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CULTURE / Stage
Feb 29, 2000

Anti-glamor Idevian Crew hit the stage

Shigehiro Ide is back on stage with his dance company Idevian Crew after all too long an absence from performing. His comeback in "Which," the piece he choreographed to open the Next Dance Festival at Shinjuku Park Tower Hall Feb. 18, establishes him as the most promising dancer/choreographer on the...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 29, 2000

Staying on the beaten track in darkest Saitama

THE CITY OF YES, by Peter Oliva. Toronto, Canada: McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1999; 336 pp., $21.99. Like many another young, sensitive, well-intentioned foreigner, Canadian-born Peter Oliva -- or his protagonist -- came to Japan for a year and was so bowled over by the place that he felt the world...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 27, 2000

Artistic exchange leaves a rich legacy

"Yokohama does not improve on further acquaintance," wrote Isabella Bird in 1878. "It has a dead-alive look. . . . I long to get away into real Japan." She quickly left and went in search of authenticity, complete with its dangers and delights. Bird was a purist to the point of eccentricity, but most...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 27, 2000

Muazaz Kasrawi and Maria Edileuza Reis

Two ladies from countries across the world from each other have come together as cochairwomen for this year's Cherry Blossom Charity Ball. The ball with its featured raffle is a major fundraising event organized each year by the International Ladies Benevolent Society. Money raised is donated directly...
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2000

Dutch war display given no place to go

Staff writer OSAKA -- One month after an Osaka International Peace Center symposium denying the Nanjing Massacre took place, another controversy over Japan's wartime past is brewing after the center and a Tokyo nursing home rejected an exhibition on the occupation of the Dutch East Indies. The Osaka...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 24, 2000

The go-mi system of sake tasting

Describing and conveying the flavor of sake has always been problematic. How does one explain a gustatory experience in words alone? It certainly isn't easy. And, as sake flavor profiles become more complex and subtle, it is bound to become even more difficult.
COMMUNITY
Feb 24, 2000

Home is where change is

A visit to Tobetsu would surprise anyone looking for a glimpse of "old Japan" in the countryside.
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2000

Berlin panel looks at Japan economy, management

This was the general consensus of panelists at a symposium held Feb. 17 at the Japanese-German Center Berlin. The symposium was called The Japanese Economy and the Renewal of Japanese Management, and it was sponsored by the center and the Keizai Koho Center (Japan Institute for Social and Economic Affairs)....
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2000

Sega, Swatch to join forces in Internet projects

Sega Enterprises, Ltd. and Swatch, A.G. on Thursday announced three new collaboration projects to enhance their Internet entertainment services. The two firms said one of the projects will entail the launch this year of a new service called "Internet & Wearable," for which Swatch will begin marketing...
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2000

Talks on drilling rights go down to the wire

Staff writer If Arabian Oil Co.'s last-ditch negotiations with Saudi Arabia to renew its 40-year oil drilling rights fail, the pioneer Japanese driller will be hard hit, but officials don't fear a national crisis. With his firm's rights in the Khafji oil field in the former neutral zone between Saudi...
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2000

Pipe firms fined over cartel; execs get suspended terms

Three firms and 10 of their former employees were found guilty Wednesday by the Tokyo High Court for maintaining a cartel in ductile pipes in violation of the Antimonopoly Law. Affected by the ruling were Osaka-based Kubota Corp. and Kurimoto Ltd., as well as Nippon Chutetsukan Co. of Tokyo. The companies...
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2000

Allergy-prone get jump on hay fever

Staff writer For the past 10 years, spring has been tough on Mari Koi, with her seasonal allergy leaving her with itchy, watery eyes and a runny nose from February through March. But this year, the 30-year-old Tokyo woman has been well so far -- possibly due to early preparation. "I have been taking...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 22, 2000

The mathematics of love and loss

RABBIT OF THE NETHERWORLD, by Reiko Koyanagi. Illustrated by Monica Tamano, translated by Hiroaki Sato. Red Moon Press, 1999, 62 pp., $12 (paper). "Rabbit of the Netherworld" is a unique and often compelling memoir, a fragmentary poetic recreation of the author's wartime childhood and its many painful...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 22, 2000

Some very serious pillow talk

CARTOGRAPHIES OF DESIRE: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600-1950, by Gregory M. Pflugfelder. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999, 200 pp., unpriced. As the author of this detailed, closely reasoned and beautifully written study reminds us, "Rather than sexual practice, this book...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2000

Pinochet's contribution to humanity

NEW YORK -- The greatest contribution Gen. Augusto Pinochet has made to the rule of international law and to the reign of justice goes beyond his rightful detention in Britain, something never even imagined by Chile's most powerful dictator. Rather, it is to have made real the validity of extraterritoriality...
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2000

WHO wants battle against disease on agenda of G8 summit

The World Health Organization has asked Japan to prioritize the battle against infectious and parasitic diseases by placing the topic high on the agenda for the Group of Eight summit in Okinawa this summer, government sources said Monday.
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2000

Development of human resources vital to ending Asian economic crisis

The last two or three years of the 1990s will probably be long remembered in the minds of those in East Asia and around the globe as the Asian Economic and Currency Crisis. Has this crisis actually ended?
CULTURE / Art
Feb 19, 2000

A tradition that's all pinned down

To decorate one's hair with morning glories, complete with a tiny snail on one leaf, may not be everyone's idea of chic. However, if they are fashioned by Tsuyoshi Ishida out of sheer silk, it is another matter.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 19, 2000

The outsiders: uniformly nonconformist

There is a giant mass of a figure towering in the center of the room, all wrapped up in a surreal green and white outfit from the top of the head to the bottom of the stiletto heels, leaving only a heavily larded face to shine out in a playfully menacing manner. There is a half-naked, gender-bending...
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2000

Japan boosts Chernobyl safety aid

Japan will contribute an additional $22.5 million in aid to an international project aimed at ensuring the safety of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, government sources said Friday.
COMMUNITY
Feb 18, 2000

Angels and jazz brighten up Tokyo's 'combat zone'

"Once upon a time, there was a star called the 'Angel Star.' Far away from earth, it was a place where angels lived in peace and could often be found playing with fish by the seaside. One day, the Prince of the Angel Star returned from a long journey. He had traveled to a lovely star named 'Chikyu' [Earth]...
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2000

Saudi prince puts pressure on Tokyo to build railway

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Abdul Aziz has sent a letter to Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi to press the Japanese government to build the contentious mining railway in the desert kingdom in exchange for renewal of the oil-drilling rights of Tokyo-based Arabian Oil Co., trade chief Takashi Fukaya said Friday. In...
CULTURE / Music
Feb 18, 2000

The journey begins in Calexico

Concept albums are notoriously fiendish undertakings. Most often they are an embarrassment, the sort of thing that artists blush about and PR reps write off as youthful indulgence.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Feb 17, 2000

Somebody stick a fork in the J. League; it's done

Some things are just not meant to be: the Buffalo Bills will never win the Super Bowl, Hideo Nomo will never develop a personality, Ichiro Suzuki will never trade in his bat for a sumo mawashi, and Fred Varcoe will never grace the cover of GQ magazine.
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2000

DDI cuts cash flow to bankrupt Iridium

DDI Corp. President Yusai Okuyama said Thursday that the company would not make an additional investment in Iridium LLC, the financially troubled U.S. satellite telecommunications company. Okuyama also told a regular news conference that Nippon Iridium Corp., which provides satellite phone services...
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2000

Japanese team set to sell Mexico unprecedented investment pact

Staff writer After five months of preliminary talks, Japan and Mexico will launch full-scale negotiations in mid-March on a pact aimed at protecting and facilitating Japanese investment in the Latin American country. The Japanese negotiating team will visit Mexico for the first round of full-scale negotiations...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 16, 2000

The essence of Japanese film

FROM BOOK TO SCREEN: Modern Japanese Literature in Film. By Keiko I. McDonald. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000, 326 pp., with b/w photos. $62.95 (cloth); $25.95 (paper) Keiko McDonald's 1994 "Japanese Classical Theater in Films" (Associated University Presses) has become an indispensable text. Anyone...
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2000

Battle over Constitution begins

Breaking a postwar taboo, politicians started a full-scale parliamentary discussion Wednesday on whether to rewrite parts of the nation's hitherto untouchable Constitution. In the first session of an Upper House Constitution study panel, parties remained sharply divided over the premise of the panel...
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 16, 2000

Rambling after migrating bramblings

The many seed-bearing plants of the temperate region, the grasses and the herbs, the trees and the shrubs, produce an enormous volume of seed each year. Typically of the natural world, a vast amount of effort is rewarded by very few successes. In the game of chance that is life, relatively few seeds...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 16, 2000

Will Indonesia survive Suharto?

INDONESIA BEYOND SUHARTO, edited by Donald Emmerson. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1999, 395 pp., $26.95 (paper). Can Indonesia succeed in returning the troops to the barracks? Can it afford not to? Recent rumors of an impending coup against President Abdurrahman Wahid, moves by the president against some...

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