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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...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 10, 2002

Better living through cosmetic enhancement

Several months ago, this column discussed how plastic surgery had transcended its basic meaning as a technique of improving on nature to become a means toward self-actualization. People who once tried to hide their face-lifts and nose jobs now trumpet them proudly, because they believe that feeling better...
COMMUNITY
Feb 10, 2002

The street beat goes on -- but for how long?

Come 8 p.m., the nationalist black vans blaring polemics around Hachiko square outside JR Shibuya Station give way to an equally noisy, but far more friendly soundtrack.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 10, 2002

The name of the man is David Byrne

It says something about David Byrne's current position in popular music that two of the records released in 2001 on his Luaka Bop label -- Shuggie Otis' "Inspiration Information" and Jim White's "No Such Place" -- received more press than Byrne's own solo album, "Look Into the Eyeball."
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Feb 10, 2002

Taste of a new season springs eternal in nanohana

There are several children's songs that herald the coming of spring by declaring that the nanohana has blossomed. Brilliant yellow fields of these first flowers of warm weather dot the countryside, and nanohana — young shoots of the aburana — are one of the first vegetables to appear on the vernal...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 10, 2002

Beans of wisdom from a hospital waiting room

The week before Christmas 1989, I sat in an outpatient ward in Kumamoto University Hospital waiting for the doctor to take a look at a head cold that threatened to ruin my holidays.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Feb 10, 2002

Home with the best

Being the youngest in a large family meant, in my case, becoming an auntie when I was still in my teens. And during my long self-exile in Japan, I patiently awaited the arrival of a new generation of travelers -- but then started feeling neglected as one nephew and niece after another circled the world...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji