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COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 27, 1999

High adventure

Have you decided where you are going to spend New Year's Eve? It should be someplace where you wouldn't mind staying if any of our normal, every day support systems should fail. One unconcerned gentleman has made reservations for a flight over Antarctica. Experts will be on board the 747 to explain about...
JAPAN
May 27, 1999

Hotline to hear gripes on smoking

OSAKA -- Prior to World No-Smoking Day on Monday, a citizens' group here will open a one-day telephone hotline Saturday for people troubled by tobacco smoke.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
May 27, 1999

Respect for the forest's elders

The Hokkaido University Botanic Garden is situated right in the heart of Sapporo, within easy reach of Sapporo Station. I really love to see trees grown at their best, and for those of you who feel the same, a visit to this garden is essential.
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
May 27, 1999

Old and new blended perfectly at Otani

A pebble's throw away from the Akasaka Mitsuke subway station, the Hotel New Otani (which happens to be in the midst of celebrating 35 years as one of Tokyo's premier hotels) might just offer the solution to savvy travelers' "been there, done that" blues.
EDITORIALS
May 26, 1999

The IMF is called to account

The International Monetary Fund has already received a lot of flak from private experts for giving the wrong advice to troubled Asian economies. Another analysis to that effect, therefore, is nothing new. What is new -- and significant -- is that the Japanese government, in an official report, has now...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 26, 1999

Privacy? Get over it

In one of those snide comments that only people worth hundreds of millions of dollars are capable of making with any credibility, Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, dismissed the whole privacy controversy with: "Get over it.
JAPAN
May 25, 1999

Lower House starts tackling administrative reform

The Lower House entered substantive debate Tuesday on two sets of bills designed to reorganize the central government and decentralize state powers, underlining the need to create a new government to meet the changing needs of society.
EDITORIALS
May 24, 1999

The world's second oldest profession

W ith a U.S. congressional committee poised to release a report on alleged Chinese spying at U.S. nuclear facilities, the political furor in Washington over the theft of U.S. military secrets is certain to escalate, and could cause serious political repercussions in the United States and in its foreign...
JAPAN
May 24, 1999

Ishihara firing from hip at status quo

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
May 22, 1999

Red alert for the Loonies

There was gloomy news last week in the sphere of international politics -- so gloomy, in fact, that had it not been for Israel's spirited rejection of its most unhelpful prime minister ever, Benjamin ("Turn-the-clock-back Bibi") Netanyahu, monitors of social progress everywhere would now be inconsolable....
JAPAN
May 21, 1999

New runway to come up short; soccer deadline eyed

Staff writer
JAPAN
May 20, 1999

Chiba considers shorter runway

Chiba Prefecture showed understanding Thursday toward the Transport Ministry's tentative plan to build a shorter runway at Narita airport, an alternative to the second runway stalled by opposition from landowners.
EDITORIALS
May 20, 1999

Workers in the new Japan

The change of leadership last week at Nikkeiren, the Japan Federation of Employers' Associations, comes as Japan's worst post-World War II recession is pushing unemployment to an all-time high. It is only natural, therefore, that in his inaugural address, Chairman Hiroshi Okuda, president of Toyota Motor...
JAPAN
May 20, 1999

Big shots endorse plan to rejuvenate manufacturing

To help Japan's ailing manufacturing firms in their restructuring efforts, an advisory panel of government and business leaders endorsed a set of proposals Thursday that include tax cuts to dispose of excess facilities and extended benefits for the unemployed.
COMMUNITY
May 20, 1999

Free university opens doors on a place to open your mind

There's a new and unusual place in Tokyo to learn, grow and have fun -- and it's free. Tokyo Jiyu Daigaku, or Tokyo Free University, has opened its doors for its inaugural year onto subjects ranging from Eastern and Western religion, philosophy and literature, third-world development, creative and spiritual...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 20, 1999

Pinching pennies for a better future — if any

One of the bedrock beliefs that Japanese society has about itself is that everyone belongs to the middle class. This isn't to say pronounced social classes don't exist. A middle-aged woman once expressed to me her fear that her adult daughter would never get married and move out. Since the daughter worked...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 19, 1999

Voices in the machine

In the hyperaccelerated world of "news," my topic -- the Littleton, Colo., massacre -- may seem dated. But in living rooms, classrooms, legislatures and, of course, on the Net, the aftershocks are still reverberating
JAPAN
May 19, 1999

Ramsar signatories aim to extend treaty's scope

Staff writer
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 19, 1999

Once more, Chiang Mai

I had a mission in Chiang Mai. Many years ago I bought a reclining black lacquer Burmese Buddha there. It had been gilded but much of the gold had been worn off, probably by the hands of the faithful seeking some special blessing. It has a remarkable face. It changes expression as the viewer moves even...
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
May 19, 1999

Journeying into the valley of death

"Death Valley," noted our guidebook, "is an inhuman environment: barren and monotonous, burning hot and almost entirely without shade or water." In short, the ideal antidote to Japan's rainy season, which is why we went.
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

Volunteers struck by refugees' fortitude

Staff writer
CULTURE / Books
May 18, 1999

Tracing a profile of the new Japan

REGIME SHIFT: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy, by T.J. Pempel. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1998, 263 pp. I'm confused. On the one hand, we're told Japan has undergone tumultuous change since the beginning of the '90s. The Liberal Democratic Party lost its 38-year-long...
JAPAN
May 18, 1999

Toyota parts affiliates connect in U.K.

In a move to its auto parts operations to Europe, Toyoda Gosei Co. has set up a joint venture with fellow Toyota affiliate Toyota Tsusho Corp. in Rotherham, England, to produce weatherstripping, it announced at a Monday news conference at the British Embassy in Tokyo.
CULTURE / Art
May 16, 1999

Doors of modest home open to lessons of the past

Slide open the door to a two-story wooden house in Tokyo's Ota Ward and enter into the life of an ordinary family in the mid-Showa Era, when people lived in homes with mostly tatami rooms, wooden furniture, traditional cooking tools and fetched their water from a well.
COMMENTARY
May 16, 1999

Does NATO really have justice on its side?

Tokyo is urging Beijing to accept U.S. explanations that the bombing of its Belgrade embassy was a genuine mistake. Maybe it was. But why automatically rule out the possibility it was a devious scheme by rogue hawks in the powerful U.S. military/intelligence machine to encourage China to veto any U.N.-backed...
COMMENTARY
May 16, 1999

Enhancing regional security

In recent months, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi have separately called for the creation of a formal, governmental Northeast Asia Security Forum, to bring key regional states together to discuss common security interests and concerns. Russian President Boris Yeltsin...
CULTURE / Stage
May 15, 1999

Theatre Olympics: Let the performances begin!

High on a mountain top covered with tea bushes in Shizuoka Prefecture, Kim Itoh is dancing his solo piece "Nerve Maze Garden 2" in one of the most aesthetically pleasing venues in Japan. Designed by architect Arata Isozaki as part of the Shizuoka Performing Arts Park, Daendo Hall is a small oval theater...
COMMENTARY / World
May 15, 1999

The problem of India's 'untouchables'

It is a great paradox that India, one of the world's oldest democracies, is still unable to eliminate a deep-rooted social problem: the widespread violence and discrimination against the Dalits, a name that means literally "broken" peo ple. The Dalits, or "untouchables," are a segment of Indian society,...
JAPAN
May 14, 1999

Airport to build Narita runway around opponents

The Transport Ministry and the New Tokyo International Airport Authority will soon announce a draft plan to build a 2,000-meter runway at Narita Airport by skirting land owned by runway opponents, sources close to the Transport Ministry said Friday.
JAPAN
May 14, 1999

APEC to address crisis prevention

Staff writer

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