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LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Dec 28, 2000

May you all live long and prosper -- kanpai!

Happy Holidays to all Japan Times readers.
EDITORIALS
Dec 27, 2000

Learning the wrong lessons

Japan's basic law on education, enacted after the end of World War II to replace the Imperial Rescript, should be reviewed -- that is a key recommendation from Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's advisory panel. The final report, released last week, calls for a set of reforms. The report is in marked contrast...
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
Dec 27, 2000

Brewing up a winning formula: Starbucks hits it big in Japan

I admit it: I had a breakdown. It probably happened sometime after Starbucks Store No. 100 opened in the cavernous Tameike-Sanno subway station. My first reaction was: What, another one? How many more of these places, full of smiling, happy crowds, nursing "bold expressions" and munching on brownies...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 26, 2000

Cold War roots of a noisy marriage

AMERICA AND THE JAPANESE MIRACLE: The Cold War Context of Japan's Postwar Economic Revival, 1950-1960, by Aaron Forsberg. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. 332 pp. $45. Recurring Japan-U.S. trade disputes have hogged the limelight for way too long, forcing assiduous readers...
BUSINESS
Dec 25, 2000

Taking a step toward transparent markets

Foreign investors and financial institutions have often criticized the Japanese financial market for being too ambiguous in its regulatory procedures and, in general, for still being a "closed" market.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Dec 23, 2000

A life fired by devotion to ceramics

Many a foreign Japanese pottery scholar or collector owes a great debt to the life and work of Fujio Koyama (1900-1975). He wrote countless books and articles and some were fortunately translated into English; they are still a great source of knowledge and pleasure. These include the wonderful "The Heritage...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Dec 20, 2000

Real democracy, anyone?

Have we learned our lesson in democracy? God forbid anyone should ever weasel out of voting again with the claim that their ballot doesn't count, that it doesn't make a difference. There is almost no way the margin in the U.S. vote could have been narrower, and with the divisions elsewhere in the country,...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 17, 2000

The stage is set for genuine change

This is the final article of a 10-part series on contemporary Japan.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Dec 13, 2000

Quest for the yellow-flowered toad lily

After visiting Ukishima bog-woodland in Shingu I took the express train back to Kushimoto. My quest was for a yellow-flowering toad lily, which reportedly grows wild in the southern Kii Peninsula.
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2000

SDP set for about-face on SDF

The Social Democratic Party may take a major step back from its historic decision in 1994 recognizing the Self-Defense Forces as constitutional and supporting the continuance of the Japan-U.S. security treaty, according to party sources.
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2000

Readers' Fund offers poor Filipino kids opportunity to keep learning

The annual Japan Time Readers' Fund has helped a variety of nonprofit organizations work to improve education and living conditions in developing countries. This article and a subsequent one will attempt to explain how the donations have been used.
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2000

Liberal Party wants SDF role spelled out in Constitution

The opposition Liberal Party has worked out a draft proposal for revising the Constitution to allow Japan's Self-Defense Forces to participate in all types of U.N. peacekeeping activities, party sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2000

Tokyo slates meeting with Myanmar

In defiance of mounting international pressure, Japan appears firmly determined to go ahead with technical assistance for Myanmar.
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2000

Foreigners progress toward suffrage

After his three-year campaign to abolish mandatory fingerprinting of foreign residents bore fruit in 1992, Lee Young Hwa decided more needed to be done to address the larger, more fundamental human rights issues they face.
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2000

Body eyed to curb rights abuses by media

The deputy managing editor of the daily Mainichi Shimbun was shocked when he found out that a Justice Ministry panel had been holding discussions on the premise that the media is an enemy of human rights.
COMMUNITY
Nov 23, 2000

What's so great about the mod cons?

About two years ago, Hiroko Nakamura, a 40-year-old Tokyo housewife, decided she wanted only truly essential items in her home.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Nov 23, 2000

The man who never forgets a sake

Haruo Matsuzaki raises the small glass to his nose, sniffs for but a couple of seconds, and takes in a small sip. Slurping in a bit of air, he scribbles for a few seconds into his ever-present tiny notebook, finally expelling the sake into the spittoon next to the table. On to the next.
COMMENTARY
Nov 20, 2000

Confusion rocks the alliance

The deadlock over the results of the U.S. presidential election is likely to undermine the administration that will be inaugurated next January. It remains to be seen if the United States, the world's only superpower, will continue to lead world affairs in the 21st century as it did in the last one....
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 17, 2000

Skirting the gender issue, H.Art excels in the abstract

H.Art Chaos is a clued-up modern dance company of women. The myriad questionnaire forms it distributes after every performance help it to read prevailing audience moods well enough to know that you can never generate as much enthusiasm for a full-length work as for two short snappy pieces bisected by...
EDITORIALS
Nov 16, 2000

The Middle East loses a lioness

The Middle East has lost a passionate advocate of peace. Ms. Leah Rabin, the widow of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, died of cancer this week at the age of 72. For some, Ms. Rabin was a meddlesome, divisive figure. For many more, she was a tireless campaigner for peace and friendship...
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2000

Three nabbed for stock manipulation

Three investors in Chinese restaurant chain Totenko Co. were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly trying to manipulate the price of its shares by spreading unfounded news that it would be the target of a takeover bid.
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2000

Rightist held in alleged bid to blackmail Giants

Police on Monday arrested a member of a rightwing organization for allegedly attempting to blackmail Yomiuri Giants Corp. by threatening to disclose embarrassing information about third baseman Akira Eto.
EDITORIALS
Nov 10, 2000

Down to the wire and beyond

We knew that the U.S. election was going to be close, but no one could have dreamed up the drama that has unfolded in the last 36 hours. The American public is as neatly divided as is possible: With over 96 million people going to the polls, the two candidates are separated by less than 1 percent of...
COMMENTARY
Nov 3, 2000

Secrecy and greed behind BSE tragedy

LONDON --I am stunned at the awfulness of being British at the moment. A report written by Lord Phillips into the BSE tragedy has just been published. Though it does not roar with horror or screech with condemnation, its quiet steady tone fills me with anger and horror at Britain's farming, veterinary...
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2000

Fighting system is folly: Tanaka

OSAKA -- Nagano Gov. Yasuo Tanaka said he has learned from the mistakes of other populist governors who took on the bureaucracy and lost, emphasizing that the age of traditional confrontational politics between small citizens' groups and bureaucrats is over.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 2, 2000

Cooperation is key to ending Northern Territories impasse

Russia and Japan appear to be creeping toward an interim solution to the Northern Territories imbroglio. There are two possibilities being discussed -- joint administration and control of some or all four islands, and a two-stage agreement in which Russia gives up or shares Shikotan and the Habomai group...
LIFE / Travel
Nov 1, 2000

A stroll through ceramic country

FUKUOKA -- Driving from Fukuoka to the fertile northeast of Saga, the landscape suddenly changes. Gently stepped rice terraces and fields give way to short hills that rise abruptly like sugar lumps and end in craggy, chalky rocks. Towns with square brick chimneys loom, and signs begin pointing to artsy...
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Oct 28, 2000

Coal-crusted, ash-glazed, long-fired

From aspiring lawyer to automatic washing machine salesman to master potter, life has been an interesting but rocky road for Shigaraki ceramist Shiho Kanzaki.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building