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Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 8, 2002

Behind the scenes with Phnom Penh's 'orange girls'

PHNOM PENH -- In central Phnom Penh, at one end of a semiderelict building, is a tiny lean-to shack. Its walls are made of scavenged wood planks and its roof of corrugated iron. The ground around it is a swamp of sewage and mud due to the daily monsoon rains. To get to the shack, you have to hop along...
JAPAN
Jan 8, 2002

Fixed international marriages often disappoint

During the late 1980s, several local governments in northern Japan arranged marriages between Japanese men and foreign women mainly from other parts of Asia, including China, the Philippines and South Korea, in an effort to solve the shortage of brides in farming communities in depopulated areas.
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2002

Architect blames Japan cityscapes on obsession with wealth

Japan's cities have been criticized for lacking the harmony and consistence felt in other countries, especially in Europe. But that's not a result of poor city planning; the disarray of structures in Tokyo and Osaka simply mirror the country's postwar obsession with material wealth, according to architect...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 6, 2002

Dewi Sukarno: 'Miss Ambition' who's done it her way

Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno has become a well-known Japanese media figure in recent years and has just raised some $90,000 for victims of terrorist attacks in the United States.
EDITORIALS
Jan 6, 2002

Back to work, back to 'normal'

On the one hand, 2001 zoomed by, didn't it? It seems just an eye-blink since we were last cleaning up after New Year's feasts and fireworks, sitting in traffic jams to get back home and gearing up for the Monday-after return to work. It is a well-established fact that the older we get, the more often...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jan 6, 2002

All the tricks, touch-ups and trip-ups of the trade

TV Asahi's new dramatic comedy series, "Trick 2," which premieres this week (Friday, 11:15 p.m.), fits comfortably into the current TV zeitgeist of pop spiritualism and magic shows. A lot of the renewed interest in paranormal phenomena has been boosted by the addition of debunking elements. On many recent...
BUSINESS
Jan 5, 2002

Mazda lets buyers fine-tune Roadster

If you are a fan of Mazda Motor Corp.'s Roadster, shopping for your next new car might be a little different than what you expect.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 5, 2002

13 another lucky number for 'surimono' albums

David Bull is as insistent as he is stubborn. No sooner has he sat me down beside his workbench (the only warm room in the house), with younger daughter Fumi (16) creating a Web page on the computer on top of the "kotatsu," then he is demanding how much I know about "hanga" (woodblock prints).
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 5, 2002

The trucks and bolts of perfect massage

Anyone who has spent some time in Asia has become familiar with massage. You can get all kinds of massage here: Japanese "shiatsu," Chinese foot massage, Thai, Vietnamese and even Swedish massage. But all the different methods can be confusing. Let me set it straight for you.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 4, 2002

Town ties fate to remnants of an industry

KUSHIRO, Hokkaido -- Although the new year was just around the corner, there was little joy to be seen in the southeast end of this port city.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 4, 2002

Medic's lifesaving mission

Human rights activist Dr. Masaki Tada leads a double life. He has just returned from Peshawar, Pakistan, where he struggled to save the lives of Afghan refugees with the meager resources at his disposal. In Japan, he plays a very different role -- as president of Josai Hospital, a modern, fully equipped...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jan 3, 2002

A changed U.S. greets 2002

WASHINGTON -- Welcome to Year One of the time thereafter. If there is a constant in the commentaries on Sept. 11, it is that it was a day whose events changed the way we will live forever.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 3, 2002

Why do birds of a feather tend to flock together?

"Flocks" read the sign outside the onsen, or so I thought. My bird brain immediately clicked into "Hey, an onsen for birders." But why in remote Higashi Mokoto, Hokkaido? Surely it wasn't "Frocks?" A women-only onsen? But no, men were most definitely welcome. So what, I asked, did "flocks" mean?
EDITORIALS
Jan 3, 2002

Avoid a financial crisis

There appears to be nothing to cheer about in Japan's economy as it enters 2002. Virtually every economic indicator points to further stagnation. Unemployment is at a record 5.5 percent. Corporate earnings continue to decline. Particularly worrisome is the bad-debt problem in the banking sector, which,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FLOWER WALK
Jan 3, 2002

A short trip way back to Shinto's arcane roots

In the depths of winter, when their barren fields yielded no blooms to adorn their altars, Japanese farmers traditionally fashioned flowers of wood to celebrate the New Year. To make their festive flora, they cut leafless branches and carved the white wood inside in a variety of ways. Tangled curly slivers...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2002

Euro faces economic snags

LONDON -- The introduction on Jan. 1 of the euro currency into everyday use across 12 countries in one of the world's big three economic zones marks the accomplishment of a 50-year-old project to bring the continent together in partnership and mutual well-being as an alternative to the past periodic...
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2002

Koizumi-Kim TV gambit starts big exchange year

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung will broadcast televised messages to each other's nations today, kick-starting a yearlong series of events aimed at boosting bilateral ties.
COMMENTARY
Jan 1, 2002

New national goal for Japan

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and subsequent developments have brought home to Japan a critical challenge it faces in the post-Cold War world: Establishing a new national goal and designing a national strategy geared to international cooperation.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 1, 2002

Bad times spark new breed of lottery fan

Masao Kitasawa, 58, is a lottery fan. He buys about 10 lottery tickets a week, spending roughly 10,000 yen a month to "dream a little."
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Dec 31, 2001

War recalls the savaging of Okinawa

NEW YORK -- Evidently prompted by the war in Afghanistan, John Gregory Dunne has discussed three books in The New York Review of Books (Dec. 20) to remind us of the savaging process that is war. For Dunne, whose sensitivity to anything false matches that of his wife, Joan Didion, who called "The Greatest...
BUSINESS
Dec 31, 2001

Hunting down terrorist funding requires new teamwork

The bombing in Afghanistan continued throughout the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the Taliban government was swept from power much more swiftly than was previously anticipated.
BUSINESS
Dec 31, 2001

The euro's tangible new legacy

On New Year's Day, many traditional Japanese performance arts come into their element. Rakugo is a time-honored version of standup comedy. Well, sit-down really, since the kimono-clad performer actually sits on a cushion and uses nothing but a towel and a fan as props -- any kind of prop that may be...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2001

Fostering a proper ASEAN perspective

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- During high-level meetings, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, born more than three decades ago, tends to come under criticism, mainly from the international press but sometimes from analysts and academics, as a "talking shop." Even an authority like Samuel Huntington,...
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2001

Hospital hid error after girl died

A 12-year-old girl died three days after undergoing heart surgery at a Tokyo hospital in March due to brain damage caused when an artificial heart-lung machine malfunctioned during the operation, sources close to the case said Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Dec 29, 2001

Concerns over U.S. unilateralism

The 20th century was described as a century of warfare. But men do not seem to learn much from history. At the start of 2001 the international community pledged to build a new century of peace. As the year comes to a close, however, the world is gripped by fears of war and terrorism.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 29, 2001

'Earthquake Bird' celebrates with Japan edition

Susanna Jones has had one terrific year. Her first novel, "The Earthquake Bird," was unanimously applauded by the British press when launched in May. Since then it has been snapped up for translation rights in 11 countries, including the U.S. and Japan. Plus an option has been taken up to make it into...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Dec 29, 2001

Tetsuya Kobayashi

Early in his career at the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, when he was still on the bottom rung of the ladder, Tetsuya Kobayashi was sent to the Kamikochi Imperial Hotel. Part of his duties there were the cleaning-up operations. "I shall never forget my first experience," he said. "While I was working, I was...
EDITORIALS
Dec 28, 2001

No public faith in Koizumi reforms

The first year of the 21st century has seen a great change in Japan's political landscape with the appearance of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Mr. Koizumi, who in April won the post of prime minister with an ardent call for "reforms without sacred cows," has been maintaining an unprecedentedly high...
EDITORIALS
Dec 27, 2001

Reduce the vote-value disparity

One long-standing problem in the nation's Lower House electoral system is that the "representative value" of a vote varies considerably between rural and urban districts. In a move to reduce the disparity, a government advisory council last week submitted a report to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi...

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