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COMMUNITY
Feb 9, 2000

Down by the waterside in Mizumoto Park

Even in Tokyo there is such a place: a park with large open spaces, where a whole family can enjoy picnics, barbecues, camping, flowers and beautiful trees, catch fish and watch birds. Look no further than Mizumoto Park.
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 4, 2000

Dance fests spotlight solo performances

Tokyo is awash with festivals of dance this month, mostly by solo dancers, which is not surprising since the majority of performers here prefer the controlled environment of one-man shows. But what is surprising is that even with all the organization involved in planning these events, the sudden accumulation...
COMMUNITY
Jan 26, 2000

China's gray peril

BEIJING -- Xue Aiying, a 65-year-old retired worker from Nanjing, used to go to Bailuzhou Park every morning to practice Falun Gong before the sect was outlawed in July last year. "I didn't know what to do with myself after I retired," she explains. "I felt lonely and empty before I joined Falun Gong."...
COMMUNITY
Jan 12, 2000

Camellias and camels on Izu Oshima

Izu Oshima has another special attraction: the camellia park. The whole park has an area of 327 hectares, including the camellia garden, a small zoo and a campground known as Umi no Furusato Mura, situated close to the Goze River, all managed by the Tokyo Parks Department.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jan 12, 2000

We have a future

Another megamerger, another Internet world-eating conglomerate emerges. Apart from its size, the AOL-Time/Warner deal is a big deal: The marriage of AOL and Time Warner matters (if it goes throtwo reasons. First, it combines one of the biggest Net presences with a broadband delivery systefinally makes...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 8, 2000

Ceramic greats spotlighted

New Year's Greetings to all Ceramic Scene readers! In Japan there are innumerable artistic groups that allow their members to exchange ideas or research, sponsor lectures or workshops and to acknowledge outstanding work in their respective fields. The Japan Ceramic Society (Nihon Toji Kyokai) is one...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 1999

Russia's Jewish homeland: a Stalinist experiment in social engineering lingers on

BIROBIDZHAN, RUSSIA -- Mikhail Kul was a soldier in the Soviet Army that helped defeat Germany in 1945, but he returned home to find that the Holocaust had emptied his Ukrainian village of most of its inhabitants.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Dec 22, 1999

Getting away from it all on Izu's Big Island

Ura-Izu-Oshima Part 1
JAPAN
Dec 20, 1999

No-redress rulings upheld

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld lower court rulings that dismissed claims made by former Koreans imprisoned for war crimes after World War II and a relative of a Korean member executed after the war. The former members of the Imperial Japanese Army were tried by the Allied powers and classified as...
EDITORIALS
Dec 17, 1999

The dust settles, temporarily

The United States and China continue to put their relationship to rights. This week, the two countries agreed to a deal that would provide compensation for the damage caused by the NATO missile attack last May on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade and the angry demonstrations that followed in Beijing. The...
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1999

Crime on the rise; arrests on the wane

Police are making fewer arrests while the number of serious crimes are on the increase, a survey released Thursday by the National Police Agency shows. According to the survey, arrests for such crimes as murder, robbery, and indecent assault -- those classified by police as "serious crimes" -- decreased...
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Dec 8, 1999

The natural treasures of Kinomiya Shrine

Atami in Shizuoka, along with Beppu in Kyushu and Shirahama in Wakayama, is well known for its hot springs.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Nov 24, 1999

A mountainous garden undertaking for all

Rikugien in Tokyo is the last in this series on gardens built in old Edo (modern Tokyo) by daimyo under the Tokugawa military government (bakufu) between 1603 and 1868.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 1999

Four hormone disrupter suspects tagged for study

The Environment Agency said Friday it will put priority on studying four chemicals believed to disrupt the endocrine systems of humans and wildlife after a survey found them in concentrations that could affect living organisms.
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1999

Dioxin levels fall but benzene still above limits

Dioxin levels in air throughout Japan improved in 1998, but levels of benzene -- a potent carcinogen found in automobile exhaust -- are still above government safety levels, according to the government's most comprehensive survey of harmful airborne chemicals.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Oct 10, 1999

Loyalty

A gentleman writes with great affection about his hairbrush. It is, he says, a very nice, heavy hairbrush with a teak back and it is in need of new boar bristles, not surprising since he has used it for 20 years. He hopes to find a shop that can do this kind of work, but where?
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Sep 22, 1999

Borrowing scenery for a lord's lagoon

A short distance from the center of Wakayama City, on an inlet very close to the sea, is a flat piece of land called Suiken, where a well-preserved daimyo garden known as Yosui-en stands.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 1999

Exhibition displays horrors of Minamata disaster

Staff writer
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 24, 1999

Lively National Noh Theater possessed by colorful spirit

Noh has a disorientating history. It emerged from folk rites, developed into the most popular art of its day, and has since been refined out of all recognition. Devotees maintain its accessibility, but modern Japanese are far more likely to head for Tokyo Disneyland than any of the 60-odd principal stages....
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Aug 12, 1999

Nihonshu's sweet spectrum

Perhaps the best way to buy sake is to have tasted enough to know exactly what you are looking for, and find that label. Advice and recommendations go a long way too. But we all need to foray into the unknown and try new things at times.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Aug 11, 1999

Nopporo's wild north woods

Nopporo Woodland Park, located approximately 15 km east of central Sapporo in Hokkaido, is huge, with a total area of 2,051 hectares. It is rare to find such a large and wonderful park so close to a major city in Japan. The citizens of Sapporo, Ebetsu and Hiroshimacho are privileged to have this natural...
JAPAN
Jul 27, 1999

Scheme hatched for Jordan debt relief

Japan will provide Jordan with several billion yen in official development assistance to help the country alleviate its external debt-repayment burden and enhance domestic political stability amid a critical period for the regional peace process, government sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 23, 1999

Banks claim problem loans dropping off

Self-assessed problem loans at the nation's 910 deposit-accepting financial institutions totaled 80.6 trillion yen as of March 31, down slightly from a year earlier, the Financial Supervisory Agency said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Jul 19, 1999

Iran's shrewd president

There is calm again in Tehran, but the peace is likely to be only temporary. After a fearsome counterstrike by conservative forces, the students demanding more freedom in Iran have retreated to their dormitories. But if their voices have been stilled, the reform movement that they have been spearheading...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jul 18, 1999

Working with the system

A reader hopes to benefit from today's recession. She has heard that because so many companies have gone bankrupt, it is easy to buy good secondhand office furniture. But where? she asks.
COMMUNITY
Jul 1, 1999

No sacrifice made in taste of new low-malt beers

A high tax rate is to blame for remarkably expensive beer in Japan. Current taxation is 222 yen per liter, pushing the price of an ordinary 350-ml can of beer to 225 yen.
EDITORIALS
May 24, 1999

The world's second oldest profession

W ith a U.S. congressional committee poised to release a report on alleged Chinese spying at U.S. nuclear facilities, the political furor in Washington over the theft of U.S. military secrets is certain to escalate, and could cause serious political repercussions in the United States and in its foreign...
JAPAN
May 21, 1999

Eight city banks report losses as bad-loan woes continue

Eight of the nation's city banks remained in the red at the end of fiscal 1998, a year they spent boosting loan-loss reserves and writing off nonperforming loans, according to earnings reports released by Friday.
CULTURE / Books
May 11, 1999

Coming of age, piece by piece

NAMAKO: Sea Cucumber, by Linda Watanabe McFerrin. Coffee House Press, 1998, 256 pp., $14.95 (paper). Like the sea cucumber, Ellen, the multicultural 9-year-old narrator of Linda Watanabe McFerrin's delightful first novel, cannot be easily classified. Animal or vegetable? Living and feeling, or merely...
JAPAN
May 7, 1999

Mercury hits year's highs

A high pressure system brought clear skies to most of the archipelago on Friday, giving Tokyo and other parts of the country their highest temperatures this year.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear