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BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 19, 2000

Tigers blank Giants 5-0

Pitcher Shinobu Fukuhara tossed a four-hitter over the distance Tuesday as the Hanshin Tigers shut out the Yomiuri Giants 5-0 at the Tokyo Dome.
COMMENTARY
Apr 19, 2000

Skewed views of Obuchi par for the course

Memories are short. In 1998, most foreign media poured scorn on the choice of Keizo Obuchi to replace former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, who had been forced to resign because of the weak economy and an election setback.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Apr 19, 2000

The first to go

The outlook for the economy may be brightening, but the glow is not apparent among museums. First to close was Seibu's museum in Ikebukuro, followed by the Roppongi Arts and Crafts Museum in 1998 and Mitsukoshi's Shinjuku museum which closed last year. Next will be Tobu's Ikebukuro museum, which will...
MORE SPORTS
Apr 18, 2000

Cowboys-Falcons tilt set for Tokyo Dome

The five-time Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys make their second appearance in Japan when they take on the Atlanta Falcons on Aug. 6 at the Tokyo Dome in NFL Tokyo 2000, a National Football League international preseason game which was formerly known as the American Bowl.
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 15, 2000

Illusion meister's imagination creates world of visual fantasy

When we were children, the world was a place full of magic and mystery. In our minds, Santa Claus really existed; a ghost lived in the attic; and we could easily imagine our favorite doll coming to life overnight.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Apr 15, 2000

Education -- in whose music?

Enter a Japanese junior high school music classroom and you might wonder what country you're in. Pasted high along the walls of the classrooms are faded pictures of European composers, all looking very austere (and all very dead). In the middle of the room there is usually a Yamaha piano or Electone,...
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
Apr 13, 2000

10 questions for the man from Slovakia

One of the pluses of hanging around the press box at soccer matches is never knowing who you're going to bump into. It might be a manager or player, a wife, a girlfriend, a TV star, an old friend, anybody really. More often than not you see a strange face and people whisper, "Who's that?" or "Isn't that...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 13, 2000

Tiny Qatar brings freedom of the press to the Arab world

QATAR -- On a recent visit to Qatar, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak wanted to satisfy his curiosity about something bothering him and most other Arab rulers. It was past midnight when he descended unannounced on the Jazeera TV station. His surprise was hardly less than that of staff still around at...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Apr 11, 2000

Femi, from Fuji to Tokyo

In Nigeria there is a music called Fuji. In the early 1990s, Fuji was the most popular music in Nigeria. The music's originator, Sikiru Barrister, named it after seeing a postcard of Mount Fuji. He said it was the most beautiful mountain he had ever seen, and dreamed of playing or recording in view of...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2000

EU knocking down the Tower of Babel

BRUSSELS — The European Union brings together 15 states with a total population of 380 million people. Thirteen other countries have applied to join. Europeans speak some 45 different languages, of which 11 are recognized as official languages for the purposes of EU business. But millions of European...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 9, 2000

Jane Marwick

In the late 1980s the Tokyo International Learning Community began in a very small way as a support group for parents of children with special needs. TILC opened a school in a church room, where children suffering from a wide range of disabilities were brought together in a learning environment.
COMMUNITY
Apr 7, 2000

'Parasite singles': problem or victims?

Recently much attention is being paid in Japan to the so-called "parasite singles," grown children in their 20s and 30s who have left school and gotten jobs but are still unmarried and living at home with their parents.
EDITORIALS
Apr 5, 2000

After Mr. Obuchi's collapse

Worry, speculation and embarrassment have overwhelmed Japan's political world in the two days since Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi was incapacitated by a stroke on Sunday. As hopes vanished for his resumption of the nation's most responsible political post, the Obuchi Cabinet resigned en bloc on Tuesday...
EDITORIALS
Apr 2, 2000

The sense of taking leave

You have to feel a spark of sympathy for British first lady Cherie Blair. Never having sought the spotlight herself, she was in it anyway, as the wife of the prime minister -- although she managed to avoid the worst of the glare by focusing on her legal career and her three children. But the wattage...
CULTURE / Music
Apr 2, 2000

IPO's Tokyo performance unforgettable and provocative

Israel Philharmonic Orchestra: Feb. 23, Zubin Mehta conducting in Suntory Hall -- Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21 (Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770-1827); Symphony No. 4 in E-flat Major "Romantic" (Josef Anton Bruckner, 1824-96)
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 31, 2000

Agbayani's slam earns Mets split

The New York Mets finally broke their goose egg at the Big Egg.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 28, 2000

The marvelous paradox of Ise

ISE -- JAPAN'S ISE SHRINES: Ancient but New, by Svend Hvass. Holte: Aristo Press, 146 pp., profusely illustrated, 6,000 yen. Ise holds one of the most important Shinto shrines in Japan. Enshrining the ancestral gods of the Imperial family, it has a long and varied political career. Such was its power...
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2000

Police arrest ministry official

Police on Monday arrested a bureaucrat at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries who was allegedly wined and dined to the tune of about 1.9 million yen by an agricultural cooperative in Kagawa Prefecture in return for favors involving farm subsidies.
SUMO
Mar 26, 2000

Triumph still within grasp for Takatoriki

Yokozuna Akebono turned the tables on nemesis Takatoriki on Saturday, denying the No. 14 maegashira a chance to win his first-ever Emperor's Cup at the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament.
COMMUNITY
Mar 24, 2000

Women's lib pioneer Hiratsuka -- feminist or individualist?

"In the beginning, woman was the sun," is the famous manifesto issued by Raicho Hiratsuka, Japan's pioneer feminist, nearly 90 years ago. Her character, however, remains little known except among researchers of her achievements.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 23, 2000

Housing for human beings: Let natural harmony prevail

Akinori Sagane is a man with a mission, an architect with an idealistic vision of how humans can live in greater harmony with the natural environment.
EDITORIALS
Mar 22, 2000

The CDU's new image

Reeling from financing scandals that threaten former Chancellor Helmut Kohl with criminal prosecution, Germany's Christian Democrats have turned to Ms. Angela Merkel to cleanse the party. It is a gamble, but it could pay off.
COMMUNITY
Mar 19, 2000

She walks! She talks! She dances!

The Hello Kitty logo is ubiquitous. She is everywhere, on everything, from pencil cases and T-shirts to cellular phones and suitcases. Without a doubt, Hello Kitty is a globally recognized icon, but in a musical revue directed by Amon Miyamoto, she becomes more than just a logo. She is given life. She...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 18, 2000

Shakuhachi tips and tunes to welcome in the spring season

If you want to learn more about the shakuhachi and various performance techniques, observe a variety of instruments for sale and hear a selection of original pieces played by young performers, then I recommend the Senshu Kobo Sunday Clinic and Open Lesson.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 18, 2000

Getting your roots crossed

Contemporary art on the cutting edge and traditional crafts firmly rooted in the past seem poles apart. But what if their paths crossed? One answer to the question is currently on show in Tokyo's Sumida Ward, where various crafts -- from ivory carving to hagoita battledores -- have been given a new twist...
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2000

Former minister gets prison term

The Tokyo District Court sentenced former Labor Minister Toshio Yamaguchi to four years in prison Thursday in connection with illicit loans involving two failed Tokyo credit unions.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2000

A new era of democracy in Taiwan

TAIPEI -- On Saturday, the Republic of China will hold its second direct election for the presidency and the vice presidency. Throughout Chinese history, the concept of popular sovereignty has never been so strong as it is now. Therefore, this election will surely demonstrate to the international community...
JAPAN / Media
Mar 16, 2000

Mercian salutes cluelessness with New Frontier awards

Spring is in the air, and a young publicist's thoughts turn to awards ceremonies. Across the sea, we've seen the Golden Globes and the Grammys, and at the end of the month there's the Oscars.
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...

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight