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COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jan 19, 2000

Um, you know, like, how to be fluent in Japanese

Lots of people think one sure way to improve your Nihongo skills is to marry a Japanese. They hold this view even knowing a good textbook is cheaper and takes up less space. In my case, however, not only did I marry a Japanese, I married one licensed to teach her native tongue.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2000

Here comes Japan's e-boom

Let me make some predictions about Japan's economic performance in and after 2000. I believe that recovery in the next 12 to 18 months will be slow but robust expansion will take place after that. The boom will not benefit everyone, as did the past expansion, however. It will be accompanied by the polarization...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 18, 2000

A life between East and West

THE MASK CARVER'S SON, A Novel by Alyson Richman. Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA, 371 pp., $23.95. This is an imagined autobiography of a Japanese artist who studied in Paris around the year 1900.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 4, 2000

Childish reading for kids and adults

TALE OF THE BAMBOO CUTTER, by Kawabata Yasunari, translated by Donald Keene, illustrations by Miyata Masayuki. Kodansha Intl., 1998, 177 pp., 2,300 yen. SOMETHING NICE: Songs for Children, by Kaneko Misuzu, translated by D.P. Dutcher, Japan University Library Association, 1999, 146 pp., 2,500 yen. These...
BUSINESS
Jan 4, 2000

Smaller enterprises still need help: Inaba

1999 may prove to have been a pivotal year for small businesses.
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2000

Exec's reckoning: Small firms still need help, Inaba says

Last of three parts Staff writer 1999 may prove to have been a pivotal year for small businesses. Scores of small and medium-size enterprises collapsed amid the prolonged recession, but the severity of the situation attracted public attention to their plight, leading the government to map out a legal...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 1999

Russia's Jewish homeland: a Stalinist experiment in social engineering lingers on

BIROBIDZHAN, RUSSIA -- Mikhail Kul was a soldier in the Soviet Army that helped defeat Germany in 1945, but he returned home to find that the Holocaust had emptied his Ukrainian village of most of its inhabitants.
EDITORIALS
Dec 22, 1999

The Kremlin wins, for now

Russia's parliamentary elections, held last weekend, were a victory for the government. Pro-Kremlin parties appear -- and the qualifier is important -- to have won a commanding share of seats in the 450-member Duma. The immediate benefactors of the vote are President Boris Yeltsin and his prime minister,...
LIFE / Travel
Dec 9, 1999

Rise and fall of a Japanese matador

SEVILLE, Spain -- Atsuhiro Shimoyama never planned on becoming a bullfighter. Growing up in the greater Tokyo region in the late 1980s, he opted out of going to college, and instead bummed around searching for something meaningful to do during Japan's wildly inflating bubble years.
JAPAN
Dec 7, 1999

Net, video help preserve sailor's POW ordeal

Regional correspondent Stanley Willner's wartime odyssey began on Nov. 29, 1942, when the merchant vessel he was serving on was torpedoed by a German raider in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Madagascar. He was plucked from the water by the German crew and spent a few months on board his captors'...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 24, 1999

British bulldogs in a China shop

BRITAIN IN CHINA: Community, Culture and Colonialism 1900-1949, by Robert Bickers. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1999; 276 pp., 45 pounds (hardcover), 15.99 pounds (paper). When Lord Macartney opened his British Embassy in China in 1792, he was told to ask for bit of land or,...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 17, 1999

Window on the fragile world of the Ainu

LAND OF ELMS: The History, Culture and Present-Day Situation of the Ainu People, by Toshimitsu Miyajima, translated by Robert Witmer. Ontario, Canada: United Church Publishing House, 1998; 184 pp., 2,000 yen (paper). Some books are published before the happy ending even happens, which can give readers...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 11, 1999

Homebrewing for fun, taste and profit

"Hamm's" is the first spoken word recorded in Rob Nelson's baby book. His parents say he was influenced by the rhythmic beat of the Hamm's Beer television commercial. Now, when not consuming one of his own homebrew creations, Nelson, 47, is out searching for the perfect pint. His favorite beer to date,...
CULTURE / Music
Oct 22, 1999

They still want you to want them

An enduring myth about rock is that the best artists crash before they settle into a professional rut. Jazz, blues, and folk musicians are allowed the dignity of improving with age, while rock 'n' rollers descend into redundancy.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Oct 19, 1999

The 'Moscow Blues Monster' seen rocking Tokyo's streets

For Yuji and Tatsuya it was just another night at Club Metro in Kyoto -- sinking tequila shots, fretting over the future of their jazz band and occasionally taking to the floor to shake their booty to the bouncy bossanova beats blasting from the sound system -- when in walked that girl again.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Oct 13, 1999

Not just for kids anymore

I was never much of a video-game player, although I did have a brief infatuation with Missile Command. (It ended when a pal proceeded to stomp me every time we went head to head.) I must be one of the few: Video games are reckoned to be a $20 billion-a-year industry and revenues now outpace movie-ticket...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 1999

U.S. alliances under strain

The U.N.-authorized humanitarian intervention in East Timor might provide the model for ad hoc coalitions among democracies in East Asia -- based on the U.S. alliance structure, supported by Washington, but not requiring U.S. combat forces. Australia is leading the International Force for East Timor....
CULTURE / Music
Sep 5, 1999

Is it your place or mine?

Enormous excitement was generated back in May by a trial series of creative workshops for children in English and Japanese, organized by New Order Arts at Open Studio Nope in Tokyo's Minato Ward.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Aug 6, 1999

Number Girl's gotta have it

If Tokyo's live houses have provided little in the way of new musical inspiration recently, the provinces have picked up the slack with a vengeance. Sapporo's burgeoning hip-hop scene has produced new rap heroes the Blue Herb, while Kyoto, with DJs 1945 and Nobukazu Takemura, is becoming the home of...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 1999

Anthem and flag just need some tweaking

The battle over whether or not to pass legislation giving the de facto national anthem "Kimigayo" and the Hinomaru flag official status has been a black-and- white, yes-or-no affair. There have been some legalistic, even occasionally Clintonesque, arguments presented in the Diet on the definition of...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Jul 13, 1999

Cuban music revolution heats up airwaves

Within the world music genre, success -- in terms of sales -- doesn't compare with the likes of mainstream pop and rock categories. What world music successes there have been have had a rather short shelf life, and were mainly cultivated by the major record companies.
EDITORIALS
Jul 10, 1999

From the Rhine to the Spree

The German government was on the move this week, busily shipping desks and files 600 km east to its new home in the former capital of Berlin. On July 1, Parliament sat in Bonn for the last time. On Monday, the trucks and trains started rolling. By September, most of the federal ministries should be up...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 29, 1999

American haiku now holds its own

THE HAIKU ANTHOLOGY, by Cor van den Heuvel. W. W. Norton, pp. 363, $27.50. Cor van den Heuvel is the most important anthologist of haiku composed in English in North America. He has published three collections, all simply called "The Haiku Anthology" and all through prominent commercial houses: Doubleday,...
EDITORIALS
Jun 21, 1999

Mr. Mandela's mixed legacy

With a wave of his hand and a few humble words, South African President Nelson Mandela bid farewell to his nation Wednesday but left behind a rich legacy of democracy and racial reconciliation. His successor, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, sworn into office immediately following Mr. Mandela's retirement, now faces...
JAPAN
May 31, 1999

Prange exhibit recalls Occupation's censorship

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
May 27, 1999

Tiny, but deadly killers

A silent killer has been stalking Malaysia. Since October, over 250 people have been sickened and over 100 have died as a result of a mysterious viral infection. Despite intensive government measures to combat the outbreak, it continues to baffle health investigators. There is uncertainty about the virus'...
JAPAN
May 6, 1999

Dioxin: Seveso disaster testament to effects of dioxin

Third in a series
CULTURE / Music
May 1, 1999

Playing the oldies but goodies

Real classical Japanese music is a rare thing today. There is a wide-ranging repertoire for Japanese traditional instruments, but there are few performers who specialize in the classics of these genres, or whose musical education focused on those classics.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Apr 30, 1999

Buffalo Daughter reinvents new rock again

After more than a year of touring, remixing, producing and more touring, Buffalo Daughter has returned home to the more mundane matters of daily life. Bassist and Moog player extraordinaire Yumiko Ohno recently tied the knot with longtime paramour Zak (producer of the Fishmans among others) while DJ...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 27, 1999

Haiku as a tether to life and emotional safety net

HAIKU: This Other World, by Richard Wright, edited by Yoshinobu Hakutani and Robert L. Tener, with an introduction by Julia Wright. Arcade Publishers, distributed by Little, Brown, 1998, 320 pp., $23.50 (cloth). Richard Wright (1908-60) author of the classic 20-th-century novels "Black Boy" and "Native...

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