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JAPAN
Feb 11, 2002

Shonan merger plan races clock, though some balk

With its gently arching coastline overlooking Enoshima Island in Sagami Bay and a distant view of Mount Fuji and the Hakone mountain range, the Shonan area in Kanagawa Prefecture triggers memories of songs and movies about the picturesque area.
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ARCHIPELA-GO
Feb 11, 2002

Cold lands but warm hearts

The literally hang out the flags for visitors to the small town of Nishikawa in the snowy foothills of Yamagata's Dewa Sanzan mountains. A large British Union Jack was crossed with a Japanese Hinomaru over the entrance to Tamaki, a riverside restaurant famous for its Hina ryori (Doll's Festival food),...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2002

Scientists in Tokyo find that cloned mice have shorter lives

Scientists at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo have found that cloned mice have shorter life spans than mice conceived naturally.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2002

Yokohama locals put U.S. Navy's land to good use

YOKOHAMA -- It may be a bit hard to believe that in this day and age you can get free farmland in Yokohama.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2002

Cargo transport deregulation planned

The transport ministry plans to scrap regulations on the license system for cargo transport firms and allow trucking firms to transport cargo anywhere, ministry officials said Sunday.
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2002

Takenaka outlines four-pillar package to battle deflation

Economic and fiscal policy minister Heizo Takenaka said Sunday the government will draft a comprehensive package for combating deflation in the near future that includes steps aimed at accelerating the disposal of nonperforming loans at commercial banks.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Feb 11, 2002

California prehistory mired in La Brea tar pits

LA BREA, Calif. -- The world, 40,000 years ago -- The weather's perfect. A warm breeze from the Pacific rustles the palms, there's the sharp tang of juniper and pine in the air, and the nameless mountains, which rise beyond the plain that will one day be Los Angeles, glow mauve in the early morning sun....
EDITORIALS
Feb 10, 2002

The lion king of Kabul

He was the most famous lion in the world," says the hand-painted metal sign hanging on an empty cage amid the ruins of Kabul's Zoo. His name was Marjan, and though the sign makes a bold claim on his behalf, it doesn't exaggerate.
COMMENTARY
Feb 10, 2002

Pakistan turns the other cheek to India

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan has decided against a knee-jerk reaction to India's test last month of the Agni missile, which has become another addition to the arms race in South Asia.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2002

Ozaki sought Kano's help for candidate

Michihiko Kano, former vice president of the Democratic Party of Japan who quit the party over his ties to a scandal-hit firm, was asked by an executive of the company to support a rookie candidate in the mayoral election in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, in fall 2000, sources close to the case said Saturday....
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2002

Transplant expert rues cadaveric donor, social charity dearth

Surgery is an art founded on science, or so says University of Tokyo professor Masatoshi Makuuchi, who specializes in transplants and is one of the nation's leading liver surgeons.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2002

Crown Princess resumes official duties, visits with kids

Crown Princess Masako has resumed her official following the birth of her daughter, Princess Aiko, in December and attended an award ceremony for a youth book-report contest in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward with her husband, Crown Prince Naruhito.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2002

Oki promises to focus on Kyoto pact

Newly appointed Environment Minister Hiroshi Oki said Friday he will focus on having the Kyoto Protocol put into force and helping Japan build "political momentum" in the runup to the August environmental summit in Johannesburg.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Feb 10, 2002

TV sports trump freedom; public loses

MOSCOW -- There is no television broadcast in Russia anymore that is independent of the Russian government. Having applied the poisonous gas of legal niceties, the Kremlin has shut down the last stronghold of dissent, the vocal and opinionated TV-6. It was the coup de grace in Russian President Vladimir...
COMMUNITY
Feb 10, 2002

A true poet of the people ...

Coming soon to a sidewalk near you is one of Japan's most original street artists, Hiromitsu Noriyasu, along with his growing cult of fans. The spirited 34-year-old has covered more than 16,000 km over the past seven months on his bicycle tour of Japan, raising funds to finance a film by composing poems...
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2002

G7 officials pressure Japan to stir up its economy

OTTAWA — The Group of Seven powers turned up the heat on Japan as they gathered Friday in the snow-blanketed Canadian capital to fan faint sparks of recovery in the shaken world economy.
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Feb 10, 2002

Jazz that isn't afraid to be entertaining

For a long time in jazz, playing to the crowd was a sign of selling out. Creating music that pleased listeners was considered by many jazz players, and their fans, to be insincere, compromised and unsophisticated. "Entertainment" became something of a dirty word.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 10, 2002

Japanese women 'defect' to the West

WOMEN ON THE VERGE: Japanese Women, Western Dreams, by Karen Kelsky. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001, pp. 294, $18.95 (paper) The pursuit of "things foreign" has become an increasingly common activity of Japanese women in recent decades. Whether it be through study and work abroad, or through...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 10, 2002

Expressions of 'everyday immortality'

UNFINISHED MESSAGE: Selected Works of Toshio Mori. Berkeley, Calif.: Heyday Books, 2000, 242 pp., $15.95 (paper) Toshio Mori (1910-1980) was one of the founders of a distinctively Asian-American literature. He lived in and near San Leandro, Calif. except for the World War II years, which he and his family...

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight