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COMMENTARY / World
Aug 2, 2001

Blame misplaced in Okinawa rape case

I am deeply disturbed, although not surprised, by the news that Japanese weeklies are harassing the young woman who claims to have been publicly raped in late June in Okinawa. Even Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka evidently blames her for having been out so late, drinking, in a bar frequented by American...
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Aug 2, 2001

Salt tolerance and life's dispersal derby

Salt is an interesting mineral. We all need it. It is crucial to the operation of the cells that make up our bodies.
CULTURE / Film
Aug 1, 2001

A samurai flick for the MTV generation

Red Shadow Aka Kage Rating: * * 1/2 Director: Hiroyuki Nakano Running time: 108 minutes Language: JapaneseOpens Aug. 11 at Marunouchi Toei and other theaters Silent-era samurai movies fulfilled the same function as the westerns of W.S. Hart and Tom Mix: They entertained the common herd, particularly...
CULTURE / Art
Aug 1, 2001

A century down along the Sumida

In most of the great European capitals, wide, impressive rivers flow through the very heart of the cities, providing the perfect setting for stately buildings such as the Houses of Parliament in London or the Orsay Museum in Paris.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2001

Producer promotes Asian women singers

Chika Asamoto is a professional saxophonist in her own right but nowadays she works chiefly as a producer to promote talented Asian female singers.
EDITORIALS
Aug 1, 2001

Breathing new life into the Tories

A political party that suffers a major defeat after 18 years in power is obviously in need of serious self-examination. If it repeats the experience four years later at an election marked by an unusually high degree of abstention, the need for wrenching change may well become inescapable.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2001

Elderly seen warming to overseas home-stays

Yujiro Hamada, 77, is typical of a rising number of middle-aged and elderly Japanese who have rejected more common overseas package tours in favor of extended stays abroad.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2001

Fear of enemies still guides CCP policy

"Who are our enemies? Who are our friends?" Mao Zedong asked in 1926. It is a useful question to keep in mind in the wake of the "friendship treaty" just signed between Russian President Putin and China's President Jiang Zemin.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2001

Chen seeks a 'middle way' for Taiwan

TAIPEI -- March 2000 saw a sea change: the election by universal suffrage of Chen Shui-bian as president of the Republic of China. The Nationalist Party (KMT) no longer ruled Taiwan. This finally put to rest the trite old misconception that ethnic Chinese are not ready for democracy.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jul 30, 2001

Is yellow journalism in vogue again?

Why do so many foreign commentators feel they can get away with anything they say about Japan?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 29, 2001

The added cost of convenience

If you've got a rumbling in your tummy but little time or money, what could be better than a bento (boxed lunch) from the nearest convenience store?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 29, 2001

Talking about the weather is no longer so boring

We tend to take weather forecasts with a grain of salt. Some people leave their umbrellas at home unless the probability of precipitation is over, say, 40 percent, while others keep a collapsible in their bag at all times because they don't know what to believe. We know it's raining because we are getting...
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Jul 29, 2001

Patrons of the arts and the vine

Wine and the arts belong together. In cafes from Vienna to New York, there's a tradition of poets, painters, composers and their cronies huddling around tables, where carafes of wine inspire debate, revolutions and love affairs. The food is simple, and the wines are rarely expensive. Yet the conversation,...
COMMUNITY
Jul 29, 2001

The makings of a home, sick home

Air pollution isn't restricted to areas with factories and heavy traffic. Though it may nestle in a rural idyll, your home itself could be a potent source of potentially harmful chemicals.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jul 29, 2001

A hot tip for you cool cats

Like many of the proprietors of Tokyo's mini-live houses, Mashimo Mitsuo's first passion was music. Though these days he will deny any skill with a soprano sax, his regular customers wink and tell me otherwise. Of course, Mashi (as everyone calls him) doesn't deny having been the sound engineer at the...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 29, 2001

Shochu appeal goes supersonic

FUKUOKA -- Kyushu folk are feeling quite tickled about something at the moment: a shochu boom in bars around Japan. The surging popularity of this once-lowbrow spirit, which originated in Kyushu, suggests that its old-fogy image may be disappearing for good and that lucrative times lie ahead for the...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 28, 2001

David Dinen

ST HELENA -- The RMS St. Helena stayed tied up dockside in Cardiff, South Wales, for four days beyond her scheduled departure date. When eventually she sailed, she was hit by a Force 9 gale and unexpectedly high swells in the Bristol Channel. Most passengers, many of the crew and even the ship's doctor...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2001

Pick a question, any question

Good news: We members of the Japanese masu-komi were privileged to attend the premiere press conference for Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes."
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 25, 2001

Alex Sipiagin: 'Steppin' Zone'

Pity any young trumpeter having to play in the shadows of Wynton, Miles and Louis. All the innovation's been done, all the peaks have already been reached. Still, there's always room for good music. Alex Sipiagin's second recording, "Steppin' Zone," may not propel him up there with the masters, but it...
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 25, 2001

All the world's Miyagi's 'logos & pathos' stage

In the world of Japanese contemporary theater, the Ku Na'uka company is famed for its unique "logos & pathos" method, in which each role on stage is performed by one narrator/speaker (in the "logos" role) and one performer/mover (in the "pathos" role).
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jul 24, 2001

Temporary water, but it greens the desert

The San Bushmen call the Central Kalahari "The Land God Made in Anger," and most of the time the description holds good.
COMMENTARY
Jul 23, 2001

Seek justice, not provocation

China has reacted strongly to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's announcement that he will visit Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 15, Japan's anniversary of the end of World War II. Coupled with the history textbook issue, the statement has again unsettled Tokyo's relations with Beijing.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 23, 2001

'Little' Matsui has big night for PL

FUKUOKA -- In the first All-Star Game of the post-Ichiro era, the Pacific League stars didn't miss a beat as they routed their Central League counterparts 7-1 before a crowd of 32,000 at the Fukuoka Dome on Saturday night in the opener of the 2001 Sanyo All-Star Series.
SOCCER / J. League
Jul 23, 2001

Grampus star 'Pixy' goes out a winner

Nagoya Grampus Eight star Dragan "Pixy" Stojkovic celebrated his final game at the end of a 20-year professional soccer career with a 3-0 win over Tokyo Verdy 1969 on Saturday night, the final day of the J. League Division One first stage, at Tokyo Stadium.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 22, 2001

Thanks to 'doken kokka,' are Japan's best decades behind it?

THE EMPTINESS OF JAPANESE AFFLUENCE, by Gavan McCormack. Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe, 2001 (2nd edition), 311 pp., $27.95 (paperback). What went wrong? A decade ago few would have predicted the sustained malaise that has gripped Japan since the early 1990s.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jul 22, 2001

This one goes out to all the grrls

For 121/2 years, I lived within a 10-minute walk of Shinjuku Ni-chome. "Ni-chome," as most habitues refer to it, is synonymous with gay, even though every neighborhood in Tokyo has an area called Ni-chome, which, roughly translated, means "Sector 2." One should even be careful not to refer to an escapade...
COMMUNITY
Jul 22, 2001

The times they were a-changing

The 1960s and '70s were not only the decades of heroes. A look back on news and incidents shows us how rapidly society was changing. Here are some examples.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 22, 2001

The song remains . . .

One of the biggest smash hit songs of the year, bellowed in karaoke rooms across the nation, is "Ashita ga Arusa."
SOCCER / World cup
Jul 21, 2001

Oita gearing up to play World Cup host

Oita, one of the 10 World Cup hosts in Japan, expects two things from hosting the World Cup next year -- to promote the southern city around the world and to make Oita Stadium recognized as a major sporting and cultural destination.

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