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Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Aug 11, 2002

Bible scholar questions value of religion without substance

If something lacks substance, it is not to the taste of Bible scholar Michiko Ota. Thus, she contends, humans are better off without religion if that religion has lost its substance.
COMMENTARY
Aug 10, 2002

No cause to gloat over U.S.

LONDON -- Some Japanese company presidents and board chairmen have probably been laughing quietly to themselves over the scandals that have engulfed some large American companies from Enron to Xerox and WorldCom. After all the lectures they have heard from Americans about the superiority of American...
SOCCER / J. League
Aug 9, 2002

Reysol fires Perryman after losing streak

KASHIWA, Chiba Pref. -- Kashiwa Reysol on Thursday dismissed its English manager Steve Perryman after a string of poor results in the first stage of the J. League Division One.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Aug 9, 2002

Tuning in to another culture

Seoul native Kim Ji Sook, host of Fukuoka's Love FM Thursday night Inter Wave radio program, brings the sounds and the spirit of Korea to fans throughout northern Kyushu.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 8, 2002

Debunking strange Asian myths: Part II

This story began over a beer in a Kabukicho restaurant, when an adventuresome Canadian lassie named Christine, who had requested a tour of Shinjuku's sleazier hangouts, leaned suggestively across the table and asked me in a husky voice if I had ever eaten monkey brains.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2002

USJ submits reform plan to city

OSAKA -- Universal Studios Japan announced Wednesday that it has fired or suspended six employees in the wake of a series of revelations about health and safety problems at the theme park.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 7, 2002

Artists of the Sun King eclipsed

Even as art galleries and museums around the world contend with falling visitor numbers, stepping inside a Japanese museum can feel more like braving Mitsukoshi on the first day of the summer sales.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Aug 7, 2002

Vincent Gallo: the one that got away

Twenty-odd years ago, I moonlighted as a cab driver in Toronto. I still remember how easy it was to glance in the rearview mirror and peg visitors from the American city of Buffalo, N.Y. They were generally polite and well-dressed, but in the affected manner of a child done up in his Sunday best, squirming...
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2002

Koizumi pursues draft bill combining tax cuts, hikes

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Tuesday ordered his key policy-setting panel to draw up a draft bill featuring tax cuts worth more than 1 trillion yen and future tax hikes aimed at offsetting revenue shortfalls.
BUSINESS / ON MANAGEMENT
Aug 6, 2002

Reducing icebergs to snowballs:How to avoid sinking the ship

"Ever had all your dreams come true, only to find yourself in the middle of a nightmare?" asked a wry acquaintance recently. In his case, he hand followed through on a lifelong dream starting his own advertising boutique. A careful planner, he had determined his own strengths and weaknesses and approached...
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2002

Maestro hopes to energize, inspire, connect with Asian youths on tour

Bright Sheng has just finished a 3-hour rehearsal with the Asian Youth Orchestra in Hong Kong. You can detect a hint of tiredness in his voice, but it's overlaid with a definite tone of achievement, and excitement even, for what lies ahead.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Aug 5, 2002

'Sick man' of the intellectual community

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- In the 1980s and early '90s, there were efforts on the part of Europeans and Japanese to strengthen their bilateral relationship. Europeans were conscious that they had neglected Japan, while the Japanese were seeking to expand their international networks at a time when the...
MORE SPORTS
Aug 5, 2002

Spurrier a winner in NFL debut

OSAKA -- A rejuvenated Danny Wuerffel threw three touchdown passes to lead the Washington Redskins to a 38-7 rout of the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday at the Osaka Dome in a preseason game that marked the NFL coaching debut of Steve Spurrier.
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Aug 4, 2002

Salaryman quits to devote time to family name: Tokugawa

Tsunenari Tokugawa drew a salary for more than 38 years, climbing the corporate ladder to become executive vice president of major marine shipping company Nippon Yusen K.K.
COMMUNITY
Aug 4, 2002

Touched by the hand of the fire god

Akiko Amano says she once saw the God of Fire. It was around 10 years ago when she first started working as a hanabishi (professional fireworks setter). That night, she was working at a countryside fireworks festival.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Aug 4, 2002

The sweet, soft option

Fukuoka sake, in general, hovers just below the surface of mass attention. You don't hear about it too much, and it doesn't have an image of overall style in the minds of most folks. But this belies its historical significance and, more importantly, ignores the fact that great sake can be found in Fukuoka....
LIFE / Language
Aug 2, 2002

Marrying your sweetheart and moving in with his mom

On the day I married my husband, I married his family, too. I moved next door to my in-laws on the family plot in Tokyo. Now, I live there with my husband and daughter; my parents-in-law; my husband's uncle, aunt and their three daughters; two dogs; a cat; and a goldfish named Mikey.
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Aug 2, 2002

School trips help cut the apron strings

My son is leaving home. I've always known, of course, that the day would come when he'd strike out on his own. But I never imagined it would happen when he was only 11 years old. Or that he'd make his big break to a mountain in Japan.
EDITORIALS
Aug 1, 2002

What matters for Nago airport

Japan is set to build an offshore airport for U.S. military and Japanese commercial planes in Nago City, northern Okinawa, almost six years after Tokyo and Washington agreed to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Ginowan City, central Okinawa. On Monday, the central government and...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Aug 1, 2002

Pot-shot summer with no room at the inn

Summertime, and the living is easy . . . for me, anyway.
COMMENTARY
Jul 31, 2002

The U.S.-Japan management roundabout

What goes round, comes round. In the 1950s and '60s, U.S. experts warned Japanese businessmen that they had to get rid of their feudalistic management systems if they were to go ahead.
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2002

Emergency defense legislation believed too vague

Political dynamics aside, even some Defense Agency officials admit the emergency-contingency bills the ruling coalition plans to carry over to the next Diet session were flawed from the start.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 31, 2002

Will Ham hire foreign skipper in Sapporo?

Nikkan Sports newspaper, in its July 24 edition, ran a story speculating who would be the manager of the Nippon Ham Fighters when the team moves to Sapporo in 2004. The headline read, "Oya ka? Gaikokujin ka?" meaning it could be former Yokohama BayStars manager and Yakult Swallows catcher Akihiko Oya...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 31, 2002

New and improved Pops!

How can anyone market one of the world's great orchestras in an era when orchestral music is growing ever less essential to the cultural fabric and the recording industry itself is ailing?
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 31, 2002

Tabla Beat Science: "Live in San Francisco"

On Aug. 12, 2001, Tabla Beat Science, a multinational collective of forward-thinking musicians founded by the tabla player Zakir Hussein and the bass player and producer Bill Laswell, played a free show in the Stern Grove section of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. For many of the 12,000 people who...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2002

Of chicken legs and trash

CAMBRIDGE, England -- There has been much talk in China recently about hegemony. Some of it has been about denying that China has hegemonic interests in East Asia. But most of it has related to the United States. One wonders if everyone in China understands what is being complained about. I have this...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

New law may raise prospects for homeless

In the Kamagasaki day-laborer district of Osaka, news about the soon-to-be passed bill to provide aid for the nation's homeless has been greeted with a mixture of hope and indifference.
COMMUNITY
Jul 30, 2002

Learning goes both ways in JET program

I first came to Japan in 1991 as an English instructor with the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program and ended up staying twice as long as I originally planned. Here are some recollections from that period.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jul 29, 2002

Pursuit of mediocrity in textbook selection

NEW YORK -- Is the presence of 50,000 prostitutes "an important historical fact"? Grace Shore, chairwoman of the Texas State Board of Education, didn't think so, nor did the majority on her 15-member board.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat