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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 19, 2001

Light at the end of the tunnel

For Cho Kyong Hee, artists displaying work in public spaces have a special responsibility: Installations should not impose.
COMMUNITY
Aug 19, 2001

Deep and meaningful

Dull, bleak, gray and cheerless are a few of the words that could describe Tokyo's architectural landscape. Glaring neon aside, it is a city seriously lacking in color.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 19, 2001

Grains of wisdom

From a distance, Kim Chang Young's "Sand Play" seems to defy the law of gravity.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 19, 2001

Going public

In a dirty little public square just a cigarette-butt toss from Yurakucho Station in Tokyo, workmen are putting the finishing touches to their restoration of a long-neglected feature of the Ginza landscape.
COMMUNITY
Aug 19, 2001

Tradition in transition

Art went private at the beginning of the 20th century. Back then Cubism's quest for a new visual language, abstract art's pursuit of purity of form, and Surrealism's sense of inwardness had little appeal to a public who viewed Modern Art as self-serving and difficult.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Aug 19, 2001

May we live long on beans and rice

On the first of every month, I get out the glutinous rice and soak the adzuki beans. Though New Year's Day is the only first of the month that is a formal holiday, thus mandating the celebratory sekihan (red beans and rice), there is a certain pleasure to welcoming each one with this favorite dish and...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 19, 2001

Uniformly stylish Japanese

WEARING IDEOLOGY: State, Schooling and Self-Preservation in Japan, by Brian J. McVeigh. Berg, Oxford, 2000, 231 pages, $19.50 The Japanese are some of the most fashion-conscious dressers in the world. They spend large amounts of their discretionary income on clothes, have a strong preference for designer-made...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 19, 2001

Way of a puppet dramatist

CHIKAMATSU: FIVE LATE PLAYS, translated and annotated by C. Andrew Gerstle. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001, 234 pp., 60 line drawings, maps and photographs. $39.50. Though the playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724) has been inaptly called "The Shakespeare of Japan," he remains the single...
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2001

Ministry to rethink Tokyo Bay rules

The land, infrastructure and transport ministry has decided to rewrite safety standards for freighters and passenger vessels in Tokyo Bay so they can travel at their optimum speed, officials said Saturday.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Aug 19, 2001

The little brewery that wouldn't die

Since time immemorial sake has been brewed only in the winter. But in the last 40 years or so a handful of the nation's breweries pioneered shiki jozo (year-round brewing), cranking out sake in large, climate-controlled factories. For various reasons, only the largest breweries can pull this off. The...
MORE SPORTS
Aug 19, 2001

Atlanta plays host to karate championships

ATLANTA -- Rebel yells gave way to kiai (fighting shouts) when over 1,000 karate enthusiasts from five continents gathered in Atlanta recently for the Okinawa Karate-do World Championships.
COMMENTARY
Aug 19, 2001

George W. Bush and the politics of DNA

NEW YORK -- "Today's overwhelming and bipartisan House action to prohibit human cloning is a strong ethical statement, which I commend." -- George W. Bush, July 31, 2001
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2001

Parties' bill to revise peacekeeping law

The three ruling coalition parties are likely to submit a bill to lift a ban on Japan's participation in peacekeeping forces in a review of the Peacekeeping Operation Law during the extraordinary session of the Diet in September, a Japanese daily newspaper reported Saturday.
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Aug 19, 2001

The Mike Price experience

Mike Price toured Japan seven times with Toshiko Akiyoshi's big band, and on the eighth, he stayed.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 19, 2001

Family drama of Koizumi's forgotten son

To: Fuji TV Attn: Programming Department, production division From: Izawa Office Talent Agency Re: Proposal for drama series
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 19, 2001

Activists in the name of art

FUKUOKA -- "Art doesn't have to last forever -- otherwise it's like a topic that's discussed to death," says Takahiro Ogata, an architect involved in Fukuoka's annual Tomyo Watching event. The organizers, nonprofit organization Museum City Project, have kept Fukuoka's citizens on their toes since 1978...
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Aug 19, 2001

Grant-oh puts the grrr in martinis

Mizu shobai is a fickle business at best. And these troubled economic times tend to heighten the sense of risk. So when I first heard of a plot to hatch a fun and funky martini lounge on a quiet back street in Roppongi, it struck me as downright dangerous. As I sipped a classic 007 at the opening of...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 19, 2001

Politico battled clans, bureaucrats

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF OZAKI YUKIO: The Struggle For Constitutional Government in Japan. Translated by Fumiko Hara. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2001, 455 pp., $35 (hardback) Well into this fascinating account of Japanese politics, which spans the period from the beginning of the Meiji Era...
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2001

UNICEF ambassador to urge Koizumi not to cut funds

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, an actress and goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Children's Fund, will visit Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Aug. 29 to request that the government not reduce its contributions to the organization.
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Aug 19, 2001

Designer holds hope for the future of Japanese creativity

Surrounded by shelves filled with art books and magazines from around the world, Yasushi Fujimoto sits comfortably in his office in Harajuku, one of Tokyo's trendiest areas.
LIFE
Aug 19, 2001

So what's your angle?

Yukihiro Yoshihara's "Technoetic Trees" is one of the few artworks on the Oedo Line located away from the ticket gates of the station.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 19, 2001

Survival of the cutest at sweltering summer weddings

For most Japanese, the broiling heat of August evokes images of shaved ice, cold watermelon, chilled beer and ghosts -- all of which are supposed to add a shiver to the season.
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 19, 2001

Hawks fly past Buffs to extend lead in PL

Tadahito Iguchi smacked a two-run homer and starter Keizaburo Tanoue won his 10th decision as the Pacific League-leading Daiei Hawks defeated the Kintetsu Buffaloes 5-2 Saturday at the Fokuoka Dome.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 19, 2001

In memoriam

"Kimi-chan" by Itaru Sasaki, the red granite and bronze statue of a little girl standing in leafy Patiojuban, commemorates a real girl named Kimi Iwasaki.

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