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JAPAN
Mar 7, 2000

Historical accuracy vs. public good

KANAZAWA, Ishikawa Pref. -- Celebrated Japanese novelist Yasushi Inoue once wrote: "Whatever the circumstances, the beauty of (Kanazawa's) castle walls should always be preserved."
CULTURE / Books
Mar 7, 2000

Wanderlust and a pair of steel wheels

MOTORCYCLE VAGABONDING IN JAPAN, by Guy De La Rupelle, contributions by Owen Stinger. North Conway, New Hampshire, U.S.: Whitehorse Press, 1999; 255 pp., $19.95. With city centers in permanent gridlock and the availability of train and bus service decreasing in direct proportion to the distance from...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 7, 2000

Beers, cheers and sneers -- Guitar Wolf will eat you alive

Beer. Beer. Beer. And some more beer. The world of Guitar Wolf is an ocean of beer, and if there are any islands of sobriety they are small and infrequent and the chances of coming across one are slim indeed.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2000

U.S. left its mark on Japanese education

HONOLULU -- Japanese-U.S. cultural relations are filled with ironies. Perhaps the greatest is that many of the thousands of foreigners hired by the Japanese government during the Meiji Era (1868-1912) are far better known in Japan than they are in their own countries. A second fascinating irony is that...
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2000

'Amakudari' practice thriving

Two-thirds of the 375 former high-ranking officials who left the government in 1998 have obtained posts in public corporations tied to their former government ministry or agency, according to official documents.
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2000

Debit cards aim to break spending habits

Full-scale use of the debit card system, which allows consumers to pay for purchases with ordinary bank cards, is to begin in Japan on Monday amid hopes that it will alter the deeply ingrained habit of consumers paying in cash and also become an effective business tool.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 5, 2000

Treasures of the House of Orange

Four hundred years ago, in spring 1600, a Dutch ship made landfall in Kyushu, the sole survivor of five that had set out on the hazardous journey from Rotterdam two years before.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 4, 2000

Ota Memorial Museum of Art marks 20th anniversary

To mark its 20th anniversary, the Ota Memorial Museum of Art in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward is holding a series of special ukiyo-e exhibitions through April 26.
EDITORIALS
Mar 4, 2000

China menaced by corruption

In the runup to the National People's Congress that opens Sunday, Chinese authorities have intensified their crackdown on corruption and smuggling. Chinese leaders, who see 2000 as a milestone in their anticorruption drive, are gripped by a sense of crisis: They will lose the trust and support of the...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2000

Niigata cop scandal puts heat on NPA

The National Police Agency was to consult Thursday evening with the National Public Safety Commission on whether NPA head Setsuo Tanaka should be reprimanded for failing to adequately supervise a senior NPA official at the center of a scandal involving Niigata Prefectural Police, commission sources said....
CULTURE / Music
Mar 3, 2000

Don't believe the hype, just cue up the record

You can tell because it's become a staple of boy bands and television commercials, selling everything from hair dryers to soft drinks. Even the least offensive manifestations of hip hop's mainstream acceptance, Dragon Ash, has all the substance of white bread.
COMMUNITY
Mar 1, 2000

In quest of Amelia Earhart

Ric Gillespie has been chasing the same lady for more than 12 years. Now he reckons he knows where she is. If he's right -- and the evidence his foundation has collected is pretty compelling -- then one of the longest-running mysteries in the history of aviation has been solved.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2000

Leap day efforts not enough: Aoki

A leap day computer glitch affected some systems and automatic teller machines Tuesday, but the government did not found any severe malfunctions, Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki said.
COMMUNITY
Mar 1, 2000

Conspiracy theories: just waiting to be shot down

Amelia Earhart's fate has long been fertile hunting ground for conspiracy theorists, leading to some credibility-stretching explanations for her disappearance over the Pacific in July 1937.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 27, 2000

Artistic exchange leaves a rich legacy

"Yokohama does not improve on further acquaintance," wrote Isabella Bird in 1878. "It has a dead-alive look. . . . I long to get away into real Japan." She quickly left and went in search of authenticity, complete with its dangers and delights. Bird was a purist to the point of eccentricity, but most...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 27, 2000

Muazaz Kasrawi and Maria Edileuza Reis

Two ladies from countries across the world from each other have come together as cochairwomen for this year's Cherry Blossom Charity Ball. The ball with its featured raffle is a major fundraising event organized each year by the International Ladies Benevolent Society. Money raised is donated directly...
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Feb 27, 2000

Saint days

I wonder how many of you know what famous man was brought up in Henfynyw in Ceredigion, the kingdom of Ceredig. Any Welshman would tell you it was David, patron saint of Wales, who is closely associated with spreading the faith of the Celtic Christian Church. His sermons emphasized joy, faith and discipline....
CULTURE / Art
Feb 26, 2000

A needle pulling golden thread through time

Western embroidery enjoys worldwide popularity, especially in European countries such as England. But Japan can also boast its very own style of embroidery, Edo shishu (Edo embroidery), which in the past has adorned everything from shubutsu (Buddhist images embroidered on cloth), dashi (festival floats)...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2000

Defections among coalition partners in Malaysia's ruling National Front strain ties

BY DAVID CHEW Special to The Japan Times SINGAPORE -- The defection of key politicians from one to the other of the two main Chinese components in Malaysia's ruling multiparty coalition has caused bad blood and made the role of mediator difficult for the coalition's Malay leader.
COMMUNITY
Feb 25, 2000

Origami workshops unfold hidden joys of learning

So often in our examination-dominated education systems, the excitement of learning degenerates into rote learning. Not so in Barbara Pearl's hands-on approach to learning math, where children discover how to estimate the distance of a jumping frog, measure the angles of a paper sailboat and explore...
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
Feb 24, 2000

JFA flash: Don't follow us, we're lost too

Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! Yes, today we're playing ping-pong with Frenchmen.
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2000

Sega, Swatch to join forces in Internet projects

Sega Enterprises, Ltd. and Swatch, A.G. on Thursday announced three new collaboration projects to enhance their Internet entertainment services. The two firms said one of the projects will entail the launch this year of a new service called "Internet & Wearable," for which Swatch will begin marketing...
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 23, 2000

Building tropical paradise on a trash heap

Yumenoshima is a man-made island in Koto Ward, Tokyo.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 23, 2000

Tsukiji or not, nothing fishy about Bellini's Bar

One usually doesn't go to Tsukiji to get a fine cappuccino or a poppy-seed sponge cake soaked in liqueur. Yet just a few minutes away from "Tokyo's Kitchen," where pricy cuts of maguro are noisily auctioned off to the highest bidder, Bellini's Italian Bar offers businesspeople and tourists alike a pleasant...
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2000

Allergy-prone get jump on hay fever

Staff writer For the past 10 years, spring has been tough on Mari Koi, with her seasonal allergy leaving her with itchy, watery eyes and a runny nose from February through March. But this year, the 30-year-old Tokyo woman has been well so far -- possibly due to early preparation. "I have been taking...
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2000

Standards needed for granting residence status: rights activist

Staff writer An advocate of foreigners' rights says he has seen indications that Japanese authorities are beginning to regard those who overstay their visas as human beings -- not as mere laborers or scofflaws. However, Katsuo Yoshinari, head of the Asian People's Friendship Society, said there is a...
COMMUNITY
Feb 20, 2000

Off to Iraq with leads for pencils

Having spent time with student nurse Erika Ito, I would very much like to meet her mother. Firstly I would shake her hand and say: "Congratulations, job well done! You have one terrific daughter." Then I'd patent the secret of her success, and make us all as fortunate.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 20, 2000

Great compositions ennoble performers, audience alike

Virtually all of Japan's symphony orchestras perform Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth and last symphony at the end of the year, as the general populace makes its annual affirmation of the noble qualities declaimed in the lyrics of the choral finale, Friedlich von Schiller's "An die Freude (Ode to Joy)."...

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