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CULTURE / Books
May 9, 2000

Testing times for Japan-U.S. alliance

ALLIANCE ADRIFT, by Yoichi Funabashi. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1999, 501 pp., $49.95 (cloth). The jacket of this hefty chronicle of the recent history of Japan-U.S. security relations proclaims that Japan has found its Bob Woodward. Consider yourself warned.
JAPAN
May 9, 2000

City strives to school foreign youth

TOYOTA, Aichi Pref. -- When the bell signals the end of the day at Homi Junior High School here, students run out of the building to play on the grounds.
BUSINESS
May 9, 2000

'Love Bug' virus swamps Japan's firms

More than 84,000 e-mail messages carrying the "Love Bug" computer virus had been detected as of Monday evening in Japan, leading antivirus software provider Trend Micro Inc. said.
CULTURE / Music
May 9, 2000

They call it 'avant-pop,' but hum along if you like

Pop aficionados often feel the need to be apologetic. Few would would openly admit to preferring those early bouncy Beatles singles to the Fab Four's more musically adventurous output of later years, or to having danced around the living room to "La Vida Loca." Even the shiny surfaces of Cornelius are...
CULTURE / Books
May 9, 2000

'Shuttered' to the West, Japan opened to the East

CHINA IN THE TOKUGAWA WORLD, by Marius B. Jansen. Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard University Press, 2000, 137 pp., $8.50 (paper). With the 400th anniversary of Japanese-Dutch relations upon us, interest has been rekindled in Japan's foreign relations during the Tokugawa period, and the part played...
EDITORIALS
May 8, 2000

The return of 'Red Ken'

Red is the color of the British Labor Party. Last week, British voters were a little too red for Prime Minister Tony Blair. The election of Mr. Ken Livingstone, known as "Red Ken" for his feisty leftwing politics, as London's first directly elected mayor, left Mr. Blair with a nasty black eye, but that...
COMMENTARY / World
May 8, 2000

Tackling sectarian strife in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD -- A volley of gunfire that followed a grenade attack last month in a small village two hours from Islamabad shattered the myth that the government had begun to effectively contain the country's religious extremists.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2000

E-commerce tax under construction

PARIS -- Talk about the information technology revolution is everywhere. Electronic commerce is taking off, financial institutions are trading online, and schools are holding class on the Internet.
JAPAN
May 8, 2000

Cult may have paid to get religious status

The Honohana Sampogyo religious group paid several million yen to a then member of the Fuji city assembly in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1986, one year before the prefectural government certified it as an authorized religious corporation, cult sources said.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 8, 2000

Orangutans smuggled in underwear

You're flying back from a week in Indonesia and the guy next to you seems unusually twitchy. Considering all he's had to drink, he ought to be adequately sedated, but he's just ordered another Scotch.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2000

G7 drop vital hints on future of fundamentals, forex market

Many observers have brushed aside the latest agreement made by the Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers in Washington last month.
EDITORIALS
May 7, 2000

Gods and monsters

It wasn't so much a papal bull that was issued by the Vatican recently as a papal bear, and a teddy bear at that. In the week that "Pokemon: The First Movie" opened in Italy, an announcement on the Vatican's satellite television station reassured Italian children -- or their parents, since the children...
COMMENTARY / World
May 7, 2000

Controversial look at Constitutional change

Resurgent nationalism by Japan's youth, a feeling that military dependence on the United States cannot last forever and a sense that Tokyo should be more ready to participate unambiguously in peacekeeping are reasons for a renewed interest in constitutional change, analysts say.
COMMENTARY / World
May 7, 2000

European sports play by their own rules

It is said that the military is always prepared to fight the last war and never the next. In the economic domain the same is true of politicians, who are generally at least a generation or two out of date. In Britain in 1913, there were 1.3 million miners, meaning that almost one in 10 men were working...
SUMO
May 7, 2000

Trio of favorites for Natsu Basho

The Natsu Basho is shaping up as a three-man struggle among yokozuna Takanohana, yokozuna Akebono and sekiwake Miyabiyama, with two other would-be favorites, yokozuna Musashimaru and new ozeki Musoyama, nursing injuries and unable to compete this time around.
COMMUNITY
May 7, 2000

Activist with gypsy soul returns to roots

Reading years ago that the majority of us end our lives within 30 km of where we were born, I remember thinking: Not me. But after meeting Margareta Weisser, who knows.
CULTURE / Art
May 7, 2000

Jewels of the printmaker's art

"I call these my jewels," said Joanna H. Schoff, as we bent to catch a gleam of silver in the softly lit museum. Treasures indeed, but instead of the brilliance of diamonds we were looking at far gentler beauties: rare gems of Japanese printmaking from the 1800s.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 7, 2000

All good things

Here is good news for all Kenny Endo fans, and if you aren't a fan you will be once you attend one of his performances. Kenny is a master of the taiko. Most of you know that taiko is drum, and then there is "odaiko," a huge drum. In general, taiko is to drum like the tea ceremony is to a tea bag. It...
LIFE / Travel
May 7, 2000

Hayama, Kanagawa: A spring abound with vermillion azaleas

Hayama is a picturesque seaside town located about 4 km south of Kamakura. Favored with a mild climate and scenic coasts, it sports a neighborhood of upscale houses and sophisticated restaurants facing a small yacht harbor. A chain of quiet beaches stretches south along the rock-strewn coast; inland,...
CULTURE / Art
May 7, 2000

Of statues and men -- the fourth plinth problem

LONDON -- Trafalgar Square is all things to all people. For out-of-towners and tourists, it is where you have your photograph taken with the National Gallery and the church of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields as a backdrop, or of you feeding the pigeons or climbing Sir Edwin Landseer's lions. Four of them...
JAPAN
May 7, 2000

U.S. bases' PCB waste to be sent to Pacific isle

PCB-contaminated waste from U.S. military bases in Japan will be moved from Japan to Wake Island in the central Pacific by May 18 until a final decision on how to dispose of the waste is made, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said in a statement Saturday.
JAPAN
May 5, 2000

Self-brewing helps to combat Japan's indistinguishable ales

It's warm and sunny -- a nice day to have a cold glass of beer. At supermarkets and convenience stores, beers with a variety of colorful labels, tempting names and intriguing catch phrases line the shelves.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji