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LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Nov 20, 2003

Empty school buildings: reuse or recycle?

Not far from where I live, there's an elementary school with just 36 students. It's not a private school. It doesn't have a special curriculum. It's a regular public school designed to serve several hundred students. But the neighborhood has changed into a business district, and the few residents who...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 2003

Exposing the roots of Islam

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- The former dynamic leader of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, again made big waves, this time at his departing salvo. Most of the world's reactions focused on his remarks about Jews, but there were other interesting aspects in his comments regarding Islam that were perhaps overlooked....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2003

Shiatsu to soothe the nervous Chihuahua?

Dog owners will readily say that just being around their pets helps ease their stress. But beyond petting and feeding, how can owners return the compliment and relieve their animals' tension? Or else just pamper them to the max?
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2003

Ishihara backs off on allegations against Fujii

Land minister Nobuteru Ishihara on Tuesday backtracked from an earlier statement that indicated Haruho Fujii, former chief of Japan Highway Public Corp., had threatened to fight his pending dismissal by disclosing sensitive information.
COMMENTARY
Nov 19, 2003

Freedom of choice and the ACLU don't quite go together hand in hand

WASHINGTON -- Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union, has written to ask me to become a "card-carrying member" of the ACLU. She explains: "There is no higher calling, nor greater reward, democracy can offer an individual than the opportunity to stand up for fundamental freedoms...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / A GAIJIN'S TALE
Nov 18, 2003

Smokers' heaven

As a native Australian who smokes, I was overjoyed upon arriving in Japan to find that, unlike Australia, smoking is still permitted just about anywhere.
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2003

Bill outline defines duties in event of military attack

The national government has drafted the outline of a bill stipulating how it and local governments should protect the public in foreign attacks on Japan, according to government sources.
JAPAN / TALKING SHOP
Nov 17, 2003

For headhunter in middle, tactful persuasion is art of the deal

For headhunter Toshiaki Komatsu, the most electric moment in his work is when he negotiates a candidate's salary contract -- in English.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 16, 2003

Political intrigue and mystery imagined in present and past

THE THIRD WORLD WAR: A Terrifying Novel of Global Conflict, by Humphrey Hawksley. London: Pan Books, 2003, 514 pp., £6.99 (paper). THE HELL SCREEN, by I.J. Parker. New York: St. Martin's Minotaur, 2003, 338 pp., $24.95, (cloth). Long before Dec. 7, 1941, at least three novels -- the earliest published...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 16, 2003

Spring is in the air

It's party time in Tokyo -- again. You know, that twice yearly event when the capital's trendy restaurants and coffee shops seem to be overflowing with leggy, blonde models from overseas. They're here to make a few bucks, have a few parties -- and also have a stab at furthering their careers.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2003

Tokugawa symposium promotes idyllic view of life under shogunate

People should use the opportunity of the 400th anniversary of the establishment of Tokugawa Shogunate to consider the culture and social stability of the Edo Period, participants of a symposium in Tokyo said Friday.
BUSINESS
Nov 15, 2003

Japanese company employees seek career upgrade after time overseas

Many employees at big Japanese corporations see their business environment change dramatically when they are transferred overseas.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2003

Nakasone still a believer in LDP, Japan

Although he is still smarting from his enforced retirement before last Sunday's election, former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone still backs the Liberal Democratic Party and the Junichiro Koizumi administration.
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2003

Xenophobia aside, Japan said to need foreign labor

OSAKA -- Although immigrant labor can play a key role in creating economic growth and vitality in Japan, serious debate on the issue has been stymied by traditional reluctance to welcome foreigners, sensationalized media coverage of the rise in crimes by foreigners and xenophobic comments by rightwing...
EDITORIALS
Nov 14, 2003

Divisions within Sri Lanka

Ending the 20-year civil war in Sri Lanka was never going to be easy, but that task has become considerably more difficult with the outbreak of fighting within the Sri Lankan government. The battle between President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe over the peace talks has...
BUSINESS
Nov 13, 2003

Brokerage houses prepare for perceived benefits of law revision

Brokerage houses in Japan are gearing up for the scheduled enforcement next spring of the revised Securities and Exchange Law that they hope will bring about a sharp increase in individual customers.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 13, 2003

A black hole on our doorstep

The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. It's 2,600 meters above sea level and receives almost no rainfall. Visitors, when they are not tending to dry skin and nosebleeds caused by the altitude, often compare the terrain to the barren red rocks that cover...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 13, 2003

The indispensable vagueness of 'domo-domo'

It's when I'm away from Japan and forced to speak in another language (in this case English) that I realize just how vague Japanese can get. At home, it's possible to go through a whole day without uttering one coherent sentence built on spontaneous thought and logic.
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2003

Convenience shop killer appeals term

A 35-year-old man who killed a convenience store manager last year has appealed his life sentence to the Supreme Court.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 12, 2003

Man who gave us loose white socks eyes comeback

The man behind the "loose socks" fad among schoolgirls had enough of the phenomenon long before it died out.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 12, 2003

A mini 'Mahabharata' of epic proportions

How is your "geijitsu no aki" going? If you haven't got out to enjoy the splendors of "artistic autumn" yet, the Ku Na'uka Theatre Company's new play, "Mahabharata-Nalacaritam (Prince Nala's Adventure)" is as romantic and colorful a spectacle as any laid on by nature.
Events
Nov 9, 2003

KANSAI : Who & What

Kagawa woos tourists with discounts, gifts: Every tourist who visits sightseeing spots or hotels in Kagawa Prefecture after crossing the Seto Ohashi Bridge through March 31, 2004, will receive a discount, a package of "udon" noodles or other incentives.
JAPAN
Nov 8, 2003

Pension crisis brings on number crunchers

The future of Japan's public pension system remains uncertain, and polls indicate the issue is a key concern of voters ahead of Sunday's House of Representatives election.
JAPAN
Nov 8, 2003

Man kills ex-lover at FamilyMart

A woman was fatally stabbed at a convenience store in the suburb of Kodaira, western Tokyo, on Friday afternoon, local police said.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 8, 2003

Keiichi Kurosawa

"English music in its most primitive form was essentially group music. The old divisions were church, secular and concert music. . . . The madrigal flourished best in the Tudor period. Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I composed madrigals."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2003

Polar expeditions face cash freeze

Japan's Antarctic expedition program may be suspended because the Finance Ministry is reluctant to allocate a budget of 8 billion yen next fiscal year to build a new icebreaker, sources said Thursday.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 7, 2003

Mihajlovic's disgraceful behavior brings shame to football

LONDON -- It is unlikely that there is a more loathesome player in European football than Sinisa Mihajlovic, the Lazio defender.
JAPAN / BULLETIN BOARD
Nov 6, 2003

Female ambassadors to discuss life in Tokyo

Female ambassadors from Luxembourg and Turkey will discuss their experiences in Japan at a symposium in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Nov 6, 2003

Where there's muck -- there's crystals of money

I just got back from Vancouver, Canada, where I was staying with my dear old friend Fred Koch and his wife Akiko. I first met Fred back in the early 1970s when I worked for the Environmental Protection Service in Canada, and when Fred, then a keen young engineer, was hired by EPS to do some contract...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 5, 2003

Borderless abstraction

The Oxford Dictionary of 20th Century Art defines Op Art as: "an exactly prescribed retinal response . . . repeated small scale patterns arranged so as to suggest underlying secondary shapes or warping or swelling surfaces."

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