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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 9, 2000

Kafu's sure but fleeting touch

AMERICAN STORIES, by Nagai Kafu. Translated and with an introduction by Mitsuko Iriye. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000, 240 pp., unpriced. In 1903, the young man who was to become one of Japan's finest writers left for the United States. He did not particularly want to go -- he would have...
CULTURE / Books
May 9, 2000

'Shuttered' to the West, Japan opened to the East

CHINA IN THE TOKUGAWA WORLD, by Marius B. Jansen. Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard University Press, 2000, 137 pp., $8.50 (paper). With the 400th anniversary of Japanese-Dutch relations upon us, interest has been rekindled in Japan's foreign relations during the Tokugawa period, and the part played...
COMMUNITY
May 5, 2000

Two Murakamis mull quake in Japanese life

A look at recent best-seller lists reveals several familiar faces. "Eien no Ko," a two-volume novel about the long-term effects of child abuse, is back with the broadcasting of a TV dramatization (Monday nights on NTV). There's another mystery by Nishimura Kyotaro and a book for improving one's English,...
CULTURE / Art
May 5, 2000

Swimming 'Sea Monkeys' and rolling digital mice

Sometimes you just get lucky. That, better than anything else, works for me as the reason why the unfocused, gadget-dependent and low-tech exhibition "New Media New Face/New York" manages, against the odds, to end up being a fairly good show.
EDITORIALS
May 4, 2000

Make the high seas safe

It seems hard to believe, but pirates still roam the seas. The International Chamber of Commerce reported 285 attacks on ships in 1999, up from 42 in 1991, but even that statistic is assumed to be a fraction of the actual number. Nearly three-quarters of the attacks occur in Southeast Asian waters. A...
JAPAN
May 4, 2000

Location of leader's summit hinges on the whim of nature

OSAKA — It's billed as the Kyushu-Okinawa Summit, but if Mother Nature turns capricious, then this year's Group of Eight gathering may be forced to a different venue.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 3, 2000

Eyes front

It's that time again. Time to talk about time. I'll try to be brief, since there is so little time for a chat. Or for much anything else.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 3, 2000

Following old paths

Last Sunday we considered flowers -- peonies, azaleas and wisteria -- and the best places to see them during our Golden Week holidays. Here is one more outing to add to your flower calendar. The Tokyo Garden Show 2000 is being held through May 7 in the large open space in front of the picture gallery...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 2, 2000

Everything about Tanizaki

TANIZAKI IN WESTERN LANGUAGES: A Bibliography of Translations and Studies, by Adriana Boscaro, with a list of films based on Tanizaki's works compiled by Maria Roberta Novielli. Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 2000, 82 pp., $19.95. This fine bibliography is one...
JAPAN
May 1, 2000

Putin saves Mori blushes by offering August visit

The two leaders reached the agreement while attending an ice hockey game after they failed to set the schedule in an informal summit earlier in the day, the official told a press briefing Saturday night.
BUSINESS
May 1, 2000

Lessons from Japan needed for Asian structural reforms

The world's view of East Asian economies has drastically changed since the turmoil that swept the region in mid-1997.
COMMUNITY
May 1, 2000

Realigning your life force

"One of the main reasons we are not able to operate effectively is because we do not have full access to our life force," explains healer Claudette Bouchard, whose work is to assist people in what she terms "life force recovery."
COMMENTARY
May 1, 2000

Winner takes all? Not yet

The New York stock market remains volatile, even after rebounding from its worst-ever decline in points that was posted April 14. Following the crash, the Tokyo stock market also nosedived; it is troubled by even more jitters than Wall Street. Some analysts say the recent replacement of some of the stocks...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 30, 2000

Lotte closer Warren can't get a game in

Perhaps the most frustrated player in Japan pro baseball at present is Chiba Lotte Marines relief ace Brian Warren. With the team off to such a bad start in the 2000 Pacific League pennant race, Warren can't get into many games. As the team's closer, he's been extremely underworked, because Lotte has...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Apr 27, 2000

The Curse of Colonel Sanders

Back in 1985, Hanshin fans were giddy with joy when their Tigers secured the Central League pennant and then went on to capture the Japan Series. The standard canal-jumping scene took a new twist when a plastic Colonel Sanders mannequin was tossed into the Dotonbori Canal in downtown Osaka.
COMMUNITY
Apr 27, 2000

Celebration to wash away tears

A water festival without any water may sound like a contradiction in terms, but in Tokyo that's exactly how the Myanmarese community celebrate the New Year.
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
Apr 26, 2000

Stirring up the dust of a Classic era

This column marks the one-year anniversary of Kissa Kultur. What started as a way to help freelancers find interesting spots to enjoy a coffee between jobs has now become a fascinating historical dig through postwar Tokyo.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 25, 2000

The 400-year-old bridge

BRIDGING THE DIVIDE: 400 Years The Netherlands -- Japan, edited by Leonard Blusse, Willem Remmelink and Ivo Smits. Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2000, 288 pp., $60. Japan and the Netherlands have a special relationship. No two other European and Asian countries have maintained such long and continuous contact...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 25, 2000

Salute to a life of honesty, humanity and hard work

A SUMMER FOR A LIFETIME: The Life and Times of George I. Purdy, as told to Thomas Caldwell. Foreword by Michael J. Mansfield. Lost Coast Press, 2000, 144 pp., $24.95. When I was a librarian I was assigned to inventory a business biography collection. I didn't expect to find much excitement in the stacks,...
COMMENTARY
Apr 25, 2000

Mori's real test comes in July

Like many Japanese, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will travel overseas in the Golden Week holiday period, which starts April 29. He will have little time to relax, however. Mori, who will chair the Group of Eight summit in southern Japan in July, will visit the participating nations to prepare for the...
COMMENTARY
Apr 24, 2000

Help Japan: take time off

Japan's unemployment rate remains disturbingly high, as companies step up job-cutting efforts and bankruptcies increase. Although there are signs that the economy is recovering, there are no indications that the serious job shortage is easing. The Federation of Employers Associations, in recent negotiations...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Apr 23, 2000

Japan as No. 1 (in being bullied by U.S.)

With a refreshing bit of journalistic acuity, the USA Today reporter James Cox has reminded me how bizarre the U.S. attitude toward Japan has become. Under the headline, "U.S. bullies Japan like no other nation," Cox noted the astonishing extent of U.S. high-handed meddlesomeness with Japan, suggesting...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 23, 2000

Battlin' Battle just can't stop winning

Hanshin Tigers third baseman Howard Battle began the 2000 Japan pro baseball season on a 15-game winning streak, and team manager Katsuya Nomura is probably wondering why he sent the former Atlanta Braves player to the farm team following the spring exhibition schedule.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 23, 2000

Neo-Japonisme takes stage

One of the highlights of the Golden Week holiday this year is the Philip Morris Art Award 2000 Exhibition, on display April 24-May 7 at Yebisu Garden Place. The show presents a refreshingly diverse grouping of 100 contemporary works of art including paintings, prints, photographs, sculptures and installations,...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 22, 2000

Use Earth's ecosystems more sustainably

The findings of a new report sponsored by the U.N. Development Program, the U.N. Environmental Program and the World Bank, titled "World Resources 2000-2001: People and Ecosystems: The Fraying Web of Life," underscore the fact that the growing worldwide demand for resources is threatening the world's...

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Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan