Search - reference

 
 
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

Time ripe for collective defense: panelists

Panelists at a symposium on Japan-U.S. relations held in Tokyo this week agreed that Japan should lift its ban on engaging in collective defense as both nations seek to strengthen security ties.
CULTURE / Film
May 30, 2001

Memories as microcosms

Directors, it's often said, keep making the same movie over and over, though the sameness is more evident with some than others. Akira Kurosawa was among the most eclectic directors of his generation, filming everything from Shakespearean drama ("Throne of Blood") to popcorn entertainment ("The Hidden...
COMMENTARY
May 22, 2001

Politics slides as style prevails

LONDON -- The British general-election campaign has started. The "spin doctors" are working overtime to show the party leaders and party policies in the best possible light and to provide good photo opportunities to illustrate their leaders' popular appeal. At the same time, the party leaders themselves...
JAPAN
May 18, 2001

Koizumi rejects Beijing's demand for text revision

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Thursday rejected China's demand to revise a controversial junior high school history textbook, but said he will work to improve ties with Beijing.
JAPAN
May 17, 2001

Disclosed ministry document casts Matsuo case in new light

Statements by Foreign Ministry officials have been called into question following the release of a formerly classified ministry document relating to the overseas visit support division.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 17, 2001

Mimicry demonstrated to drive origin of species

One of the claims often made by opponents of the theory of evolution -- there are some still left, mainly in Kansas -- is that because natural selection is a phenomenon we can't directly observe, the theory is untenable. And while creationists insist that species are immutable despite a staggering amount...
JAPAN
May 16, 2001

Solution eyed to defense issue

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Tuesday that although he would prefer to revise the Constitution in order to clarify Japan's right to collective defense, another option would be to pass a Diet resolution allowing Tokyo to exercise this right.
CULTURE / Art
May 16, 2001

A vision of humanity that transcends culture

"Waterside Garden I" (2001) by Noriko Yanagisawa The current show at Tokyo's Hillside Forum features works by print artist Noriko Yanagisawa.
Events
May 15, 2001

Citizens' group keeps an eye on local politicians

AMAGASAKI, Hyogo Pref. -- The members of local assemblies may play a major role in formulating policies affecting the citizens they represent, but few people have a chance to follow their day-to-day activities.
CULTURE / Film
May 9, 2001

Crowd-pleasing in Udine

Given the media frenzy over "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," Western interest in Asian cinema may be news, but it's hardly new. Back in 1998, the organizers of Udine Incontri Cinema, a small film festival in a quiet Italian town near the Austrian and Slovenian border, shifted their focus to commercial...
JAPAN
May 9, 2001

Tokyo says it understands Bush's missile defense plan

Japan expressed "understanding" Tuesday toward the controversial new defense strategy announced last week by U.S. President George W. Bush.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 6, 2001

Don't forget your TOEFL

With my older son now poking his way through the college-application process, pursuing schools mostly in the States and often being mistaken for a nonnative English speaker, I am uneasily reminded of a time 20 years past when I too applied for higher education from within Japan.
BUSINESS
May 4, 2001

Disabled drivers call for more specialized options

With the nation's population aging rapidly and disabled people leading more active lives, Japanese automakers have turned much of their attention to introducing specially designed "welfare vehicles" in recent years.
JAPAN
May 3, 2001

New Web site aids feather aficionados

The Wild Bird Society of Japan has launched a Web site to aid binocular-toting bird watchers who spend their holidays poking around bushes and peeking in trees.
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2001

South Korea weighs a constitutional revision

SEOUL -- In private, even his friends acknowledge that South Korean President Kim Dae Jung has passed the peak of his term. With the opposition increasingly less inclined to cooperate, it has become ever more difficult for the "government of the people" to enact domestic reforms.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2001

Myanmar's Shan State: a complex tragedy

THAI-MYANMAR BORDER -- Mae Sai is the end of the road in northern Thailand. This is not to suggest that the lackluster town is undeveloped: It does a roaring trade in gemstones (both real and fake), tourist trinkets, snacks and all kinds of contraband. It's literal. The main street, Pahonyotin, runs...
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2001

Kan urges removal of war criminals from shrine

Naoto Kan, secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, said Friday that Class-A war criminals enshrined at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which is dedicated to Japan's war dead, should be enshrined at a different location.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2001

Municipalities could be pared to 622

The current 3,228 cities, towns and villages nationwide could conceivably be merged into just 622 entities, according to the Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry.
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Apr 25, 2001

A stunningly beautiful work of Great 3 genius

One sure sign of the maturation of a pop-music culture is when artists start releasing albums that are organic, cohesive works of art, instead of collections of their latest hit singles with some B-grade tracks as filler. "May and December," the latest from Japanese pop/rock band the Great 3, is such...
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2001

Mori wins 3 million yen in magazine libel suit

Outgoing Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, whose tenure can be described as one long run-in with the media, won 3 million yen in damages Tuesday in a libel suit against a monthly magazine.
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2001

LDP's Tokyo politicians voice dissent

They are closely watching the Liberal Democratic Party presidential race. In fact, they will be the first to receive the verdict of voters on the party under its new leader.
COMMUNITY
Apr 15, 2001

Where the reading's free and easy

As England was once called a nation of shopkeepers, Japan could be called a nation of readers.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 15, 2001

Sake heaven, free on earth

Like wine, different sake have distinct flavor profiles -- some are light and fruity, while others are heavy and rich. Trying to distinguish between different sake in a kikizake (blind taste-testing), however, is harder than it sounds. At Sake Plaza in the Kasumigaseki district, you can put your taste...
CULTURE / Film
Apr 11, 2001

Heartbreak at its finest moment

In the Mood for Love Rating: * * * * 1/2 Director: Wang Kar-wai Running time: 98 minutes Language: CantoneseNow playing A man and a woman sit in a coffee shop, the table between them maintaining the proper distance. Neighbors in the same cramped apartment building, they have agreed to meet away...
JAPAN
Apr 5, 2001

Matsuo again arrested over missing cash

Police on Wednesday served Katsutoshi Matsuo, a former Foreign Ministry logistics chief, with a new arrest warrant on suspicion of defrauding the government out of roughly 119 million yen.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 4, 2001

While my guitar gently weeps, the video rolls

Few pop-culture icons are as enduring as the electric guitar. Maybe that's why artists so love to destroy the things. Foremost in the pantheon of ax-smashers is Jimi Hendrix, who, after performing a screaming feedback version of the "Star Spangled Banner" at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, set his lighter...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 1, 2001

Schilling reels in a decade of film

CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE FILM, by Mark Schilling. Weatherhill, 1999, 399 pp., $24.95 (paper). Americans flock to subtitled films the way the Swedes flock to church. That is, hardly ever. So when Asian films make their way into the theaters of U.S. shopping malls, it is no small feat.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan