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LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jul 12, 2000

I-mode uber Alles

A small cheer could be heard recently when it was announced that NTT DoCoMo would add English-language content to the menus of its i-mode cell phones. It went official July 3, and, well, the selection wasn't that big of a surprise. In fact, some of it had already been available in previous months (and...
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2000

North Okinawa mixed on planned military-civilian airport

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. -- From a tiny desert island off the U.S. Marine Corps' Camp Schwab, Takuma Higashionna looks out over the coral reef amid clear water.
EDITORIALS
Jul 9, 2000

Putting out more flags

Even this far from America, the whiff of U.S. patriotism -- a heady blend of gunpowder, barbecue smoke and hot air -- was unusually palpable last week. Tuesday was Independence Day, always an occasion for Americans to put out more flags, if only because they like the look of red, white and blue in July...
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2000

Alternative school targets dropouts

KYOTO -- Parents whose sons or daughters stop attending school often research methods to encourage their children to return by reading books and attending lectures by experts.
COMMUNITY
Jul 9, 2000

Funding films by finding housing for foreigners

Walking with Akio Sakurai to his real estate office in Tokyo's Chuo Ward, he told the story of an Indian couple -- the husband working for a major European bank -- for whom he had found an apartment. The day before they were due to sign the contract, the landlord rang and withdrew the offer. A Japanese...
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2000

1932 essays recall patriotism of nisei

When 31-year-old Californian Joyce Hirohata was having difficulty writing her high school valedictory speech, her father handed her a book published by her grandfather, Paul Tsunegoro Hirohata.
LIFE / ALTERNATIVE LUXURIES
Jul 6, 2000

Mixing traditions in a quest for freedom

A frog smokes a cigarette in this detail from "The Waiting" by Taeko Takezawa. "I am a totally different type from the other people you've interviewed," says painter Taeko Takezawa as she lights up a clove cigarette. "I am not living my life with any kind of issue consciousness. I'm just trying...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2000

Bangkok sticks with its old-style politics

BANGKOK -- If Thai politics has changed since demonstrators ousted a pro-military government in 1992 and set the stage for democratic reforms, you would hardly know it from watching the campaign for this month's Bangkok gubernatorial election.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2000

Newly appointed ministers announce policy priorities

The ministers appointed to the second Cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori announced their priority tasks in separate press conferences Tuesday evening.
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2000

Toll from contaminated milk passes 7,000

OSAKA -- Over 7,000 people had been affected by food poisoning as of Monday after drinking low-fat milk marketed by Snow Brand Milk Products Co., while only 15 percent of the milk subject to recall had been retrieved.
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2000

Snow Brand shuts down factory after low-fat milk infected

OSAKA -- The Osaka Municipal Government ordered Snow Brand Milk Products Co. to halt operations at its Osaka factory, where processed low-fat milk has been found responsible for sickening nearly 7,000 people.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 2, 2000

Way too much jello has been going to waist

My husband is in to soft-porn: the Victoria's Secret catalog. Whenever a new catalog comes in the mail, he's got it ripped open before I even get a glance at the latest cheetah-print lingerie Naomi Campbell is modeling. Victoria's Secret is most famous for their lingerie, but they also sell an array...
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2000

Garbage, indifference fueling crow plague

His affliction started about six months ago when a pair of jungle crows decided to build a nest in a neighbor's tree.
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

What's in a name? Freedom, for one thing

Puritans have long been viewed as people who couldn't stand the thought of anyone anywhere having a good time. The original Puritans really weren't that way, but today the world seems to be full of such killjoys.
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2000

Birthrate drops to record low

The birthrate and the number of births in Japan sank to record lows last year, accelerating the widespread graying of the population, according to data released Thursday by the Health and Welfare Ministry.
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
Jun 27, 2000

Coalition parties stand by Mori

Despite the setback that the ruling bloc suffered at the hands of the public in Sunday's election for the House of Representatives, top leaders of the Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition allies agreed Monday that Yoshiro Mori should stay on as prime minister.
EDITORIALS
Jun 26, 2000

How healthy is 'healthiest'?

How healthy is 'healthiest'?
CULTURE / Art
Jun 25, 2000

Bread Man not quite off his loaf

Tatsumi Orimoto, otherwise known as the "Bread Man," has finally cracked the Japanese art scene with "Art Mama + Bread Man," an extraordinary exhibition of photos, videos and live performances at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art. Street performance is in the house and Orimoto will nevermore be a "dirty,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 25, 2000

Is elitism such a bad thing?

LONDON -- Gordon Brown, the British chancellor of the Exchequer, has been stirring up media attention by attacking the way in which Oxford and other British universities recruit students. He launched his diatribe against the universities by condemning Magdalen College Oxford (where Prince Chichibu and...
CULTURE / Music
Jun 24, 2000

Breathing path to beauty and inner peace

KYOTO -- In 1973, a week or two after Brooklyn native Ronnie Seldin began playing the shakuhachi, his teacher asked him what he planned to do after he returned to the United States.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2000

Vote with criteria in mind: Hosokawa

Voters should cast their ballots in Sunday's election by asking themselves if the government has steered Japan in a desirable direction and whether it has reinforced the people's trust in politics, former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa says.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jun 21, 2000

Seeing red

Red has long been the color of choice for companies venturing into the digital domain; that's red as in ink, and that choice has been by necessity.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2000

Continue irresponsible politics or vote for my party: Ozawa

A series of apparent setbacks in the political arena have not dented the aspirations of the Liberal Party to shake the foundations of the system, according to its maverick leader, Ichiro Ozawa.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jun 18, 2000

The end for Kim Jong Il?

My trip to North Korea 11 years ago was one of the most depressing times in my whole life. I have never seen a sadder country. It was not simply an issue of appalling poverty: In 1989, the shelves of stores in Moscow were also barren, and Beijing still sported a maze of miniature slums -- the notorious...
CULTURE / Art
Jun 17, 2000

Putting things into perspective

Imagine a social mixer for celestial beings. A casual affair, a brunch maybe, with olives and wine and the tones of a harp wafting through the ether. Our God is there, looking good, and by way of introduction he reaches into his wallet and takes out some photographs to pass around for the other cosmic...
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2000

Communists set to sacrifice policies in quest for change

The Japanese Communist Party will ask the people to help it revamp a political setup that has been completely warped by the Liberal Democratic Party's rule, according to JCP leader Tetsuzo Fuwa.
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 16, 2000

A ghost brings actress back into the spotlight

"I was deeply impressed by the beauty of the words," says actress Keiko Matsuzaka, 47, breathless with enthusiasm as she talks about the play she's producing: "Tenshu Monogatari."

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past