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CULTURE / Art
Aug 31, 2000

Art and history intersect in U.S. ambassador's residence

Most of us only dream of being able to pick out our favorite pieces of art from museums to display in our homes.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 31, 2000

Frugality boom highlights fun and fulfillment of the simple life

As explained in this column several months ago, Japanese TV often adapts successful programming ideas from abroad. Still, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a local version of "Survivor." Reality-based programming is already available in Japan. Years ago, "Denpa Shonen" moved beyond such simplistic...
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

Medical importer delayed product warnings

A Tokyo-based importer of U.S.-made artificial pericardiums linked to inflammation in transplant patients waited six months before warning hospitals after it learned of health risks associated with the product, according to medical sources.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

Snow Milk offices to be raided today

OSAKA -- Police will search both the head office of Snow Brand Milk Products Co. in Tokyo and its western Japan branch today on suspicion that professional negligence in connection with recent food-poisoning cases resulted in bodily injury, sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

'Sick-house syndrome' to be probed in schools

The Education Ministry will inspect 50 school buildings across the nation in September to determine the level of air contamination from chemical substances used in interior construction materials, ministry sources said.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

Analyst attacks organ transplant proposal

A leading sociologist has slammed a proposal under consideration by a government-funded study group that the current law on organ transplants be revised to allow the procurement of organs from brain-dead patients with just the written consent of family members.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

Children lead exodus of volcanic Miyake Island

Miyake Island's Mount Oyama erupted again early Tuesday morning -- its second major blast this summer -- hastening the evacuation of 136 children later in the day.
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2000

Taisho exec's fundraising acts scrutinized

Prosecutors are examining the fundraising activities of a Taisho Life Insurance Co. executive who was arrested Monday on suspicion of fraud, sources close to the case said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2000

Requests for 2001 budget down slightly

Fiscal 2001 budget requests from ministries and agencies will total about 84.83 trillion yen, or 160 billion yen less than the initial budget for the current fiscal year, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Aug 30, 2000

Architects reach for the sky

www.geocities.com/PicketFence/5192/ The address above is actually a really nice metaphor. The "picket fence" it refers to is the chain formed by the world's tallest buildings. Add "center_of_india.html" to the end of the address and take a look at an artist's rendering of what some day might be the...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2000

Little reason to celebrate in East Timor

Just over a year ago, in August 1999, I was in the Baucau district of East Timor, helping to monitor the leadup to the referendum on independence as a U.N.-accredited observer with the independent International Federation for East Timor Observer Project.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 30, 2000

Cool, clear cascades in a citadel of water

Early each spring, the magnificent Mount Aso region in Kumamoto Prefecture opens its sightseeing season with a bang in the rituals of the Aso Fire Festival, and giant characters for "fire" are blazed into the area's hills.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 30, 2000

'A lippy and lewd bunch of women'

Ten or 15 years ago, it seemed as if women travel writers might have become an extinct species. Manuscripts submitted by women were subjected to a special set of rules. Editors expected their accounts to include record-breaking feats, promotional gimmicks or at least the use of some eccentric mode of...
COMMENTARY
Aug 30, 2000

The 21st-century neurosis

LONDON -- I think I've discovered a new neurosis of the 21st century. It involves frustration, guilt, shame and outbursts of destructive violence. The neurosis lurks wherever there are personal computers. (Business computers, and the work and commercial systems they create, produce similar feelings,...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 30, 2000

Proposal primer: winning over the in-laws

I never truly asked for my wife's hand in marriage, primarily because I was interested more in the whole than individual parts.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 30, 2000

Skin diving to save the world's coral reefs

Learn to scuba dive free, receive a complimentary education in tropical marine biology, and get to help save the threatened coral reefs of Southeast Asia and Central America at the same time?
BUSINESS
Aug 29, 2000

MMC chief to exit over coverup

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. President Katsuhiko Kawasoe plans to resign in connection with the firm's concealment of customer complaints and recalls, company sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2000

U.S. prodigy, 15, says Japan lags in IT

Japan's information technology industry is about five years behind the United States and there is a need to rapidly promote IT education here by training teachers, a 15-year-old American business prodigy says.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2000

Sulfur smell in Tokyo attributed to Miyake

A sulfurous smell reported Monday in western Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture was probably caused by smoke from volcanic activity on Miyake Island, according to Kanagawa prefectural officials.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2000

20,000 fans rank animated series

Brutus magazine has released an extensive poll of Japan's best 100 animated series, based on the responses of 20,000 enthusiasts.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2000

Joint team probes Snow fiasco

The Osaka Municipal Government on Monday launched a joint study group of experts with the Health and Welfare Ministry that will investigate the causes of Snow Brand Milk Products Co.'s mass food-poisoning incident and attempt to recommend countermeasures.
COMMENTARY
Aug 29, 2000

Pressure India and Pakistan

Like U.S. President Bill Clinton before him, Japanese Prime Minister Mori has just completed a trip to South Asia that has been high on hope and symbolism but disappointingly low on results. Both leaders argued that it was important to engage India and Pakistan in order to revive the global nonproliferation...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 29, 2000

Captivating fragments of Southeast Asia

THE TRUTH ABOUT ANNA . . . and Other Stories, by William Warren. Archipelago Press, Singapore, 2000, 224 pp., unpriced. Most of these essays by William Warren, who has lived in Bangkok for 40 years, concern aspects of life in Thailand, about which the author has written copiously. There are also glimpses...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 29, 2000

End this dysfunctional relationship

LEAVING JAPAN: Observations on the Dysfunctional U.S.-Japan Relationship. By Mike Millard. M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, NY, 2000, 200 pp., $37.95. The $79-billion question is why does the United States continue to tolerate the lopsided economic relationship with Japan that led to a such a massive trade imbalance...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 29, 2000

Beer, blisters and the Tokaido

REDISCOVERING THE OLD TOKAIDO: In the Footsteps of Hiroshige, by Patrick Carey. Folkestone: Global Oriental, 148 pp. and 54 color plates, 16.50 British pounds. Retracing notable footprints is a noble enterprise, and various are the pilgrimages, religious, literary or otherwise. In Japan, retaking known...

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes