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LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 12, 2000

Californian fare grilled to perfection

Fumihiro Nakamura does not affect the expansive personality and well-studied bonhomie of a born restaurateur in the classic European mold. Nor does he in any way exude the slick professionalism and marketing savvy of the streetwise MBAs who scheme up and preside over flash designer eateries for cash-flush...
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2000

Japan 776.5 trillion yen in red . . . maybe

The government's liabilities exceeded its assets by as much as 776.5 trillion yen at the end of March 1999, according to the country's first-ever national balance sheet released Tuesday by the Finance Ministry.
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2000

Tokyo officials, residents face off at waste site

A 6-year-old dispute over a planned waste-disposal site in the town of Hinode, western Tokyo, came to a head Tuesday when metropolitan government officials attempted to seize the 461-sq.-meter plot owned by citizens opposed to the project.
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2000

Electronic dictionaries suit older eyes

Portable and handy electronic dictionaries have met with strong sales in recent years, particularly among those over 50.
EDITORIALS
Oct 11, 2000

Patient safety must come first

If the situation that is developing in many Japanese hospitals is not yet a national emergency, it soon will be. The frequency with which medication errors and other medical accidents are occurring has many people legitimately concerned about undergoing a hospital stay. Those fears can only be heightened...
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2000

HIV activist's mom files for by-election

Etsuko Kawada, mother of an HIV-infected crusader for justice, and three others filed candidacies Tuesday for an Oct. 22 by-election in Tokyo's No. 21 single-seat constituency to fill a House of Representatives seat left vacant by a disgraced lawmaker.
COMMUNITY
Oct 11, 2000

A perfect picture of a garden in Shimane

The Adachi Museum and its Japanese garden in Shimane Prefecture, part of the beautiful San'in district in western Honshu, is near historic Matsue with its castle and the home of writer Lafcadio Hearn.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Oct 11, 2000

U.S. race is too close to call

The 2000 U.S. presidential election campaign closely resembles a roller-coaster ride. The candidates are gyrating up and down in the polls, both in momentum and in spirit.
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2000

Scholar hits execs' Bangkok flings

When Yoko Kusaka moved to Bangkok with her family in 1996, she decided to pursue postgraduate studies in sociology, focusing on the corporate entertainment practices of Japanese companies in the city.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 9, 2000

Japan shattered stereotypes in the '60s

ANGURA: Posters of the Japanese Avant-Garde, by David G. Goodman, with a foreword by Ellen Lupton. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999, 92 pp., 90 color plates, 17 b/w, $19.95. The 1960s was a time of extraordinary creativity in the arts in Tokyo. As Alexandra Munroe has said, it was "undoubtedly...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 9, 2000

When micropower comes of age: an alternative to nuclear power?

Two weeks ago Taiwan's economic minister, Lin Hsin-i, proposed that his nation give up plans to build a fourth nuclear power plant, despite having already spent several billion dollars on the project.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 9, 2000

Limp prose from an angel of mercy

TOTTO-CHAN'S CHILDREN: A Goodwill Journey to the Children of the World, by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi; translated by Dorothy Britton. Kodansha International, 2000, 222 pp., with photographs, 2,500 yen (cloth). Tetsuko Kuroyanagi is a familiar figure on Japanese television quiz shows. She's the one decked out...
COMMENTARY
Oct 9, 2000

The crystal balls grow opaque

All kinds of "self-confident" experts make predictions in the mass media about the economy and politics. In Japan, such experts are rarely held accountable if they err in their predictions. In the late 1980s, when the bubble economy peaked, Japanese experts expressed the following opinions that later...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2000

Taiwan's 'experiment in government' fails

TAIPEI -- The ground heaved and shook in Taiwan's turbulent political landscape last Tuesday, and by the time the dust had cleared after the sudden resignation of Prime Minister Tang Fei, President Chen Shui-bian's 5 month-old model for government -- in his words, "a government for all the people" --...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Oct 9, 2000

Festival highlights the myriad sounds of Africa

The South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, I was told upon my arrival, has everything, from snowboarding in the morning to surfing in the afternoon. And from the itinerary that Swize, from the local tourist board, handed me, it looked like I would be doing it all: a trip to a game reserve and a Zulu...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 9, 2000

Confronting a legacy of shame

WHAT DID THE INTERNMENT OF JAPANESE AMERICANS MEAN?, edited by Alice Yang Murray. Boston, Mass.: Bedford/St. Martins, 2000, 163 pp., $13.50 (paper). This book is part of a series called "Historians At Work." Aimed at the undergraduate student, the series is designed to introduce students to a historical...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 2000

Metro government targets 'illegal light oil' mix

The chances of drivers being pulled over on Tokyo's main arteries will increase in upcoming months, but drunk drivers and speed demons will not be roadside enforcers' main targets.
JAPAN
Oct 8, 2000

Sugamo: not your hipster's Harajuku

If Harajuku is the mecca for the hip young, Sugamo is where it's at for the elderly.
JAPAN
Oct 8, 2000

Most Japanese prefer domestically made food

Nearly 82 percent of Japanese prefer food made domestically to imported food, mainly because of its presumed safety, according to the results of a government survey released Saturday.
JAPAN
Oct 8, 2000

Kids' fitness has plunged since '89: survey

The level of physical fitness and athletic ability in Japanese children remained constant between 1980 and 1990 but has plunged in the past 10 years, according to an Education Ministry survey.
COMMUNITY
Oct 8, 2000

Occupational therapy via 'Women and Socks'

It is a rare thing to find any actress of middle years who has never been out of work for more than six months. Especially one willing to explore both biculturally and bilingually her country's history and the sensitive subject of postwar relations.
JAPAN
Oct 8, 2000

Few Miyake evacuees have found jobs

Only 20 percent of Miyake Island evacuees have found jobs since the eruption of Mount Oyama last month forced them to leave their homes, according to a Tokyo Metropolitan Government survey released Saturday.
JAPAN
Oct 8, 2000

Tokyo poised to lift ban on exterior train ads

How can Tokyo buses and streetcars make more money without attracting more passengers? One answer: advertising.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 8, 2000

Plenty to get antsy about at your local bank

Today we will examine something I refer to as Anthill Economics. The other day when I entered the local anthill, i.e., the bank, the usual staff of 33 employees greeted me. The most customers I've ever seen inside the bank is 10, but that's not the point. The anthill employs as many ants as possible...

Longform

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How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan