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COMMENTARY / World
Apr 13, 2000

Tiny Qatar brings freedom of the press to the Arab world

QATAR -- On a recent visit to Qatar, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak wanted to satisfy his curiosity about something bothering him and most other Arab rulers. It was past midnight when he descended unannounced on the Jazeera TV station. His surprise was hardly less than that of staff still around at...
COMMUNITY
Apr 13, 2000

Grassroots effort helps sick kids

Like many of his Russian countrymen, 33-year-old Nikolai Lanine is not quick to smile. His steady and intelligent speech is punctuated with almost imperceptible shoulder shrugs, the body language of someone describing a seemingly futile situation, yet his actions provide evidence to the contrary.
COMMUNITY
Apr 13, 2000

Striving to fulfill a real whale of a task

FUKUOKA -- Each year during the colder months (about December to February) a variety of whales pass northern Kyushu on their way south to warmer waters and richer feeding grounds, following the Tsushima Warm Current down from Okhotsk along Japan's west coast. Larger whales tend to trail the Pacific Ocean...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 13, 2000

Bangkok's never too far away

You can't get authentic Thai food in Tokyo south of Kabukicho -- at least that's what the conventional wisdom would have us believe. Indeed, as with any such sweeping generalization, there's a kernel of truth to it -- as long as what you're after is hawker food that's rough but ever ready, gentle on...
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Apr 13, 2000

Labels: required reading for wine appreciation

When a standard 750-ml/75-cl bottle of wine looms before you in a wine shop, a supermarket or on a restaurant table, a story is about to unfold. The bottle shape usually provides at least a clue to the producing region and the labels should be able to fill in all the basic data and sometimes more. In...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Apr 13, 2000

Fish, sake and crowds come together at Uoshin

Like the indigenous beverages of most countries, sake developed along with its national cuisine. Indeed, there are great differences in Japanese cuisine from region to region, small country though Japan may be, and these differences are reflected in the subtle differences in the sake.
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 12, 2000

Kuroda goes the distance as Carp club Drags 13-2

Carp hurler Hiroki Kuroda allowed two runs over nine innings on the hill and his teammates backed him with 12 hits as Hiroshima whipped the CL defending champion Chunichi Dragons 13-2 on Tuesday at the Nagoya Dome.
EDITORIALS
Apr 12, 2000

A Korean dialogue at last

In a long-awaited development, the governments of North Korea and South Korea announced Monday that they would hold their first-ever presidential summit June 12 to 14 in Pyongyang. This meeting is a victory for the "sunshine" policy of South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and could fundamentally change...
LIFE / Travel
Apr 12, 2000

Follow the pilgrims' road to where past and present meet

When the warm spring winds riding the Kuroshio (Black Current) reach Shikoku, the island is at its best for visitors. Shikoku in the spring attracts both tourists and pilgrims. The pilgrims come to visit some or all of the island's 88 temples dedicated to Kobo Daishi, who introduced Shingon Buddhism...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Apr 12, 2000

Sweeter dreams

I wrote recently of the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, and the instant Westernization it prompted. The government encouraged efforts to make foreigners feel at home. One was directed toward ryokan and many of them installed Western-style toilets and created a few rooms with Western beds. The beds were rarely...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Apr 12, 2000

Just browsing?

It used to be so simple. You had Eudora for your e-mail and your tiny Mosaic browser for trolling through text-only university archives and contemplating the bright future of the World! Wide! Web!
CULTURE / Books
Apr 12, 2000

Fingleton deflates the New Economy

IN PRAISE OF HARD INDUSTRIES: Why Manufacturing, Not the Information Technology, Is the Key to Future Prosperity, by Eamonn Fingleton. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999, 273 pp., $26 (cloth). A 24-year-old Englishman with a ponytail waltzed into the offices of a London venture-capital company...
ENVIRONMENT
Apr 12, 2000

Genkyu-en Garden and the House of Ii

The Tokugawa Period has long ended, but dotted around the country there are remains in the form of castles (originals or replicas), yashiki (the residences of the daimyo ruling class) and of course the magnificent gardens with which the yashiki were adorned. Indeed, in most cases only the garden remains;...
LIFE / Travel
Apr 12, 2000

Taking it to the skies of Bangkok

On the anniversary of the King's 72nd birthday in December 1999, the revolutionary concept of electricallypowered mass transit finally hit Bangkok, a city long dependent on the noisy, noxious, internal combustion engine. Two short elevated lines, totaling 23.7 km of track, were built at a cost of 54.9...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 12, 2000

The wellspring of pacifism in Japan

PROPHETS OF PEACE: Pacifism and Cultural Identity in Japan's New Religions, by Robert Kisala. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999, 242 pp., $24.95 (paper). The so-called Peace Constitution is a defining feature of modern Japan. In the aftermath of World War II, Japan has perceived itself, and...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 12, 2000

Residue of America's dirty fingerprints

PARALLAX VISIONS: Making Sense of American-East Asian Relations at the End of the Century, by Bruce Cumings. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1999, 280 pp., $27.95 (cloth). The field of Asian studies has attracted some brilliant scholars, many of whom have controversial views. Chalmers Johnson...
COMMENTARY
Apr 12, 2000

No sympathy for politicians

I have sometimes said to my wife about a prominent politician, "Poor old so and so! He must be exhausted keeping to such a hard schedule. It's a tough life being a peripatetic politician." My wife's invariable response has been, "Don't waste your sympathy on politicians. They didn't have to accept their...
COMMENTARY
Apr 12, 2000

Western media err on China and Taiwan

So Taiwan has elected an allegedly pro-independence candidate as president. But China has still not invaded.
EDITORIALS
Apr 11, 2000

Mr. Sharif is spared

Pakistan's former prime minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, has been found guilty of attempted murder, kidnapping, terrorism and hijacking. Mr. Sharif was spared the death penalty; instead, he was given two life sentences, his property was confiscated and he was fined 2 million rupees. His brother, a codefendant,...
EDITORIALS
Apr 11, 2000

The stain that is Rwanda

April 7 marked the sixth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, one of the most shameful acts of political cowardice in recent history. Many uncertainties still linger over the events that began that day, but what we know is enough to judge the behavior of the participants as evil, and the reaction of...
SOCCER / J. League
Apr 11, 2000

Decision on Troussier expected May 25

Whether or not Japan manager Philippe Troussier's contract will be extended is to be decided at a Japan Football Association executive committee meeting slated for May 25, Kunishige Kamamoto, JFA vice president and chief of the JFA's technical development department for the 2002 World Cup, said Monday...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Apr 11, 2000

Femi, from Fuji to Tokyo

In Nigeria there is a music called Fuji. In the early 1990s, Fuji was the most popular music in Nigeria. The music's originator, Sikiru Barrister, named it after seeing a postcard of Mount Fuji. He said it was the most beautiful mountain he had ever seen, and dreamed of playing or recording in view of...
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 11, 2000

Celebratory dance of 'women's noh'

Jiutamai dancer Yoh Izumo will present her 35th anniversary performance April 19, 7 p.m. at the National Theater. A classical form of Japanese traditional dance, jiutamai is considered a very intimate form of dance emphasizing a woman's innermost emotions, expressed through slow minimalist movements....
COMMENTARY
Apr 11, 2000

Hot air about the carbon tax

The debate on the carbon tax is heating up again after a lapse of two and a half years. Before the 1997 Kyoto conference on climate change, I proposed that Japan introduce this environmental tax, following Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands. However, the Ministry of International Trade...
CULTURE / Film
Apr 11, 2000

Lessons learned from the master

"What I really want to do is direct." This phrase, heard everywhere in Hollywood from interviews with A-list stars to conversations between waiters at Hamburger Inn, has become a joke -- to everyone but the legions of gottabe directors themselves. Among this crowd, scriptwriters have traditionally been...
EDITORIALS
Apr 9, 2000

Stop to listen -- and to help

Those words of advice are intended for every member of the nation's police forces. The case of the three Saitama prefectural police officers just dismissed and expected to be indicted for falsifying documents is only the latest in a series of incidents suggesting that many police have forgotten, or never...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2000

Flawed Korean peace talks stumble on

SEOUL -- Four years ago this month, then South Korean President Kim Young Sam and U.S. President Bill Clinton invited North Korea and China to join the United States and South Korea in talks designed to establish a new peace mechanism based on a peace treaty on the Korean Peninsula as well as to seek...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2000

EU knocking down the Tower of Babel

BRUSSELS — The European Union brings together 15 states with a total population of 380 million people. Thirteen other countries have applied to join. Europeans speak some 45 different languages, of which 11 are recognized as official languages for the purposes of EU business. But millions of European...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2000

Peace's high price in Kosovo

I previously argued that to supporters, NATO cured Europe of the Milosevic-borne disease of ethnic cleansing. To critics, however, the NATO cure worsened the disease ("NATO in the Balkans: Between disaster and failure," April 1).
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 9, 2000

Giants clip Swallows in ninth

Shortstop Tomohiro Nioka drove in the winning run with a two-out, bases-loaded bloop single to center Saturday to lift the Yomiuri Giants to a 2-1 "sayonara" victory over the Yakult Swallows at the Tokyo Dome.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?