc jockey in Sydney when he was recruited by Virgin to spin at the opening of their...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 13, 2001

Death and the maidens

TBS's "Sekai Fushigi Hakken," currently the longest-running quiz show on commercial TV, was also one of the first series to combine education and entertainment in a way that didn't compromise either. Whereas the previous record-holder, "Naruhodo the World," which went off the air several years ago, presented...
JAPAN
May 12, 2001

Hansen's patients hope for dignity in society's eyes

Former patients of Hansen's disease are hoping their fight to restore the human rights they have long been deprived of will build public awareness and eventually lead to the creation of a society in which no one's dignity is denied.
COMMENTARY / World
May 12, 2001

Apologizing for a slight case of genocide

LONDON -- "Not one word of apology has been heard from your lips about the Fourth Crusade," said Archbishop Christodoulos in a hectoring tone, as Pope John Paul II sat with the head of the Greek Orthodox Church last Friday just hours after his arrival in Athens. It is, after all, the age of apologizing...
JAPAN
May 11, 2001

Korean residents mingle more since summit

OSAKA -- Pro-Pyongyang and pro-Seoul Korean resident groups in Japan have been mingling more frequently since the summit in June between the leaders of North and South Korea, a Kyodo News survey shows.
JAPAN
May 9, 2001

Patient approach advocated

Japan will continue to "patiently" pursue normalization talks with North Korea, although the two countries remain at odds on key issues, the Foreign Ministry said in its annual report released Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
May 6, 2001

Pressing for freedom

Last Thursday was World Press Freedom Day. Most people probably missed it here in Japan, where Thursday was also Constitution Day, part of the mass timeout we call Golden Week. (They probably didn't spend much time thinking about the Constitution, either, or the coincidence that freedom of the press...
JAPAN
May 6, 2001

Teens surrender after victim dies in Tokyo hospital

Four male teenagers surrendered to police late Friday night after a banker they allegedly attacked in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward on April 28 succumbed to his injuries earlier Friday and died in a Tokyo hospital, police said.
MORE SPORTS
May 5, 2001

Webb takes lead at Nichirei Ladies' Golf

Karrie Webb of Australia birdied four holes without a bogey for a 4-under-par 68 Friday to grab a two-stroke lead in the 60 million yen Nichirei Cup World Ladies golf tournament.
COMMENTARY
May 5, 2001

Koizumi tidal wave may crest

The past 10 days have been a tumultuous period in Japanese politics. I refer, of course, to the series of events from the resignation of former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori to the election of Junichiro Koizumi as Liberal Democratic Party president and prime minister and the inauguration of the Koizumi...
MORE SPORTS
May 4, 2001

Chinese ping-pongers advance in singles

OSAKA -- Top-ranked Wang Nan and Wang Liqin of China posted easy wins Thursday to advance in the singles events at the table tennis World Championships in Osaka. Olympic champion Wang Nan rolled over North Korea's Kim Hyon Hui in straight sets 21-15, 21-14, 21-19 in a fourth-round match to advance to...
BUSINESS
May 2, 2001

Yen faces seasonal factors

The yen could remain under downward pressure over the next two to three months.
EDITORIALS
May 1, 2001

Economic ills have a silver lining

Economic problems can have positive effects. They are providing the governments in Greece and Turkey with good reasons to follow up their political rapprochement with concrete security measures. Or, as in this case, to abstain from making arms purchases that would ratchet up tensions in the region.
JAPAN
May 1, 2001

Release of bilingual CD aims to soothe Tokyo-Seoul discord

Cultural exchanges between Japan and South Korea have made steady progress since the first deregulation of Japanese popular culture in South Korea in 1998, according to Kiyomi Kaneko, secretary general of the Foundation for Promotion of Music Industry and Culture (Promic).
MORE SPORTS / THE DUKE OF HAZARDS
May 1, 2001

Faldo designing plans for the future

Nick Faldo, a six-time major winner, shot 151 (75-76) in the first two rounds of the Masters last month and missed the cut. This means he earned nothing.
LIFE / Travel
May 1, 2001

'Talking rot and taking the bull by the horns'

The events of June 1855 at Speakers' Corner inspired Karl Marx to declare that the English proletariat had begun their inexorable rise and that social revolution leading to a communist state was under way.

Longform

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