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JAPAN
Jul 26, 2000

Translation of young soldiers' letters shows other side of war

Two U.S.-based scholars have recently published the first full-scale English version of a longtime Japanese seller, featuring letters written by Japanese student soldiers during World War II.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2000

Replace pre-'90 diesel vehicles, panel urges

A government study group on measures to reduce exhaust emissions from diesel-powered vehicles has compiled a midterm draft proposal calling for the replacement of older vehicles with new models, group sources said Tuesday.
COMMUNITY
Jul 26, 2000

The homesick cycad tree of Myokokuji Temple

On a hot August day last year I took the train and tram to Sakai City in the south of Osaka. I wanted to see the ancient Japanese sago palm (sotetsu, Cycas revoluta), a member of the Cycad family, which grows in the grounds of Myokokuji Temple. The temple was first built in 1562 by a wealthy merchant...
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2000

MMC to update Nagoya factory to produce Z car

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. will renovate its Oe factory in Nagoya to launch a new production line in 2002 for a small next-generation vehicle jointly developed with DaimlerChrysler AG, company officials said Tuesday.
LIFE / Digital
Jul 26, 2000

Itsy-bitsy, teeny-tiny . . . camera

oceankey.com/cam.htm The surfcam pointing out from the Ocean Key Resort in Key West, Fla., gives glimpses of leisure boats as they make wakes, and then, as it refreshes every couple minutes, makes them disappear. It's a beautiful seascape even on a CRT, but Sleepyspud just can't wake up in time to catch...
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2000

Hiranuma told to oversee revised plan for World Expo

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori instructed Trade Minister Takeo Hiranuma on Tuesday to do his utmost so Japan can have its revised plan for the 2005 World Expo in Aichi Prefecture submitted to the Paris-based Bureau of International Expositions in September.
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
Jul 26, 2000

Seattles's Best has just joined the rest

It must be something in the water. What else could account for the fact that three of the most popular gourmet coffee chains in Japan originate in Seattle, Wash.? First there was Starbucks, then Tully's and now Seattle's Best Coffee has brought its "pleasing to the palate" brew to Shinjuku, minutes from...
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2000

Tokyo to compensate those poisoned by Suginami waste facility

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government will compensate victims of hydrogen sulfide poisoning caused by the operation of a waste-processing facility in Suginami Ward, officials announced Tuesday.
LIFE / Travel
Jul 26, 2000

Summertime and the offshore angling is easy

Summer is here and with it the most exciting angling adventure Japan has to offer -- catching dolphinfish. Not to be confused with the sea mammal of the same name, this is the middle-weight champion of offshore angling. These fish have power, speed and will aggressively strike lures, flies or bait. ...
COMMENTARY
Jul 26, 2000

Ethics for a turbulent age

There is much justifiable concern in Japan and Britain about rising levels of crime and bad behavior, especially among young people. The responses have been varied, including the usual calls for heavier punishments combined with "zero tolerance" policing. Yet few have much idea how this is to be enforced...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2000

Testing times for Sino-Pakistani friendship

ISLAMABAD -- There was a familiar ring to recent allegations in U.S. newspapers, reportedly based on intelligence sources, that China is continuing to aid Pakistan's plans to build long-range nuclear-capable missiles. It is not the first time such allegations have surfaced in the United States, especially...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2000

Swastikas under the onion domes

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia It is a muggy Wednesday afternoon in the nation's largest Pacific seaport, and as people meander home, a handful of men and boys position themselves around the central square, an asphalt plaza decorated with a monument to the communist revolutionaries who conquered the Far East.
EDITORIALS
Jul 25, 2000

G8 shapes up for a new century

Despite presummit speculation about possible exchanges of views on issues not on the summit agenda, the leaders of the Group of Eight countries generally focused their debates over the past three days on issues contained in the scenario developed by working-level officials. Such speculation had preceded...
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2000

Education Ministry urges teachers to curb unruly kids

An Education Ministry research council called on kindergarten and elementary school teachers Monday to cooperate to control unruly students and halt a breakdown in classroom order that has plagued Japan in recent years.
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2000

Crack found in oil duct at nuclear power plant

A cracked oil duct has been found at a Fukushima nuclear power plant that was closed Sunday following an oil leak, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday.
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2000

5.5 magnitude earthquake shakes Shikine, Kozu islands

An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 jolted the islands of Shikine and Kozu in the Izu Islands chain south of Tokyo on Monday morning, the Meteorological Agency said.
BUSINESS
Jul 25, 2000

Supermarket sales plummet 4.4%

First-half sales at Japan's supermarkets totaled 7.86 trillion yen, down 4.4 percent from the same period the previous year, an industry association said Monday.
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Jul 25, 2000

From the streets of Tokyo to Royal Albert Hall

The night before they left for Europe, Japanese group Cicala Mvta (pronounced Chicala Muta) played for about 50 people in Tokyo -- about par for the course for them. When they arrived in London the next day, theirs was the hottest ticket in town. Sort of.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 25, 2000

The debate on Nanjing is now closed

DOCUMENTS ON THE RAPE OF NANKING, edited by Timothy Brook. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 1999, 301 pp., 2,616 yen. AMERICAN GODDESS AT THE RAPE OF NANKING: The Courage of Minnie Vautrin, by Hua-ling Hu. Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000, 184 pp. The adversity...
CULTURE / Music
Jul 25, 2000

So you wanna be a glam-sleaze superstar?

As befits artists whose chosen mode of expression is more or less a comment on somebody else's mode of expression, Swedish pop groups definitely have the best names. The Trampolines play bouncy, never-less-than-fun British pop while the Wannadies mine the rich vein of teenage angst in straightforward...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 25, 2000

Fenollosa's study of art is art

EPOCHS OF CHINESE AND JAPANESE ART, by Ernest F. Fenollosa. A facsimile of the 1913 edition. New York, Tokyo, Osaka: ICG Muse, Inc. 440 pp., with original plates, 2,100 yen. Ernest Fenollosa, the man who taught the West about traditional Japanese art, first came to Japan in 1878, when he was invited...
BUSINESS
Jul 24, 2000

Dollar likely to test upper limit against yen this week: dealers

The U.S. dollar will likely test its upper limit against the yen this week amid lingering doubts over the health of the Japanese economy.
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2000

Magnitude 5 quake hits isles; no casualties seen

An earthquake measuring a preliminary magnitude of 5 hit the Izu Islands chain south of Tokyo on Sunday, the Meteorological Agency said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2000

Global partnership urged in summit communique

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. — The leaders of the Group of Eight major nations adopted a communique Sunday calling for a "new partnership" with other countries — especially developing ones, international organizations and the public in order to cope with the increasingly complex challenges of globalization....

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.