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ENVIRONMENT
Mar 11, 2001

Calcium pulses clue to nerve cell growth

Like an insect's antennae, filapodia are the fingerlike projections sent out by a developing nerve cell to detect environmental cues. Scientists at the University of California at San Diego have discovered how the filapodia communicate with the main body of the cell: through a kind of biological Morse...
CULTURE / Art
Mar 11, 2001

How Klimt's Vienna changed the world

There are two paintings of artist's studios that say it all. The first is part castle, part Old Curiosity Shop, packed with statues, bearskins and whatnot, where a successful Viennese artist of the old school sits in gloomy splendor. The second is filled with light. There is no artist, but a woman's...
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2001

Empty classrooms renovated for public use

With the birthrate declining, Tokyo municipalities have found that a growing number of school buildings are not being used. More wards are responding by renovating these vacant classrooms for wider use, ranging from offices to child-care centers.
BUSINESS
Mar 10, 2001

Aso attacks Hayami for weak yen

Taro Aso, minister for economic and fiscal policy, said Friday that he does not advocate promoting a weak yen to boost the economy -- a negative reference to remarks made Wednesday by Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2001

What women can do for the environment

The growing worldwide demand for resources is threatening the world's environmental health to an unprecedented extent. Unless new policies are set in place, this situation could have devastating implications for human develop- ment. Significant among the possible options are massive campaigns, both at...
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2001

Kansai airport honored by ASCE

OSAKA -- The American Society of Civil Engineers has picked Kansai International Airport as one of 10 "millennium monuments" in the world built over the past 100 years, according to sources close to the ASCE.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2001

Let China set the human-rights debate

One of the least attractive rituals of spring -- skirmishing between Beijing and Washington over Chinese human-rights practices -- is already under way. The first volley was fired last month with the publication of the U.S. State Department's annual human-rights report. It took Beijing to task for a...
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2001

Tokyo's homeless population up: survey

The number of people living on the streets of Tokyo has increased 1.7-fold in five years to about 5,700 as of August, according to a white paper on the homeless released Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2001

China's use of defense funds to be monitored

The Defense Agency will closely monitor how China uses its defense outlays in fiscal 2001, which are expected to rise nearly 18 percent from the current fiscal year, agency chief Toshitsugu Saito said Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2001

SOFA changes mulled to calm Okinawa

Despite persistent demands from Okinawa Prefecture for sweeping revisions to the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, the central government is hoping the most recent surge in anti-American sentiment can be appeased by improvements in the implementation of the pact.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2001

Italian ambassador talks up 'Italy in Japan 2001' program

Gabriele Menegatti considers himself lucky that he will see the "Italian Year" program kick off just as he starts his second year as Italy's envoy to Japan.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 10, 2001

A real woman is hard to find

The problem with "women's movies" is this: Too often, they make you think that the world out there belongs to men. Otherwise, how could they keep painting the same old pictures of women struggling to gain self-respect, raise children, find true love, bond witheach other, etc.? In the real world, women...
BUSINESS
Mar 10, 2001

Towel import curbs opposed

A group of seven Japanese towel makers operating factories in China filed a petition with the government on Friday, urging it not to invoke import restriction measures against towel imports from China.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Mar 10, 2001

An innovative, magical potter

Meiji Era craftsmen lived in a world of divergent influences: Galle glass, French bronzes, Art Nouveau designs, Chinese celadons and tenmoku tea bowls, as well as their own traditions, whose product was at the crossroads between being an industrial export or the aesthetic vision of the individual artist....
CULTURE / Art
Mar 10, 2001

I'm a loser bunny . . . so why doncha pay me?

On a busy sidewalk in Harajuku, a man dressed in a suit sits drinking from a hip flask of Scotch, surrounded by five pink, fluffy rabbits.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2001

Cultural 'cleansing' exposes outrageous methods of Taliban

NEW DELHI -- History is replete with cultural savagery.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2001

Japan faces 'catastrophic' fiscal scenario

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said Thursday that Japan is on the brink of a fiscal "catastrophe" and called for dramatic measures to be implemented.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2001

CTBT signatories plan talks to accelerate ratification steps

Some 160 signatory nations to a 1996 treaty banning nuclear tests will hold ministerial-level talks at the end of September in New York to accelerate efforts toward ratification.
EDITORIALS
Mar 9, 2001

Wary in Washington

South Korean President Kim Dae Jung is in Washington this week to coordinate his views with those of U.S. President George W. Bush. There is concern in Seoul that the new administration is not as firmly behind Mr. Kim as was President Bill Clinton. Initial reports from their meetings suggest the fears...
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2001

Japan reconsiders huge aid to China

Japan will no longer be as generous with its official development assistance to China because of its austere budget, according to a draft policy paper revealed to The Japan Times on Thursday.
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 9, 2001

Show me what you've got!

I'd like to greet all the players in the J. League and look forward to seeing the joy of football in Japan this year. I'd specifically like to welcome the new foreign players. My message to you, as well as to the Japanese players, is simply play your best, play football.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2001

Banker calls for writing off loans

Kiichiro Furusawa, chairman of the Trust Companies Association of Japan, on Thursday urged banks to promote writeoffs of problem loans even if it means falling into the red.
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 9, 2001

Big changes in Urawa as Reds aim to stay in top flight

After spending a year in Division Two, the Urawa Reds will make their comeback to the J. League's top flight when the 2001 season gets under way on Saturday.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years