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CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Aug 10, 1999

Exotic rhythms spice up world-music scene

Exotic and tropical are words that are overused in the descriptions of music from foreign cultures -- they are more appropriate for tourist brochures. However, with musicians set to tour Japan from Hawaii, Bali and Congo, those descriptions are actually fairly fitting, and should provide the perfect...
EDITORIALS
Aug 9, 1999

Rethink North Korea policy

The four-way Korea peace talks are again in the news as negotiators from North and South Korea, the United States and China return to the table in Geneva. Few people are holding their breath, and no one should. Diplomacy has hit a bind as Pyongyang keeps the world guessing about its intentions to develop...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Aug 9, 1999

A learning experience

It is interesting to follow the drinking culture of Japan. In times when "Japaneseness" is being emphasized, sales of "Nihon-shu" (sake) and "shochu" (an indigenous distilled beverage that uses a variety of things that will ferment but mainly sweet potatoes) tend to increase. Beer is seldom affected...
JAPAN
Aug 6, 1999

Diet gives big tax breaks to restructuring companies

The Diet passed special legislation Friday aimed at reviving Japan's industrial competitiveness by helping industries dispose of excess capacity and rebuild their operations through tax breaks.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Aug 6, 1999

Number Girl's gotta have it

If Tokyo's live houses have provided little in the way of new musical inspiration recently, the provinces have picked up the slack with a vengeance. Sapporo's burgeoning hip-hop scene has produced new rap heroes the Blue Herb, while Kyoto, with DJs 1945 and Nobukazu Takemura, is becoming the home of...
JAPAN
Aug 6, 1999

Supply-side overhaul first step to competitiveness

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Aug 4, 1999

A last push by the Taliban

The Taliban, the Islamic fundamentalist movement that controls 80 to 90 percent of Afghanistan, has launched a long-anticipated summer offensive to recapture the rest of the country. The fighting has been fierce, involving more than 100,000 men on five fronts. Civilian casualties have been high, since...
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Aug 4, 1999

Islands of diversity and divergence

Although the islands of New Zealand, which I wrote about last time, are fascinating, we don't need to travel so far to find isolated islands supporting interesting biodiversity. Japan's own southern archipelago, straggling from Kyushu toward Taiwan, known as the Nansei Shoto, is so rich in both flora...
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 3, 1999

Endangered turtles vs. encaustic tourists

Something happened to the face of the Greek car rental man when we mentioned that we'd come to Zakynthos to see loggerhead sea turtles. His easy smile slipped.
JAPAN
Aug 3, 1999

New Komeito rails against Diet seats bill

New Komeito chief Takenori Kanzaki warned Tuesday that further Diet deliberations on a bill aimed at cutting 50 proportional representation seats from the Lower House would "seriously affect" his party's upcoming talks on entering the Liberal Democratic Party's ruling coalition.
EDITORIALS
Jul 30, 1999

Taking up the fight against TB

Tuberculosis, a communicable disease that has been commonly linked to poverty and unsanitary living conditions, is making a troubling comeback in Japan. The situation has become so worrisome that the Ministry of Health and Welfare issued a tuberculosis emergency declaration Monday, warning the nation...
JAPAN
Jul 30, 1999

Service helps toothbrush maker clean up

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Jul 29, 1999

New Komeito makes an about-face

A tripartite coalition among the Liberal Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and New Komeito has become a fait accompli. At a special party convention last weekend, New Komeito adopted a basic policy that prepared the second-largest opposition party for participation in the bipartisan ruling alliance...
JAPAN
Jul 29, 1999

Namitei: small, but able to take the pressure

Staff writer
JAPAN
Jul 28, 1999

Prosecutors grill ex-NCB chairman

Prosecutors have questioned Seishi Matsuoka, former chairman of the failed Nippon Credit Bank, over allegations the bank window-dressed past earnings reports, it was learned Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 1999

Pyongyang missile posturing an extreme concern: report

North Korea's ability to produce missiles that can reach any part of Japan is a cause for extreme concern and an issue that directly affects Japan's security, the Defense Agency said in its 1999 white paper released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 1999

Panel deliberating bill to cut 50 Diet seats

The Lower House Special Committee on Political Ethics and the Election Law on Tuesday began deliberating a bill aimed at eliminating 50 Lower House seats elected by proportional representation.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 1999

Scheme hatched for Jordan debt relief

Japan will provide Jordan with several billion yen in official development assistance to help the country alleviate its external debt-repayment burden and enhance domestic political stability amid a critical period for the regional peace process, government sources said Tuesday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 25, 1999

Gesture your way to Japanese fluency

Yesterday I went into a convenience store to buy some aspirin. I asked the clerk using the English loanword "asupirin." The clerk pointed to the freezer section and said, "it's over there." "No, not 'aisu kurimu,' asupirin," I said. "Pudding?" he asked. At that point, he did what all befuddled clerks...
JAPAN
Jul 23, 1999

Norota urges new heliport site by yearend

Defense Agency chief Hosei Norota expressed hope Friday that the site to relocate U.S. Marine Corps helicopter operations at Futenma Air Station in Okinawa will be selected by the end of the year.
JAPAN
Jul 23, 1999

Yosano declares Japan ready for steel talks

Japan is ready to hold talks with the United States over the contentious issue of steel trade, International Trade and Industry Minister Kaoru Yosano said Friday.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 23, 1999

Foreigner rock scene blooms in city's pubs

Shaft is pumping up another Saturday night gathering in a cranny of Tokyo. Just as the five musicians lope to the end of the first verse of their self-proclaimed rock anthem "Shaft of Light," the infectious dribble of sticks across bass drums reels the audience into the chorus.
EDITORIALS
Jul 22, 1999

Pointless and reckless in Taipei

It is still unclear why Mr. Lee Teng-hui, the president of Taiwan, said earlier this month that relations between his government and China's mainland government should be conducted on a "special state-to-state" basis. (Any hopes that he had been misquoted were shattered when he repeated the comments...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 20, 1999

Tax cuts put Japan on track

The Japanese economy is now out of the worst phase of the recession. But the process of achieving recovery and even- tual prosperity has not been entirely smooth. First, we cannot yet claim that firms in various industrial sectors have earnestly initiated their restructuring with real zest. Second, fiscal...
JAPAN
Jul 20, 1999

Tour agents target families to survive lean times

Staff writer
JAPAN
Jul 19, 1999

Upper House panel approves extra budget

A House of Councilors special committee Monday approved a 519.8 billion yen supplementary budget designed to generate 700,000 new jobs and cope with the falling birthrate.
COMMENTARY
Jul 17, 1999

Cross-strait relations at risk

"What is Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui up to?" That remains the burning question, following Lee's apparent abandonment of the long-standing "one-China" policy that used to be the one important common denominator underwriting cross-strait relations and Sino-U.S. and Sino-Japanese relations regarding Taiwan....
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 1999

Time for women to 'hold up half the sky'

Adrian Cozette Chandler, a U.S. educator and colleague of mine, has come up with a great idea and hopes to see it materialize: the publication of a bilingual book, written in easy-to-understand English and Japanese, in which ordinary American and Japanese women review and candidly discuss issues crucial...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 15, 1999

Free of corporate connections, Kinyobi targets toxic offenders

As a buzzword, "dioxin" has quickly come to represent all that's wrong with Japan's mish-mash of contradictory and ineffective environmental policies.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Jul 14, 1999

Sendai garden lets it all hang out

Garden designers around the country could take a few ideas from the Sendai Yasoen (Wild Flower Garden) by using more native plants in their own designs.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past