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BUSINESS
Feb 15, 2001

Election-wary government may be stalling on farm agenda

Japan appears to be bobbling a baton Canada passed to it after the world's five major economies adjourned a meeting on global agriculture trade in 1999.
COMMUNITY
Feb 11, 2001

Still thrilled every spring by start of Wimbledon

There was America's No. 2 seed, Lindsey Davenport, on court in the final stages of the Toray Pan Pacific Open, thrashing Croatia's Iva Majoli, and looking a lot softer and prettier in the flesh than TV ever suggests.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 11, 2001

Christopher Hughes

Bath in southwestern England, his birthplace and home for his first 18 years, played its part in the makeup of Christopher Hughes. Several generations of his family have lived in that beautiful town of squares, crescents and terraces. Set in a bend of the River Avon and famed since Roman times, Bath...
COMMUNITY
Feb 11, 2001

Shinto priestess finds freedom while minding duties of past

On summer weekends, Kugenuma Beach turns into a parody of the nearby metropolis' encroachment on the holidaymaker, with girls in bikinis and 20-cm platform sandals struggling across the sand while loudspeakers on towers belch J-pop at 50-meter intervals, making it difficult to find a moment for quiet...
EDITORIALS
Feb 10, 2001

The best politics money can buy

The deportation of fugitive French businessman Alfred Sirven from the Philippines throws a twist into the trial of Mr. Roland Dumas, the former French foreign minister and head of the Constitutional Court. Mr. Sirven is alleged to be the missing link in the scheme to use funds from Elf-Aquitaine, the...
CULTURE / Film
Feb 10, 2001

Suspense from fear of mundanity

Director M. Night Shyamalan couldn't make it to Tokyo since he and his wife have a newborn child to look after, but that didn't stop the enterprising PR people at Buena Vista from setting up a virtual press conference for "Unbreakable."
CULTURE / Art
Feb 8, 2001

Calligraphy: a goodwill ambassador for Japanese culture

MADRID -- I used to take it for granted in my youth that my practice of "sho" (Japanese calligraphy) would bear no relation to my career as a diplomat, but over the past half century I have often found that sho serves as a good topic of conversation with my guests.
COMMENTARY
Feb 6, 2001

Why can't Russia be more reasonable?

I am fed up with Russia's unreasonable attitude on the reversion to Japan of the four Russian-occupied northern islands and on the conclusion of a Russo-Japanese peace treaty.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 5, 2001

Davenport topples top-seeded Hingis for Pan Pacific crown

Lindsay Davenport rode her booming serve to victory on Sunday in the final of the $1.18 million Toray Pan Pacific Open, downing defending champion Martina Hingis 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-2 before a crowd of 7,523 at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
EDITORIALS
Feb 4, 2001

Ginger, the new IT girl

Among the many things for which whiz-bang American inventor Dean Kamen is famous is an automated wheelchair that can ride over uneven ground and climb stairs. That particular breakthrough device was code-named "Fred." Now, as everyone this side of the grave must have heard, there is also "Ginger." Some...
COMMUNITY
Feb 4, 2001

Heaven to Earth without explanation or apology

Anyone who thinks the art of painting is dead should head for the Towa Building on Tokyo's Meiji-dori and take the lift to Galerie Le Deco on the fifth floor. It is here that German artist David Garde is showing work created since last September: objects, installations and paintings that disturb and...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 4, 2001

Pottery dreams across 10,000 years

In 1877, the Harvard-trained biologist Edward Sylvester Morse, freshly arrived in Japan, took the new train from Tokyo to Yokohama. As he passed through Omori he looked out the window and saw a long, high mound. From having dug into many a similar mound back home in Massachusetts, he knew exactly what...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 3, 2001

Europe puts out feelers toward N. Korea

A mixture of adventure, altruism and a desire not to be left behind economically is responsible for the European plunge into Korean political affairs that began this year. First Italy and then, in rapid succession, Belgium, Britain and Germany have dispatched missions to Pyongyang. Only France held back,...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Feb 3, 2001

A shakuhachi innovator who continues to inspire

Shakuhachi master Hozan Yamamoto is one of the most respected and innovative shakuhachi masters of modern times. He has pioneered new music for the instrument and extended its repertory, while remaining grounded in traditional music.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2001

Tokyo, New Delhi eager to put synergy back in relations

Last week's massive earthquake in western India has thrown in doubt Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's planned official visit to Japan this month -- the first by a premier of the world's most populous democracy in nearly 13 years.
EDITORIALS
Jan 31, 2001

Gujarat digs out of the rubble

The death toll from the earthquake that hit the western Indian state of Gujarat last Friday continues to mount. Officially, 6,287 people have been confirmed dead as a result of the tremor that registered 7.9 on the Richter scale, and 15,481 were injured. About a half-million people have been left homeless....
LIFE / Travel
Jan 31, 2001

Britain's secondhand bookshop Mecca

Tottenham Court Road and Charing Cross may be the book centers of London, but the Mecca for secondhand books in Britain is on the English/Welsh border. With more than 30 secondhand bookshops, tiny Hay-on-Wye bills itself as the "town of books."
MORE SPORTS
Jan 30, 2001

Sugiyama plunges

Japan's top female player Ai Sugiyama has plummeted from No. 29 to No. 49 in the WTA tour's new world singles rankings, which were updated Monday after the conclusion of the Australian Open.
COMMUNITY
Jan 28, 2001

Float, crab, shrimp and base

There was something profoundly shocking about sitting on the sidelines to watch a hefty adult male throw himself between the legs of a teenage girl and then try forcibly to get into her underwear. How could this be right? Self-defense techniques for women are to be applauded, but this was too close to...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 28, 2001

Back to the future with George W. Bush

WASHINGTON -- When the new Bush Cabinet sat down for its first meeting after the inauguration, the only person missing was actor Michael J. Fox, because there's no doubt about it, this remake on the Potomac is definitely "Back to the Future: Part Four." And while nostalgia may be boffo in Hollywood,...
MORE SPORTS
Jan 25, 2001

Asari announces retirement

OSAKA -- Former women's marathon world champion Junko Asari announced her retirement Wednesday, saying she no longer feels she can compete on the world stage.
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2001

Mori, Annan discuss UNSC

Visiting U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori agreed Tuesday to push forward reforms of the United Nations, although Annan stopped short of saying he supported Tokyo's proposal for a 24-seat Security Council and a permanent seat for Japan.
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
Jan 24, 2001

Mariage Freres: A Ginza tea party

They haven't had to advertise in over 140 years. Of course, when your product is of the highest quality, word travels -- even to distant shores.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 22, 2001

Partnerships for humanitarian crises

The number of refugees, displaced people and others of concern to the UNHCR jumped from under 15 million in 1990 to over 22 million in 2000: a 50 percent increase over the decade. Refugees are a symptom of a deeper malaise in the polities from which they have fled. The failure to establish satisfactory...

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