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ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
Jun 14, 2001

Gaku-ajisai (Lace-cap hydrangea)

"We rode for some time within hearing of the Kinugawa River with an undergrowth of red azaleas, blue hydrangea the very blue of heaven, yellow raspberries, ferns. The redundancy of the vegetation was truly tropical, and the brilliancy and variety of its living greens, dripping with recent rain,...
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2001

NPOs rising but still short on cash: expert

The outlook for Japan's nonprofit organizations has improved in recent years due to legal support from the government, but they still face major hurdles like insufficient financial resources, Harvard University professor Susan Pharr said Wednesday.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Jun 14, 2001

Going somewhere?

www.orbitz.com The five biggest U.S. airlines got together on Orbitz to offer cut-rate fares and other travel specials. But since United, American, Northwest Delta and Continental don't belong to any of Asia's ticket cartels, you're not gonna get a discount if you're living in Japan (the regulations...
BUSINESS
Jun 14, 2001

Problem loans rising at regional banks

Problem loans at the nation's 64 regional banks rose 17.7 percent to 9.8 trillion yen during fiscal 2000 as borrowers fell delinquent and banks made more stringent assessments of loans, the Association of Regional Banks said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Jun 13, 2001

Low growth is the price of reforms

Japan will have to endure low economic growth over the next two to three years as the nation undergoes radical reforms, a key government economic panel said in the draft of a reform blueprint to be released later this month.
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jun 13, 2001

Super Butter Dog: Bow wow wow yippee yay

When I first saw Super Butter Dog at an industry showcase a few years back, I thought they were a joke. First, of course, there was the name. Super Butter Dog sounded like one of those quasi-edible agglomerations of animal byproducts and chemicals you buy at dubious-looking matsuri stalls. And the band...
CULTURE / Art
Jun 13, 2001

Quiet scenes from life and nature

"Suigen (Water Source)" (2001) by Tsuneo Nakaune A joint exhibition of nihonga (traditional Japanese-style painting) by Haruko and Tsuneo Nakaune will open June 19 at the Ginza Church Tokyo Gospel Fellowship Center. Readers may already know Haruko from her "Word Play" cartoons on The Japan Times' Friday...
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2001

Seibu to help disabled, elderly shop

Licensed guides will assist the disabled and the elderly at four Seibu department stores, including the flagship Ikebukuro store in Tokyo, starting later this month, according to Seibu officials.
LIFE / Travel
Jun 12, 2001

Fujiya Hotel: At ease in a Miyanoshita time capsule

Most visits to the Hakone area of Kanagawa Prefecture begin at the heavily touristed town itself, from where numerous well-trodden routes head off through the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park of which it is the official center.
BUSINESS
Jun 12, 2001

Sony opens second Net-only bank

Sony Corp. launched the nation's second Internet-based bank Monday, aiming to attract customers to the branch-free bank with higher deposit interest rates and new financial services based on the firm's advanced information technology.
Events
Jun 12, 2001

Osaka still investment 'black hole'

OSAKA — With Osaka's economy still in the doldrums, city and prefectural officials are renewing efforts to bring more foreign direct investment to the region.
COMMUNITY
Jun 10, 2001

Home (not so) sweet home

"The word 'home' comes from the Nordic and Germanic languages and means a place of comfort, a warm fire and a place to sleep," said Colleen Lanki, artistic director of Kee Company, a Tokyo-based bilingual theater group.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

Killings shock parents, residents

OSAKA — Shock and disbelief gripped the city of Ikeda, an affluent Osaka suburb, Friday following the murder of eight elementary school children as parents, teachers and neighbors struggled to find an explanation for why it happened.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 9, 2001

Falling off a Kawasaki cliff, building an ashram

Sister Eugenie Fumiko Fujita went to bed toward the end of last year's rainy season, her life enlivened by a month of mold but still basically in order. She awoke before dawn July 8 to mayhem, her home hanging off the edge of a landslip.
COMMUNITY / THE PARENT TRIP
Jun 8, 2001

Trips, tripwires of expat parenthood

Life with Corey started long before we even knew what his name was to be. On a summer day in 1999, we were shown the first confirmatory ultrasound after pregnancy was suspected -- he was the size of a pea, if that. From there, we watched him progress through the months in a series of ever-more pronounced...
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 8, 2001

Japan books spot in final

YOKOHAMA -- Japan fought a tremendous rearguard battle in a steady downpour with only 10 men Thursday night to overcome a resilient Australia team 1-0 and reach the final of the Confederations Cup at Yokohama International Stadium.
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2001

Ginza denizens fight to preserve glory in face of commercialism

Tokyo's Ginza district may have lost some of its past glory but several elderly people there are working to ensure that it remains a showcase of bustling Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Jun 7, 2001

Move ahead on postal privatization

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is a longtime advocate of postal-service privatization. This week his dream has taken a first step toward coming true. At its first meeting on Monday, the postal committee, an advisory panel to the prime minister, confirmed that the three postal services (mail, savings...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jun 7, 2001

Jeffords bombshell overshadows tax bill

It has been interesting to watch the blame game explode in the week since U.S. Sen. James Jeffords decided to leave the Republican Party. In the immediate aftermath, there was a sense of disbelief, mixed with a bit of "we'll get a Democrat to switch and all will be well."
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 7, 2001

Kamamoto learns to live with cohosting

Kunishige Kamamoto was the Hidetoshi Nakata or the Kazu Miura of his day.
MORE SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jun 7, 2001

Minding your P's and Q's

"F*** your mother"
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2001

Men in 30s, 40s getting fat

Men in their 30s and 40s are increasingly becoming overweight and are also increasingly likely to have hyperlipemia, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 7, 2001

Good intentions jinx the 'living dead'

Doom and gloom this week for those who believe in the essential goodness of the human race, with two papers in the journal Science that implicate humans in mass extinctions of mammals in North America and Australia.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2001

Japan, officially, still vague on Bush's missile defense plan

Reported critical remarks by Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka on a proposed U.S. missile defense system may be problematic as they apparently contravene Japan's noncommittal position on the issue. Although Japan has engaged in joint technical research with the United States on the Theater Missile Defense...
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2001

Sri Lanka envoy woos smaller firms for investment

With the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic relationship between Japan and Sri Lanka approaching next year, the new ambassador to Japan hopes to further strengthen bilateral ties, particularly in business.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2001

Robbing of pork barrel has LDP squealing

When Hiroshi Kato, president of Chiba University of Commerce, stepped into a Tokyo hotel room one day in the early 1980s, he soon realized he had violated a political taboo.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 6, 2001

Power surge in the Pacific League

Instead of playing up the Monday night games innovation (which it really is not doing anyway), the Pacific League should exploit the sudden increase in home-run power this season. Either they've juiced the ball or the guys are taking some go-go juice (just kidding), and Seibu Lions slugger Alex Cabrera...
CULTURE / Film
Jun 6, 2001

It's deja vu all over again

The Mummy Returns Rating: * * * Japanese title: Hamunaputora 2Director: Stephen Sommers Running time: 129 minutes Language: EnglishNow showing at Shibutoh Cine Theater and other theaters One of the better summer flicks of recent years was 1999's "The Mummy," which was everything that this sort of...

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight