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JAPAN
Oct 25, 2000

Grade crossings taking time, taking lives

The mercury was already testing its upper limit when 83-year-old Kane Moritani left her Yokohama home one morning last summer to visit the neighborhood dentist.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2000

It's a matter of life and death

Staff writer Brain death: It's a phrase we hear every day. In Japan, the public has been exposed to it to the point of numbness through nationwide campaigns for more organ donors. "Brain death is human death, and organ donation saves lives," we are exhorted. In the United States, the world's leading...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 24, 2000

Revealing the nation one grain at a time

THE POLITICS OF AGRICULTURE IN JAPAN, by Aurelia George Mulgan. London & New York: Routledge, 2000, 856 pp.,82 British pounds/$125 (cloth). In 1890, a young German academic agreed to evaluate a survey of landowners in the German provinces east of the Elbe River. Overcoming the limitations of biased...
EDITORIALS
Oct 23, 2000

Yugoslavia's long road

Having toppled Mr. Slobodan Milosevic, Yugoslavia's new president, Mr. Vojislav Kostunica, must now consolidate power if he is to return his country to the family of European nations. His efforts to form an interim government have been hampered by Yugoslavia's federal structure and the bad blood between...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 22, 2000

Bidding goodbye to the monoculture myth

Some years ago I was sitting at the counter of a rather exclusive sushi restaurant in the Roppongi district of Tokyo when I noticed that a middle-age man a few stools along was making monosyllabic comments each time I ordered a morsel of sushi or slipped one into my mouth.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 22, 2000

All you ever wanted to know about voodoo

Gaston Jean-Baptiste, known as "Bonga," is a voodoo priest and a conga player. Bonga has been touring Japan giving workshops on Haitian music and teaching the traditions of Haiti. Luckily, one of the stops on his tour was my living room. A small, amiable man with dreadlocks, Bonga spoke from his "zabuton":...
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2000

Woman says boss ordered her to kill

A restaurant employee charged in a murder-for-insurance case has told police that she laced food and liquor served to a man whose body was later found floating in a river with the poisonous herb aconite, according to sources.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2000

Peace far away under fragile coalition

NEW DELHI -- Peace seems to be eluding Sri Lanka. The latest parliamentary elections there has caused disquiet and confusion after the electorate failed to give a clear mandate to either Chandrika Kumaratunga's People's Alliance (PA) or Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP).
EDITORIALS
Oct 19, 2000

Back to step one in the Middle East

After two days of intense negotiations, Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed this week to a ceasefire that would end the bloodiest unrest the region has experienced in decades. Neither Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak nor Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat has evinced much enthusiasm for...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 17, 2000

An unambiguous democrat

At the moment of his greatest personal triumph, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung once again demonstrated his magnanimity. "I return all my honor to the people and the citizens of the world, who love democracy and human rights," the president was quoted as saying after he was awarded the Nobel Peace...
COMMENTARY
Oct 16, 2000

Reorganization isn't reform

Japan's central bureaucracy will be reorganized, effective Jan. 6, to mark the start of a new administrative system. The reform will have significant influence on local governments and the public, too. It is part of efforts to restructure Japanese society, which has been bound by webs of restrictions...
MORE SPORTS
Oct 16, 2000

Halard-Decugis, Schalken claim Japan Open tennis titles

It was death by a thousand cuts or, to put it another way, victory by a thousand errors.
EDITORIALS
Oct 15, 2000

Turning the clock back

The Middle East continues its descent into violence. The immediate task is ending the bloodshed that has occurred throughout Palestinian territory and restoring order. The question hovering over the carnage is whether the peace process can be resurrected. Nearly 100 people have been killed in a little...
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2000

Ministries at odds on greenhouse gas

The Environment Agency and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry are at odds on how to handle junked automobile air conditioners and the ozone-depleting greenhouse gases they contain, sources said.
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Oct 15, 2000

Rexroth revolution comes home to Japan

Yokohama-based essayist and poet Morgan Gibson has been and continues to be one of the most prolific contributors to Japan's English literary scene. Of his own work he had poems published in the 1970s in pioneering journals like One Mind and Kyoto Review and later, in the '80s, in publications like Blue...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 15, 2000

Where do the Japanese stand today?

A malaise is abroad in Japan and that malaise is apathy and hopelessness. Ever since the Meiji era -- 1868-1912 -- when the modern state of Japan was established and developed, the one thing that the Japanese people imbued their national effort, their prodigious diligence, with was a sense of hope: that...
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2000

Japan 'has never apologized': Zhu

Visiting Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji stated Saturday that Japan has never officially apologized to the Chinese people for its wartime aggression and said he wants the Japanese people to consider that fact.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Oct 14, 2000

Bringing simple beauty from the inside out

Hot fun in the summertime has slowly segued into the cool cultural events of autumn, which is popularly known as "bunka no kisetsu (the cultural season)." Autumn not only brings delightful weather but also a slew of exhibitions and festivals to keep anyone's schedule topped off. Rest your weary overworked...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Oct 13, 2000

Tomorrow today

Predicting the future is always a risky business, but the uncertainties seem to be magnified when it comes to information technologies. Blame it on "tipping points," unstable equilibriums, systems analysis, whatever, but planning ahead has never been a more hazardous exercise.
LIFE / Food & Drink / WINE WAYS
Oct 12, 2000

What bulging waistline? Let's talk about cheese

When your 8-year-old son suddenly starts thumping your belly gleefully like a bongo drum, chances are it means you've put on some weight. I confess that I've added 2-3 kg to my 190-cm frame since arriving more than a year ago in Belgium, a gastronomic paradise blessed with a tremendous variety of wines,...
EDITORIALS
Oct 9, 2000

What's in a symbol?

"Symbolism," according to Edward N. West in "Outward Signs," his classic study of Christian symbols, "is so powerful that the message conveyed, regardless of origin or context, is perfectly clear."
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2000

Palestinians fight decades of injustice

AL-BIREH, West Bank -- Areen, my 6-year-old daughter, has been unusually quiet. This normally energetic, very talkative child could not fully understand why school was canceled on Saturday after she was dressed and ready to go. On Sunday, during the news broadcast of the death of 12-year-old Mohammed...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2000

Taiwan's 'experiment in government' fails

TAIPEI -- The ground heaved and shook in Taiwan's turbulent political landscape last Tuesday, and by the time the dust had cleared after the sudden resignation of Prime Minister Tang Fei, President Chen Shui-bian's 5 month-old model for government -- in his words, "a government for all the people" --...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 9, 2000

From nothingness, a celebration of life

A DREAM LIKE THIS WORLD: One Hundred Haiku, by Nagata Koi, translated by Naruto Nana and Margaret Mitsutani. Tokyo: Todosha Publishers, 2000, 147 pp., 2,381 yen (cloth). Dream and waking life. Reality and illusion. Where does one begin and the other end? This question radiates at the heart of Nagata...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 2000

Tokyo poised to lift ban on exterior train ads

How can Tokyo buses and streetcars make more money without attracting more passengers? One answer: advertising.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 8, 2000

Plenty to get antsy about at your local bank

Today we will examine something I refer to as Anthill Economics. The other day when I entered the local anthill, i.e., the bank, the usual staff of 33 employees greeted me. The most customers I've ever seen inside the bank is 10, but that's not the point. The anthill employs as many ants as possible...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji