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CULTURE / Art
Feb 4, 2001

Pottery dreams across 10,000 years

In 1877, the Harvard-trained biologist Edward Sylvester Morse, freshly arrived in Japan, took the new train from Tokyo to Yokohama. As he passed through Omori he looked out the window and saw a long, high mound. From having dug into many a similar mound back home in Massachusetts, he knew exactly what...
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2001

Diesel pollution effects to be studied

Environment Ministry will study air pollution in 16 areas throughout the nation to determine people's level of exposure to diesel exhaust particulates and determine the associated health risks.
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2001

Panel takes up rescue of private sector

The Financial Services Agency will begin a joint liaison meeting with two other ministries in an attempt to resolve the financial sector's bad-loans and other sectors' overborrowing, Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa said Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2001

Birds found to have flown from Northern Alaska

At least two migratory shorebirds tagged while breeding in Northern Alaska during the summers of 1999 and 2000 have been spotted in Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures, the Environment Ministry said Friday.
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2001

Mazda opens online auto shop to market built-to-order cars

Mazda Motor Corp. today will open an Internet site that will allow Japanese customers to custom-build their own cars.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2001

Tokyo, New Delhi eager to put synergy back in relations

Last week's massive earthquake in western India has thrown in doubt Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's planned official visit to Japan this month -- the first by a premier of the world's most populous democracy in nearly 13 years.
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2001

S&P expects more defaults, lower bank ratings

The number of defaults in Japan, already at a record high, is bound to increase in 2001, while downgrades of credit ratings are likely to continue outnumbering upgrades, Standard & Poor's Corp. said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2001

2001 budget awaits nod from Diet

The government on Wednesday submitted an 82.65 trillion yen budget for fiscal 2001 to the Diet that features a record 48.66 trillion yen outlay meant to bolster the teetering economy.
COMMENTARY
Jan 29, 2001

'Real' deregulation is a powerful idea

WASHINGTON -- There's no better place to spend Christmas in the United States than San Diego. Amid the warmth and sun you see snow only on television. No high heating bills here.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2001

Faked digs put archaeologists on defensive

Shock waves ran through Japan in November after it was revealed that revered amateur archaeologist Shinichi Fujimura had planted findings of early Paleolithic relics at two of his dig sites.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2001

Isahaya Bay dike in new environmental row over seaweed

Just when criticism of a contentious land reclamation project in Nagasaki Prefecture's Isahaya Bay appeared to have blown over, the issue has been rekindled with reports that large amounts of cultivated seaweed in the Ariake Sea, which flows into the bay, are losing their color and yellowing.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2001

Macroeconomic pacing urged

Both Japan and the United States are vulnerable to the same macroeconomic policy mistakes -- overreacting to short-term bad news and making wrong policy decisions, a renowned American economist warned during a recent symposium held in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2001

Japan's banking system still shaky despite 'reforms'

Japan's banking system can still be described as "fragile" or even "precarious" despite nearly a decade of supposed reforms and a wave of industry realignment, according to Benn Steil, New York-based senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations.
COMMUNITY
Jan 25, 2001

The kindergartens are all right

Michiko Sonobe (not her real name) was nervous before an interview with authorities at a prestigious kindergarten in Yokohama as part of her 21/2-year-old son's entrance examination last November.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2001

Tokyo general budget to increase by 0.3%

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's fiscal 2001 budget released Wednesday underscores that belt-tightening options have been exhausted, with the general expenditure portion of the package rising 0.3 percent from the initial budget for the current year.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2001

Bill to target diesel emissions

The Environment Ministry plans to submit a bill to the Diet to amend the current vehicle emissions law by imposing tougher controls on commercial users of diesel-powered vehicles, ministry sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2001

Global warming danger rises for Northern Hemisphere

Evidence that human-induced global warming is occurring is stronger than ever and Japan, along with other Northern Hemisphere countries, could see the most drastic rises in temperature as a result, according to a new report released Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2001

Avoiding generalizations about ASEAN

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Recent days have seen the emergence of a number of cliches in the press with reference to policies and trends in Asia and particularly to ASEAN. Among the most common are the following:
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jan 21, 2001

Belenda Ryan

Belenda Ryan calls her career so far her "rambling life."
CULTURE / Art
Jan 20, 2001

Patience finds something from nothing

Tokyo galleries are back in swing after the New Year's holiday, and the surprise toast of the town is an emerging artist, Anne Daems. A look at the 34-year-old Belgian's biography reveals that Daems has had only four solo shows in her short career, and that is exactly the number of local exhibitions...
JAPAN
Jan 19, 2001

Mori asks panel to plan five-year science policy

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori asked an advisory panel Thursday to draw up a comprehensive science and technology strategy for the nation by the end of March.
EDITORIALS
Jan 18, 2001

Corruption tests Beijing's courage

Chinese efforts to clean up the economy have claimed more victims. This week, two high-ranking officials of the State Power Corporation were arrested for taking bribes; more arrests are expected. They are the latest offenders caught in the campaign to root out corruption. The program is absolutely necessary...
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2001

U.S. time limit on base reiterated

Okinawa officials again urged the government Tuesday to abide by their call for a time limit on the U.S. forces' use of a new joint civilian-military airport to be built in northern Okinawa.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 17, 2001

Asian environmental extremes

As if the greatest mountain range on earth were not monument enough to the scale of Asia, other ranges, such as the Tien Shan and the Altai, join ranks with the Himalayas to make Central Asia the roof of the world.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jan 17, 2001

Botswana's delta a force of nature

The Okavango delta (or "the Delta" as it's known by those in the know) is not a swamp, at least not in the conventionally unpleasant sense of the word.
BUSINESS
Jan 16, 2001

LDP prepares to inflate sagging stock market

The Liberal Democratic Party on Monday decided to set up an in-house panel to draw up measures to bolster Japan's faltering stock markets, party officials said.

Longform

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