Search - people

 
 
JAPAN
Jul 20, 1999

Renegade monkey making Tokyo home

More than a month has passed since a monkey was spotted in the posh Nishi Azabu district of Tokyo's Minato Ward, and with residents leaving it scraps of food, the area has become the primate's second home.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 20, 1999

Screening for image and reality

THE DOUBLE SCREEN: Medium and Representation in Chinese Painting, by Wu Hung. London: Reaktion Books, 1996, 296 pp., with 170 illustrations, 20 in color, 14.95 British pounds. Just what is a traditional Chinese painting? This is the question asked and answered in this magisterial work of imaginative...
JAPAN
Jul 19, 1999

Asahara unintelligible in court testimony

Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara refused to testify Monday before the Tokyo District Court in a top cult figure's trial.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 1999

Anthem and flag just need some tweaking

The battle over whether or not to pass legislation giving the de facto national anthem "Kimigayo" and the Hinomaru flag official status has been a black-and- white, yes-or-no affair. There have been some legalistic, even occasionally Clintonesque, arguments presented in the Diet on the definition of...
JAPAN
Jul 19, 1999

Experts work to coordinate environmental conventions

Staff writer
EDITORIALS
Jul 18, 1999

Food safety has to be assured

It comes as no surprise that consumer groups here are reacting cautiously to the government's draft plan requiring some food products containing genetically modified ingredients to be clearly labeled to indicate that fact. Controversy was only to be expected from the decision by the Ministry of Agriculture,...
COMMENTARY / World / GUEST FORUM
Jul 18, 1999

How Mahathir overcame the Asian crisis

Starting in September last year, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia was strongly criticized by the Western media and some Western governments over the introduction of capital controls and the sacking of his deputy prime minister and finance minister Anwar Ibrahim, who was later tried for alleged...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 1999

Taliban conducts a war against women

Almost two years after the Taliban forces took power in most of Afghanistan, their attack on Afghan women continues unabated, impervious to international outrage. Although the Taliban claim that they want to create a "true" Islamic society in Afghanistan, its rule so far has been characterized by a medieval...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jul 14, 1999

The Russian capital's bazaar economy

Every nation has a dream. For Iraq, it is a world oil crisis. For Croatia, it is NATO membership. For Serbia, it is a tornado hitting Washington, D.C. As for Russia, its dream is to be recognized as a part of Europe.
EDITORIALS
Jul 13, 1999

Hard questions for Hong Kong

It has been a bitter two years for Hong Kong. On July 1, 1997, the British Crown Colony reverted to the mainland amid an outpouring of pride and Chinese nationalism. The celebrations were short-lived. The very next day, the Thai baht imploded, launching Asia on a downward economic spiral from which it...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Jul 13, 1999

Cuban music revolution heats up airwaves

Within the world music genre, success -- in terms of sales -- doesn't compare with the likes of mainstream pop and rock categories. What world music successes there have been have had a rather short shelf life, and were mainly cultivated by the major record companies.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 1999

Economic progress hoped for at China summit

Staff writer
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jul 7, 1999

Technoborrrring

With rare exceptions, no one likes being called a Luddite. Steve Talbott, the thoughtful, somewhat skeptical philosopher who writes the Netfuture e-mail newsletter, for example, takes offense at being labeled "pessimistic." I thought it was a fair beef, but he devoted considerable space in his last missive...
JAPAN
Jul 6, 1999

Local LDP chapters accept New Komeito

The Liberal Democratic Party leadership on Tuesday gained approval from its prefectural chapters to ally with New Komeito, taking another step toward the realization of a tripartite coalition.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 6, 1999

From combat to sport and art

ARMED MARTIAL ARTS OF JAPAN: Swordsmanship and Archery, by G. Cameron Hurst III. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998, 244 pp., with b/w photos. Though people today are more inclined to study the martial arts of Japan than such culturally expected forms as tea ceremony and flower arrangement, books...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 6, 1999

Glimpses of Indonesia after Suharto

THE POLITICS OF POST-SUHARTO INDONESIA, edited by Adam Schwarz and Jonathan Paris. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1999, 120 pp.. $17.95 MILITARY DOCTRINES AND DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION: A Comparative Perspective on Indonesia's Dual Function and Latin American National Security Doctrines, by Jun...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 1999

To buy or not to buy Russian?

Advertising is the third oldest profession after prostitution and journalism. Pyramids of ancient Egypt sold the promise of afterlife. Alexander the Great kept founding one Alexandria after another. Roman palaces advertised state authority. The multicolor banners of kings and princes promoted the glory...
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1999

Pair arrested over Net-based sales scam

OSAKA -- Two men were arrested here Friday on suspicion of posting false advertisements to sell computers and watches on an Internet Web site and swindling money out of potential customers, police said.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1999

Schoolchildren christen crested ibis 'Yuu Yuu'

The first ibis to be bred in captivity in Japan has been named "Yuu Yuu," Environment Agency chief Kenji Manabe said Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1999

NTT ordered to probe allegations of customer data leak

Executives of the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone group were asked Friday to investigate allegations that more than 10 of its employees released private data on NTT subscribers, officials of the Posts and Telecommunications Ministry said.
COMMUNITY
Jul 1, 1999

No sacrifice made in taste of new low-malt beers

A high tax rate is to blame for remarkably expensive beer in Japan. Current taxation is 222 yen per liter, pushing the price of an ordinary 350-ml can of beer to 225 yen.
JAPAN
Jul 1, 1999

Telecom Realignment: Will breakup fuel competition?

Fourth in a series
JAPAN
Jul 1, 1999

Fixed-rate ISDN service to be offered

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. announced Thursday it plans to launch fixed-rate Internet access for its ISDN users later this year.
COMMENTARY
Jun 29, 1999

Japan presses Asia's agenda

In a strong warning to North Korea, the Group of Eight leaders who met in Cologne, Germany, earlier this month said in a declaration that they "are deeply concerned about recent missile flight tests and developments in missile proliferation, such as actions by North Korea."
JAPAN
Jun 29, 1999

Bill draws protest from University of Tokyo professors

A group of professors from the University of Tokyo submitted a petition to the government Tuesday opposing a bill to recognize the Hinomaru as the national flag and "Kimigayo" as its anthem, after Diet debate on the bill began the same day.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jun 29, 1999

The Super Furry Animals engage in 'Guerrilla' warfare

In 1996, I began visiting another planet when an album called "Fuzzy Logic," by an unknown Welsh band called Super Furry Animals, opened up a wormhole in my mind which enabled me to cross into a weird mangalike dimension whenever I switched on my stereo. Oh, and also I got a name for this column.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 29, 1999

American haiku now holds its own

THE HAIKU ANTHOLOGY, by Cor van den Heuvel. W. W. Norton, pp. 363, $27.50. Cor van den Heuvel is the most important anthologist of haiku composed in English in North America. He has published three collections, all simply called "The Haiku Anthology" and all through prominent commercial houses: Doubleday,...
CULTURE / Music
Jun 29, 1999

Beating powerful drums of tradition

Honoo Taiko, an all-female Japanese taiko drumming troupe from Ishikawa Prefecture, is ready to set the stage ablaze July 12 as they kick off their seven-city world tour in Tokyo.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 29, 1999

A century after emancipation, buraku issue still haunts Japan

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BURAKU ISSUE: Questions and Answers, by Suehiro Kitaguchi. Translation and introduction by Alastair McLauchlan. Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library, 1999, pp. 211, 35 British pounds (cloth). This is the translation of a number of important articles by Suehiro Kitaguchi in which he...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 29, 1999

'Kaempfer's Japan': Tokugawa Edo as never before

Engelbert Kaempfer, German physician and historian, first arrived in Japan in 1690 to take up the position of physician at the Dutch trading agency on the island of Deshima in Nagasaki Harbor. Although Japan had already secluded itself, the Dutch traders were allowed a certain amount of freedom. This...

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes