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CULTURE / Stage
Nov 1, 2000

International performers take to Shizuoka's streets

Shizuoka City has a problem. Mount Fuji is an hour east, a decent beach is an hour west. Outside of green tea and clean air, Shizuoka City itself doesn't have much going for it.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Nov 1, 2000

Japan's rich natural diversity

For a naturalist, traveling the length and breadth of Japan is an endless magical mystery tour. Living in any one part of the country one can easily forget the phenomenal diversity in this immensely varied archipelago.
JAPAN / LIFE OFF MIYAKE
Oct 31, 2000

Evacuees long for home, gird for worst

Namiko Morishita did not expect it to last this long. She and her family fled their home on Miyake Island in late August as volcanic activity on Mount Oyama intensified.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 31, 2000

Hard lessons Japan failed to learn

JAPAN'S FINANCIAL CRISIS AND ITS PARALLELS TO U.S. EXPERIENCE, edited by Ryoichi Mikitani and Adam S. Posen. Washington: Institute for International Economics, Special Report 13, Sept. 2000, 228 pp., $20. There's an old joke about a politician's plea for a one-handed economist, one who can't say, "but...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2000

Japan's visionless politics

Many Japanese watched on television at least part of the face-to-face debates between U.S. presidential candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush. Both candidates are said to be more or less middle-of-the-road types,with no defining differ ences in political philosophy. In my view, however, Bush showed himself...
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2000

Opposition camp wants summons for Nakagawa

Opposition parties said Sunday they will demand former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa be summoned to the Diet to respond to allegations that he leaked police information to his former mistress and is closely tied with a rightwing extremist.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Oct 30, 2000

U.S. reporter misses the mark on Japan

"Given America's willingness to avert its eyes from the most troubling chapters of its history and to resist critical self-evaluation and discussion of the country's atrocities against native Americans and African Americans . . ."
EDITORIALS
Oct 29, 2000

Glamour in a good cause

There was a gathering at the United Nations in New York last Monday that nobody paid much attention to. The World Series and a high-wattage Senate race were distracting New Yorkers. A murderous flareup in the Middle East and a surreal encounter in Pyongyang were distracting the rest of the world.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2000

Japan hopeful ahead of North Korea talks

Japan and North Korea will hold talks in Beijing from Monday, with the focus of discussions likely to be on North Korean demands for compensation for Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 29, 2000

Giants dethrone Hawks for Japan Series title

Hideki Matsui provided much of the offense and Darrell May pitched in with a stellar performance on the mound Saturday night at the Tokyo Dome as the Yomiuri Giants claimed their 19th Japan Series title in emphatic style, blowing out the defending champion Daiei Hawks 9-3 in Game 6.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 29, 2000

Two chamber orchestras go for Baroque

Johann Sebastian Bach, who died in 1750, 250 years ago this year, has been lovingly remembered with significant performances of his great masterworks throughout the year. Recently eminent ensembles from Europe presented performances of the monumental "Saint Matthew Passion" almost simultaneously here....
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 28, 2000

Takahashi steers Giants to 6-0 win

FUKUOKA -- This is supposed to be the "O-N" Series between the two megastars of yesteryear -- Daiei Hawks manager Sadaharu Oh and Shigeo Nagashima, the Yomiuri Giants' skipper -- but the hero of Game 5 on Friday was a 25-year-old rookie who wasn't even born when the two managers were in their heyday...
JAPAN
Oct 28, 2000

Pyongyang plan better unsaid: Fukuda

Newly appointed Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda hinted Friday that Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori should not have revealed to British Prime Minister Tony Blair a proposal made in 1997 to Pyongyang concerning Japanese allegedly kidnapped by North Korea.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Oct 28, 2000

Coal-crusted, ash-glazed, long-fired

From aspiring lawyer to automatic washing machine salesman to master potter, life has been an interesting but rocky road for Shigaraki ceramist Shiho Kanzaki.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Oct 27, 2000

'Tis fall, and the brewers gather around their vats

In sync with the new colors and cooler weather of fall, the brewing season begins. Except for a few dozen brewing factories operated by the largest sake-brewing companies, sake is brewed in the colder months, generally from the end of October to the beginning of April. Larger brewers' facilities keep...
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Oct 27, 2000

How to find the very best goat eggs

"Any goat eggs today?" I asked with mock anxiety, and a face to match.
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2000

NTT unit to enter local-call market

NTT Communications Corp., the long-distance and international services arm of the NTT group, plans to enter the local-call market as early as May, company officials said Thursday.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2000

Former chief of Net firm held in exec's abduction

A former president of Liquid Audio Japan, an Internet-based music delivery firm, was arrested with four other people Wednesday on suspicion of kidnapping and confining a former executive of the firm.
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
Oct 26, 2000

Who decides on who decides?

When I interviewed Terry Venables in June, I asked him the obvious questions about his future: "Do you want to manage again?" and "Would you manage England again?"
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 26, 2000

ASEM fails to live up to hype

The third Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) held in Seoul last weekend was long on ceremony and performance, but short on substance. While impeccably hosted by South Korea and held in a glittering new conference center in southern Seoul, the conference lacked "soul." For all the talk of Partnership for Shared...
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2000

State may scrap bar exam

A government panel on judicial reform plans to urge the government to abolish national bar examinations and introduce new tests for graduates of law schools modeled on those in the U.S. and scheduled to be established in Japan, according to panel members.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2000

FTC investigates NTT East access tactics

The Fair Trade Commission is investigating a regional telephone unit of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. for allegedly blocking other companies from starting digital Internet services, a violation of the Antimonopoly Law, commission sources said Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Oct 25, 2000

Entangled by the truth

Central bankers are Delphic figures. They are supposed to be all-knowing, serious and solid, exuding confidence and authority. At the same time, however, they must maintain an air of unpredictability to keep markets from anticipating their moves. That is why last week's comments by Mr. Wim Duisenberg,...
COMMENTARY
Oct 25, 2000

Western policies ignore Serbia's history

Japan can be criticized for its simplistic, one-track mind at times. But over problems like Yugoslavia, the one-tracked Western mind, hardened by ideology and moralistic bias, can do far more harm.
LIFE / Digital
Oct 25, 2000

Xpect the unxpected

SEATTLE -- What does Microsoft know about fun? The engineers who designed Xbox, the new 128-bit video game console that Microsoft plans to release sometime next year, know too much for their own good.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 24, 2000

Creating soundtracks for modern pop culture

Dodgeville, Mich. Ever heard of it? Perhaps not. It's just another small Midwestern town you pass through on your way to the big city. It certainly wouldn't occur to you it's where one of America's most talented and hardworking composers was born.
COMMENTARY
Oct 23, 2000

LDP is up to its old tricks

The current 150th Diet session is in unprecedented chaos over an electoral reform bill to revise the Upper House voting system. The bill would change the roster system for candidates nominated in the proportional-representation segment of the Upper House polls. Currently, parties predetermine the ranks...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 23, 2000

Clock tolls for environmental action

Mika Suzuki may not be a professional designer, but her keen eye and concern about the environment recently won her the top prize in a Tokyo eco-design contest.

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