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JAPAN
Jan 31, 2003

Newspapers and plays feature in report on polishing Japanese

A panel of experts advising the education minister on use of Japanese has issued an interim report on how to improve command of the language among elementary and junior high school students.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2003

Shinsei experience: lattes in the lobby, free ATM transactions

A typical Japanese bank looks a bit like the dowdy, paper-shuffling office of a shoddily run company. There are plenty of bowing clerks. But don't count on conveniences like 24-hour ATMs.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2003

China hands over Japanese refugee

A Japanese woman who had been in Chinese custody for two weeks after fleeing North Korea in November arrived in Japan shortly before noon Wednesday, her first time home in 44 years.
COMMENTARY
Jan 30, 2003

Making waves over foreign policy 'realism'

HONOLULU -- One of the advantages of living in Hawaii is that you get to spend weekends at the beach. I spend mine with the Grizzled Old Vet, a longtime observer of East Asia who has spent a lifetime straddling academia and the minefields that litter the Beltway. Between waves, the Gov (as I will call...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 30, 2003

Asia's last emperors of its wetland wilds

CHENGDU, China -- Though surprisingly not Japan's national bird, which oddly is the pheasant, the red-crowned crane, also known as the Japanese crane, has long been close to the Japanese heart. In China, too, it occupies a special place, along with the pine and turtle, as a symbol of luck and longevity,...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2003

Death penalty sought for major Aum figure

Prosecutors on Wednesday demanded the death sentence for Tomomasa Nakagawa, a former Aum Shinrikyo senior member accused of involvement in numerous crimes, including the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 29, 2003

Mother Teresa: a shining example for all of humanity

MADRAS, India -- In a time of harrowing sectarian strife, the Vatican has shown that there is an ocean of compassion and tolerance in the highest form of faith.
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2003

Plutonium extracted from spent fuel is 206 kg short

A tally of plutonium extracted at a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, since it began operating has come up 206 kg short, the government said Tuesday.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 28, 2003

Turning Japanese no simple process

Japan's aging society and low birthrate demand dramatic measures, some say.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jan 27, 2003

Corporations cast a shadow on education

NEW YORK -- Did you know that Stanford University has a Yahoo! Chair of Information Management Systems?
EDITORIALS
Jan 27, 2003

Drug benefits vs. risks

New drugs often loom as a last hope for terminal-cancer patients who have exhausted without success all forms of conventional treatment available. Sometimes, though, drugs cause serious side effects and completely betray patients' expectations. Two such incidents have occurred recently, giving us reason...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 26, 2003

Watery worlds on show without a snorkel

Although the Kaiyukan Aquarium is located right on Osaka Bay, it is truly a case of "water, water everywhere, ne'er any drop to drink" for the 39,000 fish and 580 species of other sea creatures kept there in 15 large tanks.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 26, 2003

Stories about the storytellers

FIVE MODERN JAPANESE NOVELISTS, by Donald Keene. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003, 144 pp., $24.50 (cloth) In this new book, the doyen of Western scholars of Japanese literature introduces the writing of five novelists with whom he has worked and reminisces about his relationships with them....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jan 26, 2003

One trip to Never Never Land, and you're hooked

Hiroshi Matsusaki is not a big Disney-film fan. His imagination was captured, however, when he read a Japanese translation of "Peter Pan" -- understandable for a child whose life's adventures began in the lush natural reaches of Kyushu, before his family moved on to Saitama.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 26, 2003

First, dump the zombie debtors

JAPANESE PHOENIX: The Long Road to Economic Revival, by Richard Katz. M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, NY, 2003, 351 pp., $24.95 (paper) As Japan limps further into a second decade of recession, optimists about its future economic prospects are thin on the ground. In this provocative and thoughtful study, Richard...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Jan 26, 2003

A rare chance to tap into Cat Power

Chan Marshall sits in her record company's office toying with a partially eaten apple. It is a fitting symbol. In Tokyo to promote her new album under the Cat Power moniker, "You Are Free," Marshall (first name pronounced Shawn) is dealing with her own peculiar fall from grace: the publicity tour.
Japan Times
JAPAN / PREFECTURAL FARE
Jan 25, 2003

Sake, sweets part of Shimane's spell

Once upon a time, there was a violent god named Susanoo-no-mikoto who challenged a giant serpent that had demanded the life of a young woman every year. The god killed the eight-headed Yamata-no-crochi, a dragonlike creature with eight tails, when it became drunk on the local Yashiori-no-sake.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jan 25, 2003

Mariko Asano

Americans Millard and Linda Fuller began Habitat for Humanity International in 1976. Appalled to know that more than one-fifth of the world's people were living without decent shelter, this couple set out to do something about poor housing and homelessness. They called on volunteers to help build simple,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 25, 2003

Festival celebrates 400 years atop Atago-yama

Meet the Matsuoka family: Mineo (that's Dad), Yuriko (Mum), older sister Rie and younger sister Iku. Oh, and let's not forget Vino, the Mexican Chihuahua, who wears a hand-knit coat against the cold and makes pretense to be as fierce as a Rottweiler.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jan 25, 2003

Joy for the standing man: Densha Don's seat secrets

In riding the iron ponies hither and thither across the urban plains of Japan, I'm one railroad cowboy who would just love to experience the singular pain of a real-life horsemen.
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2003

Parents demand death over school massacre

OSAKA -- The parents of three 7-year-old girls fatally stabbed in a killing spree in June 2001 at an elementary school in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, called Thursday for the defendant to be sentenced to death.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 24, 2003

Shilingol: From the Mongol steppes to Sugamo

A chill gale of change is gusting through the sumo world, all the way from Central Asia. The demise of the Takanohana era does not, of course, mean we will stop eating chanko nabe. However, in honor of the incipient arrival of the Asashoryu dynasty, we felt impelled to set off in search of Shilingol,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 23, 2003

Chips with everything makes for a hi-tech mess

If you think that your computer, being such a modern, hi-tech device, is -- or surely must be -- environmentally friendly, then think again.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDEN PATHS
Jan 23, 2003

The bare essentials

This column is the first in a series of articles to take us strolling along some garden paths. Hopefully, along the way, we will come across some good ideas for our own patch of greenery, whether that is a garden, containers on a balcony, or just a few potted plants on the kitchen window.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2003

Genome research council launched

A council tasked with promoting genome research in the Tokyo area was launched Wednesday, seeking to make the capital an international center for genome-based life sciences.
EDITORIALS
Jan 23, 2003

Forge national consensus on taxes

One year ago the government published a five-year budget projection showing how it expected to make ends meet in fiscal 2002-06. Now, the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, chaired by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, has revised the plan -- downward. The basic picture is that the budget deficit...
EDITORIALS
Jan 22, 2003

Sumo needs a clear vision

Yokozuna Takanohana has finally bowed out of the dohyo. Looking back over his active career, he certainly made spectacular achievements. There can be no objections to his being described as one of the all-time great grand champions of sumo.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?