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LIFE / Travel
Feb 2, 2000

The last paradise

Special to The Japan Times In the early years of the last century, the wife of a French colonial doctor in Laos wrote in her journal, "Oh! What a delightful paradise. The fierce barrier of the stream protects this country from the progress and ambition of which it has no need. Will Luang Prabang be,...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2000

Tokyo barely balances budget despite spiking haloed items

The Tokyo governor has lost 7,000 supporters for his next election, promises marathon aficionado Taeko Hara.
CULTURE / Art
Jan 29, 2000

Traditional art gets the seal of approval

You need them to register a birth certificate, to marry, to open a bank account and even to receive a parcel. You might say the hanko validates every official occasion in Japan.
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 2000

A warning from cyberspace

Welcome to the digital world. That was not the actual wording of the message hackers left on Japanese government Web pages this week, but it was the meaning for anyone who bothered to read between the lines. This week's incidents were an embarrassment, or at most a nuisance. Next time, the damage could...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 28, 2000

Karmapa's flight spurs intrigue

NEW DELHI -- A few weeks after the daring flight from Tibet to India of the 17th Karmapa, Ugyen Trinley Dorje, an air of intrigue has descended on the Buddhist front.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 27, 2000

Polishing off more perfection

It is finally beginning to get cold, which must bring a collective sigh of relief from sake brewers all over the country. The unseasonably warm temperatures of late are not good for brewing sake. Since just about now is when brewers dig in and begin to brew their best stuff, not enough cold could spoil...
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....
EDITORIALS
Jan 26, 2000

Russia's mystery man

Far more is asserted about Russia's acting president, Mr. Vladimir Putin, than is known. He rose through the state security apparatus, where his steely eye and no-nonsense demeanor impressed President Boris Yeltsin, who named him acting prime minister in August last year. Upon Mr. Yeltsin's surprise...
COMMUNITY
Jan 26, 2000

Watching the world go by: portrait of a centenarian

When she was in her 70s, Xing Guizhen brushed aside the idea of false teeth. "There's no need," she declared. "I'm going to die in a few days."
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2000

A new economic theory for a new millennium

The arrival of the new millennium offers us an opportunity to consider matters from a longer term point of view. While it is impossible to predict the events of the coming 1,000 years -- pause to consider that of today's seven leading industrialized coun- tries, only Japan, France and Britain existed...
COMMENTARY
Jan 24, 2000

Homage to a mass murderer

I was shocked to see a photograph in The Japan Times last month of former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama and former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka laying a wreath at the statue of the late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang. They looked rather sheepish. They should, in fact, have looked...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jan 23, 2000

Mary Cogan

Amongst many distinctions of different kinds, Tokyo has one that merits affectionate attention. Tokyo hosts the only Saint Patrick's Day Parade in Asia.
EDITORIALS
Jan 22, 2000

A mother's place is in the Diet

Babies are always news, but an even more special baby than usual is expected in Japan in April. Its mother is a news-maker herself: Diet member and former Olympic speed skater and cyclist Ms. Seiko Hashimoto. Dubbed a "superwoman" of Japanese athletics, Ms. Hashimoto competed in seven consecutive Olympics...
CULTURE / Music
Jan 21, 2000

Fashion segueing into sound

A special guest at a Ryuichi Sakamoto concert summons a host of international possibilities -- David Sylvian or Bowie, perhaps? Instead, the audience at Sakamoto's recent Christmas concert got designer Yohji Yamamoto clutching an acoustic guitar. Yamamoto's foray into music (he has recorded with rootsy...
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2000

Britain steps up scrutiny of BNFL-Kepco links

Staff writer OSAKA -- The British Parliament is stepping up calls for an investigation into the relationship between a British utilities company and Kansai Electric Power Co. following the company's admission that it falsified nuclear fuel data for Kepco's nuclear power plants in Fukui Prefecture. On...
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2000

Nanking Massacre biggest lie, unverifiable: group

Staff writer OSAKA -- Claims by Chinese and Western historians that hundreds of thousands of people were raped and murdered by the Imperial Japanese Army in Nanjing are undocumented and exaggerated, participants in symposium here Sunday claimed as protesters rallied outside. "There is no proof of large-scale...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 10, 2000

How to level the business playing field

CRISIS AND OPPORTUNITY IN A CHANGING JAPAN, by William R. Farrell, with a foreward by Walter F. Mondale. Westport/London: Quorum Books, 1999, 275 pp., $60 (cloth). It's the Black Ships, round II. JETRO reports that foreign direct investment into Japan leaped 89.4 percent last year, topping $10 billion...
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2000

Youth likely to vote despite distrust

Many new adults polled Monday morning by The Japan Times said they would exercise their just-acquired right to vote in this year's Lower House election, but their comments also revealed mixed feelings toward politics and even outright distrust in lawmakers. "I'm going (to the polls), though I don't...
EDITORIALS
Jan 8, 2000

Time on our hands

It's official: Despite all the premillennial hoopla, time, like an ever-rolling stream, is still rolling along. The world did not end last week after all; global communications did not break down; and nobody needed those carefully stored bottles of drinking water.A sense of postmillennial ennui in fact...
CULTURE / Music
Jan 8, 2000

Oh, the glamour of poetic injustice

Violence aspires to poetry and vice versa in "Death in Granada," an American/Spanish production that sheds a fleeting but eerie light on one of Spain's greatest poets: Federico Garcia Lorca.
EDITORIALS
Jan 4, 2000

A new era for Russia

Russian President Boris Yeltsin will be remembered, among other things, for his sense of drama. Last Friday's announcement that he would be stepping down as president was perfectly in character. It focused international attention on him -- at least momentarily -- as the world prepared to meet the new...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 3, 2000

Bad predictions ring out 1999; New Year to see games in Nagano

Apparently, my ability to predict where Japanese free agent ballplayers would sign new contracts is no better than my infamous skill at picking pennant winners. You may recall in the Nov. 21 Baseball Bullet-In, I speculated on which teams the three high-profile Japanese free agents would eventually sign...
CULTURE / Music
Jan 3, 2000

It's not an easy trick to pick one out of 108 for best of year

It is time once again to look back over some of the most significant events of the previous year, 1999.
JAPAN
Dec 31, 1999

Japan celebrates new year free of major Y2K problems

Japan ushered in the new year with various celebratory events Friday night that included fireworks, all-night dancing and concerts while much of the public harbored concerns over possible Y2K-related problems. Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi addressed the nation from the Prime Minister's Official Residence...
EDITORIALS
Dec 30, 1999

A marker in the river

Amid the rising din of millennium-inspired commentary, a single remark floated free recently, then fluttered down to lodge quietly in the mind. It didn't come from a pundit looking to say something portentous. It came from the British pop-music composer turned classicist Joe Jackson, introducing his...
JAPAN / Media
Dec 30, 1999

A recap of 1999's top media: mavens, meddlers, madmen

By Philip Brasor
JAPAN
Dec 29, 1999

Writer, artist unite to portray Okinawa's problems

Staff writer OSAKA -- When artist Seitaro Kuroda was videotaping a series of war stories for children written by prize-winning author Akiyuki Nosaka, he noticed something was missing. The stories, which first appeared in a magazine in 1971, described the hardship brought upon children and animals by...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 1999

Upbeat ending to 20th century

PARIS -- A number of problems continue to darken the world as it prepares for a new century and a new millennium: chronic warfare in Afghanistan, Africa and Columbia; widespread terrorism; a stalemate in Kosovo; fear over the plans of "rogue states" such as North Korea, Iraq and Iran; the refusal of...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Dec 23, 1999

Sake tools you can trust

Happy Holidays to all Japan Times readers.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 1999

Emperor glad reign has been peaceful so far

The Emperor, who turns 66 today, expressed happiness Wednesday that the first 10 years of his reign have passed relatively peacefully. The Emperor contrasted the first decade of his Heisei era to that of his late father, Emperor Hirohito, saying "various violent incidents occurred" in that period. Emperor...

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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