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JAPAN
Jan 25, 2001

Tokyo general budget to increase by 0.3%

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's fiscal 2001 budget released Wednesday underscores that belt-tightening options have been exhausted, with the general expenditure portion of the package rising 0.3 percent from the initial budget for the current year.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 23, 2001

Gender, identity, plain old eros

MALE HOMOSEXUALITY IN MODERN JAPAN: Cultural Myths and Social Realities, by Mark J. McLelland. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2000, 268 pp., b/w plates 17, 15.99 British pounds (paper). Mark McLelland begins this pioneering study by quoting Alfred Kinsey to the effect that nature rarely deals with...
COMMUNITY
Jan 21, 2001

Taking cloisonne art to city walls

Twenty years ago, walking through Tokyo, Atsuko Kitamura suddenly became aware of a blank wall rearing up in front of her, high into the sky. "The building was so ugly. This is when I decided cityscapes needed cheering up, beautifying. The problem was, how? My usual medium, paint, wouldn't last long....
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Jan 19, 2001

An 'islander' finds poetry in the soundtrack of life

Mention the word "art" to the average Japanese pop musician and the response is likely to be a roll of the eyes, a sharp intake of breath and a lot of mumbling.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2001

Pub chain taps retiree workforce

After his tavern went bust, Tadakazu Kachi had nowhere to turn until he had a chance conversation with the elderly owner of a drinking establishment that was thriving.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jan 17, 2001

Prospective grooms: get your head X-rayed

I know several people who claim they should have had their head X-rayed before ever stumbling into an international marriage. It's a statement I can never make.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jan 17, 2001

Botswana's delta a force of nature

The Okavango delta (or "the Delta" as it's known by those in the know) is not a swamp, at least not in the conventionally unpleasant sense of the word.
BUSINESS
Jan 16, 2001

Aramaki to assume Kirin presidency

Kirin Brewery Co. said Monday it will appoint Senior Managing Director Koichiro Aramaki, 61, as the brewery's new president.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 16, 2001

A lesson for our swollen egos

SOUTHERN SILK ROAD: In the Footsteps of Sir Aurel Stein and Sven Haedin, by Christoph Baumer. Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2000, 152 pp., profusely illustrated with color plates, drawings, maps, $35 soft cover. This is the revised and expanded English edition of Baumer's "Geisterstaedte der Suedlichen Seidenstrasse...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 15, 2001

Tory grip on rural areas must be broken

With a British general election schedded for May 3 or earlier, the party machine is geared to turn out again those who gave us victory in 1997 -- traditional Labor voters and those who voted Labor for the first time -- to win that elusive second term. Yet this is not enough. We must also win the battle...
CULTURE / Film
Jan 13, 2001

Holy mother of threesomes!

Actor Edward Norton has only been in the business four years, but he makes you think that he's been there forever.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 11, 2001

Taking stock of the new ryori

Before intrepidly setting out to eat our way through this brave new century, let us pause briefly to consider the state of contemporary Japanese dining. Needless to say, the situation is very different from 100 years ago, when most people were fed by itinerant hawkers, yatai stalls or simple food outlets...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jan 10, 2001

What's it all about, IT?

2001 may well be the year of the IT revolution, but as far as I'm concerned, we're talking about utilITy. From here on, usefulness is going to be the benchmark for information technologies.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 6, 2001

The movie's the thing

Who do you think you are, the Prince of Denmark? Such is the complaint I'd like to lodge with wordy, lordly, self-obsessed people whose introverted grievances often manifest themselves in extroverted acts of harm. Hamlet had always struck me as a curious choice for a hero. It's true he gave some great...
COMMENTARY
Jan 6, 2001

Globalism: our last, best hope

LONDON -- The central proposition of our times was summed up neatly over 200 years ago by Samuel Johnson. "Society," the sage doctor said, "is held together by communication and information."
LIFE / Travel
Jan 3, 2001

Tickets here for Asia

By the time the lunch gong sounded in the great hall of the Heng Yang monastery, I had already placed generous votive offerings at a shrine in the Temple of the Goddess of Mercy, watched a flour-doll and knot maker at work, witnessed minor grievances being aired at the Ancient Courthouse and met a talking...
LIFE / Travel
Jan 3, 2001

Japan in miniature: Edo Period stroll gardens were the original amusement parks

The Japanese tourist, unlike the overseas visitor, may be only mildly astonished to find himself transported to the upper part of a castle donjon by means of a newly installed elevator. Convenience, the Western visitor notes with some bemusement, does not seem to detract from the enjoyment, let alone...
LIFE / Travel
Jan 3, 2001

Glimpse an older, more harmonious Korea amid the artifice of a 'living museum'

Two centuries of ice, rain, summer heat and a civil war have reduced the ramparts of Suwon, a city just an hour's drive south of Seoul, to heaps of twisted rubble.
JAPAN / STAGING A COMEBACK
Jan 1, 2001

Carrying out reform is only the beginning for politicians

The final 10 years of the 20th century have been called a "lost decade" for Japan, which continues to suffer woes from the burst of the late-1980s bubble-economy. Japan's comeback as a globally competitive economic powerhouse will require fundamental reforms not only in the industrial and financial sectors...
COMMUNITY
Dec 31, 2000

Michinoku Ginko chief banks on Japanese-Russian relations

Talk about a profitable end to the year. Invited to meet a Taisho man -- that is, someone born in the last year of what many consider to be Japan's most liberal period of the 20th century -- I was met in one location to be maneuvered into a taxi and delivered outside another: a nondescript utility block...
BUSINESS
Dec 29, 2000

100 yen stores now the shopping craze

Relatively new to a Japanese retail scene long dominated by now-suffering high-priced department stores and supermarket chains, 100 yen shops are catching on.
LIFE / Travel
Dec 27, 2000

Hot springs by the Vienna Woods

BADEN, Austria -- More than most European capitals, Vienna, which bears a rich legacy as the one-time heart of the old Austro-Hungarian empire, has enough monuments and museums (not to mention restaurants and coffee houses) to keep you hopping from morning until night.
LIFE / Travel
Dec 27, 2000

In a gray concrete world, a city of beautiful churches

GRODNO, Belarus Most Belarusian cities get a bad press, at least for good looks, in foreign guidebooks. Polatsk is notable for "what was once there," Mogilev is decidedly "uninspiring," Homel's biggest drawing card is a bust of its most famous son, the late Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, and...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2000

Flexibility the key to success of alliance

Foreign policy focuses on change. New leaders, new technologies, new conditions -- all create the need for new policies. Experts are always planning for contingencies -- the crisis to come -- and when they hit it's usually because governments failed to recognize the new realities that created them. ...
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2000

Kagawa folks get to bottom of their 'udon' bowls in more ways than one

TAKAMATSU, Kagawa Pref. -- As a native of a prefecture famous for Sanuki "udon" (wheat noodles), Kazutoshi Tao thought udon was a simple component of daily life -- until he visited a place where customers whip up their own variety.

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