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JAPAN
Mar 13, 2001

Ex-actress wins translation award

"The last profession I would recommend to anybody is translating contemporary Western plays," said actress-turned-translator Mayuko Tokizawa. The otherwise dissuasive comment is an encouragement coming from Tokizawa, cowinner of the eighth annual Yuasa Yoshiko Award, Japan's accolade for translators...
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2001

Colombia urged to seek abductee's safety

Japan has asked Colombia to place priority on the safety of a 52-year-old Japanese executive who was kidnapped last month by rebels, Vice Foreign Minister Yutaka Kawashima said Monday.
BUSINESS
Mar 13, 2001

Japan turns its attention to Brazil, MERCOSUR

After years of near neglect, Japan is now eager to cozy up to Brazil -- by far the largest Latin American economy.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2001

Victims of Tokyo air raid recognized on anniversary

Amid growing concern over waning public knowledge of wartime tragedy, a memorial service to mark the 56th anniversary of the Great Tokyo Air Raid was held Saturday at a park in Tokyo's Sumida Ward.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 11, 2001

Japanese neighbors join in incinerator struggle

Two previous columns have focused on a United States government lawsuit seeking a provisional injunction against a private incinerator in Ayase City, Kanagawa Prefecture. The Americans, however, are not the only ones eager to shut down the facility. Other neighbors, too, are fired up about Envirotech...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 11, 2001

Pint-size English students learning up a storm

Every Thursday at 4 p.m., a big storm comes and whips around my house with enough force to rattle the walls, loosen fixtures and send things crashing onto the floor. The name of the storm is Nami-chan and she's 4 years old.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 11, 2001

How Klimt's Vienna changed the world

There are two paintings of artist's studios that say it all. The first is part castle, part Old Curiosity Shop, packed with statues, bearskins and whatnot, where a successful Viennese artist of the old school sits in gloomy splendor. The second is filled with light. There is no artist, but a woman's...
CULTURE / Art
Mar 11, 2001

Bottling everyday beauty on film

With an oeuvre more than a quarter-century in the making, Mamoru Sugiyama is due for a retrospective exhibition. So that is exactly what Tokyo's respected Photo Gallery International has given the 49-year-old photographer, in a show featuring some 30 of Sugiyama's representative black-and-white still-life...
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2001

Empty classrooms renovated for public use

With the birthrate declining, Tokyo municipalities have found that a growing number of school buildings are not being used. More wards are responding by renovating these vacant classrooms for wider use, ranging from offices to child-care centers.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2001

Kansai airport honored by ASCE

OSAKA -- The American Society of Civil Engineers has picked Kansai International Airport as one of 10 "millennium monuments" in the world built over the past 100 years, according to sources close to the ASCE.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2001

Let China set the human-rights debate

One of the least attractive rituals of spring -- skirmishing between Beijing and Washington over Chinese human-rights practices -- is already under way. The first volley was fired last month with the publication of the U.S. State Department's annual human-rights report. It took Beijing to task for a...
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2001

Italian ambassador talks up 'Italy in Japan 2001' program

Gabriele Menegatti considers himself lucky that he will see the "Italian Year" program kick off just as he starts his second year as Italy's envoy to Japan.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 10, 2001

Graphic design's hammer and sickle revolution

The Art Deco architectural style of the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum is one usually associatedwith the plutocrats and movie moguls of the 1930s. It may therefore seem a tad ironic to hold an exhibition of posters from Communist Russia at such a venue. But the rivalry between the Soviet Union and...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2001

Cultural 'cleansing' exposes outrageous methods of Taliban

NEW DELHI -- History is replete with cultural savagery.
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 9, 2001

Big changes in Urawa as Reds aim to stay in top flight

After spending a year in Division Two, the Urawa Reds will make their comeback to the J. League's top flight when the 2001 season gets under way on Saturday.
COMMENTARY
Mar 9, 2001

The LDP just doesn't get it

Japanese politics is in a state of dysfunction. Symbolic of the problem is the fact that even though Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's Cabinet survived an opposition-sponsored no-confidence motion, there are moves in the governing Liberal Democratic Party to unseat him.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2001

Fifth suspect held for harboring Red Army chief

OSAKA -- A man in the city of Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of harboring Fusako Shigenobu, founder of the Japanese Red Army terrorist group, investigative sources said.
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 9, 2001

A big year for the J. League

Japanese soccer made a significant step last year with victory in the Asian Cup. For me, it was like the halfway point to the World Cup and it really represented a victory for the J. League clubs and the work they have put in.
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 9, 2001

They might be giants -- or 10 players who should be

Still don't know who's got what to offer in the J. League? Here's a quick guide to some of the players who should pique your interest in the coming season.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 9, 2001

Michio Imazato finds another shade of blue

When Michio Imazato first heard Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue," a record he checked out from the public library in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture, he couldn't have known he'd be leading his own quintet 10 years later in New York City. After all, he was a typical rock 'n' roll-loving high-school kid playing...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2001

Thais make an enemy out of Myanmar

No one knows who put a bomb on a Thai Airways jet scheduled to carry Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to Chiang Mai, but respected media outlets such as the Matichon newspaper and the Bangkok Post have hinted that the bombing may have something to do with drugs from Myanmar.
EDITORIALS
Mar 8, 2001

Tightening the net

When the law finally caught up with Al Capone, the famed Chicago mobster, the instrument of justice was income tax invasion. That might seem strange given his life of crime, but law-enforcement officials do the best with the tools they have and getting the feared man behind bars was the goal.
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2001

Japan urged to bring in more refugees

Japan should make financial contributions to the U.N.'s refugee body, but it should also accept refugees from Asia and Africa to show leadership in humanitarian affairs, Rudolphus Lubbers, the new U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in Tokyo Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2001

Net mobile phone users top 31 million

The number of people with Internet-capable mobile phones stood at 31.41 million at the end of February, up a sharp 2.16 million from a month earlier, the Telecommunications Carriers 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