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EDITORIALS
Apr 22, 2003

The meaning of low interest rates

The global economic outlook remains dim despite the swift and decisive coalition victory in Iraq. In Japan the prospects are darker still, with deflation getting worse, not better. Stock prices are at their lowest level in about 20 years. Banks are still burdened with piles of bad debt. Prime Minister...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2003

68 evacuees from Miyake Island return for four-day visit

Sixty-eight former residents of Miyake Island returned Saturday morning for a four-day visit, their first overnight stay since the entire population of about 3,800 people was evacuated when the island's volcano rumbled into life in September 2000.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 20, 2003

Changing narratives of Korean history

COLONIAL MODERNITY IN KOREA, edited by Gi Wook Shin and Michael Robinson. Harvard University Press, 2000, 466 pp., $49.50 (cloth) Until very recently most English-language general histories of Korea treated Japanese colonial rule or "Japanese occupation" as a rupture or distortion of the "natural development"...
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2003

Government to fight war-displaced

The government said Friday it will fight a compensation lawsuit filed by more than 600 war-displaced Japanese left behind in China and urged a court to reject the plaintiffs' claims.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Apr 20, 2003

Look what the tide brought in

Venice Beach, Fla., and the sun is hot and strong. Most tourists are simply lounging on the sand turning various shades of furious red or "Baywatch" bronze. A few are chucking Frisbees or checking out the babes.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 20, 2003

Dancing detectives

A LOYAL CHARACTER DANCER, by Qiu Xiaolong. New York, SOHO Press, 2002, 351 pp., $25 (cloth) Popular fiction can be a fairly reliable indicator of changing public sentiments. One harbinger that the Cold War was beginning to wind down was the appearance of the now-famous police procedural novel. Such novels...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Apr 19, 2003

2003 party season gets its blessing; Credit where due in 2002

As omens go, the last two Sundays have been righteously encouraging for the Tokyo party scene.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2003

SARS forces rethink on disease responses

The health ministry is considering legal changes to more effectively handle outbreaks of infectious illnesses -- such as the atypical pneumonia now plaguing much of Asia -- by increasing the government's authority to act.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 19, 2003

Silvio Vita

Silvio Vita leads an enviable life. He says perhaps he is lucky. That may be true, but it is not the whole story. He is also hardworking, and his work has done more than luck to bring him recognition and reward. He is a Roman, born in Romulus' fabulous city, which, built over seven hills by the Tiber...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2003

Journalist offers renewable energy as solution to wars fought over oil

OSAKA -- Humans may someday cease to fight over oil when the sun becomes our main source of energy, according to 64-year-old German journalist Franz Alt.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / INDUSTRY TRENDS
Apr 17, 2003

Big screens on grand scale win back new generation of film fans

The magic of Harry Potter and "The Lord of the Rings" may not be the only reason that people are returning to movie theaters.
BUSINESS
Apr 17, 2003

Tobishima returns to banks for 30 billion yen bailout

Struggling construction firm Tobishima Corp. said Wednesday it will ask its three main creditor banks to buy 30 billion yen in new preferred shares.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2003

TOEFL preparatory aids hit market

The operator of the Test of English as a Foreign Language said Tuesday it has introduced two new products targeting schools: a software package named LanguEdge Courseware and an online service called Criterion.
BUSINESS
Apr 16, 2003

Politicians under fire for plan to fix accounting rules

A group of ruling coalition politicians is coming under fire from investors and accounting specialists for trying to suspend globally recognized corporate accounting rules as stock prices continue to tumble.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2003

Confession-based convictions questioned

For more than a month after his arrest, Kazuo Ishikawa staunchly denied police allegations that he had raped and killed a high school girl in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, in May 1963.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 13, 2003

Making a stanza for life

HOW TO HAIKU: A Writer's Guide to Haiku and Related Forms, by Bruce Ross. Tuttle Publishing, 2002, 167 pp., 1800 yen (paper); TAKE A DEEP BREATH: The Haiku Way to Inner Peace, by Sylvia Forges-Ryan & Edward Ryan. Kodansha International, 2002, 129 pp., 1,800 yen (cloth); THE NICK OF TIME: Essays on Haiku...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 13, 2003

Black where they belong

Rewind to September 1986. Yasuhiro Nakasone, prime minister of a self-assured, economically powerful Japan, was taking swipes at American minorities -- especially African-Americans.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 13, 2003

Matsui, Matsui . . . and a little more Matsui

Because of coverage of the invasion of Iraq, it feels as if we're being spared the all-Matsui-all-the-time media blitz we were promised last fall when the former Yomiuri Giants slugger, Hideki Matsui, signed with the New York Yankees. We aren't. Matsui madness is everywhere, but because the war has engaged...
BUSINESS
Apr 12, 2003

Employment offices doing their best to jam square pegs into round holes

Faced with near-record levels of unemployment in Japan, Hello Work employment offices are stepping up efforts to get young people onto a career path.
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2003

Technology school to be built in Onna

A planned technology graduate school in Okinawa will be located in the village of Onna on Okinawa island, Hiroyuki Hosoda, the state minister in charge of Okinawa affairs, said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2003

Futility felt by journalist drives him to show war's true face

Hearing U.S. bombs find their targets and feeling the ground shake under his Baghdad hotel, Kosuke Tsuneoka was struck by the futility of his plan to serve as a "human shield" and stop the war.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2003

Japan Post to cut procurement costs by 10% to stay in black, Ikuta says

Japan Post aims to slash procurement costs in its mail delivery operations by 10 percent this fiscal year, according to Masaharu Ikuta, president of the new government-affiliated corporation that took over the Postal Services Agency on April 1.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2003

War fuels Saudi fears and anger

RIYADH -- You won't find the newly published "Hatred's Kingdom" in any Saudi bookshop, but it is in such demand among high officials that the government has brought out a reprint of its own. Its author is Dore Gold, a hardline Israeli spokesman. According to him, the "hatred" in question is rooted in...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2003

Fashion world takes aim at breast cancer

Supermodels smile as they don T-shirts with a bull's-eye logo, the trademark of an international charity campaign to battle breast cancer.
LIFE / Digital / NETWISE
Apr 10, 2003

Sifting online study aids

Just a few years ago, I was certain I could never get by without Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary and the venerable Nelson close at hand. Today, however, these and other weighty tomes gather dust on a nearby bookshelf, banished to obsolescence by my favorite desktop reference, the Web.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 9, 2003

Roll up, the lion tamer's in town

Hurry, hurry, step right up, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Right this way. The circus has come to town!

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