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COMMENTARY
Nov 27, 1999

Tough times again for Ozawa

While I was away from Japan on a recent overseas trip, the nation was plunged into political confusion following Liberal Party leader Ichiro Ozawa's threat to leave the ruling three-party coalition. Ozawa suggested that his party could quit the alliance -- which also includes the Liberal Democratic Party...
CULTURE / Music
Nov 27, 1999

Finding freedom through 'Affirmation'

The liberty and experimentation of the 1970s still hold a nostalgic place in the memory of jazz pianist and composer Tomoko Ohno. It is a period, she says, that "most people remember fondly."
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Nov 27, 1999

Unwelcome companions

Thanks to e-mail, a vast assortment of unsolicited information comes my way. Some of it is even interesting and occasionally I share it with you. My amazement is not so much with the information I am sending your way today as it is with the person who noticed it and then did the necessary projection....
CULTURE / Music
Nov 26, 1999

Proyecto Uno -- viva Zapata!

Everybody knows that foreign artists can only have a hit in the States as long as they sing in English. Conversely, Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony are credited with spearheading a "Latin boom" not only in America, but all over the world, by singing poppish variations of Afro-Cuban styles...
EDITORIALS
Nov 25, 1999

Racing toward the unwired world

I n 1990, there were 11 million mobile phones in the entire world. Today, there are 50 million in Japan alone. Nearly 400 million people around the globe carry the various makes and models of wireless phones; those ranks swell by about 1 million more every week. Experts predict that within five years,...
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 1999

Terror for the 21st century

A few weeks ago, New York was hit by an outbreak of the West Nile virus. Five people died and another 50 were sickened before authorities were able to respond. West Nile fever is a rare, encephalitic virus that is common in Africa and Asia, but had never before been diagnosed in the Western Hemisphere....
JAPAN
Nov 20, 1999

Accidental oceanographer takes Kyoto Prize for lifework

Staff writer
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Nov 20, 1999

Still hope for the musically challenged

Several years ago a number of high-level Japanese politicians and government leaders, including the prime minister, visited the United States for a series of discussions with their American counterparts. After the serious meetings concluded, the participants all joined an informal party with their hosts....
CULTURE / Music
Nov 19, 1999

Got juice? Cleve does

If my man Cleveland Williams' 35th birthday party at Boogies in Roppongi this past week was not the coolest off-the-hook, mind-blowing, no-holds-barred, woman-chasing, brain-cell-damaging event of the year so far, then I fear the party that might top it. It's a good thing parties like this only happen...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 17, 1999

An 'overseas Vietnamese' goes home

CATFISH AND MANDALA: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam, by Andrew X. Pham. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999; 344 pp., $25. After Vietnam's "American War" ended, the victorious Viet Cong captured and imprisoned Andrew X. Pham and his family as, along with scores...
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Nov 17, 1999

On the mystery of the mooses, or meese

One of the basic rules of biodiversity is that species diversity increases toward the tropics and decreases toward the poles.
JAPAN
Nov 17, 1999

Bangladesh envoy promotes corporate interaction

The new Bangladeshi ambassador to Japan, who arrived to take up his post recently, said Wednesday that he hopes to play a role in helping to bring representatives of the two countries' private sectors closer together to enable them to cooperate in a variety of fields.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 17, 1999

Hemingway's dead; long live the future

Hemingway once said that good writing begins with the simple production of but one true sentence. OK. Here's something that's true. Hemingway is dead.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Nov 17, 1999

Getting things done

From time to time I have been asked to remind people that although Japan is a very safe country, there are times when it is not. The yearend has always been a time when people should be especially careful. In old Japan, all debts had to be paid by the end of the year, but even a cursory perusal of today's...
JAPAN
Nov 16, 1999

Regional Special: Sanin

'Inaka' taps city disenchanted to repopulate>Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 16, 1999

Review of space program urged in wake of rocket crash

Government officials pledged efforts Tuesday to rebuild Japan's space program in the wake of Monday's failure of the launch of an H-II rocket carrying a multipurpose satellite.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 1999

Forester decries ranger shortage, U.S. whaling

Staff writer
COMMENTARY
Nov 13, 1999

End of the House of Lords?

LONDON -- In the broader scheme of things, it is only a small incident. The final removal last week of 656 hereditary dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts and lords from the law-making machinery of the British Parliament can hardly be described as earth-shattering. Nor is it a surprise, having been long...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Nov 11, 1999

A toast to you, the brewers, and all the hard work you do

There are at present about 1,700 sakagura, or sake breweries, in Japan. This number is dropping somewhat quickly, with several kura going under each year. But for those 1,700-odd kura brewing again this year, just about now is when the brewing season begins.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Nov 10, 1999

A trans-Pacific e-channel

The name, us-style.com, hints at the focus: e-commerce with an American twist. The use of "US" suggests that the target audience considers place of origin important.
COMMUNITY
Nov 10, 1999

Walking the way of the gods

As long as there has been Japan there has been Shinto: the "way of the gods." Shintoism is not organized around any central religious text or authority. It is perhaps best described as an amalgam of thousands of local deities (kami) and beliefs observed within a base framework of rituals and customs....
JAPAN
Nov 9, 1999

In and around Kanto

Dining show to boost refugee cause>Refugees International Japan is staging its 10th annual Art of Dining Exhibition at the Westin Tokyo hotel in Yebisu Garden Place on Monday to raise funds for needy refugees all over the world.
EDITORIALS
Nov 9, 1999

Rejoicing in uncertainty

Ten years ago today, the Cold War ended. On Nov. 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall, perhaps the ultimate symbol of the world's division into two blocs and the oppression on the communist side of the Iron Curtain, was breached. Thousands of people mounted the graffiti-scarred concrete to dance, drink or just peer...
JAPAN
Nov 9, 1999

Pakistan links CTBT signing to end of sanctions

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 8, 1999

Minority suffrage bill may split coalition

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 8, 1999

Nishimura sticks to his guns, urges defense debate

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 8, 1999

Tokai health checks set; DNA found damaged

A Nuclear Safety Commission subcommittee decided Monday how they would study people who came within 350 meters of the site of the Sept. 30 nuclear criticality accident in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Nov 7, 1999

Our troubled world

Only 55 more days to go until the end of this century. It has been a troubled one, yet one filled with new discoveries and hope. More people have been assured of at least the basics of comfort in life while large numbers have been left in devastating poverty. Perhaps it will be remembered as a century...
JAPAN
Nov 5, 1999

Y2K fears boost cruises over New Year's

Staff writer
JAPAN
Nov 5, 1999

State unveils measures to slash nursing-care burden

The government formally announced a set of measures Friday aimed at reducing the financial burden on people under a planned public nursing care system to be launched in April.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes