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JAPAN
Jul 8, 2000

Monazite storage to see no charges

People found to be in possession of monazite are not likely to be charged for failing to store the low-level radioactive material safely because laws do not cover its storage, investigative sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2000

Nuclear safety report apologizes for Tokai

Commission vows to win back trust The Nuclear Safety Commission on Friday expressed regret over its inability to prevent last September's fatal nuclear accident in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Jul 8, 2000

Through the fires of experience to beauty

One afternoon a few months ago I had the pleasure of taking a visiting dignitary around Tokyo to view pottery. While we were riding around in his limousine and talking about Japanese pottery he said many times how sublime he thought it was.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 8, 2000

Quest for Huangshan of the heart

To the south of the Yangtse River in China's Anhui Province, near the medieval city of Wuhu, rise the Huangshan mountains: a series of jagged peaks and crags, not very high, as mountains go, but intensely dramatic. The clouds and mist that swirl around their pine-crested heights, the mysterious grottoes...
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Jul 7, 2000

Save the last dance for Yokota

Susumu Yokota's career has been mercurial enough to warrant the many pseudonyms under which he has released his work. Flitting from house to techno and back again, Yokota has brought his musical curiosity and energy to every genre he's chosen to embrace.
LIFE / Style & Design / SIMPLY DIVINE
Jul 6, 2000

Art and design meet status and money

Ignore the rainy season and dream that you are sweating by the sea rather than on the subway. Hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, magazines . . . You probably already protect your skin with Clarins, shield your eyes with Gucci sunglasses, flaunt your bits in a Ralph Lauren bikini, but would you shell out over...
CULTURE / Music
Jul 6, 2000

86-year-old composer going strong

At 86, Saburo Takata may be the oldest working composer of classical music in the world. Not that he feels like it.
LIFE / Travel
Jul 5, 2000

Japanese researcher chips away at an ancient mystery

PHONSAVAN, Laos -- Archaeologist Eiji Nitta dug and scraped. The answer to the puzzle of the giant stone vessels scattered throughout the Plain of Jars in northern Laos lay, he believed, not in their material or their contents, but in what lay under them.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 4, 2000

Reinterpreting an American classic

Summertime, and the listenin' is easy. No, I don't mean "easy listening"; I mean jazz.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 3, 2000

Australia warily watches arc of insecurity

SYDNEY -- Once the world romanticized about the South Pacific paradise. Today, Australia is guardedly debating the Balkanization of the South Pacific.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2000

International preschool not just about English

On the wall of a gray concrete apartment building on Kawasaki's Shinkawa-dori Avenue a colorful sign reads "Kincarn International Preschool."
CULTURE / Art
Jul 2, 2000

Adeagbo seeks animistic roots in Japan

The Toyota Municipal Museum has become the first institution in Japan to invite Georges Adeagbo, an award-winning West African artist, to create a site-specific installation, which is open to the public now until Sept. 2.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jul 2, 2000

Remembrance

"Sensei." Along with "sayonara," that is one of the first words most of us learn when we come to Japan. Though the image has been somewhat tarnished in these recent years of school disorders and juvenile delinquency, traditionally the word sensei, or teacher, has been one of the most honorific terms...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 2, 2000

Machiko Kobayashi

In "The Book of Tea," Okakura Kakuzo refers to the person "with no tea" in him, the one "insusceptible to the seriocomic interests of the personal drama." He mentions too the one "with too much tea" in him, "the untamed aesthete." Machiko Kobayashi, tea ceremony teacher and demonstrator, falls into neither...
JAPAN
Jul 1, 2000

Unemployment rate falls 0.2 point to 4.6% for May

The nation's seasonally adjusted jobless rate fell 0.2 percentage point to 4.6 percent in May, the second consecutive month of decline, the Management and Coordination Agency said in a preliminary report released Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2000

Corruption undermines India

In recent weeks, the gentleman's game of cricket has been rocked to its foundations by charges and confessions of match-fixing. A commission of inquiry set up in South Africa has confirmed the fall from grace of former captain Hanse Cronje, once the epitome of professionalism and dedication to God, country...
COMMUNITY
Jun 29, 2000

Fresh ideas keep old traditions alive

"A hundred people must have told me it was impossible," said Sarah Cummings as we sipped sake in the stylish Kurabu restaurant in the village of Obuse.
LIFE / Travel
Jun 29, 2000

Take the sunset road to Fukuoka's natural lifestyle zone

"Everyone wants to head west," an architect friend told me recently. "It's natural. That's where the sun sets, and where thoughts of relaxation turn to at the end of the day."
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 29, 2000

Marriage guide for men begs the question, 'Et tu, Brutus?'

In the cultural wars secular liberalism continues its slow, laborious march toward victory (two steps forward, one step back), but one bastion of male-centered tradition remains inviolate: the marriage proposal. Men do the asking, and women wait for them to ask. The vector indicated by this dynamic mimics...
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 28, 2000

Venables likes France's chances at Euro 2000

BRUSSELS -- Former England manager Terry Venables is tipping France to win the European Championship. Venables, who led England to the semifinals of Euro 96 in England, has been impressed by the improvement in the French team since it won the World Cup two years ago.
LIFE / Travel
Jun 28, 2000

Beguiling smiles along an ancient road

All Silk Roads lead to Xian, China's capital during some 2,000 years of its history and the cosmopolitan center of East-West trade during the Tang Dynasty (618-907).
CULTURE / Books
Jun 27, 2000

Your most valuable briefing paper

DOING BUSINESS WITH THE NEW JAPAN, by James Day Hodgson, Yoshihiro Sano and John L. Graham. Rowman & Littlefield, 2000, 230 pp., $27.95 (cloth). Do we really need another book about doing business in Japan? Probably not -- and not even if this is a "new Japan" or a new era in international capitalism....
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 26, 2000

Engineered bacteria could end acid rain

Can bacteria improve air quality and prevent acid rain? Scientists believe so, and a group in Japan are engineering a new bacterium that could do the job.
EDITORIALS
Jun 25, 2000

Unbinding the ties

There is news from the Western fashion front this month that will make men breathe a little easier, especially as the days grow hotter. The tie, after having had its victims by the throat for several centuries, may finally be seeing its grip loosened.
COMMUNITY
Jun 25, 2000

Don't run for cover, go Zurich Insurance!

Sitting on the swishest sofa ever -- an L-shaped signature design in scarlet leather -- in the lobby of Zurich Insurance, I picked up a book from the sea-green plate-glass coffee table and began reading up on "The Swiss." What should I expect of the president of such a company? Having met any number...
CULTURE / Art
Jun 25, 2000

The phoenix from the end of time

When the great Heian Period statesman Fujiwara no Michinaga died in 1027, he left his comfortable suburban retreat on the banks of the Uji River to his son Yorimichi (along with a good deal else).
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2000

Korean summit remains a blank sheet

HONG KONG -- Perhaps it is in the nature of joint declarations that their merits tend to be exaggerated. The British did it with their joint declaration with China regarding Hong Kong, the Indians did it with their joint declaration with Pakistan at Lahore. Now the South Koreans, plus many foreigners...
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2000

Japan, EU to announce new accord

Japan and the European Union plan to issue an upgraded bilateral pact covering their relations in a wide range of fields such as politics, economics and culture at their regular bilateral summit July 19, a senior trade ministry official said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jun 22, 2000

Can Daley win it for Gore?

WASHINGTON -- I saw it coming. Tony Coehlo, chairman of the Gore 2000 presidential campaign, was reported to be hospitalized for some form of unidentifiable stomach problem and his aides are reporting that he is suffering from fatigue. Yes, his end was coming.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building