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ENVIRONMENT
Feb 12, 2001

Rescuing baby ibises at Sanchahe

A crested ibis was presented to the Japanese people Oct. 13 by Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji. As an ornithologist, I was excited by the news, and it recalled my visits to the nesting area in Sanchahe Valley, a nature reserve for the crested ibis in Yang County, Shanxi Province.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 12, 2001

Forget Big Brother -- it's little brothers that count

ORDER BY ACCIDENT: The origins and consequences of conformity in contemporary Japan, by Alan S. Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2000, 156 pp., $25/17.99 pounds(cloth). The title of this book is misleading, although it captures the main idea of the authors, two social...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 12, 2001

How to profit from a nation's tragedy

THE TIANANMEN PAPERS: The Chinese Leadership's Decision to Use Force against their Own People -- in their Own Words, compiled by Zhang Liang, edited by Andrew Nathan and Perry Link, with an afterword by Orville Schell. Public Affairs, 2001, 560 pp., $30 (cloth). "The Tiananmen Papers" surfaced with...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 12, 2001

U.S. sues Atsugi incinerator operator

A landmark pollution case now before the Yokohama District Court is exposing the dirty underbelly of incineration practices in Japan, and highlighting what some would call the willingness of officials to turn a blind eye to dangerous waste burning.
EDITORIALS
Feb 11, 2001

How do you spell that again?

Another storm has been raging lately in the teacup of English. Like many linguistic squalls, this one is centered on spelling. It blew up in Britain late last year after the government's Qualifications and Curriculum Authority decreed the use of internationally agreed spellings for some scientific terms...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Safety, services attract fishery schools to Hawaii

Uwajima Fisheries High School, whose training ship the Ehime Maru sank after colliding with a U.S. Navy submarine off Hawaii on Friday, is one of many Japanese fisheries schools that train students in Hawaiian waters.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Osaka Securities Exchange chief took unusual path to financial peak

OSAKA -- When Goro Tatsumi joined a securities firm in Osaka's Kitahama district -- the city's financial hub -- more than 40 years ago, he predicted that the finance business would become a leading economic force in this country.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Blackman case suspect sought hospital info

A man who police believe may be the suspect in the disappearance of Lucie Blackman apparently telephoned the local fire department in the city of Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture, on the day of her disappearance asking for information about medical institutions nearby that would accept emergency patients,...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Itabashi fix-it men shed light on wasteful society

In the basement of Itabashi Ward's Ecopolis Center, knives, pots, umbrellas and other knickknacks find a lease on life.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Bar 'problem pupils' from classrooms: draft bill

A government-sponsored draft bill to revise the School Education Law calls for elementary and junior high school students who inflict either physical or mental injuries on teachers or other students to be kept out of schools.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Bar 'problem pupils' from classrooms: draft bill

A government-sponsored draft bill to revise the School Education Law calls for elementary and junior high school students who inflict either physical or mental injuries on teachers or other students to be kept out of schools.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Government to warn of possible economic slowdown

The Cabinet Office will revise downward its overall assessment of the domestic economy and effectively warn of a possible slowdown in a monthly report scheduled to be released on Friday, government sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Government to warn of possible economic slowdown

The Cabinet Office will revise downward its overall assessment of the domestic economy and effectively warn of a possible slowdown in a monthly report scheduled to be released on Friday, government sources said Saturday.
COMMUNITY
Feb 11, 2001

Still thrilled every spring by start of Wimbledon

There was America's No. 2 seed, Lindsey Davenport, on court in the final stages of the Toray Pan Pacific Open, thrashing Croatia's Iva Majoli, and looking a lot softer and prettier in the flesh than TV ever suggests.
COMMENTARY
Feb 11, 2001

In the land of the militantly mellow

NEW YORK -- San Franciscans, if we're to believe reporters who've spent the last week running up their New York employers' expense accounts, are searching the bottom of their recyclable souls in the aftermath of the death of Diane Whipple. Whipple, 33, was killed by one (or two, according to some sources)...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Electric Town has its red lights, too

Shinichi, a 33-year-old photographer, has dated more than 500 women in the past three years.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Body found in cave identified as Blackman's

Police said Saturday the remains discovered Friday in a cave in Kanagawa Prefecture are those of Lucie Blackman, a 21-year-old British hostess who went missing last July.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Electric Town has its red lights, too

Shinichi, a 33-year-old photographer, has dated more than 500 women in the past three years.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Body found in cave identified as Blackman's

Police said Saturday the remains discovered Friday in a cave in Kanagawa Prefecture are those of Lucie Blackman, a 21-year-old British hostess who went missing last July.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 11, 2001

You haven't seen Japan till you've been in a bus

The bus is one of the best places for observing Japan. It's different from the train, where people pack in and do "gaman" till they get to their destination.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 11, 2001

A passage to modern sculpture

There is a wraith of a bird stalking the basement of the Canadian Embassy, and if you are interested in contemporary sculpture it is worth tracking down. "Passages" shows 20 works by four Canadian artists, ranging from whimsical wildlife to meditations on a cube.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Nine Japanese missing off Oahu

Nine people, including four high school students, were reported missing Friday after a Japanese training ship sank following a collision with a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine in waters off Hawaii, the Japan Coast Guard said Saturday.
COMMUNITY
Feb 11, 2001

Shinto priestess finds freedom while minding duties of past

On summer weekends, Kugenuma Beach turns into a parody of the nearby metropolis' encroachment on the holidaymaker, with girls in bikinis and 20-cm platform sandals struggling across the sand while loudspeakers on towers belch J-pop at 50-meter intervals, making it difficult to find a moment for quiet...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Nine Japanese missing off Oahu

Nine people, including four high school students, were reported missing Friday after a Japanese training ship sank following a collision with a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine in waters off Hawaii, the Japan Coast Guard said Saturday.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Defense Agency staff, SDF to face stiffer penalties for spying

The Defense Agency plans to make penalties for personnel and Self-Defense Forces members who leak secret information harsher by raising the maximum prison term from one year to five years, agency sources said Saturday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Feb 11, 2001

Yeltsin and Reagan revisited

This year there were two sad anniversaries in the first week of February: two former political superstars, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Russian President Boris Yeltsin celebrated their birthdays in the shadow of severe health problems. Confined to hospital, they were unable to appreciate the cheering...
COMMUNITY
Feb 11, 2001

The accidental ambassadors

Less than six months after bathing in the international attention that came with hosting the Olympic Games, Australians are celebrating their nation's 100th birthday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 10, 2001

The best politics money can buy

The deportation of fugitive French businessman Alfred Sirven from the Philippines throws a twist into the trial of Mr. Roland Dumas, the former French foreign minister and head of the Constitutional Court. Mr. Sirven is alleged to be the missing link in the scheme to use funds from Elf-Aquitaine, the...
CULTURE / Film
Feb 10, 2001

Suspense from fear of mundanity

Director M. Night Shyamalan couldn't make it to Tokyo since he and his wife have a newborn child to look after, but that didn't stop the enterprising PR people at Buena Vista from setting up a virtual press conference for "Unbreakable."

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’