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COMMUNITY
Dec 10, 2000

Iron chef champ's book hailed best in the world

One of Katsuyo Kobayashi's strengths is that she is 100 percent reliable. With 140 books published to date, even the most inept cook can take home her latest compilation of recipes and come up trumps every time. Not only are they easy to make, good to eat and affordable, but joy of joys, some are now...
COMMENTARY
Dec 10, 2000

American democracy teeters on the brink

NEW YORK -- There's plenty of room for reasonable disagreement in this post-election netherworld. The Bushies are right that we need a president-elect and we needed one weeks ago; despite lackadaisical opinion polls and surprising public apathy, the legal maneuvering over recounts can't go on forever....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Dec 10, 2000

Anchita Ghosh

When she was a little girl living in Tokyo, Anchita Ghosh liked to stay behind after school and help her teacher clean up the classroom. When she was at home, she liked to help her mother cook. Her mother practiced professional Indian massage, and Anchita liked to pick up the towels, put away the oils...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2000

The Japanese language goes international

This is the ninth of a 10-part series on contemporary Japan.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 10, 2000

Unplugged (but stuffed up)

Elliott Smith Which came first, "MTV Unplugged," or the tendency for singer-songwriters to do solo acoustic tours? Ostensibly, these artists (usually guys) say they want to explore pure songs without the production distractions that may have made the songs popular in the first place (personally, I can't...
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 10, 2000

The stuff that memories are made of

The performance company Dumb Type, based in Kyoto, has always been a bit of a political animal, an in-your-face shape-shifter through dance, the visual and plastic arts, text, conceptualized performance, mime, puppetry and film. And because it has been an enthusiastic investigator of gender politics,...
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2000

Renoir among 17 works of art stolen

A total of 17 famous paintings worth hundreds of million yen were stolen from the Ikebukuro branch of Tobu Department Store Co. and a Tokyo home over a short period in mid-August, it was learned Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Dec 9, 2000

Mr. Fox gets down to business

Mexico's new president, Mr. Vicente Fox, has wasted no time in getting down to business. During the campaign, he promised sweeping change. The Mexican people believed him, voting him into office in a historic election. In his inaugural address last week, Mr. Fox stuck to his theme of renewal. But the...
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2000

12-year air pollution suit officially ends

OSAKA -- A 12-year air pollution suit was finally resolved Friday as residents of Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, and the central government and an expressway operator formally settled the case at the Osaka High Court after the state pledged to take specific steps to reduce harmful vehicle emissions.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2000

Yohei Kono or Ryutaro Hashimoto likely to succeed PM Yoshiro Mori

Foreign Minister Yohei Kono and former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto will emerge as the favorites to succeed Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori when the likelihood of his resignation increases come spring or summer, according to a veteran political analyst.
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Dec 9, 2000

Better education system hinges on revision of law: Machimura

The 53-year-old Fundamental Law of Education needs to be revised if Japan is to lay the foundations of a better education system in the 21st century, according to newly appointed Education Minister Nobutaka Machimura.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2000

Nonbinding tribunal can only sentence the nation to shame

Since three Korean women came out in 1991 and demanded government compensation for being forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers, many former "comfort women" have died in despair, receiving no compensation, never seeing their rapists brought to justice and having suffered the further humiliation...
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2000

Coalition group urges ODA paring

A study group set up by the ruling coalition agreed Friday on the need to reduce the amount of Japan's official development assistance to developing countries in the fiscal 2001 budget, members of the group said.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2000

'Nabe' sales rise laid to weather, single lifestyles

Sales of sets for making traditional "nabe" stews have been rising fast with the sudden onset of cold weather, with some stores reporting close to a 50 percent increase in sales.
BUSINESS
Dec 9, 2000

Paper makers' merger gets FTC conditional nod

The Fair Trade Commission gave a conditional green light Friday to the proposed integration of Nippon Paper Industries Co. and Daishowa Paper Mfg. Co. The move would create the nation's top paper maker.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2000

Environment Agency rises a rank

In less than a month, the Environment Agency will -- at least in theory -- get its hands on a bigger piece of the administrative pie.
BUSINESS
Dec 9, 2000

Subcommittee reviews corporate laws

A subcommittee under the Industrial Structural Council, an advisory panel to the minister of international trade and industry, on Friday compiled a set of proposals to revise corporate laws to make corporate management more responsive and flexible.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2000

Sogo executives ordered to pay 6 billion yen

The Tokyo District Court on Friday ordered ex-Sogo Co. Chairman Hiroo Mizushima and 16 other former executives to pay about 6 billion yen to the department store chain for mismanagement in a series of shady and allegedly illegal business deals.
BUSINESS
Dec 9, 2000

IT sectors lead machinery orders to 11th month of increase

Core machinery orders to Japanese manufacturers in October rose a seasonally adjusted 8.3 percent from the previous month to 1.088 trillion yen on the back of brisk demand from information technology-related sectors, the Economic Planning Agency said Friday.
CULTURE / Art
Dec 9, 2000

Bringing Russia and Japan together

Permit me a brief personal anecdote if you will: Some 20 years ago, a cold December night in Toronto found me inspired to chip, using my house keys, a few raisin-sized shards of concrete from the base of that city's newly-constructed CN Tower. Friends I mailed the little gray jewels to would later remark...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 9, 2000

Nishiki-e outshine Chinese prints

"The Birth of Nishiki-e," the current exhibition at the Ota Memorial Museum of Art, claims to be an attempt to explore Chinese influence on ukiyo-e, Japanese print art.
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Dec 9, 2000

Ogi wants Haneda to go international

Tokyo's Haneda airport should be an international hub and the new megaministry that will control most public works budgets should draw up a grand design for the nation's airport network, said the woman who will head the megaministry.

Longform

The students at Mitaka Municipal No. 7 Junior High School have access to various cooling devices for when they play sports.
Japan's extreme heat is causing a rethink of school sports