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COMMENTARY
May 16, 2000

Failing youth and the victims of crime

The whole nation was shocked by the hijacking of a bus in the middle of the "Golden Week" holiday season. And it was a 17-year-old boy who seized the bus and killed one passenger.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 16, 2000

Enchi's made-up 'monogatari'

A TALE OF FALSE FORTUNES, By Fumiko Enchi. Translated by Roger K. Thomas. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2000. Unpriced. The late Fumiko Enchi was, besides being a well-known novelist, a major scholar of Japanese literature. Like her father, Kazutoshi Ueda, she was a classicist. Her 1972-3...
JAPAN
May 16, 2000

New ministry targets quality of life

The new ministry to be created in January by a merger of the Construction and Transport ministries and the National Land and Hokkaido Development agencies will strive for public safety, environmental preservation and economic health, according to a draft policy.
MORE SPORTS
May 14, 2000

Where have all the leaders gone?

May has not been a good month for leadership in Japan. And surely I'm not the only one disappointed.
CULTURE / Art
May 14, 2000

Triumph or disaster in Trafalgar Square

LONDON -- The jury for Trafalgar Square was still out when Prue Leith got stuck in her traffic jam. The debate had shifted elsewhere, to other public art projects that had similarly raised hackles or won praise, like Anthony Gormley's "Angel of the North." This 20-meter-high statue erected in 1997 above...
CULTURE / Music
May 14, 2000

Japan's greatest battle in song and story

Oct. 21 this year marks the 400th anniversary of the most decisive battle in Japan's history, fought at Sekigahara near the border between Shiga and Gifu prefectures, where Tokugawa Ieyasu overcame all opposition to set the course of events for the next three centuries.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
May 14, 2000

Etienne Taenaka

When he was growing up in California, Etienne Taenaka wanted to be an architect. As he watched his mother, a hairdresser, at work, he made an imaginative leap between architecture and "hair-chitecture." "Creating styles, form following function, building shapes and achieving balance," he said. "My mother...
COMMENTARY / World
May 13, 2000

Era of abundance sparks religious revival

WASHINGTON -- American history abounds with apparent contradictions, but few loom as large as this: We are a people wedded simultaneously to materialism and spirituality, mostly (though not exclusively) religious. In a recent Gallup poll, 61 percent of Americans said religion is "very important" in their...
BUSINESS
May 11, 2000

Euro slump goes unabated

Financial markets around the world are focusing their attention on the euro. With the downtrend in its value continuing unabated, the single European currency has hit life-time lows repeatedly in recent weeks.
COMMUNITY
May 11, 2000

Young women study up for the future

A high attendance in classes ranging from aromatherapy, beadwork and flower arrangement to exotic languages and cooking, offered at department stores and community centers all over Japan, is a sign of a new trend among women in their late 20s and early 30s.
LIFE / Travel
May 10, 2000

Panasonic shows off high tech for the kids

What's a kyoiku mama to do?
EDITORIALS
May 9, 2000

Crime knows no boundaries

Crime was very much on people's minds during this year's Golden Week holiday period. While the calendar made it possible for record numbers of Japanese to travel abroad, those who stayed behind for whatever reason were transfixed by news of two appalling crimes one day apart, each allegedly committed...
COMMENTARY / World
May 8, 2000

Tackling sectarian strife in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD -- A volley of gunfire that followed a grenade attack last month in a small village two hours from Islamabad shattered the myth that the government had begun to effectively contain the country's religious extremists.
MORE SPORTS
May 7, 2000

Webb blows away field at Nichirei golf

Australian Karrie Webb demonstrated her world No. 1 credentials Saturday, firing a course-record 8-under-par 64 to extend her overnight lead to eight strokes after the third round of the 60 million yen Nichirei Cup World Ladies golf tournament.
COMMENTARY / World
May 7, 2000

European sports play by their own rules

It is said that the military is always prepared to fight the last war and never the next. In the economic domain the same is true of politicians, who are generally at least a generation or two out of date. In Britain in 1913, there were 1.3 million miners, meaning that almost one in 10 men were working...
JAPAN
May 5, 2000

Japan's black reality grist for novel detective

Over a decade ago, Peter Tasker decided to challenge the cowboys and Indians.
CULTURE / Music
May 5, 2000

Santana keeps the flame -- with a little help from friends

Eric Clapton's appearance halfway through Carlos Santana's April 28 concert at the Budokan, the last date on his recent Japan tour, was unexpected but, in hindsight, not surprising.
CULTURE / Music
May 5, 2000

Healing with grassroots harmony

Japanese-Jamaican-Korean fusion? Korean-flavored Japanese rock with a bit of Memphis blues thrown in? It's hard to put a label on the multiethnic multigenre sounds of the Pak Poe Band.
LIFE / Digital
May 4, 2000

Internet radio islands floating in the stream

In a study released earlier this year, Arbitron/Edison Media Research dubbed people who listen to radio over the Internet "streamies." Bored with local programming, streamies tune in to radio stations streaming over the World Wide Web.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 3, 2000

Eyes front

It's that time again. Time to talk about time. I'll try to be brief, since there is so little time for a chat. Or for much anything else.
JAPAN
May 3, 2000

Ministry aims to double number of foreign tourists

The Transport Ministry will implement a tourism promotion plan beginning April 2001 that aims to increase visitors from 4.44 million to 8 million by around 2007, ministry officials said Tuesday.
LIFE / Travel
May 3, 2000

Historic city is picture perfect

A tattered red lantern swings back and forth on a rusty hook outside Densuke, a small, family-run pub-restaurant on Shiokaze Street. The name of the street means salt breeze, and inside Densuke a gregarious, decidedly "salty" bunch of customers sit on sagging tatami mats whose surfaces, like rough hessian,...
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2000

A quest for human rights

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has launched a drive to improve his country's human rights.
COMMUNITY
May 1, 2000

New treatments can save stroke victims if diagnosed in time

It creeps up on you unawares and attacks suddenly. One day you are fine and leading a nation. The next day you are in a coma at a hospital.
COMMENTARY
May 1, 2000

Racism and human rights

LONDON -- Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara's recent remarks suggesting that many foreigners in Japan are criminals and could cause trouble in a time of crisis have inevitably aroused fears abroad that Japanese rightwing politicians are continuing to pander to popular prejudice and have their eyes on re-election...

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building