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CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Jul 17, 2003

Manga attempt to evolve against multiple threats

Manga and anime from Japan are increasingly popular overseas, with Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" receiving an Academy Award earlier this year. In their birthplace, however, manga seem past their glory days when loyal readers eagerly awaited the next installment from their favorite authors, such as...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Jul 17, 2003

Exploring a once bleak, medieval upland

In 1601 Tokugawa Ieyasu established a nationwide highway network radiating from Edo and designated post stations on the roads to serve the needs of travelers. Shinagawa, on the city's southwestern perimeter, was the first of these post stations on the Todaido, the most frequented route between Edo and...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 17, 2003

Humble marvels of nature

The mechanics of flight are beyond me, and I especially can't imagine how bumblebees can become airborne. Images of a jumbo jet taking off without a runway spring to mind.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 17, 2003

Japan must think outside the box if it hopes to get ahead: creativity guru

Japan needs to set up a "Ministry of Creativity" to think its way out of the economic slump it has endured for a decade, according to the world's leading authority in the field of creative and conceptual thinking.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2003

'Manifesto' replaces slogans in election wordplay

Now that there is a fall election in the air, once again politicians are couching their platforms with the buzzword "manifesto."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 16, 2003

Jazz swinging out in the open

Jazz fans have dozens of excellent festivals to choose from throughout Japan, with lineups covering a broad base from slick, traditional-minded swing to in-your-face free jazz. At most festivals, one would have to have to be either deaf or drunk to love everything on the schedule, but part of why festivals...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 16, 2003

It's an absurd, absurd world

Theatrical experiences don't get much more intimate than at the Umegaoka Box in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward. The room-size home of the Rinko Gun theater company is barely four meters from front to back (including the floor-level acting area) and 15 meters across, meaning there's no place for either the 40...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 16, 2003

Fuji's hipper hop

Despite its immense popularity in Japan, hip-hop has until recently suffered from poor representation at summer music events. The Fuji Rock Festival seems keen to make up for lost time this year, augmenting the usual legion of club-oriented DJs with a veritable roll call of some of today's most innovative...
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2003

Top lotto winners longtime players with A blood

About 60 percent of lottery winners who claimed more than 10 million yen in prizes last year were players who have been buying lottery tickets longer than 10 years, according to a survey by Mizuho Bank.
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2003

Honda chief wants weaker pound

Expressing concern over the strength of the British pound against the euro, Honda Motor Co. President Takeo Fukui has called for Britain to adopt the single European currency, the Financial Times reported Monday.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 15, 2003

Hold the fort

Over dinner not long ago, I noticed a friend wasn't wearing one of his prized antique wristwatches.
COMMENTARY
Jul 13, 2003

Shabby cause to shed blood

The bad news is that the Japanese government wants to send troops to Iraq. Tokyo's rush into overseas military involvements is far stronger than anyone would have imagined possible even a few years ago.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jul 13, 2003

The Cumbrian sense of fair play

For most of the year, Appleby is a sleepy little English market-town in eastern Cumbria, not that far from the Scottish border. Surrounded by green fields spotted with sheep, Appleby is dominated by a castle that overlooks a gently sloping high street flanked by small shops. It has lots of benches with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Jul 13, 2003

The sum of their parts -- and more

One of the common impressions of Japanese jazz is of skilled technicians working studiously within the confines of jazz tradition to turn out polished music. Indeed, many Japanese jazz musicians fail to exploit the full potential of jazz improvisation, preferring instead to remain dedicated, humble craftsmen,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 12, 2003

'Luxury Travel Show' hits town, aiming for TV

Varun Sharma is tall, handsome, immaculately dressed, and can talk the hind leg off a donkey. He is also a truly gentle man in displaying genuine concern for the bell "boy" at the new Marunouchi Four Seasons, who turned out to be a young woman of such tiny, fragile proportions that he feared for her...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 11, 2003

Narita looks to privatization, more profits, lower landing fees

With legislation for privatizing Narita airport set to win Diet approval Friday, the head of the operating authority pledged to do his utmost to make Japan's main gateway more profitable so it can go public in a few years after becoming a wholly state-owned joint stock corporation.
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2003

Human rights lawyer to give talks on Middle East

An award-winning human rights lawyer from the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip will visit Japan to speak about the situation there and how global society can help the region move toward peace.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jul 11, 2003

It's time for Mac to get his act together

Hopefully, Mac Suzuki has turned over a new leaf.
EDITORIALS
Jul 10, 2003

Wrong light at the end of the tunnel

Stock prices and long-term interest rates in Japan have climbed rapidly of late. On Monday, the Nikkei index hit a 10-month high of 9,795 points while yields on 10-year benchmark government bonds topped 1 percent, more than double the level of a month earlier. That is good news if it signals an upturn...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 9, 2003

Did sports rags hire students to stuff ballot box for Godzilla?

A couple of selections from the mail bag this week.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 9, 2003

Popular nightclub a microcosm of pain, potential of deflation-beset Japan

Tokyo nightclub owner Sakura Masui is nowhere close to the modern-day geisha girl she appears to be, shuffling demurely in a purple kimono as she pours drinks and chats in hushed tones.
COMMENTARY
Jul 9, 2003

Human rights under siege worldwide

LONDON -- Terrorism is a serious threat to our societies and way of life. We must give top priority to combating it, but if we ignore or undermine the protection of human rights in the process we shall endanger the principles of humanity for which we are purportedly fighting.
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2003

Bounty of frozen fuel under seabed allures, eludes

Like an ice that burns, methane hydrate is cold, white and would light up like a gas stove if held to a flame. And so much of the frozen fuel naturally blankets the seabeds off Japan and elsewhere that scientists say it could power the world for centuries.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2003

Rush on for graves at Aoyama Cemetery

Despite charges that can top 10 million yen per grave, thousands of inquiries have come in about 50 graves being put up for sale at Aoyama Cemetery in central Tokyo.
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2003

Tests find no link between arsenic, navy

The Environment Ministry said Monday that no evidence has been found to prove the link between contaminated water in a well in Kamisu, Ibaraki Prefecture, and chemical weapons buried in the area by the Imperial Japanese Navy after World War II.

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