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JAPAN
Nov 28, 2001

Imperial Couple off to Mie despite looming royal birth

The Emperor and Empress started a four-day visit Tuesday to Mie Prefecture to worship at Ise Shrine and visit a college and other facilities -- just as the Crown Princess is expected to give birth to her first baby any day now.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 28, 2001

Indispensable designs

When you pull a foil bag of potato chips down from the shelf in the supermarket, you're usually thinking only about its contents. But when that same colorful bag is used as a cover for an art catalog, the disposable wrapping has suddenly turned into an ambiguous, sophisticated artifact.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 27, 2001

Yoshida withdraws, may quit

Barcelona Olympic gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida pulled out of the Kodokan Cup judo weight-category national championships Sunday and hinted that the three-time Olympian may hang up his judo jacket.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2001

Income disparity vs. growth

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan reminded the world recently that the battle against terrorism might have displaced front-page news, but it has not solved pressing problems such as poverty and HIV/AIDS. The international community remains formally committed to the goal of reducing the level of poverty...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 25, 2001

A spark that ignited social change

ORGANIZING THE SPONTANEOUS: Citizen Protest in Postwar Japan, by Wesley Sasaki-Uemura. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2001, 293 pp., $27.95 (paper) The events accompanying the revision of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty in 1960 aroused strong emotions among those involved, making it difficult for...
COMMUNITY
Nov 24, 2001

Macchinesti: the accidental Ferrari of coffee shops

After the Japanese "kissaten," where coffee was coffee and not a lot more, came Doutor. Then came that all-conquering import, Starbucks, and a stream of similar lifestyle-focused camp followers of both American and Japanese descent. Now, suddenly, we have Macchinesti.
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2001

Insurer Taisei folds in wake of Sept. 11

Taisei Fire & Marine Insurance Co. filed Thursday with the Tokyo District Court for protection from creditors, becoming the first Japanese insurer to collapse under the weight of obligations arising from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 22, 2001

Banker sees smooth euro cash start, no 'black fund'

FRANKFURT -- Japanese investors should have full confidence in the stability and strength of the euro as the currency is launched in its physical form at the start of next year, according to the European central banker coordinating the project.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2001

Fitness clubs turning to middle-aged, elderly

Fitness clubs around Japan are embarking on a major campaign to attract middle-aged and elderly members by promoting exchanges and introducing discount rates.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 22, 2001

Oil fears make attack on Iraq unlikely

LONDON -- "We hear that Iraq may be targeted," said Sheik Ahmed Zaki al-Yamani, oil minister of Saudi Arabia during the 1970s and '80s heyday of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and now chairman of the London-based Center for Global Energy Studies. "Now, if that is a fact, the attacks...
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2001

'Sakura' dubbed a diplomatic tool

A group that believes "sakura" cherry trees are a vital tool in exchanging international goodwill is trying to raise the blossoms' profile ahead of the 90th anniversary of Tokyo's gift of cherry trees to Washington.
COMMENTARY
Nov 21, 2001

LDP strife must end before it's too late

The entire world has undergone radical change since terrorists attacked New York and Washington on Sept. 11. Having identified Osama bin Laden as the mastermind of the attacks, the United States, with military cooperation from Britain, launched bombing raids against Afghanistan's Taliban regime in October....
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 21, 2001

Electraglide 2001

Electraglide attracts big names, and that's why it has quickly become Japan's most eagerly anticipated annual dance event. Last year's inaugural event boasted Underworld and Orbital. This time around, Fatboy Slim headlines the DJ stage and Aphex Twin the live stage.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 18, 2001

Will New York ever be New York again?

NEW YORK -- I was one of many New Yorkers who had the sad experience of witnessing the destruction of the World Trade Center twin towers. The memories of those moments -- gigantic skyscrapers collapsing like castles made of sand -- have not disappeared from my mind. I wonder if they ever will? After...
COMMUNITY
Nov 18, 2001

Universal fashion: One design fits all

Everyone knows how hard it is to find clothes that fit, but imagine how much harder it would be if you had special needs. If you were a wheelchair-user looking for pants with gathers at the knees, or a frail senior looking for a blouse with easy-to-detach buttons, chances are you wouldn't find them easily...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 18, 2001

The long road to a barrier-free Japan

Compact size. Lightweight. High-speed. Extra new features. Appealing design. Competitive price. Manufacturers have long focused on criteria like these in their quest for successful product lines. In the single-minded pursuit of profits, though, consumers unable to adapt themselves to standardized products...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2001

Tobin tax: fodder for spendthrift pols

Suggestions have been made that the turmoil that swept through East Asia in 1997-98 is evidence of the instability of global capital markets. Supporters of this idea validated their claims by asserting that a contagion effect spread the turbulence to other emerging market economies.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 17, 2001

Handmade felt old hat? No, it's back in fashion

Boundary-pushing bags, brooches and necklaces. Wild hats and mufflers. Cosmological carpets and hangings. All-embracing jackets and coats. Every design unique, crafted from hand-felted wool and the most unexpected fibers.
EDITORIALS
Nov 15, 2001

Australia opts for stability

Australian voters opted for stability and continuity last weekend when they gave Prime Minister John Howard a third term in office. Although the margin of victory was greater than expected, Mr. Howard's Liberal-National coalition government only picked up a few seats in Parliament. Moreover, the policies...
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Nov 15, 2001

Travel the world in a tree-lover's heaven

When I arrived at Los Angeles airport in June, my friend Joan Juenemann was there to meet me. My stay in California was to be only three days, but Joan had kindly prepared an itinerary taking in one garden with its own unique character each day.
EDITORIALS
Nov 14, 2001

Another great leap forward

Fifteen years of hard bargaining paid off last weekend as China joined the World Trade Organization. The tenacity and persistence of Chinese negotiations are proof of the importance China's leaders attach to entry into the WTO. It marks China's re-emergence as a modern nation and will fully integrate...
CULTURE / Music
Nov 11, 2001

Back in brass -- and loving it

In the '60s and '70s, when rock was king, for any North American teen who dreamed of musical fame, learning to play the electric guitar with suitably straddle-legged machismo was the only route to nirvana. Taking up other unfashionable instruments like the trumpet, saxophone, tuba, clarinet, squeeze...
COMMENTARY
Nov 10, 2001

At last, Mori solution gets reconsidered

The events of Sept. 11 have at least done some good. To bolster its war on "terrorism," the United States seems willing finally to put an end to its highly contrived legacy of Cold War, anti-Beijing policies. Meanwhile, Japan may be ready to end its highly contrived, 50-year Cold War dispute with Moscow...
COMMUNITY
Nov 10, 2001

Welsh Society to sing its heart out for seeing dogs

Think Welsh and imagine small, dark, tough people with a passion for rugby and choral singing, the red dragon of the national flag, sunny daffodils (the national flower) and the green valleys of southern Wales. Yet here is Ursula Bartlett Imadegawa (known to friends as Ursula Bi) -- a blonde with green...
EDITORIALS
Nov 9, 2001

ASEAN dares to dream

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has once again demonstrated its willingness to dream. This year's summit meeting, held this week in Brunei, ended with a call to conclude a free-trade area with China. It is a seductive vision, but it is hard to envision the project's success: ASEAN is already...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2001

Howard ahead as election draws near

SYDNEY -- In these days of crisis -- as Australia sends troops to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan and thousands of boat people try to reach Australia illegally -- what more does Prime Minister John Howard need to win a national election this coming Saturday?

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami