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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 27, 2000

Visitors from the dark side of the Inland Sea

I'm dead. Not only that, but my spirit is now floating around the Seto Inland Sea. But before I explain to you how I died, I have to explain about Obon.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2000

Youth restoring 'chindon-ya' name

"Chindon-ya," traditional street performers who promote shops, pachinko parlors and other local businesses, were once on the verge of extinction due to a lack of successors.
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 24, 2000

Shooting the breeze with affable Eddie

Sanfrecce Hiroshima manager Eddie Thomson HIROSHIMA -- Former Australian national team coach Eddie Thomson is the longest-serving manager in the J. League, but two weeks ago he announced that he would be leaving Sanfrecce Hiroshima at the end of the current season. However, the affable, 53-year-old...
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2000

Yokoyama's suspended term won't be appealed

OSAKA -- Prosecutors said Wednesday that they will not appeal the Aug. 10 court ruling that gave former Osaka Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama a suspended jail term for molesting a 22-year-old former campaign worker last year.
COMMENTARY
Aug 23, 2000

The summer 'silly season' everywhere

Europe is on holiday. Go to Paris and you will find half the restaurants shut. Many industries close down for weeks, and their workers flock to holiday resorts. Britain is not much different from the rest of Europe in this respect -- although British firms tend to stagger holidays more than in other...
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2000

Immigration in need of repair

Topmost in the mind of pro soccer player Alex is the 2002 World Cup.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 22, 2000

Soseki never dreamed of this

TEN NIGHTS' DREAMS, by Natsume Soseki. Translated by Takumi Kashima, Kyoko Nonaka, Hideki Oiwa, Horikatsu Kawashima and Katsunori Fujioka. London: Soseki Museum in London, 2000. 64 pp., unpriced. In 1908, and already an established popular writer, Natsume Soseki turned to more experimental forms of...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2000

Addressing the growing role of NGOs

The post-Cold War era has witnessed the rise to prominence of many types of nonstate players on the international stage, including international, regional and subregional organizations, trade regimes, multinational corporations and nongovernmental organizations. The last group has perhaps drawn the most...
COMMUNITY
Aug 20, 2000

A decade of anecdotes to order

There are books about spending time in Japan, written in the main by Alice-in-Wonderlands who believe a short stretch makes them authoritative on all things Japanese. And there are books about Japan. Bruce McCormack's "Tokyo Notes and Anecdotes: Natsukashi" falls into this second, far more recommendable,...
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2000

Volcanic ash blankets Miyake

A volcano expert said Saturday that Mount Oyama on Miyake Island spouted several million cubic meters of volcanic ash in an eruption the previous day.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2000

Suffer the stolen children

Mahatma Gandhi, asked what he thought of European civilization, replied, "I think it's a very good idea."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Aug 20, 2000

Keiko Itoh

LONDON -- From next May to early 2002 a series of cultural and educational events together known as Japan 2001 is scheduled to take place throughout Britain. As one of the official programs of Japan 2001, a photo exhibition is to be staged by the Japanese Residents' Association (U.K.).
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2000

Mount Oyama erupts once more

Miyake Island's Mount Oyama erupted Friday evening and sent smoke some 8,000 meters into the air, the highest altitude of any of the volcano's recent eruptions, the Meteorological Agency said.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2000

South Asia's place in Japan's agenda

DHAKA -- Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will undertake a visit to South Asia starting Sunday. His brief itinerary will take him to three capitals in the region -- Dhaka, New Delhi and Islamabad.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Aug 19, 2000

Autumn wind from Tsugaru fans Tokyo's waning summer

The last weeks of summer offer many hogaku concerts, both in Tokyo and around Japan, including two spectacular outdoor events.
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2000

Suicides in Japan hit all-time high in 1999

The number of suicides in 1999 hit a record-high 33,048, up 0.6 percent from the previous high, set the year before, according to a National Police Agency report released Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2000

State-owned enterprises continue to hinder Chinese growth

WASHINGTON -- In January, Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Wu Bangguo said that whether or not China gets into the World Trade Organization, China's policy would be "to reform and build a market economy." Now that China is assured of entering the WTO, the hard work of transforming China's socialist market...
COMMUNITY
Aug 17, 2000

Preparing to teach for the next 500 years

It is remarkable that in 150 years of mainstream education, there has been little serious investigation into how the human brain learns. An exception is the work of Bulgarian scientist Dr. Georgi Lozanov, who began studies and experiments in the 1950s.
LIFE / Style & Design / BEAUTY EAST AND WEST
Aug 17, 2000

The tawdry charm of the tattoo

Tattoos are everywhere these days. What are we expressing with this new vision of beauty, that calls for the tattoo to complete it? Until a few decades ago in the West, tattoos were associated mostly with sailors, prisoners, gang members, soldiers and carnival performers.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2000

Motorcycle makers gear up to tackle domestic slump

Despite brisk business in the global market, Japanese motorcycle makers have for years watched their domestic sales slide.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 16, 2000

The 'third way' goes via Japan

CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY IN MODERN JAPAN, edited by Ian Inkster and Fumihiko Satofuka. 2000, I.B. Tauris, 39.50 British pounds / St. Martin's Press, $59.50. THE JAPANESE AND EUROPE: Images and Perceptions, by Bert Edstrom. Japan Library, 35 British pounds / $55. In less than 150 years, Japan has changed...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2000

Australia splits on single mothers' rights

SYDNEY -- Sex and the single woman: This unlikely topic has suddenly become a political cause celebre in Australia. Even the Olympics are taking a temporary back seat to the debate on unmarried women's right to motherhood.
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2000

Astronaut Mukai appointed NASA mission scientist

The National Space Development Agency of Japan on Monday announced that astronaut Chiaki Mukai will serve as mission scientist during a 2001 NASA mission involving the space shuttle Columbia.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2000

Sleaze market festers with rip-off artists

The promise is too good to be true -- all you can drink and "excellent service" provided by "companions" for 6,000 yen in Tokyo's adult entertainment central.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami