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Feb 12, 2000

The life and times of a sumo giant

Continuing The Japan Times' exclusive interview with yokozuna Akebono, 30, in which he talks about his life and relationships in sumo.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2000

'Greedy' Myanmar requests $1.45 billion

Staff writer How greedy Myanmar's cash-strapped military regime is! It is trying to wheedle Japan, the world's largest aid donor, for a huge amount of money that it probably would not be able to digest. The Myanmar military regime, struggling to survive deep economic trouble amid continued isolation...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2000

Turnout low at Founding Day ceremony

Diet members and foreign dignitaries on Friday attended a ceremony to celebrate National Founding Day at the Hibiya Public Hall in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. Yet, despite the efforts of organizing officials to emphasize the historical significance of the ceremony, the occasion was marked more by the prevalence...
COMMENTARY
Feb 10, 2000

Democracy under attack

When I first read that the Japanese coalition government had decided to force through a bill to reduce the number of seats elected by proportional representation, my first thought was, since they had a majority of votes in both Houses for this measure and as democracy generally implies majority rules,...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Feb 10, 2000

Olympics strike out with baseball format

In last week's installment of Sports Scope, my esteemed colleague David Picker took Orix BlueWave star center fielder Ichiro Suzuki to task for showing no interest in going to the 2000 Olympics. Well, I'm with Ichiro.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2000

Symposium on bilateral direct investment to be held

Japan and the United States will discuss ways to better cope with the rapidly increasing foreign direct investment in Japan by cosponsoring a government-private sector symposium March 1 in Tokyo, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry announced Thursday. The symposium will focus on mergers...
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2000

M-5 rocket fails to reach orbit; satellite feared lost

UCHINOURA, Kagoshima Pref. -- In another serious blow to Japan's space program, an M-5 rocket carrying an astronomical observation satellite failed Thursday to reach its expected orbit. The rocket was supposed to reach an orbit of between 270 km and 550 km from Earth after lifting off at 10:30 a.m....
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2000

Kyoto business seminar kicks off with eye on reform

KYOTO -- The two-day Kansai Business Seminar opened here Wednesday with organizers calling on business leaders to reform Japan's business practices and to revitalize the Kansai economy in the face of global competition. Before about 380 business leaders, government officials and university professors,...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 8, 2000

Life during wartime through a child's clear eyes

A BOY CALLED H: A Childhood in Wartime Japan, by Kappa Senoh, translated by John Bester. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1999, 528 pp., 3,200 yen (cloth). In Roddy Doyle's "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha," and again in Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes," we are told of life in poverty-ridden back streets of Ireland's cities...
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 7, 2000

Craning for a look at a natural monument

TSURUI VILLAGE, Hokkaido -- The meandering local bus takes over an hour to reach this quiet hamlet of dairy farms in southeastern Hokkaido. For out-of-town passengers, the approach to Tsurui comes as something of a shock. Those black-and-white creatures stepping delicately across the pasture most definitely...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 6, 2000

Philip Harper

To be billed as Japan's only foreign sake brewer conveys a claim unusually intriguing. Even the man in question, Philip Harper, expresses some surprise at the way things have gone for him as he gets close to achieving the status of master brewer in Japan.
COMMUNITY
Feb 6, 2000

The best parents are both parents

David Brian Thomas (who with a name like that can only owe his heritage to Welsh Wales) carries two photos in his wallet. One shows a baby; the other a gravely sweet 3-year-old -- the age Thomas last saw his son seven years ago.
COMMUNITY
Feb 3, 2000

Tarento Shepherd bids farewell after two decades in show biz

When they walk into a room, heads turn, tongues wag, fingers point. They've got something no one can define but everyone recognizes. If anybody's got it, it's gaikokujin tarento Joan Shepherd.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2000

Landmark decision grants residency to Iranian family

In a landmark decision Wednesday, three members of an Iranian family were granted special residence permission by Justice Minister Hideo Usui. The three, having overstayed their visas, petitioned immigration authorities for special status in September. It is the first time the government has issued...
LIFE / Travel
Feb 2, 2000

New winter travel bargains opening domestic flight doors

Winter brings Japan's best travel bargains, and this millennium year the bargains are better than ever.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Feb 2, 2000

Maintaining traditions

A gentleman is doing research on fireflies and asks about a service that provides fireflies for parties. He tells us he lives on a small hill surrounded by trees with a huge expanse of rice fields below. Ideal for fireflies, he says, but they are exceedingly rare; his son has seen more on a single night...
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2000

KEDO ready to begin construction on nuclear reactors

Staff writer Full-scale construction of two light-water reactors in North Korea is set to begin by mid-February, Desaix Anderson, executive director of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, said in an interview. On Monday in Tokyo, Japan signed a loan agreement with KEDO to provide up...
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Jan 30, 2000

Success story

While no one can possibly take in all the exhibitions in Tokyo, some of you may be interested in a showing of Yoshihiro Kubo's oil paintings today through Tuesday at Ginza Art Plaza, phone (03) 3289-2345 for directions. If you don't know, Dr. Kubo opened what was perhaps the first dental clinic in Japan...
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 29, 2000

Maintaining Shiiba's proud history

A good chance to enjoy a glimpse of visual and performing arts of rural old Japan will come to Tokyo Feb. 19-20. The Kioi Small Hall will present a special program titled "Traditional Performing Arts of Shiiba, Miyazaki" to introduce rarely seen dances and chants performed in front of a profusely decorated...
COMMENTARY
Jan 28, 2000

Debate kicks off on the Constitution

As the ordinary Diet session opened Jan. 20, the tripartite ruling bloc and the opposition forces squared off over a proposal to cut the number of Lower House seats. With a dissolution of the Lower House for a snap election looming, sharp rivalry is brewing between the coalition, made up of the Liberal...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 27, 2000

Wineries to complement your travel plans

In the dead of winter, what's a wine lover to do? I'm almost tempted to say "Bring back the hot, spicy wine," the body-warming concoction quaffed at stalls in town center squares all over Europe toward year's end. It's a splendid custom, but actually what I had in mind is winery visits in California....
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2000

Fukaya plans U.S. trip sometime before G8 meeting

Takashi Fukaya, the international trade and industry minister, is considering a trip to Washington in February or March for talks with top U.S. officials on the new round of global trade liberalization negotiations, sources at his ministry said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2000

U.N. drug program calls for more funds

Staff writer The head of the United Nations Drug-Control Program hopes Japan will devote more of its U.N. contribution to the program, claiming it is cost-effective in the domestic war against narcotics. Pointing out Japan's declining contribution to the Vienna-based UNDCP, Executive Director Pino Arlacchi...
CULTURE / Music
Jan 25, 2000

One up from the real roots: no hoke from this folk singer

The most compelling, expressive and soulful instrument of all is the human voice. Outside the world of Western music, there are many vocalists who have the ability to capture a certain indefinable sense of yearning. Voices with a fiery beauty and explosive power; intimate, haunting, ageless, mysterious....
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2000

Visit from Zhu sought before G8 summit

Japan has asked China to arrange a visit by Prime Minister Zhu Rongji to Japan before the Group of Eight summit in Okinawa in July, Japanese Ambassador to China Sakutaro Tanino said in a recent interview.
COMMENTARY
Jan 24, 2000

Common sense up in flames

Shizuka Kamei, policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, recently proposed a raise in the tobacco tax in the fiscal 2000 government budget. The proposal, however, was quickly quashed due to opposition in the LDP and by Japan Tobacco Inc., the nation's only cigarette manufacturer. Smokers and...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jan 23, 2000

Mary Cogan

Amongst many distinctions of different kinds, Tokyo has one that merits affectionate attention. Tokyo hosts the only Saint Patrick's Day Parade in Asia.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Jan 23, 2000

Buried in time

A woman writes of her problem. It is likely to remain one. She has a collection of what she calls bark pictures, produced in Japan after World War II. She describes them as landscapes composed of mountains made of tree bark, trees made of moss, and painted water and skies. She doubts if they were considered...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 22, 2000

Ginza's Satani Gallery closes doors with clearance sale of collection

It was immediately evident that something was very different.
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2000

Obuchi asks envoys to solicit Asian opinions on G8 meetings

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi instructed Japan's ambassadors to 24 Asia-Pacific nations Friday to gather opinions from the leaders of their assigned countries regarding the Group of Eight summit to be hosted by Japan in July, a Foreign Ministry official said.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb