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JAPAN
May 4, 2001

Constitution turns 54 as battle lines drawn up for and against reform

Groups for and against revision of the Constitution held rallies in Tokyo on Thursday to mark the 54th anniversary of the supreme law amid increasing calls for its revision from political leaders, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2001

A high price for textbook flap

Japan ignores the history-textbook controversy at its peril. While many Japanese dismiss the tempest -- exaggerated attention, they say, given to a small group of nostalgic conservatives or a freedom-of-speech issue best left to constitutional scholars -- South Koreans see the new history textbook as...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 29, 2001

Revisit the glory and the pathos of the 47 ronin

KUNIYOSHI: The Faithful Samurai, by David R. Weinberg. Translations and essay by Alfred H. Marks. Foreword by B.W. Robinson. Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2000. 192 pp., map, pictures, color plates, 12,000 yen. In 1701, one of the feudal lords in attendance to the shogun in the Edo castle was called upon...
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2001

China postpones legislative chief's visit to Japan

China on Wednesday said it will postpone a planned visit to Japan by legislative chief Li Peng in apparent retaliation against Japan's granting a visa to former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui.
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Apr 18, 2001

Poet forging links from East to West

The longest running English poetry journal in Japan, Poetry Nippon, was founded in the fall of 1967. Edited by Sapporo-based poet and translator Yorifumi Yaguchi, it has helped forge links between Japanese, British and American poetry for over 30 years.
BUSINESS
Apr 12, 2001

Revised L-mode plans submitted for approval

NTT's two regional carriers on Wednesday reapplied for approval to launch a modified version of their L-mode Internet service.
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2001

Seoul recalls ambassador over textbook controversey

South Korea's ambassador to Japan returned to Seoul on Tuesday in a move to protest Japan's approval last week of a history textbook that many Asian nations say brushes over descriptions of Japan's wartime atrocities.
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2001

Textbook furor won't sour relations: Foreign Ministry

The Foreign Ministry believes a junior high school history book written by nationalists will not spark diplomatic problems with China or South Korea as the two countries have not demanded the text be rewritten, ministry officials said Saturday.
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2001

Digital legend aims to fill technology gap with $100 computer

Digital technology is evolving at stunning speed, slashing the prices of all sorts of digital gadgets and linking numerous countries through the ever-growing World Wide Web. But these developments fail to satisfy Kazuhiko Nishi, who wants tools created to tear down the technological and language barriers...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 4, 2001

While my guitar gently weeps, the video rolls

Few pop-culture icons are as enduring as the electric guitar. Maybe that's why artists so love to destroy the things. Foremost in the pantheon of ax-smashers is Jimi Hendrix, who, after performing a screaming feedback version of the "Star Spangled Banner" at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, set his lighter...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2001

Homegrown IT plans are best

The government has unveiled the "e-Japan" strategy that it hopes will turn Japan into the most advanced information-technology-based nation in five years. Most mass media and IT experts are critical of the strategy. They say it lacks vision and workable plans, is late and is designed to benefit only...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 1, 2001

Ohkura brings kabuki to life

KABUKI TODAY: The Art and Tradition. Photographs by Shunji Ohkura, text by Iwao Kamimura, translated by Kirsten McIvor. Introduction by Donald Keene. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2001, 194 pp., profusely illustrated. 5,800 yen. This lavish volume, as extravagant as the kabuki itself, is devoted to...
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2001

Government waters down bills for breaking NTT phone monopoly

The government will impose looser regulations than previously planned on Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. according to a new outline of two amendments to laws governing the dominant carrier's operations, government sources said Tuesday.
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 27, 2001

Movement that weaves an otherworldly spell

It's not often that a dance production lives up to an ambitious title, but "Luminous," by Saburo Teshigawara and the dance company Karas, certainly does.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Mar 26, 2001

Never say you've apologized too much

When Ursula Smith, my publisher friend up in Vermont, wrote to say, "I can't close without offering some (futile) form of apology, as one national to another, for that unfortunate accident off Hawaii," I said there was no need to apologize to me. It was an accident, and I wasn't too clear about the meaning...
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Mar 21, 2001

Bookmarks old and new

www.newkoyo.com The New Koyo Hotel is doing for Tokyo what Kao Sahn Road has done for Bangkok. Beware of an influx of budget travelers. A gaijin zoo is springing up north of Ueno, and the temporary inhabitants are being attracted by room rates that start at 2,500 yen. The Web site is packed with other...
CULTURE / Film
Mar 13, 2001

Our dreams are made of this

Film critics often have a not-so-secret desire to get behind the camera themselves. Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Peter Bogdanovich are among those who made the leap successfully, though Bogdanovich returned to writing after his directing career faltered in the mid-'70s. Even thumbs-up critic...
CULTURE / Art
Mar 11, 2001

How Klimt's Vienna changed the world

There are two paintings of artist's studios that say it all. The first is part castle, part Old Curiosity Shop, packed with statues, bearskins and whatnot, where a successful Viennese artist of the old school sits in gloomy splendor. The second is filled with light. There is no artist, but a woman's...
CULTURE / Art
Mar 11, 2001

Bottling everyday beauty on film

With an oeuvre more than a quarter-century in the making, Mamoru Sugiyama is due for a retrospective exhibition. So that is exactly what Tokyo's respected Photo Gallery International has given the 49-year-old photographer, in a show featuring some 30 of Sugiyama's representative black-and-white still-life...
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2001

Japan's history again haunts future relations

The ongoing controversy between Japan and South Korea over a new textbook for Japanese junior high schools has taken a toll on the bilateral diplomatic calendar.
EDITORIALS
Mar 5, 2001

Mr. Bush focuses on the home front

The speech U.S. President George W. Bush delivered to a joint session of Congress last Tuesday was disappointing because it said little about the basic strategy the new U.S. administration intends to follow in the area of foreign policy and security. The speech focused on domestic and economic policies,...
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2001

Blackmans seek privacy after ordeal

The father of murdered British hostess Lucie Blackman arrived in Japan on Monday morning, asking that the family be granted some privacy before they return to Britain with her remains and outlining a trust fund in her name.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Feb 21, 2001

Spud the magic surfer

www.geocities.com/Baja/4954/ This is how Spudster entertained himself this past weekend, trawling through sites like Internet Magic and challenging the online wizard to do things like figure out what Pokemon character he was thinking about. The wizard can also tell you who you were in a past life and...
CULTURE / Books / POETRY MIGNETTE
Feb 18, 2001

Avant-garde poet tosses Japan a luscious bouquet

The end of last year and the beginning of this one has produced a fine crop of poetry publications. Though each of these volumes deserves its own separate review, happily I'm able to give these works exposure here.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 12, 2001

How to profit from a nation's tragedy

THE TIANANMEN PAPERS: The Chinese Leadership's Decision to Use Force against their Own People -- in their Own Words, compiled by Zhang Liang, edited by Andrew Nathan and Perry Link, with an afterword by Orville Schell. Public Affairs, 2001, 560 pp., $30 (cloth). "The Tiananmen Papers" surfaced with...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 12, 2001

Let the spring light the fires

THE PILLOW BOOK OF SPRING AND LAUGHTER: Eroticism in Meiji, Taisho and Showa Japan, by John Stevens. Tokyo: The East Publications, Inc. 156 pp., profusely illustrated, color plates/b/w photos. 4,200 yen. We associate spring pictures ("shunga") with the Edo period, lovers usually fully dressed with...
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2001

LDP exec rejects calls for sworn Diet testimony

The acting secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday rejected calls to its members testify under oath about ties to KSD, a scandal-ridden mutual-aid foundation already responsible for the downfall of three LDP legislators.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji