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COMMUNITY
Apr 26, 2000

Celebrating the other Korakuen: Okayama

If I were asked to describe this garden with just one word, I would definitely choose "fantastic."
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Apr 23, 2000

On to Hawaii -- maybe

It is not surprising that I often become quite involved with readers and their problems. Take June Wong, who grew up in Hawaii but had to come to Japan to learn the hula. She was impressed by a group of Japanese women dancers and joined them. "I love my teacher and every one of my hula sisters," she...
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Apr 22, 2000

Inspiration that comes naturally

Nature, that miraculous giver of life, has been a source of inspiration for many Japanese artists, potters included, for many a century. Whether it be in floral motifs or the naturalness of their chosen materials or birds in flight, nature has played a conscious role in shaping the thoughts and vessels...
EDITORIALS
Apr 21, 2000

Hong Kong press under fire

When Hong Kong reverted to China in 1997, the Chinese government promised "one country, two systems." Beijing said the Crown Colony's traditions and policies would continue. The pledge was designed to reassure all that the unique blend of East and West that made the special administrative region an economic...
COMMENTARY
Apr 17, 2000

Time for a grand strategy

The new Cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori should start mapping out a grand design for Japan's national-security policies for the first half of the 21st century.
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Apr 16, 2000

The silken soul of modern poetry in Japan

At the Power of the Spoken Word reading at Ben's Cafe last month, Yasuo Fujitomi, John Solt, Masafumi Suzuki and Misako Yarita read from their works. Scholar and poet Fujitomi read from poems published in his CD of the highmoonoon spoken literature series, "whatnever" (3,500 yen), a sophisticated production...
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Apr 14, 2000

Communing with Kerouac

Spoken word, the increasingly hip combination of poetry and music, has never really cut it in Tokyo. While New York, Chicago and London boast regular spoken-word club nights and poetry slams, one of Tokyo's few regular events is the Johnbull-sponsored event dubbed Bookworm.
COMMUNITY
Apr 13, 2000

Home is where the condo is

Mari Ishiyama, a 38-year-old secretary at a foreign bank, had been looking for an apartment for several years, but always struck out when it came to the final lottery (a standard real-estate practice to decide who can purchase a unit in a building when there are too many prospective buyers). "My friends...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 13, 2000

Bangkok's never too far away

You can't get authentic Thai food in Tokyo south of Kabukicho -- at least that's what the conventional wisdom would have us believe. Indeed, as with any such sweeping generalization, there's a kernel of truth to it -- as long as what you're after is hawker food that's rough but ever ready, gentle on...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Apr 13, 2000

Fish, sake and crowds come together at Uoshin

Like the indigenous beverages of most countries, sake developed along with its national cuisine. Indeed, there are great differences in Japanese cuisine from region to region, small country though Japan may be, and these differences are reflected in the subtle differences in the sake.
COMMUNITY
Apr 9, 2000

Financial services fly at Banner

Some loudmouth once said that anyone who was in Japan during the bubble years of the late 1980s and had not made money -- a lot of money -- was a fool. Well, that makes me a dunce of the first order.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 9, 2000

BayStars' Rose picks right up where he left off with hot bat

How about that start by Yokohama BayStars cleanup hitter Bobby Rose? In the 'Stars first six games of the season, five of which they won, Rose went 14-for-21, belted four home runs, including a grand slam, drove in 12, scored nine, hit four doubles and compiled a .667 batting average, .750 on-base percentage...
COMMUNITY
Apr 4, 2000

Date club ads turn green Sendai pink with anger

SENDAI, Miyagi Pref. -- "Dial this number for beautiful office ladies." "Ring up for perky college coeds."
COMMENTARY
Apr 3, 2000

Readying for future warfare

LONDON -- Could the Cold War be about to begin all over again? That is the gloomy question being asked by a number of defense analysts and gurus as they contemplate a possible decision this summer by outgoing U.S. President Bill Clinton to give the go-ahead for a new National Missile Defense system for...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 1, 2000

Nagoya-Boston Museum of Fine Arts

A portion of the 13th-century picture scroll depicting the Battle of Heiji will return to Japan for the first time in 17 years, to be shown at the Nagoya-Boston Museum of Fine Arts, April 11-May 7.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 1, 2000

Speed quits after 44 months on top

The teenage Okinawan pop group Speed dissolved Friday after three years and eight months in show business.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2000

Sharpening Japan-U.S. strategic ties

U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen's recent visit to Tokyo demonstrates the immaturity of the U.S.-Japan alliance, particularly from a strategic point of view.
COMMUNITY
Mar 26, 2000

Lebanese Marie-Rose has a lot to say on love

Last Tuesday Marie-Rose Ishiguro was at odds with her handbag. Dressed in a bright red suit, with gold jewelry and matching buttons, she looked every inch the power executive. But her battered brown leather bag -- more a holdall really, handles secured with string and spilling papers, books and clothes...
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2000

Inamine sees prosperity after summit

Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine sees the upcoming Group of Eight summit as one step toward prosperity in his prefecture, which he said Friday has long been neglected and sacrificed for the economic growth of mainland Japan.
JAPAN
Mar 22, 2000

'Knock' admits in court he molested college coed

OSAKA -- Former Osaka Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama pleaded guilty Tuesday to molesting a 21-year-old woman inside a campaign van last April and admitted he had repeatedly lied in denying the charges.
COMMUNITY
Mar 19, 2000

Illegal worker in catch-22 for love of daughter

"Ram Sharma" and I talked long about the wisdom of doing this piece. He wanted to share his isolation and humiliation with another human being and possibly get some help in extricating himself from his situation. Regarding an interview, he said I should decide. No, I replied; he was the one at risk....
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2000

Train firms must erect safety barriers: panel

A special investigative committee on the deadly Hibiya Line subway train collision in Tokyo said Thursday that all railway companies should erect more railings and other safeguards along curves with a radius of 200 meters or less.
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2000

U.S. to give back Kadena base radar

Visiting U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen and Japanese leaders agreed Thursday on the return of control of the radar system at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Prefecture to Japan and to resolve an air pollution problem at a U.S. military base in Kanagawa Prefecture, according to Japanese officials.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2000

Coalition leaders agree on police system reform

The leaders of the coalition government agreed on new measures to reform the nation's scandal-tainted police system on Tuesday, during a review of recent police misdemeanors in Kanagawa and Niigata prefectures.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 15, 2000

The marketing that made Japan

ASSEMBLED IN JAPAN: Electrical Goods and the Making of the Japanese Consumer, by Simon Partner. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000, 317 pp., $19.95/12.50 British pounds (paper). I was standing on the corner by the Hachiko exit of Shibuya Station, looking at two giant television screens...
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2000

Trains kept running despite flaws

Despite irregularities found last year in subway trains operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, officials kept the trains in service and "saw no need" to report the irregularities to the Transport Ministry, officials admitted Tuesday.
COMMUNITY
Mar 12, 2000

Retailer joins big boys with Little Me for kids

If there was one thing Ron Kessler was sure of growing up in Chicago, he was not the corporate type. Yet surrounded by uncles in business, he really liked the idea of being an entrepreneur, working for himself. The irony, he said, is that "success forces you to become a manager. Starting up something...
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2000

Teito rejects accident theory

Teito Rapid Transit Authority on Friday denied media speculation that Wednesday's fatal subway collision was caused by the sliding of locked wheels, arguing that this situation would make a derailment unlikely.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 11, 2000

Scorched in the fires of Iga

The influence on contemporary Japanese pottery from medieval kilns is still profound and deep, even though we have one foot into the 21st century. These high-fired unglazed stonewares can be found in potting centers commonly referred to as the Six Old Kilns (rokkoyo) -- the only problem is that this...

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