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JAPAN
Mar 10, 2001

Italian ambassador talks up 'Italy in Japan 2001' program

Gabriele Menegatti considers himself lucky that he will see the "Italian Year" program kick off just as he starts his second year as Italy's envoy to Japan.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 4, 2001

Japan's art for all seasons

Japan is a country with four seasons. This has long been an accepted fact, and most visitors to the country have been assured of it on numerous occasions. The progress of the seasons is a usual topic of conversation and is always mentioned at the beginning of any personal letter. Poetry, especially haiku...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Mar 3, 2001

New frontiers for hogaku

Music in Japan tends to be highly categorized. Ongaku is the Japanese generic term for music, but most Japanese understand it to refer to Western music (the word yogaku is more specific). Hogaku (Japanese music) indicates both Japanese music in general or, more specifically, the music of the Edo Period....
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Budget wins approval

The House of Representatives on Friday approved the 82.65 trillion yen state budget for fiscal 2001, a move guaranteeing its enactment in time for the April 1 start of the fiscal year.
JAPAN
Mar 2, 2001

GEOS affiliates fined for hiding 280 million yen

Around 20 companies affiliated with English-language school operator GEOS Corp. failed to declare some 280 million yen in income in the five years to March 2000, industry sources said Thursday.
LIFE / Travel
Feb 28, 2001

Potholes on the road to preservation in China

China's former communist radicals and today's capitalist developers appear, in some respects, to have much in common. During the Cultural Revolution, with its almost visceral hatred of tradition, Red Guards were instructed to destroy anything "bourgeois," or tainted by the past. A decade earlier, Chairman...
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Feb 24, 2001

Names writ in letters of fire

The leading ceramics quarterly Honoho Geijutsu recently published a very interesting survey in its 65th issue, listing the names of the most important (juyo) and popular (ninki) ceramic artists of the 20th century.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 22, 2001

Zagat updates guide to Tokyo's best restaurants

Not a single local-cuisine restaurant appears in the 10 top restaurants of this year's Tokyo Zagat Survey, the annually updated restaurants guide that many in the West consider the diner's bible.
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2001

Sales at department stores in Tokyo fell in January

Sales at department stores in Tokyo's 23 wards fell in January by 0.7 percent from the year before to 172.45 billion yen, the first decline in three months, the Japan Department Stores Association said in a preliminary report Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2001

Justice Ministry to ease visa rules for Indian IT experts

The Justice Ministry will effectively ease requirements for qualified Indian information technology experts to enter Japan for working purposes, the ministry announced Friday.
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2001

Household spending continues to fall

The nation's monthly household spending in 2000 dropped 0.6 percent from the previous year to an average of 340,977 yen, marking the third consecutive annual downswing, the government said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 30, 2001

Kitaro tunes in to a healing vibe

Kitaro, one of few Japanese musicians known internationally, has unshaken faith in his music. With enormous energy counterpointing his calm, modest and easy-going manner, he has handled huge projects in the past and has been called the pioneer of New Age music in Japan.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jan 29, 2001

Was Pearl Harbor really a surprise?

My young colleague at work, Donald Howard, comes to me and wryly asks: Why is this Japanese office having a Christmas party on Dec. 7? Impressed by his historical acuity, I only manage: Well, from the Japanese perspective, the Pearl Harbor assault didn't take place on Dec. 7, but on Dec. 8 in the predawn...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 28, 2001

Beauty can be ugly -- insouciant Frenchman

What makes a great photographer? An artist usually needs to have special skills or unique concepts, but a photographer in a well-lit studio with the right equipment and beautiful models can get by even without good timing if he uses enough film and then selects the best images.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 28, 2001

Hall of Fame only thing missing from Swann's resume

TAMPA, Fla. -- He was, to put it quite simply, poetry in motion.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2001

CPI tumbled 0.7% in 2000

Consumer prices in Japan dropped by a record 0.7 percent in 2000 for the second successive yearly decline, the government said Friday.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 18, 2001

Olympic hero Spitz still making waves at 50

LONDON -- Mark Spitz is widely regarded as the greatest Olympian of all time. The American swimmer captured seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Games -- still the most ever by an athlete at one Olympics -- and broke world-record times in all seven events. Throw in the two golds, a silver and a bronze...
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2001

Two Japanese films receive invites to Berlin festival

Two Japanese films have been invited to compete in the 51st Berlin International Film Festival for the first time since 1982, according to officials of the distributing agency Toho Co.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 15, 2001

Shimode takes Kano Cup crown

Veteran heavyweight judoka Yoshinori Shimode defeated world bronze medalist Alexander Mikhaylin of Russia on Sunday on his way to his first title at the Kano Cup international men's judo competition.
BUSINESS
Jan 13, 2001

Wholesale prices increase for first time in three years

Domestic wholesale prices rose 0.1 percent in 2000 for the first hike in three years, mainly due to higher crude oil prices, the Bank of Japan said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jan 11, 2001

Daiei announces new store strategy

Troubled supermarket chain Daiei Inc. on Wednesday announced a fiscal 2001 business plan that includes realigning its corporate management system and renovating all 243 of its general merchandise and discount stores by the end of fiscal 2003.
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Jan 9, 2001

Hitting the high notes of jazz

At the age of 5 or 6, Cassandra Wilson recalls hearing the music of Miles Davis for the first time. "Sketches of Spain" was part of her father's record collection, himself a jazz musician and was one of the records he would often play in their home in Jackson, Mississippi.

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