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EDITORIALS
Dec 1, 1999

ASEAN's confidence returns

Southeast Asia is back. That is the message sent by leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations last weekend after their annual two-day summit. With member economies set to expand between 2 and 3 percent this year and looking forward to "higher and sustainable growth" in the future, the heads...
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Dec 1, 1999

Built to last long winters of discontent

One of the most fascinating crossroads on earth lies to the northeast of Japan. The ancient Bering land bridge used to span the current Bering Straits, connecting the land masses of Siberia and Alaska into one vast continent and enabling a traffic of plants, animals and even people to exchange across...
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Nov 26, 1999

Salon Music goes back to basics, but still way ahead of the curve

One of the great curiosities of the Japanese music scene is the tendency to eat up the latest indie rock innovations from the U.K. or U.S., leaving home-grown talent unknown and uncelebrated.
JAPAN
Nov 20, 1999

Hitachi plans info-systems investment

Hitachi Ltd. announced Friday it will invest 300 billion yen in the next two years to strengthen its foothold in the fast-growing information systems business.
JAPAN
Nov 20, 1999

Accidental oceanographer takes Kyoto Prize for lifework

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Nov 17, 1999

Bringing China into the fold

The breakthrough trade agreement signed in Beijing on Monday between China and the United States heralds the imminent global debut of the world's last-remaining large market that is basically free and operates on the basis of common global rules. This is a real boon, not only for the two nations concerned,...
JAPAN
Nov 15, 1999

Forester decries ranger shortage, U.S. whaling

Staff writer
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Nov 10, 1999

Soaring voice of modern Africa unifies the world music scene

Youssou N'Dour, one of Africa's (and the world's) greatest singers, makes a welcome return to Japan this month. The last time he was in Japan was for the 1994 WOMAD festival in Yokohama. World music was still on a roll back then, with some African artists such as Papa Wemba becoming genuinely "big in...
JAPAN
Nov 9, 1999

Patients pushed to take control of their own health

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 9, 1999

Chile minister urges more investment

Visiting Chilean Foreign Minister Juan Gabriel Valdes on Tuesday urged Japan to expand the scope of its investment in his homeland to help Santiago enhance the nation's economic strength, a Japanese official said.
JAPAN
Nov 5, 1999

EU on the fence on antidumping review

European Commissioner for Trade Pascal Lamy expressed mixed views Friday on calls from Japan and other Asian nations to have the World Trade Organization take up antidumping issues in the upcoming round of trade liberalization negotiations.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Nov 3, 1999

Kauai -- the director's cut

Remember that incredible rain-forest waterfall in "Jurassic Park?" Don't search for it in the movie's fictional location off Costa Rica. It's on Kauai Island, the self-styled "garden isle," State of Hawaii.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 2, 1999

This poetic chameleon wore khaki

SHREDDING THE TAPESTRY OF MEANING: The Poetry and Poetics of Kitasono Katsue (1902-1978), by John Solt. Harvard University Asia Center, 1999, 395 pp., $49.50. On Jan. 4, 1942, less than a month after Japan's assault on Pearl Harbor, Katsue Kitazono -- the spelling that John Solt gives the name in "Shredding...
COMMUNITY
Oct 30, 1999

On the cutting edge of Edo tech

A Japanese doll with a tray in its hands walks silently step by step toward the guests of a tea room. After a guest removes a tea bowl from the tray, the doll waits until it is returned to the tray, and then turns around and walks back to where it came from.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 1999

New angles on contemporary art

One of the foremost exhibitions of contemporary art in Japan, the International Contemporary Art Festival, will be held at the Tokyo International Forum Nov. 3-7.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1999

Aid groups call for Belarus' help

Japanese nongovernmental organizations on Friday called on the government of Belarus to make further efforts to facilitate their aid activities in the former Soviet republic, where millions still suffer from aftereffects of the 1986 Chernobyl accident in neighboring Ukraine.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Oct 27, 1999

What's going on

Last summer I wrote about Tokyo's upcoming wine event, the prestigious Japan International Wine Challenge, a competition that brings together the world's leading sommeliers, producers, importers and experts, giving devotees a chance to meet leaders in the world of wine and to taste some of the world's...
EDITORIALS
Oct 24, 1999

Save the beaches

There are words that wake us up -- like "free" or "prize" or "espresso" -- and then there are words that put us to sleep. Unfortunately, the latter group includes most of the working vocabulary of some very well-meaning people: "environment," "global warming," "greenhouse gases," all the way up to the...
JAPAN
Oct 21, 1999

Tokyo Motor Show: GM to expand Asia-Pacific presence

Staff writer
JAPAN
Oct 20, 1999

Tokyo Motor Show looks both to future, past

MAKUHARI, Chiba Pref. -- The 33rd Tokyo Motor Show is set to begin Saturday, bringing together automobile enthusiasts, automakers and auto parts manufacturers from around the world.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Oct 20, 1999

The comfort of strangers

"Susunu Denpa Shonen," which airs every Sunday night on NTV, has become a bona fide phenomenon partly by tweaking noses and partly by joining hands -- call it cynicism cut with altruism
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 20, 1999

Ghosts and goblins and kids, oh my!

Just after the ghosts and goblins of Halloween disappear, we will enter yet another spooky holiday: Nov. 3 -- Culture Day.
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1999

Air pollution not improving

Air pollution levels around the nation remained little changed in 1998 from the year before, with nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants known to cause respiratory disorders still a problem in major cities, according to an Environment Agency report released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Oct 13, 1999

Chavez, Obuchi talk of Venezuela's reforms

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived Wednesday in Tokyo and met with Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi to explain a list of ambitious reforms he has planned for the oil-rich but poverty-stricken South American country.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 1999

China's canny strategy in East Timor

China supported the U.N. Security Council resolution clearing the way for the deployment of an International Force for East Timor and also offered to send a civilian police contingent to be part of the U.N. peacemaking operation. Given China's advocacy of the principle of noninterference in internal...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1999

Mitsubishi, Volvo form bus-truck alliance

In the latest realignment in the global automotive industry, Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and AB Volvo of Sweden will form a strategic alliance in the field of trucks and buses that includes a capital tieup, top officials of the two firms announced Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 8, 1999

Inter FM to air Net Aid concerts

Inter FM will broadcast Net Aid live on Sunday from London, New York and Geneva.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 1999

Agency reports Tokai damage but revelations continue

The Science and Technology Agency informed the International Atomic Energy Agency early Thursday that the exterior of the roof of the uranium-processing plant where Japan's worst nuclear accident occurred last week is not damaged, agency officials said.
LIFE / ALTERNATIVE LUXURIES
Oct 7, 1999

Taking time to simply stop and think

We are sitting up late sipping plum wine from small glasses at Atsuko Watanabe's dinner table next to the woodstove in an old farmhouse deep in the mountains of Shikoku. Her husband, Gufudo, is washing the dishes (the Watanabes' own handmade pottery) from tonight's seven-course Indian vegetarian meal....
JAPAN
Sep 30, 1999

Tokai nuclear accident goes critical; remains out of control

A nuclear accident at a uranium-processing plant 125 km northeast of Tokyo on Thursday reached criticality, injuring three and pushing radiation levels up to 20,000 times beyond normal in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture.

Longform

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