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JAPAN
Feb 11, 2000

BOJ's ultraeasy-credit policy a double-edged sword

As the Bank of Japan carries its zero-interest rate policy into the second year, there is no sign that the policy the BOJ itself calls abnormal will end anytime soon.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 9, 2000

Fresh and fragrant -- Kyushu's new spring sake

Kyushu may not be as famous for its sake as for shochu, but historical findings tell us it's probably been drunk here since the rule of Himiko -- around A.D. 300. While northern Japan is more famous for sake, Kyushu brewers too produce some fine labels, meeting changes in consumer tastes. Kyushu's sake...
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...
EDITORIALS
Feb 3, 2000

The showdown in Indonesia

This week, the old order and the new squared off in Indonesia. An official inquiry concluded that the violence that erupted in East Timor last year was planned, carried out and abetted by a group that included top-ranking members of the country's military. The report incriminated 40 members of the armed...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 3, 2000

A voice of reason campaigns for the return of Japan's Northern Territories

For Japan's ultraright, Feb. 7 is the holiest day of the year. The thuggish men in their loudspeaker-laden, slogan-painted vans will be out in force on "Northern Territories Day," once again testing the nation's aural-pain threshold.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 3, 2000

Stevenson handles media like a pro

Tennis player Alexandra Stevenson could be excused if she chose to respond to questions on her family background with a terse "no comment."
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2000

Don't discount grandmothers' courage

The reunion of Mariela Quintana and Raquel Rodriguez with their grandson Elian Gonzalez in Miami may be the first step in the eventual return of the Cuban child to his father. If this happens, it will be in no small measure thanks to the tireless efforts of these two heroic women. They may succeed in...
COMMUNITY
Feb 1, 2000

Dance craze swinging into action

The 1996 hit movie "Shall We Dance?" has helped the Japanese appreciate the charm of ballroom dancing. Yet despite the surging popularity of dance schools across the country, social dance continues to play a minor role in the local nightlife. Now, some devotees are promoting swing, a more casual version...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2000

In defense of U Thant

VICTORIA, Australia -- Much criticism has been written about U Thant, the third secretary general of the United Nations, who died from cancer 25 years ago on Nov. 25, 1974. While some of it may be just, much of it is not.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 26, 2000

Korean owners play hardball, expel players from professional league for organizing union

After a group of Korean professional baseball players from the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) formally announced they had formed a player union last Friday, the KBO and team presidents held an emergency meeting the following morning in Seoul and expelled all union members from the league.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2000

Rape of Nanking symposium hurts Games bid, China says

OSAKA -- A Chinese government official said Tuesday that Osaka's sponsoring of Sunday's symposium denying the Rape of Nanking was now a Sino-Japanese problem that would have a negative impact on Osaka's 2008 Olympic bid. "The Chinese government asked that Osaka city and prefecture not let the symposium...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jan 23, 2000

Mary Cogan

Amongst many distinctions of different kinds, Tokyo has one that merits affectionate attention. Tokyo hosts the only Saint Patrick's Day Parade in Asia.
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 22, 2000

New Year dragon roars on two kabuki stages

To start off the year of the dragon, two major kabuki programs are being presented in Tokyo, at the Kabukiza and the Shinbashi Enbujo.
BUSINESS
Jan 21, 2000

Boom looming in investment trust funds

An investment trust fund boom appears in the offing.
COMMUNITY
Jan 20, 2000

Multifaceted legacy is rock solid

The public will never know what Ronald Winston looks like. Until he dies, that is.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Jan 19, 2000

New opportunities

I have a letter from a 15-year-old girl in Germany. She has blue-gray eyes and dark blond hair. She speaks English, French and German. She tells me of her school and her hobbies. She has a cat called Blacky. She is looking for pen-friends in Japan.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2000

90% in plebiscite say no, but dam project stands

The government will proceed with plans to build a dam across the Yoshino River in Shikoku even though a local plebiscite Sunday found over 90 percent of those who voted oppose the project, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi said Monday. In Tokushima, Gov. Toshio Endo also said the prefecture will continue...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 18, 2000

Feminist and dutiful daughter

MIRROR: The Fiction and Essays of Koda Aya, by Ann Sherif. Honolulu: Hawaii University Press, 1999, 224 pp., $42 (cloth), $16.95 (paper). Koda Aya (1904-1990), the youngest daughter of the Meiji novelist Koda Rohan, began her writing career late, after the death of her famous father. Her first works,...
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2000

Regional Special: Okinawa

Isle's airport between reef and a hard place> Staff writer ISHIGAKI ISLAND, Okinawa Pref. -- Passengers stare dreamily from the plane. Some crane their necks for a glimpse of the cobalt coastline and Ishigaki's famed coral reefs. But all are jerked back to reality when the plane touches down and suddenly...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 18, 2000

A life between East and West

THE MASK CARVER'S SON, A Novel by Alyson Richman. Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA, 371 pp., $23.95. This is an imagined autobiography of a Japanese artist who studied in Paris around the year 1900.
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2000

Tough town beaten to despair as jobs dry up

For 70-year-old Mikami, winter life on the streets of Tokyo has become so unbearable that flirting with a suicide fantasy has become his favorite pastime.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 14, 2000

Valentine wants 'authentic' W. Series

New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine longs for the day when the World Series will truly be a global event.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 8, 2000

Economics and the human perspective

Economics, it is sometimes useful to point out, can hardly be analyzed at all if divorced from some basic cultural parameters. A recent academic gathering in Japan reminded us of just that.
COMMUNITY
Jan 3, 2000

Picture-book village looks to the children

Once upon a time, sometime in 1992, there were two communities, Kijo-cho and Ishikawauchi, nestled high in the mountains of Miyazaki Prefecture. As in many such rural communities, the sound of children's voices was becoming a rarity as young families left to find their fortune in the city of Miyazaki,...
JAPAN
Dec 30, 1999

Japanese consumers opting for riskier, more rewarding investments

Staff writer Are the Japanese changing the way they save money, turning to risky but potentially rewarding financial investments? The rising popularity of investment trusts may provide a clue. Net assets of investment trusts, or mutual funds, amounted to 53.3 trillion yen at the end of November, up...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 1999

Causes of Tokai disaster not so simple

In November, I visited JCO Co.'s nuclear fuel-processing plant -- a subsidiary of Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. -- where Sept. 30 a level-5 nuclear incident took place. The plant is located 110 km from Tokyo in the small town of Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture. The plant is in an area that is a blend of residences...
JAPAN
Dec 21, 1999

FRC backs plan to end protection for depositors

The Financial Reconstruction Commission agreed Tuesday that it is better to go ahead with a plan to end government protection for all bank deposits on March 31, 2001, rather than postponing it. FRC Chairman Michio Ochi, who is also a state minister, detailed his position as the ruling coalition struggles...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 1999

LDP, state seeking 300 more bank inspectors

The government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party plan to budget for 300 more banking inspectors in fiscal 2000, which begins next April. The expansion is planned in conformity with a shift, scheduled in April, of the inspection and supervision authorities of credit cooperatives from prefectural...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 1999

Time running out for 'Knock' as opinion turns against him

Staff writer OSAKA -- The game may finally be up for Osaka Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama. Monday's search of his offices by the Osaka District Public Prosecutor's Office in connection with a criminal complaint filed against the governor by a 21-year-old female university student, who accused Yokoyama of groping...
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Dec 14, 1999

The Worldwide Music Expo embraces roots and Internet

For anyone involved in any aspect of world music, WOMEX (Worldwide Music Expo) has become an essential date on the calendar. After a few years of internal wrangling, at the end of October, WOMEX returned to its original home at the House of World Cultures in Berlin, Germany, where from now on it will...

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