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JAPAN / GREENING PAINS
Mar 21, 2001

Recycling law lets producers off hook, taxes consumers: critics

Eleven days from now, Japan will usher in a new era of recycling. For the first time, consumers will have to foot the bill to recycle and dispose of four major home appliances -- refrigerators, televisions, washing machines and air conditioners.
LIFE / Travel
Mar 21, 2001

Where there's a spark, there's green tourism

If the thought of an entire mountaintop in flames sounds like a nightmare or a Dali painting, you'll be surprised to learn that noyaki, a land conservation technique in Kumamoto Prefecture's Aso county, looks exactly like that from a distance. Local environmental group Aso Greenstock has been teaching...
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Mar 21, 2001

Elat, Israel: This place is for the ornithologists

Perched on the southern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba, Elat is a hedonistic cluster of high-rise hotels and bronzing beach bums surrounded by blue sea and burning desert. Basically, it's as close to Las Vegas as Israel gets -- without the gambling.
BUSINESS
Mar 21, 2001

Curb on Chinese sweet potatoes sought

MITO, Ibaraki Pref. (Kyodo ) An association of sweet potato farmers from the village of Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, will demand that the government curb imports of dried sweet potatoes from China, association members said Tuesday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 21, 2001

Confessions of an outsize fashion cretin

If it is true that clothes make the man, then I confess to being poorly constructed.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Mar 21, 2001

Detective work in snow country

Though farther south you are already reveling in springlike breezes, the steady accumulation of snow in the northern third of Japan continues to provide an opportunity for detective work.
LIFE / Digital
Mar 21, 2001

'Metal Gear Solid 2' is worth waiting for

"Zone of the Enders," a new game for PlayStation2 from Konami, is one of the finest giant robot games ever made. But it has been upstaged by a freebie -- a bonus demo Konami packed in with ZOE.
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2001

MPD officer arrested for possessing stimulants

The Metropolitan Police Department arrested a 46-year-old police officer Tuesday for possession of about 0.065 gram of methamphetamine, a violation of the Stimulant Drugs Control Law.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 21, 2001

Unfit to print

I was planning to write about the rivers of blood that are running through world stock markets. Paper losses of $4.5 trillion have a way of drawing the eye and demanding an explanation. But the world intervened. (Devoted cybernauts may get that column yet; stay tuned, kids.)
EDITORIALS
Mar 20, 2001

Explosive pressures in China

China has been hit by a series of explosions in the last week. The facts in the two cases have nothing in common, but the circumstances behind them suggest there is a link. Both blasts are the product of the mounting pressure created by economic modernization. China is under increasing strain; more such...
JAPAN / GREENING PAINS
Mar 20, 2001

New appliance recycling plan poses question of where the buck stops

With the Home Appliances Recycling Law coming into effect April 1, Japan is taking a significant step in changing its waste disposal policy from burying discarded appliances to recycling as much as possible.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2001

Japan braces for green mandate

Given Japan's acute shortage of landfill sites, the introduction of the Home Appliances Recycling Law on April 1 heralds a new era in the nation's efforts to promote recycling.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 20, 2001

Takeout that fails to deliver

The first Japanese filmmakers, like first filmmakers almost everywhere, thought of their new medium as an extension of still photography: a way of recording reality. Thus the early films of kabuki plays, in which the camera was planted squarely in front of the stage and left there, with pauses only to...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2001

U.S.-ROK ties show new signs of strain

SEOUL -- It is difficult not to compare the Seoul summit between South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and its sequel in Washington between Kim and U.S. President George W. Bush, given both countries' long history and deep involvement in Korean affairs. The stark...
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2001

Midday shooting in Shinjuku hotel leaves gangster dead, cop injured

Two gunmen opened fire Monday on gangsters and police meeting in the lobby of a Shinjuku hotel, killing a gangster and injuring a policeman and one other man.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2001

Miyake students graduate from junior high

Thirty-nine junior high school students evacuated from Miyake Island in September in the wake of volcanic eruptions attended a graduation ceremony Monday at a boarding school in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2001

U.K. rail museum gets bullet train

FUKUOKA -- A bullet train locomotive has been shipped to Britain for permanent display at the National Railway Museum in York, northern England, according to officials of West Japan Railway Co.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 20, 2001

Drop in on Kanemura's Tokyo

SPIDER'S STRATEGY: Photographs by Osamu Kanemura, with a text by Arata Isozaki. Tokyo: Osiris Co. Ltd., 102 pp., 80 b/w plates, 3,780 yen. In his text accompanying this portfolio of photographs of Tokyo, architect Arata Isozaki writes of the difficulty of deciphering this city. Paris was finally properly...
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2001

Dini helps launch Italian cultural extravaganza

"Italy in Japan 2001" kicked off Monday with visiting Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini urging Japanese to learn not only about Italy's art, fashion and food, but also its advanced technology.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Mar 20, 2001

Garage kings step on the gas

Gan is the chubbiest and cuddliest rock 'n' roll star around. Just look at him, almost passed out in a backstage corner with a huge cheesy grin across his fat chops like a big cartoon teddy bear, his paws clutching a jumbo bottle of beer, a reward after successfully pulling off another terrific live...
EDITORIALS
Mar 19, 2001

Mr. Sharon goes to work

After nearly a month of negotiations, Israel's new prime minister, Mr. Ariel Sharon, has cobbled together his "unity Cabinet." It may represent a broad spectrum of political opinion, but it is unlikely to be united for long. Once Mr. Sharon gets down to resuming peace talks with the Palestinians -- his...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2001

Good signs for Japan-U.S. alliance

Since the end of the Cold War, Japan-U.S. relations have been in turmoil. A highly significant development was a 1996 Japan-U.S. summit, in which Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and President Bill Clinton redefined the terms of the bilateral security system. The 50-year-old alliance will continue into...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2001

Indonesia's future is visible in Kalimantan

HONG KONG -- As the Indonesian province of Central Kalimantan has been effectively cleansed of its Madurese minority, it has been another forceful reminder that communal conflict can be a terrifying reality that requires a quick and firm response if its effects are to be minimized and national unity...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2001

An African win in the war against AIDS

LONDON -- Half of all teenage boys in South Africa will eventually die of AIDS, predicted a United Nations report last year. "The world has never before experienced death rates of this magnitude across young adults of both sexes across all social strata," it added -- and noted that 70 percent of all...
BUSINESS
Mar 19, 2001

Technological advances pose challenge for 21st century

Progress and technological innovation bring economic prosperity, as everyone knows. The advent of the steam engine brought about the Industrial Revolution, and the information technology revolution has reinvigorated the U.S. economy today. It is only natural for us to expect technology to continue contributing...
SOCCER / World cup
Mar 19, 2001

Volunteers for World Cup can apply in April

The Japanese organizing committee for next year's World Cup finals (JAWOC) will accept volunteer applications from April 16 to June 15 for soccer's showcase event to be cohosted by Japan and South Korea.
COMMENTARY
Mar 19, 2001

U.S.-South Korea summit a good start

South Korean President Kim Dae Jung's Washington summit meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush was not the unqualified success Kim had hoped for, but he did accomplish his primary objectives. As expected and desired, Bush endorsed Kim's Sunshine Policy of reconciliation and cooperation with North...

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan