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CULTURE / Music
Feb 24, 2001

Yasuji Kiyose's lifelong quest for a modern Japanese voice

Music can be a passive history lesson. Sometimes, it can take us on a fantastic, aural journey, as with Japanese composers active before World War II who reflect in their music nearly half a century of tumultuous, societal change.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2001

Keio to fight groping by introducing women-only rail cars

Keio Electric Railway Co. trains will begin providing women-only carriages on late night runs in late March following an overwhelmingly positive response to a trial service in December, company officials said Thursday.
COMMUNITY
Feb 22, 2001

Choosing a preschool

Choosing the best preschool for your child is a decision many parents agonize over. I know that I did. In writing this series I took my 3-year-old daughter, Mirai, to each of the schools to observe her behavior.
LIFE / Digital
Feb 22, 2001

Internet auctions boom

Kazutoshi Kitazawa, a 37-year-old university professor, has been bidding and selling in online auctions for two years. When he feels like upgrading his computer, he browses through Yahoo! Japan's auction Web site to buy memory cards and other computer components at bargain prices. When he decides the...
COMMUNITY
Feb 22, 2001

The gentle hands and kind hearts of Toyko Union

The panda bears are hard at it. Up to their elbows in flour, they vigorously work their wooden rolling pins, then use cookie cutters to stamp out heart shapes from the flattened dough. Soon, a sugary aroma drifts down the halls.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Feb 21, 2001

Your Earth needs you! Volunteer now

In honor of the United Nations' decision to declare 2001 "The International Year of Volunteers," our last column devoted itself to an utterly shameless advertisement for the book "Kokusai Volunteer Guide: Inside International Voluntary Work," published by The Japan Times and written by Midori Paxton....
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2001

Corporate investment is key

Amid widespread economic uncertainty, some economists prefer a more expansionary monetary policy or inflation targeting. At a recent meeting of the government's Economic and Fiscal Advisory Council, many members called on the Bank of Japan to relax credit restraints even further.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2001

Cabinet set to approve two bills on PCB disposal

The Cabinet is expected to approve two government-drafted bills today that will encourage the processing of polychlorinated biphenyls with an eye to destroying known stockpiles in around a decade.
BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2001

WTO to approve Japan's rice tariffs as Uruguay backs down

When Japan introduced a controversial tariff scheme for its rice imports in April 1999, it was like a train departing before all passengers were on board.
BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2001

WTO to approve Japan's rice tariffs as Uruguay backs down

When Japan introduced a controversial tariff scheme for its rice imports in April 1999, it was like a train departing before all passengers were on board.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 20, 2001

Charting the landscape of Japan's foreign affairs

JAPANESE FOREIGN POLICY TODAY, edited by Inoguchi Takashi and Purnendra Jain. New York: Palgrave, 2000, 316 pp. $59.95 (cloth). This collection of studies on Japan's foreign policy is edited by Takashi Inoguchi, professor of political science at the Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo,...
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2001

Toshiba targets April 1 for corporate restructure

Toshiba Corp. said Friday that it will reorganize its in-house corporate structure to promote the company's information technology and mobile equipment businesses.
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2001

Toshiba targets April 1 for corporate restructure

Toshiba Corp. said Friday that it will reorganize its in-house corporate structure to promote the company's information technology and mobile equipment businesses.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 16, 2001

Black Eyed Peas try to bring it all back

Whither hip hop? Since it's still relatively young, a better question might be: When will it become as redundant as rock? I think it already has, and not because, musically at least, hip hop is by definition a pastiche, but because thematically it's stuck in a rut.
BUSINESS
Feb 15, 2001

U.S. fears cap dollar's surge

The Bank of Japan's latest discount rate cut was seen as a largely cosmetic measure.
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 12, 2001

Rescuing baby ibises at Sanchahe

A crested ibis was presented to the Japanese people Oct. 13 by Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji. As an ornithologist, I was excited by the news, and it recalled my visits to the nesting area in Sanchahe Valley, a nature reserve for the crested ibis in Yang County, Shanxi Province.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Parties drag heels over picking candidates

CHIBA -- With just six weeks until the March 25 gubernatorial election here, the main political parties in this traditionally conservative prefecture have been uncharacteristically slow in selecting candidates.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Parties drag heels over picking candidates

CHIBA -- With just six weeks until the March 25 gubernatorial election here, the main political parties in this traditionally conservative prefecture have been uncharacteristically slow in selecting candidates.
COMMUNITY
Feb 11, 2001

Shinto priestess finds freedom while minding duties of past

On summer weekends, Kugenuma Beach turns into a parody of the nearby metropolis' encroachment on the holidaymaker, with girls in bikinis and 20-cm platform sandals struggling across the sand while loudspeakers on towers belch J-pop at 50-meter intervals, making it difficult to find a moment for quiet...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2001

Hope fades for reconciliation in Kosovo

The West's intervention in Kosovo was a reaction to the Serbs' final solution to the problems of the recalcitrant province. The Serbs attempted to drive out the Albanian majority using soldiers and civilians for mayhem and murder. It was not an arbitrary, irrational act, merely a final inhuman escalation...
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2001

Swiss forum seeks Japanese delegates

During the era of student protests in the late 1960s, five students at a Swiss business college launched a symposium to encourage dialogue between disaffected generations by inviting corporate leaders and other establishment figures to their campus.
JAPAN / STAGING A COMEBACK
Feb 7, 2001

LDP still kowtows to vested interests at the economy's expense

Pop into a convenience store and you may still find inconvenience: They don't sell medicine and you may not find cigarettes or alcohol at some shops.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2001

Study targets Ariake seaweed woes

The Environment Ministry announced Tuesday it will study the Ariake Sea off Kyushu to supplement ongoing Agriculture Ministry studies aimed at unearthing the causes of this season's poor seaweed harvest.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2001

Study targets Ariake seaweed woes

The Environment Ministry announced Tuesday it will study the Ariake Sea off Kyushu to supplement ongoing Agriculture Ministry studies aimed at unearthing the causes of this season's poor seaweed harvest.
BUSINESS
Feb 6, 2001

Keidanren gears up for mission to Russia in June

Japan's most powerful business lobby is planning to send a mission of up to 150 representatives to Russia between June 1 and June 8, the group's head said Monday.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 6, 2001

Recruit to disband athletics team

The athletics team of Recruit Co., known for producing two-time Olympic marathon medalist Yuko Arimori, will be shut down in September as part of the company's cost-cutting effort, Recruit officials said Monday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 4, 2001

Ginger, the new IT girl

Among the many things for which whiz-bang American inventor Dean Kamen is famous is an automated wheelchair that can ride over uneven ground and climb stairs. That particular breakthrough device was code-named "Fred." Now, as everyone this side of the grave must have heard, there is also "Ginger." Some...
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2001

Bill compiled to eliminate all PCBs

The Environment Ministry has compiled a draft bill promoting appropriate disposal of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) that will require businesses to remove the compound from instruments that contain it, ministry sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2001

Osaka prepares for visit from IOC

OSAKA -- In a few weeks, International Olympic Committee officials will visit Osaka to assess the city's 2008 Olympic Games bid.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2001

Osaka prepares for visit from IOC

OSAKA -- In a few weeks, International Olympic Committee officials will visit Osaka to assess the city's 2008 Olympic Games bid.

Longform

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