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ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Aug 24, 2001

Salty dragonfly

* Japanese name: Shiokara tonbo * Scientific name: Orthetrum albistylum speciosum * Description: A fast-flying dragonfly 48-57 mm long. Males have a pale-blue body; the end of the abdomen is pointed and black, and is equipped with a pair of clasping appendages. Females are usually a brown-yellow...
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2001

New stalking law brings 66 arrests and 453 warnings

Police nationwide arrested 66 people over violations of the antistalking law between November, when it took effect, and the end of May, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 24, 2001

Mahathir goes all out to remove thorn in his side

SINGAPORE -- After months of futile attempts at various kinds of measures, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad may have hit upon the right combination to effectively deal with a formidable political opponent -- the fundamentalist Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS).
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 23, 2001

Emigration: a Kurdish national obsession

On the face of it, the Sheikhallah bazaar is just the shabby little side street in downtown Erbil where you go to change money. But the whole of "liberated" Iraqi Kurdistan knows that another, more serious business is conducted behind those counters piled high with debased Iraqi bank notes.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2001

'Super science schools' in the works

The education ministry plans to select 20 high schools for nurturing a new generation of researchers and engineers who can compete on a global basis, ministry sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN / 50 YEARS SINCE SAN FRANCISCO
Aug 23, 2001

Japan's foreign policy still retains U.S. trappings

First of a six-part series looking back on 50 years of Japanese-U.S. relations since the 1951 signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty and the bilateral security treaty. By JUNKO TAKAHASHI Staff writer Nobuo Matsunaga was a young diplomat in Paris when Japan signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2001

Better listening through circuitry

Theremin Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Steven M. Martin Running time: 83 minutes Language: English Now showing Just about everyone's listening to some sort of electronic music these days, but most people would be hard-pressed to name any of the medium's pioneers. Perhaps most would recognize Kraftwerk...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2001

Just please don't ask 'why?'

The first questions John Williams is always asked about "Ichiban Utsukushii Natsu (Firefly Dreams)" are the "whys": Why are you in Japan? Why did you shoot a film using only Japanese actors? The answers, Williams says, don't come easy, "because I never imagined I would end up making a film here."
SOCCER / J. League
Aug 22, 2001

Alex tops voting

Shimizu S-Pulse midfielder Alex topped the voting for the J. League foreign players team, World Dreams, to play against the league's Japanese players side, Japan Dreams, in the JOMO Cup on Sept. 2 (kickoff 5 p.m.) at Tokyo's National Stadium, the J. League announced.
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 22, 2001

Noda's kabuki brings the house down

The lobby of the Kabuki-za in Higashi Ginza -- the mecca of kabuki -- was swarming with people last week, ahead of the start of this year's noryo kabuki (summer festival of kabuki).
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 22, 2001

Wiggle

W iggle combine the hard, harsh beats of The Chemical Brothers with the noisy exuberance of The Boredoms and an occasional female vocal that sounds like Shonen Knife on speed. Bravely straddling the accessible and the arty, they would be worth going to see for the music alone.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2001

Options over last rites sought

When a citizens' group scattered human ashes at sea 10 years ago, they revived a burial practice unseen in Japan for more than 400 years.
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 22, 2001

'We all felt this could be a masterpiece'

Midway through the triumphant two-week run of his summer-festival kabuki classic "Togitatsu no Utare," cutting-edge director Hideki Noda took time to reflect on his remarkable crossover from contemporary theater to the Kabuki-za in Ginza (no less).
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2001

Misfortunes in tough times spur new breed of insurance plans

In May, Yamagata University disclosed that it had bungled its entrance exam grading, irretrievably altering the course of applicants' lives.
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2001

Fujitsu to cut 16,400 jobs worldwide

Fujitsu Ltd. announced Monday it will cut its global workforce by 9 percent, or 16,400 jobs, by the end of the fiscal year amid a global slump in the semiconductor market.
SOCCER / THE BALD TRUTH
Aug 21, 2001

Clowns at the circus of soccer

I was buttering my muffins the other morning when my Australian mate Nezbo called. So obviously I had to tell him how crap the Aussies are at soccer, didn't I?
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2001

Kim Jong Il's quaint trip to Moscow

BANGKOK -- Decades before European socialism crumbled, taking the Soviet Union down with it, young Russian communists were already having a hard time taking North Korea seriously. There on the distant Pacific coast was this bizarre and demanding little client state; extreme in its isolation, brutal in...
BUSINESS
Aug 20, 2001

Obstacles to decentralization must embrace independence

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi won big gains for his Liberal Democratic Party in the Upper House election and has been re-elected uncontested to a new two-year term as LDP chief. But the tasks ahead of him are mounting, and one of the biggest is the decentralization of administrative power.
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2001

Ministry set to launch 'green' car plans

The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry has decided to introduce action plans in nine regions in Japan to boost the use of less-polluting "green" vehicles, ministry officials said Sunday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 19, 2001

Light at the end of the tunnel

For Cho Kyong Hee, artists displaying work in public spaces have a special responsibility: Installations should not impose.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Aug 19, 2001

May we live long on beans and rice

On the first of every month, I get out the glutinous rice and soak the adzuki beans. Though New Year's Day is the only first of the month that is a formal holiday, thus mandating the celebratory sekihan (red beans and rice), there is a certain pleasure to welcoming each one with this favorite dish and...
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2001

UNICEF ambassador to urge Koizumi not to cut funds

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, an actress and goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Children's Fund, will visit Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Aug. 29 to request that the government not reduce its contributions to the organization.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 19, 2001

Survival of the cutest at sweltering summer weddings

For most Japanese, the broiling heat of August evokes images of shaved ice, cold watermelon, chilled beer and ghosts -- all of which are supposed to add a shiver to the season.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 19, 2001

Kao Tai: Getting down to the Thai essentials

You don't have to go far in Tokyo for good Thai restaurants these days. But when it comes to tracking down no-frills, down-home cooking -- the kind of simple snacks prepared by countless market stalls and sidewalk eateries in Bangkok -- then it pays to dig deep. Some of the best Thai street food is served...
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2001

Ministry adds 71 items to consumer price index

To better reflect today's cost of living, the Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry is adding 71 new items to the basket of goods it tracks in its monthly index on consumer prices.
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Aug 17, 2001

Fire-bellied newt

* Japanese name:Imori * Scientific name:Cynops pyrrhogaster * Description: Fire-bellied newts have rough, blackish-brown skin and a vibrant, crimson-orange belly. This is the most common salamander in Japan, found from Honshu to Kyushu. Females grow to between 8 and 14 cm (including the tail);...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2001

Numerous problems slow efforts to safely scrap retired Russian nuclear submarines

BOLSHOI KAMEN, Russia -- Propped up onshore amid heaps of scrap metal at the Zvezda shipyard is one of the largest vehicles ever to cruise the planet -- the five-story hulk of a submarine that once carried intercontinental ballistic missiles targeting the United States.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 16, 2001

Japanese cheerleaders dance to beat of San Francisco 49ers gridiron drum

If you thought names such as Ichiro Suzuki and Hideo Nomo were the only Japanese on the American sports scene, think again.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years