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ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
May 27, 1999

Respect for the forest's elders

The Hokkaido University Botanic Garden is situated right in the heart of Sapporo, within easy reach of Sapporo Station. I really love to see trees grown at their best, and for those of you who feel the same, a visit to this garden is essential.
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
May 27, 1999

Old and new blended perfectly at Otani

A pebble's throw away from the Akasaka Mitsuke subway station, the Hotel New Otani (which happens to be in the midst of celebrating 35 years as one of Tokyo's premier hotels) might just offer the solution to savvy travelers' "been there, done that" blues.
EDITORIALS
May 26, 1999

The IMF is called to account

The International Monetary Fund has already received a lot of flak from private experts for giving the wrong advice to troubled Asian economies. Another analysis to that effect, therefore, is nothing new. What is new -- and significant -- is that the Japanese government, in an official report, has now...
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

Some wary as pension plight casts 401(k) in rosy light

Staff writer
JAPAN
May 20, 1999

Nonlife insurers hit by 4.1% drop in premiums

Premium income at the nation's five major nonlife insurance firms fell 4.1 percent in fiscal 1998 from the previous year due to premium rate cuts and sluggish sales amid the recession, according to earnings reports released Thursday.
JAPAN
May 20, 1999

Marrow donors in short supply in Japan

Staff writer
LIFE / Style & Design / SIMPLY DIVINE
May 20, 1999

Hendrixesque

Forget playing air guitar, Konami has done it again. The company that had Travolta wannabees queuing up in video arcade centers to stomp on the Dance Dance Revolution platform has launched a new game for guitar freaks everywhere.
COMMUNITY
May 20, 1999

Free university opens doors on a place to open your mind

There's a new and unusual place in Tokyo to learn, grow and have fun -- and it's free. Tokyo Jiyu Daigaku, or Tokyo Free University, has opened its doors for its inaugural year onto subjects ranging from Eastern and Western religion, philosophy and literature, third-world development, creative and spiritual...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 20, 1999

Pinching pennies for a better future — if any

One of the bedrock beliefs that Japanese society has about itself is that everyone belongs to the middle class. This isn't to say pronounced social classes don't exist. A middle-aged woman once expressed to me her fear that her adult daughter would never get married and move out. Since the daughter worked...
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 19, 1999

Back bayous of the Danube Delta

Adrift on a boat, with a wall of freshly leafed willows passing steadily on each side, I could not help thinking of Ratty and Mole's adventures on the river in "The Wind in the Willows." There were fresh mole hills to be found on the banks, and here and there holes in the riverbanks that might just have...
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
May 19, 1999

Journeying into the valley of death

"Death Valley," noted our guidebook, "is an inhuman environment: barren and monotonous, burning hot and almost entirely without shade or water." In short, the ideal antidote to Japan's rainy season, which is why we went.
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

Volunteers struck by refugees' fortitude

Staff writer
CULTURE / Music
May 18, 1999

Alec Empire's mission: disturb and offend

At first glance Alec Empire, in black leather from head to foot, appears the archetypal rocker, but his short clean hair and his drug-free, no-drinking, no-smoking stance hardly screams "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll."
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 18, 1999

Culture: mirror or straitjacket?

THE WORLDS OF JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE: Gender, Shifting Boundaries and Global Cultures, edited by D.P.K. Martinez. Cambridge University Press, 1998, 212 pp., unpriced. THE WORLDS OF JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE: Gender, Shifting Boundaries and Global Cultures, edited by D.P.K. Martinez. Cambridge University...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 16, 1999

Hate is a many-booted creature that bites

The word in Japanese politics these days is reform. Japan is faced with an aging population, a weakened yen and a less-than-thriving economy.
JAPAN
May 14, 1999

Symposium eyes stricter laws to curb animal abuse

More than 300 people gathered Thursday at a Tokyo symposium calling for a legal revision to better protect animal rights.
JAPAN
May 14, 1999

First heart recipient under '97 law goes home

OSAKA -- The patient who received a heart from a brain-dead donor in February left Osaka University Hospital Friday, 75 days after the operation -- the first such transplant under the Organ Transplant Law of 1997.
EDITORIALS
May 13, 1999

President Kim takes up the challenge

Among Asia's crisis-hit economies struggling for recovery and reform, South Korea may well claim it leads on both counts. Interest rates, the currency and equity prices have markedly improved from the depths of a year and half ago. A return of market confidence is also in evidence as foreign capital...
JAPAN
May 13, 1999

Doctors remove donor's skin

The family of a brain-dead man who donated his heart and kidneys earlier this week also allowed doctors to remove his skin for future surgical needs, officials at the Tokyo Skin Bank Network said Thursday.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
May 13, 1999

A miniature blending of landscapes

In Tokyo, there are quite a number of historic gardens that were built by the daimyo during the long Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867). The designers of many of these gardens were greatly influenced by the Chinese style of landscaping, and by the eagerness of the owners to have famous scenic sights from...
CULTURE / Art
May 13, 1999

Smithsonian celebrates culture, history of Ainu

WASHINGTON -- An unprecedented, in-depth look at the culture of the Ainu is being offered in the U.S. capital.
CULTURE / Books
May 13, 1999

Miyazawa comes to life for young English readers

GAUCHE THE CELLIST; SNOW CROSSING; THE STORY OF THE ZASHIKI BOKKO and Three Poems; THE RESTAURANT OF MANY ORDERS (4 vols. with four CDs and read-along booklet in English and Japanese), by Kenji Miyazawa, translated by Roger Pulvers, illustrated by Osamu Tsukasa. Tokyo: Labo Teaching Information Center,...
JAPAN
May 11, 1999

Smithsonian celebrates culture, history of Ainu

Staff writer
CULTURE / Books
May 11, 1999

Dazzling portrait of the Occupation

EMBRACING DEFEAT: Japan in the Wake of World War II, By John W. Dower. New York: WW Norton, 1999. 676 pp. $29.95 History does not get any better than this. The award-winning author of "War Without Mercy," (1986) an exploration of racism and the Pacific War, is in peak form in this sparkling evocation...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
May 11, 1999

Got those Irish, Delta, Okinawan blues

CELTIC CHARM -- The Chieftains and fiddler Eileen Ivers will perform together and separately in Tokyo this month.
CULTURE / Music
May 8, 1999

Beethoven's global harmony ballet

Ludwig van Beethoven is not the composer that springs to mind when trawling the classics for a composition to accompany dance, but in "The Ninth Symphony" choreographed by Maurice Bejart, the doughty chords are given a vivid and fresh life with mid-century choreography.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
May 8, 1999

Kawai exhibit shows grace under fire

The term mingei (folk art) was coined by Soetsu Yanagi in 1926 to refer to common crafts that had been brushed aside and overlooked by the industrial revolution.
EDITORIALS
May 7, 1999

A brush with history

Mallory, Hillary.... The airwaves have been buzzing this week with two of the best-known names in mountain-climbing history. Some people even reportedly got confused, thinking the body found near the summit of Mount Everest May 1 was that of Sir Edmund Hillary (who is very much alive in New Zealand)...
JAPAN
May 7, 1999

Mitsui firms to set up 401(k) plan consultancy

Four financial institutions belonging to the Mitsui group announced Friday they will establish a consulting company to help firms implement a Japanese version of the U.S. 401(k) pension plan.
JAPAN
May 7, 1999

Dioxin: Levels high in incinerator-happy Japan

Last in a series Staff writer

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