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JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 9, 2005

TM bolsters notion of a Japanese mind-set over mortality

As we heard in a government white paper on the elderly last week, the number of people aged 90 or over topped 1 million in Japan for the first time in 2004. Japan has long held the record for its citizens having the longest life expectancy in the world. And the government is only too aware of the graying...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 7, 2005

Have you heard the one about . . ?

'And then, when he saw the other side of the car, where his date had been sitting not 15 minutes earlier, on the door handle, hung . . . a bloody . . . HOOK!"
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 5, 2005

Will Japanese inertia never be the same again?

Who is to blame for the dead hand of inertia that has prevented Japan from forging ahead economically and politically in the last decade and a half?
COMMENTARY
Jun 5, 2005

U.S. security pledge buoys Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD -- The latest U.S. promise to enhance Afghanistan's security in the years to come raises more questions than it answers for the the war-ravaged country, although the so-called declaration of strategic partnership signed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 1, 2005

Silk Road was the path to peace and war

As standards of history teaching are supposed to be falling around the world, it might be worth trying to captue the imagination of students of world history by presenting much of it in terms of romantic sounding trade routes. This approach has clearly paid dividends with centuries of obscure Central...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 1, 2005

Soundz from Germany

Classical German culture had a profound influence on modern Japan, especially in the fields of philosophy and medicine, but recent German trends have had to compete for attention with all the other international cultural imports. The Deutschland in Japan Year aims to give Germany a higher profile here,...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 30, 2005

Standing still in time and place

For my money, there are two "not-to-miss" sights in the overall Kanto area.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2005

Schiavo case deepens America's divide

ONTARIO, Calif. -- Seldom can I recall any issue in America producing as much emotion and division as the case of Terri Schiavo. The Iraq war has not come close to reaching this level of emotional expression. After being denied food and water for 13 days, her death on March 31, at 41 years of age, brings...
COMMENTARY
Apr 9, 2005

School kitchens need a nanny

LONDON -- Turkey twizzlers once divided the nation; now they appear to have united it in a surge of national purpose for reform. This is thanks to a new political hero, chef Jamie Oliver, who, from one of the most despised backgrounds in Britain -- white working-class boy from Essex -- has shown imagination...
JAPAN
Apr 6, 2005

Screening preceded by state bid to unify thought

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry on Tuesday released the results of its screening of textbooks for use in junior high schools from next April.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 3, 2005

So much food that we don't know what to do with it

The media didn't quite know what to make of that bizarre story last month about the elderly Sapporo man who allegedly killed his wife following a dinnertime spat. One might expect a husband to become angry over not getting enough food, TV commentators implied, but in this case the situation was the opposite....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 27, 2005

First, stop, look and listen

THE SINGLE TONE: A Personal Journey into Shakuhachi Music, by Christopher Yohmei Blasdel, Tokyo: Printed Matter Press, 2005, 168 pp., with photographs and glossary, 1,500 yen (paper). In the summer of 1972 Christopher Blasdel first came to Japan. He was from West Texas, "a landscape dominated by strip...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 26, 2005

Special Olympics bridges Japan, Arab nations

Madeleine Jalil Umewaka, of MJU public relations, was at Narita Airport early Wednesday morning. She was there to welcome the Special Olympics team of 12 athletes from her native Lebanon, and travel with them to Iida in Nagano Prefecture.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 18, 2005

Pristine paradise an hour from Tokyo

Thanks to the newly opened Noto International Airport, Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture is now just a one-hour flight from Tokyo, making one of the Hokuriku region's most popular tourist spots -- famed for its hot springs, local festivals, beaches and mountain scenery -- far more accessible.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 12, 2005

As cute as cute can be

A friend who visited these fair islands for the first time last fall had this to say of his weekend-to-weekend impressions of Japan.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 10, 2005

Learning how to make the most of middle age

It's widely acknowledged that the Japanese not only tend to look younger than people in the West, some think and behave that way too. After all, this is a nation fostered on kodomo bunka (kiddie culture), visible in everything from fashion to architecture.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 10, 2005

DNA 'flip' highlights our ongoing evolution

Stung by the phenomenal success of the "Harry Potter" books, some people like to preach about the infantilization of culture, and some critics worry that adults are wallowing in childhood.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 25, 2005

Japan's enemy within

Riding home from school on the crowded Tokyo underground recently one day, 12-year-old Kim says she felt something hit the back of her head. When she checked what it was, her hand came away covered in saliva spat by a middle-aged male passenger. As he was getting off, the man said: "Get back to your...
Japan Times
Features
Jan 23, 2005

Rapa Nui

Easter Island has been many things in the three centuries it has been known to the West: mooted landing site of UFOs; exotic long-haul holiday destination; and favorite location of the Discovery Channel -- to name just a few.
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Jan 16, 2005

A cheapskate let loose in Tokyo paradise of print

Jinbocho in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward is Japan's treasure trove of used books.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 16, 2005

Antibalas burn it down and build it back up

At the intersection of North Moore Street and Broadway in downtown Manhattan is No Moore, a bar favored by well-heeled young professionals. The walls are exposed brick, the wooden floor is comfortably worn and, in the daytime, sunlight gilds the space through floor-to-ceiling windows. It's a pleasant...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2004

Chief Yasukuni priest brings business savvy to shrine

At one time, Toshiaki Nambu was just an ordinary employee at Dentsu Inc., the nation's top advertising agency, working with such clients as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.
Dec 20, 2004

Chief Yasukuni priest brings business savvy to shrine

At one time, Toshiaki Nambu was just an ordinary employee at Dentsu Inc., the nation's top advertising agency, working with such clients as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 2004

NGO builds bridges between Japan, U.S.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Most Americans still think of Japan as having a "weak" economy. Japan's reputation in the United States from an economic standpoint has not fully recovered from the bursting of the 1980s' "bubble."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 15, 2004

Dumb and dumber: revenge of the idiots

Jackass -- The Moive Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Jack Tremaine Running time: 88 minutes Language: English Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Bad Santa Rating: * * (out of 5) Director: Terry Zwigoff Running time: 91 minutes Language: English Opens...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 8, 2004

Film it and they will come

When in Rome, visitors might not necessarily do as the locals do, but many certainly follow the example of Audrey Hepburn's character in "Roman Holiday" by sticking their hands in the "Mouth of Truth" near the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, or buying a gelato on the steps of Piazza di Spagna.
Features
Dec 5, 2004

Revealing 'The Japanese Sensibility': Intimacy

To punish men for their sins The smoothest skin The longest black hair All that Is me
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2004

A new dawn for Myanmar?

Many Myanmar watchers might have been surprised when they got news of the pending release of nearly 4,000 prisoners who had been inappropriately jailed by the notorious Military Intelligence (MI) wing of former Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt's regime.
CULTURE / Art
Nov 26, 2004

Dynastic heritage show

An exhibition showing in Shinjuku, Tokyo, focuses on the culture of Ancient Persia (present-day Iran). Starting with Persia's ancient civilization, from around 6,000 B.C., through the Achaemenian and Sassanian dynasties to the Islamic period.

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