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JAPAN
Dec 22, 1999

Judicial Reform: Change vital to elite training process

Last of three parts Staff writer The push for judicial reform in Japan is prompting universities and bar associations to consider introducing postgraduate programs that will not only increase the number of legal professionals but also improve their skills. Unlike the United States, Japan does not have...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

Police misconduct scandals fuel calls for public scrutiny

Staff writer "I knew that the same things would surely be repeated in the future," Kenji Chiyomaru said. "You cannot expect self-cleansing action by police." Since he launched "Human rights dial 110" in 1979, Chiyomaru, a civic activist who lives in Tokyo's Nerima Ward, has been helping people having...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

'Knock' undone by calling victim a liar

Staff writer OSAKA -- The game is finally up for Osaka Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama. Yokoyama announced his resignation Tuesday morning, just hours before prosecutors indicted him over a criminal complaint filed by a 21-year-old university student, accusing Yokoyama of groping her inside a campaign van in...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 1999

No shortage of challenges for Musharraf

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's new military regime led by Gen. Pervez Musharraf is eager to demonstrate that its decision to put former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on trial on charges of attempted murder and kidnapping is not necessarily driven by malicious intent. If convicted, Sharif could be sentenced to...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 1999

Time running out for 'Knock' as opinion turns against him

Staff writer OSAKA -- The game may finally be up for Osaka Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama. Monday's search of his offices by the Osaka District Public Prosecutor's Office in connection with a criminal complaint filed against the governor by a 21-year-old female university student, who accused Yokoyama of groping...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 17, 1999

Flaming Lips dampen the fire with absurdity

Though it's sad that major labels no longer have the patience to actively develop deserving artists, they at least know who's good and seem willing to allow musicians with something interesting to say to say it. How else do you explain the career of the Flaming Lips?
JAPAN
Dec 14, 1999

Majority doesn't mean easy street for coalition

Staff writer The 48-day extraordinary Diet session, scheduled to end today, appears to have exposed the weaknesses rather than strengths of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's new tripartite coalition, which controls 70 percent of the seats in the Lower House. Obuchi had hoped the combined majority of 356...
JAPAN
Dec 13, 1999

Century of Change: Marriage sheds its traditional shackles

Staff writer When Kumiko Nishimura wed two years ago, she thought that registering her marriage with the city office was a natural course of things. But she postponed the registration because she felt it too burdensome to go though the process of changing names on everything -- from her driver's license,...
EDITORIALS
Dec 11, 1999

Much ado about shopping

There is a lot of buzz this year about the rise and rise of online shopping. E-retail giants like Yahoo Shopping and Amazon.com have already broken season al sales records, and the air is ringing with merry predictions that this holiday period will see the world's first online-retail profits.
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Dec 9, 1999

Could you be drinking a glass of freaky Frankenstein wine?

How about a glass or two of Frankenstein wine?
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 9, 1999

Good-time dining for the new year

It's the time of year for that annual conundrum: Where to go for that end of year celebration. It really does have to be something European, with wine and a soft, jazzy backing track. You want something with style, but definitely not too formal; a place with a buzz, but not too well known; with good...
LIFE / Travel
Dec 8, 1999

A life less ordinary: Anne Frank's legacy

Amsterdam must be the only European city whose most popular tourist attractions occupy different ends of the sliding scale that begins with virtue and ends with vice. It is likely that many of those who wait patiently in the queues that snake daily around the canal-side block where the Anne Frank Huis...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 5, 1999

Mellow, smooth and clear -- classical orchestras fill a niche

Chamber orchestras vary in size, just as people do. A chamber orchestra may comprise as few as 13 (the smallest number that can sound like an orchestra) or as many as 20 string players, plus winds. A symphony orchestra usually musters a string body ranging upward from, say, 35 string players.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Dec 4, 1999

The buzz in Washington: New Millennium parties and would-be new presidents

WASHINGTON -- I experienced some interesting feelings as I typed in the date on this piece. We writers and pundits will have an emotional ride during the next few weeks as we put pen to paper -- or fingers to keyboard -- for the last time in this century and millennium. The temptations are rife: to be...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 4, 1999

Exorcising demons of relentlessly passing time

Miyako Ishiuchi underwent an experience in her late 20s that was, if not entirely unique, certainly highly unusual: She became entranced with photography because of its smell.
JAPAN
Dec 2, 1999

Filipino teen recalls sexploitation, Japanese tricks

KAWASAKI -- A 15-year-old Filipino girl told a group of Japanese high school students of her experiences of being sexually exploited by foreign travelers and called for a world in which children's rights are not abused. Raised by poor relatives, of whom she only remembers "shouting and slapping," after...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Dec 1, 1999

The top of the world

Tengboche Monastery is the oldest Buddhist monastery in Nepal. Founded in 1916 by Lama Gulu, the building itself has been destroyed and rebuilt twice. Today it is home to 50 monks and hosts about 22,000 visitors each year
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 1999

'Trade is better than aid'

In one month's time, we shall leave the 20th century behind. The first half of it saw the world almost destroyed by war -- partly as a result of its division into rival trade blocs. The second half has seen an unprecedented expansion of world trade, which has also brought unprecedented economic growth....
JAPAN
Nov 26, 1999

It's WTO vs. budget for Cabinet trio

Staff writer
CULTURE / Art
Nov 26, 1999

Reflecting prosperity, deflecting evil

Every year in the middle of December, thousands of people flock to Tokyo's Asakusa Sensoji Temple for the annual hagoita market to buy oshie hagoita, a decorative battledore that serves as both a New Year's decoration and a good-luck charm.
JAPAN
Nov 26, 1999

Tokyo to urge scolding as solution to societal ills

Staff writer
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Nov 26, 1999

Salon Music goes back to basics, but still way ahead of the curve

One of the great curiosities of the Japanese music scene is the tendency to eat up the latest indie rock innovations from the U.K. or U.S., leaving home-grown talent unknown and uncelebrated.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 24, 1999

Ghostly tanka with a steely brightness

HEAVENLY MAIDEN: Tanka, by Akiko Baba, translated by Hatsue Kawamura and Jane Reichhold. AHA Books, 1999; 115 pp., $10. More expressive than the briefer haiku, tanka can more easily incorporate the flow of events and thoughts that make up ordinary life:
JAPAN
Nov 23, 1999

Foreign carmakers wedge feet in door at Toyohashi

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Nov 19, 1999

The challenge of jobs for graduates

Students graduating from the nation's universities, two-year junior colleges and high schools next March are not likely to agree with the optimistic pronouncements being made about signs of a long-delayed recovery for Japan's battered economy. Better days may indeed be ahead for the corporate world,...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 17, 1999

Hemingway's dead; long live the future

Hemingway once said that good writing begins with the simple production of but one true sentence. OK. Here's something that's true. Hemingway is dead.
JAPAN
Nov 16, 1999

Regional Special: Sanin

'Inaka' taps city disenchanted to repopulate>Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 15, 1999

Photos urge students to study selves

Staff writer
COMMUNITY
Nov 13, 1999

Goodwill ambassador delivers hope

Akasaka Prince Hotel's Crystal Palace Room was filled with billowing arcs and floating columns of peach, rose and violet balloons Nov. 9 to help celebrate the opening of the stage play "Friendship (Yujo)" and the release of "The Paradise of Angels (Tenshi no Paradaisu)," a five-volume set of children's...
EDITORIALS
Nov 12, 1999

Mr. Bush's quiz show

There is no doubt about it. U.S. presidential hopeful George W. Bush handed his rivals some welcome ammunition last week when he flubbed that pop quiz. Asked to identify the leaders of Chechnya, Taiwan, Pakistan and India, a stunned Mr. Bush could only come up with "Lee" for Taiwan and (an admittedly...

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