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Japan Times
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Apr 5, 2002

Japan Grand Prix marks dawn of new era

The opening round of the 2002 Motorcycle World Championship will take place at the Suzuka race circuit in Mie Prefecture on Sunday.
LIFE / Digital
Apr 4, 2002

Self-absorbed little Dreadly better love his Moop

Taking your children to see movies would not be bad if all cartoons were the quality of "Totoro" and "Princess Mononoke."
EDITORIALS
Apr 3, 2002

Not an enduring recovery

A ray of sunlight is breaking through the clouds. That may be one way to describe the state of Japan's economy, judging from the latest "tankan" quarterly survey of business sentiment. The March report from the Bank of Japan, released Monday, says the confidence index for major manufacturers has stopped...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 3, 2002

Slipknot unmasked!

For a big guy, the evil-looking Clown from the band Slipknot can move pretty fast. In a flash he leaps out of his seat, lunges at me with a stiletto blade and plunges it into my chest. "Nothing else means anything to me," he snarls, his face inches away from mine, his eyes burrowing to the back of my...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 3, 2002

Painting our inheritance

Traveling to 46 World Heritage cities in 18 countries is impressive enough on its own, but painting them is another thing entirely. Yet, Ecuador's noted contemporary painter Oswaldo Munoz Marino has done just that.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 3, 2002

The hair-raising art of Lennie Mace

A hair salon in Harajuku seems an unlikely venue for an art museum, especially one dedicated to a shaven-headed, New York artist who works principally in ballpoint pen.
SOCCER / THE BALD TRUTH
Apr 2, 2002

Poland and reality are Poles apart

Is Jerzy Engel completely deranged? Who on earth is Jerzy Engel, you are probably wondering? (Sigh) I used to talk about muffins and naked grandparents in these columns.
EDITORIALS
Apr 1, 2002

Banks must disclose more information

Banks in Japan enter a new era today when full deposit protection is abolished for time deposits and other similar savings accounts. In the event of a bank failure, the maximum refund per capita will be limited, in principle, to 10 million yen plus interest. And beginning April 1, 2003, the same limit...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Apr 1, 2002

Pundits part of the problem, not its solution

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- For years the Japanese government has been arguing that, as one of the biggest financial contributors to the United Nations, it should have a permanent seat on the Security Council. Japan does indeed bring lots of money to the U.N., but it does not bring much else. One of the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 31, 2002

Abandon the search for meaning

A not-so-funny thing happened to the Australian band Gerling on the way to Japan last fall. Having presented a buzz-worthy performance at last summer's Fuji Rock Festival, the trio was completely psyched for a Japan tour set for November. Then, America was attacked. But while a lot of bands subsequently...
COMMUNITY
Mar 31, 2002

War of the words

Ah, Nihongo. Of all foreign languages, this is the one that keeps you on your toes. An Occidental beginner might suspect that the Japanese did it on purpose -- sowed their language with mines and pitfalls to thwart non-native penetration. To 16th-century European missionaries, Japanese was the devil's...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2002

Explosive issues dominate Arab summit

BEIRUT -- Arab summits may deal with any matter of common concern to the 22 member states of the "Arab Nation." The matter may be "ordinary" or "emergency," but in practice the more or less permanent emergency of Palestine has furnished 90 percent of their resolutions. Only occasionally have other issues...
COMMENTARY
Mar 25, 2002

Koizumi takes aim at collusion

The scandals involving two Liberal Democratic Party bigwigs -- former LDP Secretary General Koichi Kato and former Hokkaido and Okinawa Development Agency Director General Muneo Suzuki -- are a reminder of the cozy ties that bind LDP politicians, bureaucrats and businesses.
COMMENTARY
Mar 24, 2002

Struggling for freedom against the odds

HAVANA -- Inside Avenida 21, number 3014, a nondescript house in a Havana suburb, lives dissident Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz. Despite Cuba's greater engagement with the world over the last decade, "political repression has been increasing," says Sanchez.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Mar 24, 2002

Yankee chicken, go home!

"Down with President Bush's thighs!" says Moscow. "We've eaten enough of them and they're no good. We're not going to cook them again."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 24, 2002

Helmsdale: A spot of haggis and ale, lads?

Helmsdale is not so much a pub as a shrine to the "water of life," known to the ancient Gaelic peoples as uisge beatha and to their modern-day descendants as whisky. Almost every inch of space is devoted to it, from the groaning shelves of classic single malts arrayed behind the counter to the empty...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 24, 2002

Shimoda sounds a literary lament

SAN FRANCISCO -- A foreigner in Japan is an outsider by default, a fact foreign residents have lamented for centuries in what is now a ritualized barstool grievance: "I've lived here for so long, learned the language, love my natto, but still . . . "
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 23, 2002

Personal agenda with Taisho feminist literature

Woken earlier in the day, Anne Sokolsky was so sleepy she assumed me to be a Japanese woman speaking bad English rather than the other way around. A rocky start dispelled by the wide-awake vivacity with which she approached me at Tokyo's Yotsuya Station midafternoon.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 23, 2002

Gods and sea monsters: culture quiz

It's time for another Japanese culture quiz!
Japan Times
SOCCER / World cup
Mar 22, 2002

Japan stifles Ukraine

OSAKA -- Japan's first match of this World Cup year ended in success on Thursday as it beat Ukraine 1-0 at Nagai Stadium in Osaka.
LIFE / Language
Mar 22, 2002

The boy who's been everywhere

Over the last 73 years, this boy's been everywhere. He's zoomed to the moon in a red-and-white checkered rocket, trekked snow-covered Tibet in search of the yeti and has been saved at the last minute from being sacrificed to the Sun God by angry Aztecs. For all his hair-raising adventures, he hasn't...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 21, 2002

Fundamentals of good education

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been the most vocal of European leaders in his attacks on fundamentalism, but it seems that only Islamic forms of fundamentalism are worthy targets. Christian fundamentalism -- which teaches that the world is only a few thousand years old and was made in seven days...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 20, 2002

Zazen and the art of playwriting

This month, the Kabukiza Theater in Tokyo is presenting two programs of kabuki plays and dance numbers starring such leading actors as Koshiro Matsumoto, Nizaemon Kataoka, Mitsugoro Bando and Sadanji Ichikawa, as well as the female-role specialists Tamasaburo Bando and Tokizo Nakamura.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Mar 20, 2002

Come back, come back wherever you were . . .

As part of its continuing effort to promote J-pop overseas, Sony last week released an album in the United States titled "Japan for Sale 2," which is a great all-around introduction to Japanese music.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 20, 2002

Kasey Chambers: 'Barricades & Brickwalls'

Home may be where the heart is, but sometimes the voice comes from somewhere else. Whether it's Mick Jagger's Mississippi drawl or Billy Joe Armstrong's cockney pretensions, pop singers adopt accents because that's the way they imagine one sings a particular style of music. It doesn't matter that Jagger...
COMMENTARY
Mar 19, 2002

Class struggle joins Marx in the dustbin

HONG KONG -- Last Wednesday, a top official declared that, as a result of the market economy, "people's jobs and status keep changing" in China today, and there are "differences and contradictions between communities, between industries and between regions." These remarks by Li Ruihuan, China's fourth-ranking...
BUSINESS
Mar 19, 2002

Wal-Mart spells chaos for already shaken industry

The entry into Japan of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of the United States, the world's largest retailer, will throw the industry into chaos as it struggles for survival amid the deepening recession.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2002

Free trade carries a price

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President George W. Bush's decision to impose tariffs on steel imports into the United States has been decried as a politically motivated and economically ruinous move that marks the end of free trade and initiates a battle in the World Trade Organization.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Mar 18, 2002

'Gerontocrat' academicians with myopia

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- After Harvard Professor Ezra Vogel's famous book "Japan as Number One" appeared in 1979, the West experienced a "learning from Japan" boom. I fully participated in this movement in both of its manifestations: publications, seminars etc., and the establishment of university Japanese...
SOCCER / World cup / EXCERPTS FROM PHILIPPE TROUSSIER'S BOOK
Mar 18, 2002

Leading my troops into battle

"Passion" is the story of Japan soccer team coach Philippe Troussier, his struggle to make it as a player and manager and his travels around France, Africa and Japan. In the book, Troussier also details his philosophy and thinking as he prepares for the World Cup in June.The book has been published...

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