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JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

Cabinet mixed on plan to slash ODA spending

Members of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's Cabinet expressed mixed opinions Friday over a proposal by the ruling coalition's chief policymakers to slash spending on official development assistance.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

Japan's stance could hurt talks: campaigner

In the runup to crucial climate change talks that open Monday in The Hague, nongovernmental organizations have repeatedly slammed Japan's position on a number of issues.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Nov 11, 2000

Bringing a new shine to old Kutani

When I first looked at the work of Yasokichi Tokuda III (b. 1933) I had to put on a pair of sunglasses -- I was almost blinded by the intensity of his kaleidoscopic Kutani porcelain.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2000

Where information is only for the rich

PHNOM PENH -- In an information-technology world, the vast majority of Cambodians remain deprived. While the amount of information in the country has been growing significantly, compared with the dark past, as with everything else here information is being hoarded by the rich and powerful.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2000

Laser pointer accidents and dangers cited

Laser pointers pose a danger to the eyes and have been responsible for several accidents in Japan, the Japan Consumer Information Center said.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Nov 10, 2000

Kobe's FBI investigates improvisation

Improvisation is a tricky business. In mediocre hands, it is interminable at best, masturbatory at worst. But with skilled practitioners, improvisation becomes the haute couture of the music world, each piece tailored on the spot to a particular confluence of musicians, audience, time and place.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Nov 9, 2000

More the merrier at Shinjuku's Zonbun

Shinjuku can be daunting, to say the least. Especially when you are in a group, looking for a place to hang and eat and drink. Where to begin looking can be as problematic as finding a place the whole group can fit. Add the prospect of everyone enjoying good sake, and you might as well throw in the o-shibori....
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2000

Amid uncertainties, the universe beckons

LONDON -- "You would hope that from this point on," said Jim Van Laak, manager of the space station Alpha, on Friday, "we will never have a period when humans are not living in space."
JAPAN
Nov 9, 2000

Police nab Red Army founder Shigenobu

Fusako Shigenobu, the founder of the Japanese Red Army and a key figure in a series of international terrorist incidents in the 1970s, was arrested Wednesday in Osaka Prefecture.
JAPAN
Nov 8, 2000

Obituary: Kozaburo Yoshimura

Film director Kozaburo Yoshimura, known for famous works such as "Anjoke no Butokai" ("A Ball at the Anjo House"), died of heart failure Tuesday morning at his home in Yokohama, his family said. He was 89.
COMMUNITY
Nov 8, 2000

More than just a nice cuppa tea

Having succeeded in convincing consumers of the health benefits of green tea, Japanese tea manufacturers are now aiming to expand into a new market: the production of pharmaceuticals containing green-tea extracts for use in the prevention of cancer.
LIFE / Digital
Nov 8, 2000

Nintendo's new boy has bigger byte

SEATTLE --In 1989, a few short weeks after the worldwide launch of Nintendo's Game Boy, rival Atari released a handheld game system with a backlit color screen. The engineers at Atari considered Game Boy and its dim, low-resolution monochrome screen to be a technological joke.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 8, 2000

Blood brothers, blood feuds

"In the year Sakalat 185, year of the Horse, the Thai came to tattoo all the inhabitants of the Lao cities." -- Oden Meeker, "The Little World of Laos"
JAPAN
Nov 8, 2000

Ministry to survey Japanese on Sakhalin

The Health and Welfare Ministry next month will survey Japanese still living on Sakhalin since being detained there by the Soviet Union after World War II to determine how many of them want to relocate to Japan permanently.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 8, 2000

Cracked earth: A journey through Thailand's arid and impoverished Northeast

"In a bad year, it is not only the plows that break, but the hearts too." -- Pira Sudham, "People of Isan"
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Nov 8, 2000

Nihongo dekiru?

Nihongo dekiru? Since Amazon.com opened for business, its biggest foreign market has been Japan. The company has about 193,000 customers here and they ring up about $34 million worth of sales. Mind you, the domestic Japanese market for online book sales is only $46 million. (In the name of full disclosure,...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 8, 2000

The outlook after 100 days

The June summit in Pyongyang kicked off a summer of symbolic and historic "firsts" on the Korean Peninsula, marked by the dramatic symbolism of inter-Korean reconciliation after more than five decades of stalemate. Sufficient time has now passed to evaluate what might be called the "honeymoon period"...
EDITORIALS
Nov 7, 2000

Falling through the cracks

Twenty-five million people around the world have been forced to leave their homes as a result of conflict or natural disasters. Yet as a result of a legal quirk, these individuals -- unlike the 13 million others whose flight takes them across international boundaries -- have no special status and enjoy...
JAPAN
Nov 6, 2000

Mori relieved at hostages' release, hopes for safe return

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said Sunday he wishes a safe return to Japan for a group of Japanese tourists freed unharmed Saturday after a nearly nine-hour hijacking ordeal in Greece.
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2000

Kato goes on the offensive as storm swirls around Mori

Koichi Kato, former secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, has stepped up his criticism of the embattled Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, saying that he has "no intention at all" of accepting a possible request from Mori to join his Cabinet.
SUMO
Nov 5, 2000

Big guns head for Kyushu tourney

This year's Kyushu Basho gets under way in Fukuoka today with all three yokozuna and all five ozeki ready to compete.
CULTURE / Art
Nov 5, 2000

Redefining to rescue Kyoto

KYOTO -- When people talk about traditional Kyoto culture, all the "a" verbs come out -- everyone appreciates it, everyone admires it, many adore it. So why is it disappearing so rapidly?
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 5, 2000

Norman Tolman

A household name, not only in Japan, amongst print artists, painters and art collectors, Norman Tolman appreciates art in realms beyond his own strict specialties. Japanese architecture, pots and fabrics naturally fall within his orbit. He can rearrange the interiors of other people's homes to delight...

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell