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JAPAN
Aug 6, 2002

Maestro hopes to energize, inspire, connect with Asian youths on tour

Bright Sheng has just finished a 3-hour rehearsal with the Asian Youth Orchestra in Hong Kong. You can detect a hint of tiredness in his voice, but it's overlaid with a definite tone of achievement, and excitement even, for what lies ahead.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 31, 2002

Eddie Palmieri: "La Perfect II"

Once upon a time, in a dance hall called the Palladium, in a city called New York, jazz bands vied with each other in all-night contests to see who could play the hottest, fastest and wildest dance music possible. Among those bands, Eddie Palmieri's La Perfecta was one of the most popular. But, with...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

New law may raise prospects for homeless

In the Kamagasaki day-laborer district of Osaka, news about the soon-to-be passed bill to provide aid for the nation's homeless has been greeted with a mixture of hope and indifference.
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2002

Cut company taxes, key council urges

Private-sector members of a key economic panel said Friday the government should slash taxes, primarily those affecting companies, to the tune of 1 trillion yen in fiscal 2003.
EDITORIALS
Jul 20, 2002

Crucial issue in Nagano poll

Nagano Prefecture, whose assembly early this month passed a no-confidence motion against Gov. Yasuo Tanaka, is bracing for the election of a new governor. The key candidate will be Mr. Tanaka himself, who on Monday automatically lost his job but vowed to seek a fresh mandate. The key question for voters...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2002

Bogus forecasts yield mega-project fiascoes

Japan has seen a number of soured public works projects now grappling with snowballing debts, ranging from toll expressways, gigantic bridges, airports and empty ports with huge container facilities.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 18, 2002

Taking a break in Tokyo and getting to grips with coins

Did you miss me? Hopefully not. Due to stockpiling three columns, I was able to escape the worst excesses of rainy season to the U.K. for five weeks without leaving a gaping hole on the page.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jul 17, 2002

Taking a balanced view of life and death

Kristian Haggblom has some quirky ideas. Like the notion that an estimated 29,000 Lego building blocks are currently floating on the oceans of the world. I don't know where the Australian artist dug up this weird statistic, but he mentioned it twice in the course of our conversation last week. Haggblom...
BUSINESS
Jul 3, 2002

Matsushita unit's first-half profits plunge 83.2%

Matsushita Electric Works Ltd. said Tuesday its group net profits for the first half of this business year plunged 83.2 percent from a year earlier to 1.84 billion yen.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 3, 2002

A play that's as Japanese as . . . cherry pie

Following "The Seagull," "The Sneeze," "Three Sisters" and "Uncle Vanya," "The Cherry Orchard" is the final play in a series titled "Chekhov: The Work of the Soul" staged by the New National Theatre, Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Jul 2, 2002

Pork-barreling still rampant

Lower House member Muneo Suzuki was recently arrested by the Tokyo District Prosecutor's Office on charges of accepting a bribe in an influence-peddling scandal. Following the arrest, the Lower House approved a nonbinding motion demanding Suzuki resign as a lawmaker. This was the second such motion approved,...
CULTURE / Art
Jun 27, 2002

Kids' eyes on the world

Entries are now being accepted for the 12th Kanagawa Biennial World Children's Art Exhibition, which invites children's paintings from all over the world to promote the dreams and creativity of the children who will shape tomorrow's world.
EDITORIALS
Jun 22, 2002

Diet apathetic on political ethics

The regular Diet session, which was extended on Wednesday for 42 days through July 31, appears headed for further turmoil. The arrest of Lower House member Muneo Suzuki on the same day, immediately following a unanimous vote accepting a court request for an arrest warrant, has removed a big thorn in...
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2002

Council finalizes basic reform policy

The government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy on Friday finalized a basic economic reform policy that features such revitalization and tax reform measures as corporate tax cuts and consolidation of government expenditures in the fiscal 2003 budget.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 16, 2002

Tribute to a humanist

THE KANETO SHINDO ANTHOLOGY. Asmik Ace Entertainment, Inc. DVD collection, 21 discs (some optional English subtitles) and program booklet (Japanese only), 2002, 79,000 yen. This massive four-volume collection is devoted to the main works of one of the major film directors of the immediate post-World...
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2002

Cultural assets treaty approved

The House of Councilors on Wednesday approved the government's ratification of a UNESCO treaty banning international trafficking in stolen cultural property and works of art.
COMMENTARY
Jun 9, 2002

Labour's dearth of dissent

LONDON -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair could be suffering from the first signs of the madness of princes. It is paranoia, and it afflicts almost every political man who has ambition but does not have the security of the divine right of kings (the madness of kings being grandiosity or megalomania.)...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 6, 2002

Communication need not be a medical emergency

In response to the newly arrived businesswoman seeking native English-speaking general practitioners/family doctors in Kansai and Kyoto, here is a quick round-up.
EDITORIALS
Jun 2, 2002

More than a few rotten apples

It appears that the Diet is not very serious about promoting clean politics, despite the fact that a spate of corruption scandals has forced a number of legislators to resign. The Diet, to be sure, has played a part in unraveling the scandals, but it has done very little to address its real challenge:...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2002

Chinese growth miracle may be a myth

NEW DELHI -- Has China really achieved double-digit growth rates in the past two decades? And is India really lagging behind? Close scrutiny reveals that India's growth rate may actually have been higher.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 21, 2002

College's cartoon exhibition roasts once-popular Koizumi

KYOTO -- It has been months since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's public support rating stood above the 50 percent line and his rapid slide is now the stuff of cartoons.
BUSINESS / ON MANAGEMENT
May 13, 2002

Training for success -- crash and learn

Car wrecks always draw a crowd, as every driver knows, and that's true for the equivalent in business, too. Rubber-necking at someone else's trouble, many executives thank their stars that they're not caught in the pileup; most take the opportunity to remind themselves to be extra careful to stay out...
JAPAN
May 11, 2002

Opposition to push for Suzuki vote

Four opposition parties have agreed to pressure the ruling bloc into calling a Diet vote on Tuesday over a non-binding motion urging beleaguered lawmaker Muneo Suzuki to resign from the House of Representatives.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2002

Localities slow to start PFI projects: survey

A Cabinet Office survey released Tuesday reveals that 79.2 percent of local governments and municipalities have not started preparations to implement private finance initiative projects.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
May 8, 2002

Heart and soul in your hands

A list of the things we humans take for granted would be long indeed. Not wishing to embark on a colossal environmental-spiritual- humanitarian itemization, I'll keep my list real short. One item, in fact: a clay mug.
COMMENTARY
May 1, 2002

Le Pen victory a dark sign of the times

LONDON -- Political experts of all shades have been professing surprise and amazement that Jean-Marie Le Pen, with his wild mixture of views, some overtly racist, should have collected around 17 percent of the votes in the first round of the French presidential elections. But the real surprise is that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
May 1, 2002

Young artists are making a splash

The third installment in an almost-annual series (they skipped it last year), "New Media New Face 02" is now showing at the NTT InterCommunication Center, in Shinjuku. The work here, from four Japanese artists, falls into the vague but trendy, technology-based genre known as "media art."
BUSINESS
Apr 30, 2002

'Community currencies' seen fulfilling only half of mission

The recent boom in community "currencies" -- a virtual form of payment being used to promote exchanges of goodwill and business -- seems to have reached a turning point.

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