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CULTURE / Art
Sep 24, 2000

The powerful influence of Japan

Western artists of the mid-19th century were both entranced and distracted by their turbulent times. Many sought fresh ways to see the world around them, "savoir voir" as distinct from "savoir faire."
CULTURE / Art
Sep 23, 2000

Artists heed the call of the cat

"I don't feel that I decide to carve the cats," Makoto Nishi says. "The cats call on me to carve them."
COMMUNITY
Sep 21, 2000

Hanae Mori's gems shine brightly

Let's begin with the keywords: graceful, feminine, sharp, inspired.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 20, 2000

The night train to Nha Trang

A few minutes before dawn on the night train to Nha Trang I awake to the sound of a nonstop diesel speeding past in the opposite direction. It hurtles past just inches away from the open windows of our own side-tracked train, sending us rocking nearly out of our bunks.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 19, 2000

Kwangju: a turning point for South Korea

THE KWANGJU UPRISING: Eyewitness Accounts of Korea's Tiananmen, edited by Henry Scott-Stokes and Lee Jai Eui. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2000, 268 pp. $18.95 (paper). "Covering the Kwangju uprising -- and writing of it in the aftermath," a Korean observer writes, "I was stuck for words. A reporter is supposed...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 19, 2000

A fascinating figure of 13th-century Japan

CHARISMA AND COMMUNITY FORMATION IN MEDIEVAL JAPAN, by S.A. Thornton. Ithaca: Cornell University East Asia Series, 1999, 290 pp., unpriced. The "charisma" of the title of this carefully researched and impressively thorough work of scholarship refers, in the first instance, to the medieval Buddhist...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2000

Declassify CIA files on the 'disappeared'

NEW YORK -- U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright indicated recently in Buenos Aires, Argentina, that the United States would release files with information about the Chilean and Argentine military dictatorships as a contribution to the investigations on illegal repression in both countries. Despite...
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 16, 2000

A gentler, softer Dairakudakan

It is tempting to look at the new Dairakudakan production, "Kanzen-naru Hitobito (Complete People)," as being in some way connected to the title. Searching for meaning in butoh performances has always been a mad sport, though, and the premiere by the largest butoh company extant, at Tokyo's Art Sphere...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 15, 2000

The periphery vs. the center

LOCAL VOICES, NATIONAL ISSUES: The Impact of Local Initiative in Japanese Policy-making, edited by Sheila A. Smith. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2000, 136 pp., $32.95 (cloth). For students of power and politics in Japan, Tokyo is where the action is. Important decisions are made in...
OLYMPICS
Sep 14, 2000

Japan boss hoping for eight gold medals

SYDNEY -- Japan's Olympic officials have set the nation's athletes a goal of bringing home five gold medals and a total of 15 medals from the Sydney Olympics.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 10, 2000

Multiculturalism and meritocracy are key

We live in a world of at least 2,000 nationalities, 200 states and 20 nation-states (where the populations are more or less homogeneous). The doctrine of self-determination was one of the most powerful ideologies of the 20th century. The drive to self-determination by disaffected communities created...
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Sep 9, 2000

Putting no price on the beautiful

If all the pottery that I live with and use suddenly disappeared from my home, I would find myself quite blue. Those pieces, in their silent voices, spark my imagination and encourage me to live each day with grace and style; they are good friends. Someday I know I will have to part with them; that is...
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2000

Toyota unveils remodeled luxury car

Toyota Motor Corp. unveiled the remodeled Celsior luxury sedan Thursday as part of its efforts to compete with quality European automobiles.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 30, 2000

'A lippy and lewd bunch of women'

Ten or 15 years ago, it seemed as if women travel writers might have become an extinct species. Manuscripts submitted by women were subjected to a special set of rules. Editors expected their accounts to include record-breaking feats, promotional gimmicks or at least the use of some eccentric mode of...
LIFE / Travel
Aug 30, 2000

In the realm of the accidental tourist

While there are women who work exclusively as travel writers, many women writers, journalists and novelists among them, have chosen at one time or another to temporarily commandeer the travel vehicle to get their ideas or dreams across.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2000

Nichiei collector gets prison for extortion

The Tokyo District Court sentenced a former employee of Kyoto-based nonbank moneylender Nichiei Co. to 20 months in prison Monday for using threatening tactics to collect loans while working for the company in 1998.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Aug 27, 2000

Home sweet home

WASHINGTON -- As a born-again nonsmoker (when I was three a great aunt tied a white ribbon around my wrist signifying a commitment never to smoke, a promise on my behalf that for years I chose not to honor), it is a joy to be in a country where smoking is all but prohibited. Here there are neither smoking...
BUSINESS
Aug 25, 2000

RCC waiving billions of yen in debts

The Resolution and Collection Corp. has given up its claims on loans worth dozens of billions of yen it inherited from failed financial institutions since its inception in April 1999, it was learned Thursday.
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2000

Japan, EU to study joint Cambodian aid project

Japan and the 15-nation European Union will start talks as early as next month on drafting a unique guns-for-butter joint assistance project for Cambodia by the end of this year, government sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2000

NCB sale to proceed unchanged, Aizawa tells Son

The government confirmed Wednesday that it will sell the nationalized Nippon Credit Bank to a Softbank Corp.-led consortium Sept. 1 under the original contract terms, government officials said.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Aug 23, 2000

Eye scream

lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/uc004810.jpg Not only did the U.S. government give us the Internet, but it has posted a recipe for vanilla ice cream as well. It's actually a photo of a recipe handwritten by Thomas Jefferson, one of the architects of that government, sometime in the 1780s. Click on "Holograph...
LIFE / Travel
Aug 23, 2000

Among the ghosts of the kamikaze

CHIRAN, Kagoshima Pref. -- An aerial view of the Satsuma Peninsula, glimpsed from a light, low-flying craft such as a glider, would reveal a pastoral landscape of striking warmth, with green volcanic peaks, white stucco-faced houses and time-worn hot-spring inns tucked away down leafy lanes. In this...
CULTURE / Art
Aug 20, 2000

Lessons in transforming space

Mukojima, two stops out from Asakusa, would appear on one's first visit to be the boondocks. Nonetheless, this suburban Tokyo backwater has been the location this year of two site-specific architecture and art projects.
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2000

Secondhand comic book firm tapping into American interest in 'manga'

Savoring his success dealing in secondhand comic books and character items in Japan, Masuzo Furukawa, president of Mandarake Inc., is now eyeing an overseas market he believes is thirsting for Japanese "manga" culture.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 16, 2000

The 'third way' goes via Japan

CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY IN MODERN JAPAN, edited by Ian Inkster and Fumihiko Satofuka. 2000, I.B. Tauris, 39.50 British pounds / St. Martin's Press, $59.50. THE JAPANESE AND EUROPE: Images and Perceptions, by Bert Edstrom. Japan Library, 35 British pounds / $55. In less than 150 years, Japan has changed...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2000

U.S. forces remain critical to Northeast Asian security

WASHINGTON -- There has been a sea change in the political landscape in Northeast Asia, particularly on the Korean Peninsula. In South Korea, the success of multiparty democracy is changing how the United States interacts with its ally. President Kim Dae Jung must deal with voters who increasingly question...
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2000

Survivors' memories published in English

Michiko Nakano set out with the ambition of publishing a collection of stories of her peers' experiences of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in English, hoping to educate more of the world's people about the historic facts of the attack, which occurred exactly 55 years ago today.
CULTURE / Art
Aug 6, 2000

Urawa Art Museum picks art to make book on

Urawa Art Museum, which opened in April as the second public museum in Saitama Prefecture, is currently exhibiting 220 books created by 20th-century Western artists.
BUSINESS
Aug 4, 2000

Chinese naval operations could scuttle yen loan program

The Foreign Ministry plans to extend around 17.2 billion yen in loans to China under a program to help countries that were hit by the 1997 Asian financial crisis, ministry sources said.
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2000

Rare corals sold in pet shops contributing to species' decline

Various types of live coral from coastal areas in Japan, including rare species, are being sold in pet shops in and around Tokyo, a group monitoring wildlife trafficking said Wednesday.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji