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JAPAN
Nov 3, 2000

Web site gets volcano evacuees online and in touch

Hiroyuki Noda never imagined that he would become a messenger for fellow Miyake Island residents when he bought a personal computer six years ago to keep books for his inn and diving shop.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 3, 2000

Lomu happy for chance to play in Japan

New Zealand winger Jonah Lomu is looking forward to making his first appearance in front of Japanese fans in Friday's warmup against the Pacific Barbarians at Tokyo's Chichibunomiya Stadium before the All Blacks head to Europe for several tests. But the world-famous speedy winger said his side is aware...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2000

Behind the rush to Pyongyang

SEOUL -- Some journalists profess to know more than they ought to. While President Bill Clinton insists a decision regarding a possible visit to North Korea has not been taken, some media have already published details of the president's itinerary. According to one report, Clinton's two-day visit to...
JAPAN / LIFE OFF MIYAKE
Nov 2, 2000

Assemblyman places fellow exiles first

The future of Miyake Island may be as hazy as the smoke billowing from its volcano, but for Kazuyoshi Yamada, it comes before his own losses.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Nov 2, 2000

Red Sox interested in bringing Ichiro to Fenway

With seven straight Pacific League batting titles and a lifetime average of .353 topping his resume, Orix BlueWave superstar Ichiro Suzuki is now preparing for life in the major leagues.
COMMUNITY
Nov 2, 2000

Exhibiting style around Japan

Just ahead of the Tokyo collections, in which over 50 designers will show their spring/summer 2001 collections this week and next, here are some things to do if your name's not on the invite list or if you are looking for a fashion-related event to attend on a rainy day.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2000

Annual visit to spies' tombs to be the last

The last organized visit to the tombs of Richard Sorge and Hotsumi Ozaki, who were hanged in 1944 for relaying top-secret military information to the Soviet Union, will take place Saturday at a cemetery in Fuchu, western Tokyo, organizers said.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 31, 2000

Hard lessons Japan failed to learn

JAPAN'S FINANCIAL CRISIS AND ITS PARALLELS TO U.S. EXPERIENCE, edited by Ryoichi Mikitani and Adam S. Posen. Washington: Institute for International Economics, Special Report 13, Sept. 2000, 228 pp., $20. There's an old joke about a politician's plea for a one-handed economist, one who can't say, "but...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 31, 2000

Speechless, but never silent

JAPANESE BEYOND WORDS: How to Walk and Talk like a Native Speaker, by Andrew Horvat. Foreword by Jan Walls. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2000, 176 pp., $14.95. As Jan Walls says in his foreword to this instructive and entertaining book, Andrew Horvat provides "a new way of looking at language . ....
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 29, 2000

Giants dethrone Hawks for Japan Series title

Hideki Matsui provided much of the offense and Darrell May pitched in with a stellar performance on the mound Saturday night at the Tokyo Dome as the Yomiuri Giants claimed their 19th Japan Series title in emphatic style, blowing out the defending champion Daiei Hawks 9-3 in Game 6.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2000

Methods to cut emissions said already available

OSAKA -- With a United Nations conference on global warming just around the corner, a citizen's group is calling for existing energy-saving technologies to be more widely used to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 29, 2000

The painting of Zen: Seeing the funny side of it all

In art as in philosophy, Zen revels in contradiction. The picture of an ant running endlessly round a grindstone is a comment on futility. A priest, on the brink of spiritual discovery, is not in elegant robes or mystic postures but wearing a battered straw raincoat, resting on a walking stick.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 29, 2000

Two chamber orchestras go for Baroque

Johann Sebastian Bach, who died in 1750, 250 years ago this year, has been lovingly remembered with significant performances of his great masterworks throughout the year. Recently eminent ensembles from Europe presented performances of the monumental "Saint Matthew Passion" almost simultaneously here....
JAPAN
Oct 28, 2000

Mori talks about the importance of religion

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, already on record as declaring Japan "a divine nation with the Emperor at its center," was back on the subject of religion on Friday.
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 28, 2000

'International' festival is dominated by national talent as budgets pared

Tokyo International Festival of Performing Arts 2000 kicked off Oct. 13 with the production "Melancholy Baby" at Aoyama Enkei Gekijo, one of the main venues hosting the festival. In truth, though, there is little "international" about this year's festival, through mid-December.
EDITORIALS
Oct 28, 2000

Shortsighted electoral reform

The heavy-handed tactics the ruling parties employed to railroad a controversial Upper House electoral reform bill have left an ugly blot on the nation's parliamentary history. No substantial debate was conducted in the Diet. In the Upper House, the opposition parties boycotted discussion because of...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2000

What price NATO's new philosophy?

CAMBRIDGE, England -- While you were on the beaches of Hawaii or Hainan or wherever else you spent the summer, the secretary general of NATO, or U.S.-led NATO as Beijing calls it, spelled out the new philosophy of that organization, as it was expressed in the Kosovo war. Referring to Kosovo in a speech...
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2000

Pressure mounts for Mori to dump top aide Nakagawa

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa came under heavy fire Thursday over scandals involving a rightist figure and an extramarital affair, with some ruling bloc officials joining the opposition's calls for his resignation.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Oct 27, 2000

'Soul music' comes naturally to OOIOO

Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth once described her position as a woman between two boys with guitars as like being in the center of a circle jerk. Yoshimi P-We, the Boredoms' minxy drummer, could probably relate. As the rhythm section for the Boredoms' musical onslaught, she is at ground zero between both...
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2000

Ruling bloc turns deaf ear to other options

Passage of a controversial electoral reform bill Thursday has provided another example of the ruling coalition's increasing use of force that opposition lawmakers describe as as tyrannous.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 26, 2000

Everyman Redgrave anything but in boat

LONDON -- From across a crowded room, Steve Redgrave hardly looks like a legendary athlete. He's lanky, excessively polite and his hair is thinning at an alarmingly quick rate. He walks around wearing a sheepish grin and his laugh is loud and long. If you didn't know any better, you'd swear he's the...
LIFE / Travel
Oct 25, 2000

Deep in the ancient forests of the U.S. northwest

A soft light glows from the emerald-green moss covering every tree trunk, rock and piece of ground. The glow feels brighter than the light filtering down through the massive Douglas fir and Sitka spruce trees towering overhead, whose crowns prick the silver clouds that obscure the sun.
LIFE / Digital
Oct 25, 2000

Xpect the unxpected

SEATTLE -- What does Microsoft know about fun? The engineers who designed Xbox, the new 128-bit video game console that Microsoft plans to release sometime next year, know too much for their own good.
JAPAN
Oct 23, 2000

Free trade agreement with Singapore targeted for 2001

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and visiting Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong agreed Sunday to formally launch negotiations on a bilateral free-trade agreement in January and conclude the negotiations by the end of 2001.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 23, 2000

Clock tolls for environmental action

Mika Suzuki may not be a professional designer, but her keen eye and concern about the environment recently won her the top prize in a Tokyo eco-design contest.
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2000

Libraries without limits

We human beings, especially those of us who are getting on in years, are always complaining that "anything goes these days." It's a habit that defines the species. Elderly Neanderthals probably tottered about fretting that the cave was going to the dogs and it was time for tighter standards and firmer...
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2000

Sanya turning from laborer to tourist district

In Tokyo, where it's difficult to find a decent room for less than 6,000 yen a night, foreign backpackers and other budget travelers go to the day-laborer district.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Oct 22, 2000

David Powell

He says that although he is not Welsh, he has always been pleased to have a Welsh name. Last year David Powell strengthened a Welsh sentiment when he became executive vice president, Japan, of the Welsh Development Agency. He has very special appreciation of Wales, a small country of "charm and delight."...

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