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COMMENTARY
Feb 28, 2001

Alleviating anxiety in Seoul

SEOUL -- On the surface, U.S.-South Korean relations have seldom seemed better. Last fall's contentious issues -- negotiations over revisions to the Status of Forces Agreement and over South Korean missile-development plans -- were settled amicably. The new U.S. administration has firmly endorsed the...
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2001

Imperial Household irked by photo

The Imperial Household Agency said Monday it will consider demanding an apology or a correction from a German newspaper for publishing a picture of the Crown Prince with a caption inferring he may be impotent.
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2001

Kamei received 30 million yen cash, witness tells court

A witness told the Tokyo District Court on Monday that he saw an Osaka real estate developer give 30 million yen to Shizuka Kamei, chairman of the Policy Affairs Research Council of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2001

Kamei received 30 million yen cash, witness tells court

A witness told the Tokyo District Court on Monday that he saw an Osaka real estate developer give 30 million yen to Shizuka Kamei, chairman of the Policy Affairs Research Council of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2001

Towel makers call for ban on imports

An industry association representing Japanese towel makers filed a petition with the government Monday to invoke import restriction measures to combat a steep increase in towel imports from China and Vietnam.
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2001

Towel makers call for ban on imports

An industry association representing Japanese towel makers filed a petition with the government Monday to invoke import restriction measures to combat a steep increase in towel imports from China and Vietnam.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 27, 2001

Soar with Madame Butterfly

MADAME BUTTERFLY: Japonisme, Puccini, and the Search for the Real Cho-Cho-San, by Jan van Rij. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2001, 192 pp., 24 b/w photos, drawings, map, $24.95 (casebound). Giacomo Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" has become more than just a pretty piece of music. It has turned into something...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 27, 2001

Fairy tales for modern Japan

GHOST OF A SMILE: Stories, by Deborah Boliver Boehm. Kodansha International, 2000, 288 pp., 2,900 yen (cloth). Imagine Lafcadio Hearn venturing to 21st-century Tokyo reincarnated as a single American woman with a penchant for the exotic and erotic, and you will have a sense of the stories in "Ghost of...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 26, 2001

Incineration as usual in Kanagawa, despite suit

If the video were not so alarming, it would be humorous: Chaplinesque workers scurry to and fro while a claw-loader swivels and bends in every direction, making piles of waste disappear, covering others with paper and cardboard, and using a mattress clenched in its claw to sweep its work area clean....
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2001

Myanmar's best hope lies in reconciliation

"To those who have visited even briefly, Myanmar is one of the most attractive and intriguing places in Asia. It has vast potential for economic growth thanks to its natural resources. And its human resources are equally promising. Indeed, it was expected that after independence the country would do...
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2001

Kanda's Jinbo-cho is book-lovers' paradise

With about 150 used-book stores in addition to ordinary bookstores and publishing houses, Kanda Jinbo-cho in Chiyoda Ward is a cultural asset that Tokyo and all of Japan can be proud of.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 25, 2001

Metal chaos and the forces of artistic evil

Love him or loathe him, you just can't ignore him. That old cliche certainly rings true with Marilyn Manson. Rap might have thrown up its first genuine white rapper, Eminem, to get up the establishment's nose, but metal has the ghoulish Goth freak to take care of the other end.
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2001

Kanda's Jinbo-cho is book-lovers' paradise

With about 150 used-book stores in addition to ordinary bookstores and publishing houses, Kanda Jinbo-cho in Chiyoda Ward is a cultural asset that Tokyo and all of Japan can be proud of.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 25, 2001

Helping quake victims with paper-tube houses

NEW YORK -- It may be drawn from a deep feeling of responsibility or a perverse sense of guilt, but when architect Shigeru Ban sees the suffering earthquakes bring, he feels compelled to act.
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2001

Joint effort imperative on climate change: U.N.

Countries must settle their differences at climate talks later this year to minimize the impact of global warming, according to the head of a U.N. panel of climate change experts.
BUSINESS
Feb 24, 2001

Matsushita and Toshiba plan Singapore venture

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Toshiba Corp. said Friday they will set up a joint venture in Singapore next month to manufacture low-temperature polysilicon liquid crystal display panels used in video mobile phones and other digital appliances.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2001

Putin, history and the Korean Peninsula

SEOUL -- The inter-Korean railroad project across the DMZ makes a great deal of sense for the two Koreas, but it also makes sense for outside powers, above all for Russia. With space to spare on the trans-Siberian route on the return trip east, Moscow is looking south for passengers. It is offering huge...
CULTURE / Music
Feb 24, 2001

Asian music celebration

Next time you feel like pulling your hair out over the bureaucratic pitfalls of overseas travel, spare a thought for Richard Pontzious.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 24, 2001

Yasuji Kiyose's lifelong quest for a modern Japanese voice

Music can be a passive history lesson. Sometimes, it can take us on a fantastic, aural journey, as with Japanese composers active before World War II who reflect in their music nearly half a century of tumultuous, societal change.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2001

Japan to extend new loans to mend ties with Pakistan

Japan will provide new yen loans worth between 7 billion yen and 10 billion yen to Pakistan in a fresh bid to mend bilateral ties soured by Islamabad's nuclear tests three years ago, government sources said Thursday.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 23, 2001

JBC slaps ban on Philippine boxers

has barred Philippine boxers from fighting in nontitle bouts in Japan to help prevent a further increase in illegal workers from the country, JBC officials said Wednesday. The decision, which is expected to last at least until the end of the year, was made to cope with an increasing number of Philippine...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2001

India's census will only confirm the obvious: the nation is overpopulated

The ongoing census in India, the sixth since its independence in 1947, is bound to unfold an ocean of data, perhaps bewildering to an outsider given the country's complex social and caste divisions.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 22, 2001

Sugiyama to skip Fed Cup matches

Japanese ace Ai Sugiyama will not play in the Fed Cup World Group first-round tie against Argentina in April because of her tight schedule, the Japan Tennis Association 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