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CULTURE / Stage
Jul 2, 1999

Teshigawara gets down to 'Absolute Zero'

It's hard to imagine Saburo Teshigawara ever coming up with a solo to rival "Absolute Zero," his work currently in production at Setagaya Public Theater.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 1, 1999

Wood blocks carved from nostalgia

Tsuzen Nakajima's woodblock prints trigger memories in the same way certain melodies or particular scenes may whisk us back to pleasant moments of the past. Nakajima depicts the landscapes of Japan and often uses geta, Japanese umbrellas or tatami rooms as his subjects, complementing those backgrounds...
JAPAN
Jun 23, 1999

Judge hopefuls finding system less than just

KYOTO — When lawyer Masaki Kunihiro, 52, applied to become a court judge last year, he didn't fully expect to be accepted.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 1999

Norway ambassador leaves satisfied after five-year term

John Bjornebye, who is leaving for Oslo today after nearly five years in Tokyo as the Norwegian ambassador, expressed satisfaction that the two countries' relations have become more globally oriented.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Jun 19, 1999

From court to village across the centuries

During the upcoming early summer weeks, one can experience a wide variety of fine hogaku concerts, including sublime gagaku court music, a lively group of kagura performers from Iwate Prefecture, contemporary koto music played by several fine young women performers, a large-scale biwa presentation and...
JAPAN
Jun 10, 1999

Government outlines job-creation measures

The government on Thursday outlined its long-awaited emergency steps to bolster job security and revive industrial competitiveness, setting a target of 720,000 new jobs.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 8, 1999

The 'nobody' who changed Japan

RYOMA: Life of a Renaissance Samurai, by Romulus Hillsborough. Ridgeback Press, San Francisco, 1999, 614 pages, $40 (cloth). Every country needs its heroes. Unfortunately, the great Japanese hero seems to have been a casualty of World War II. To this day, Japan tends to look all the way back to the Edo...
LIFE / Travel
Jun 2, 1999

Learning through landscapes

ARBORFIELD CROSS, England -- When Susan Humphries was appointed head of the Coombes Infant School in Arborfield Cross, Surrey, an hour's drive from London, it was doubtless a satisfying moment in career terms. A school of her own at last. What she did not realize, and is likely to dismiss modestly today,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 20, 1999

Pinching pennies for a better future — if any

One of the bedrock beliefs that Japanese society has about itself is that everyone belongs to the middle class. This isn't to say pronounced social classes don't exist. A middle-aged woman once expressed to me her fear that her adult daughter would never get married and move out. Since the daughter worked...
CULTURE / Books
May 18, 1999

Half a biography of Fujimori

THE PRESIDENT WHO DARED TO DREAM: Alberto Fujimori of Peru, by Rei Kimura. Worcester, U.K.: Eyelevel Books, 184 pp., $14.90 (paper). Peru and Japan just celebrated the 100th anniversary of the first Japanese immigrants' arrival in Peru on April 3, 1899. President Alberto Fujimori, himself the son of...
CULTURE / Music
May 14, 1999

Australian pop-rock trio Even battles 'tyranny of distance'

Few Australian bands have managed to gain large audiences and commercial success outside their homeland in the 1990s. Critics down under claim it's the "tyranny of distance," that Australia is simply too far away from the rest of the record-buying world, which keeps many Aussie acts from making it overseas....
JAPAN
May 13, 1999

Rubin's departure won't affect policy, relations: Miyazawa

Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said Thursday he does not think the resignation of U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin will change U.S. economic policy or U.S.-Japan relations.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 2, 1999

Everybody knows when the heat's on Frankie

They say "kids" grow up fast but you should see my kitten -- 6 months going on "sweet 16." This was my first experience with a cat going through puberty. I warn you never to come within 100 meters of any cat going through puberty, or you just may become the cat's object of desire.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
May 2, 1999

A remarkable lady

There should be trumpets. On May 8 at 10 a.m., Music for Youth will celebrate its 60th anniversary. The program with the New Japan Philharmonic will repeat MFY's first concert in 1939, which was designed to help young people enjoy and appreciate classical music. In this program, Schubert's "March Militaire"...
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 20, 1999

Nakamuras highlight double-suicide plays

During the month of April, the Kabukiza in Ginza is offering its annual Nakamura-kai program, featuring such major actors as Kichiemon, Jakuemon, Ganjiro, Tomijuro and Baigyoku, who belong to the Nakamura line of kabuki actors.
EDITORIALS
Apr 17, 1999

A long shadow over Malaysia

After a 78-day trial, former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was found guilty Wednesday of four counts of corruption and sentenced to six years in prison. The verdict, which has triggered protests by Mr. Anwar's supporters, was condemned by the defendant and questioned by others around...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 1999

A confectioner for all seasons

Japanese tea and wagashi (Japanese-style confections) are inseparable in the tea ceremony. Wagashi, served before the tea itself, are said to draw out the essence of the tea.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Apr 17, 1999

New version of the old koto makes music for the future

While Japanese traditional instruments boast long histories (up to 1,200 years in some cases, since their importation from the Asian continent) most reached their present forms hundreds of years ago and have not changed since.
EDITORIALS
Apr 15, 1999

Justice for all, even prosecutors

The Public Prosecutor's Office, in any country, is the arm of the law responsible for investigating crimes, gathering evidence and seeing to it that justice is done. In Japan, where collusion among politicians, bureaucrats and business-people is not uncommon, the Public Prosecutor's Office is often the...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Apr 13, 1999

A Japanese musician's songs in 'The Homes of Donegal'

Hiroshi Yamaguchi of the group Heat Wave looks like any other worker at his manager's office. He sits at a desk, busily working away on a computer. After a few words, however, it's clear he could never be just any other worker. "I hate it here," he half confesses, half jokes. "I've never had to come...
LIFE / Travel
Apr 7, 1999

Underwater neighborhoods

PHUKET, Thailand -- The coral-rich waters of the Andaman and Similan Seas off the coast of Phuket have become a mecca for scuba divers: Here awaits a treasure of diverse marine species, some of which can be found in few other places on earth.
CULTURE / Art / ARTS AND ARTISANS
Apr 3, 1999

Block-printed paper beauty

Chiyogami is colorful handmade paper printed with Japanese traditional patterns or designs, and is usually used by girls for making kimono-clad dolls, small boxes, or bookmarks.
JAPAN
Apr 1, 1999

New FSA employees eager to improve industry

Fourteen new recruits joined the Financial Supervisory Agency Thursday as the first new staff to be hired based on the national public service exam since the watchdog was launched in June.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 1999

Kakizawa's goals hinge on unaffiliated voters

Staff writer
JAPAN
Mar 26, 1999

Local Elections '99: Hatoyama and 'symbiosis with nature'

Staff writer
JAPAN
Mar 25, 1999

Gubernatorial campaigns kick off

Campaigning for gubernatorial elections slated for April 11 in 12 prefectures, including Tokyo and Osaka, started Thursday, kicking off the first round of the quadrennial unified local elections.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 1999

Local Elections '99: Showdown in cash-dry Tokyo

Staff writer
CULTURE / Books
Mar 24, 1999

One bullheaded Buddhist

LOYALTY DEMANDS DISSENT: Autobiography of an Engaged Buddhist, by Sulak Sivaraksa. Parallax Press, 1998, 450 baht. Sulak Sivaraksa, upon reaching the age of 65, decided to look backward and ponder decades of constant activity in Thai society. The book opens with a foreword by the Dalai Lama, who states...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 17, 1999

Last glimpses of a vanishing people

THE VANISHING TRIBES OF BURMA, by Richard K. Diran. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 240 pp., $60. Coffee-table photo books are usually too expensive, space-consuming or indistinguishable in content from the art of the glossy postcard for most of us to consider buying. Every once in a while, however,...

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