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CULTURE / Art
Oct 24, 2001

The sublime city and state of mind

Art history, like the military kind, is written by the victors. Thus Florentine Giorgio Vasari's encyclopedic "Lives of the Artists," published in 1550, is a propagandist's account of his home city's starring role in the artistic and intellectual phenomenon we now call the Renaissance.
BUSINESS
Oct 17, 2001

Ashikaga head to quit as losses mount

The president of Ashikaga Bank, a Tochigi-based regional bank, said Tuesday he intends to resign next year to take responsibility for projected heavy losses.
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2001

Koizumi leaves SDF bill behind, puts focus on economic revival

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi cleared his biggest political hurdle in the ongoing Diet session Tuesday as the Lower House special committee approved a bill enabling the Self-Defense Forces to provide noncombat support to any U.S.-led response to the Sept. 11 attacks.
JAPAN
Oct 9, 2001

Park tests new transit system

AWAJI ISLAND, Hyogo Pref. -- At first glance, the buses that carry visitors around the Awaji Farm Park look like any others.
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ARCHIPELA-GO
Oct 8, 2001

Adventures in wine country

For many years, Hakushu village, tucked away in Yamanashi Prefecture, was the venue for a colorful international festival featuring avant-garde performances by musicians, dancers and other artists.
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Oct 7, 2001

From plonk to classics, Shinanoya has got it all

For wine fans, the Daita neighborhood in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward is a worthy destination. This part of town is home to one of Tokyo's most impressive wine stores. Shinanoya Shokuhin Co. has existed for 50 years. By 1998, the wine and spirits department at Shinanoya Supermarket was outgrowing its shelf...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 7, 2001

A lonely struggle for recognition

LEGACIES OF THE COMFORT WOMEN OF WORLD WAR II, edited by Margaret Stetz and Bonnie B.C. Oh. M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, NY, 2001, 230 pp., $55 (cloth) More than 50 years after the end of World War II, the question of whether or not the Japanese government bears responsibility for forcing tens of thousands...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Oct 6, 2001

Hideo Takeda

In 1956 the College Women's Association of Japan held in Tokyo its first print show. Since then in an unbroken sequence the show has been an annual event, prestigious for the artists participating, felicitous for admirers and collectors of contemporary Japanese print art. For this year's show, CWAJ received...
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2001

Survey on nursing-fee reductions planned

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will survey municipalities that are reducing or waiving premiums for nursing-care insurance for low-income senior citizens, ministry officials said.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Oct 4, 2001

Marveling at mammalian masters of flight

I have dreamed of flying since childhood, and perhaps that is why I am obsessed with flying creatures. As ground-hugging humans, we readily identify with our fellow terrestrial mammals, assuming, easily enough, that being earthbound is a natural state for life on earth. But, think again. Even among the...
CULTURE / Art
Oct 3, 2001

Missing links steal the show

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it is also a dubious honor. For some 15 years, until his death in 1610, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio's brooding and beautiful works scandalized Church and patrons alike, and left a generation of followers -- and copycats -- in his wake.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Oct 3, 2001

Ray Wylie Hubbard: 'Eternal and Lowdown'

The 1970s produced an amazing crop of Texas singer-songwriters, though few have survived without some, shall we say, "life experiences." Transforming the pain and confusion of such experiences into self-revelatory, tight-rocking songs is what the Texas troubadour tradition is all about.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2001

'Tankan' shows mood darkening across the board

Business sentiment among large manufacturers fell for the third consecutive quarter amid increased fears of a global economic downturn, according to a key economic survey released Monday by the Bank of Japan.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2001

Miyazaki opens animation museum in Mitaka

Popular film director Hayao Miyazaki opened the Ghibli Museum of animation in Mitaka, western Tokyo, on Monday, greeting visitors eager to see his latest creations.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 30, 2001

Love, love them do

Ask Kyoshi Matsushita about "Beatlemania" and he's far more likely to wax lyrical about Lucanidae, Silphidae, Scarabaedae and Dorcus titanus than John, Paul, George and Ringo.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 30, 2001

Postwar Japan finds a voice

SILENCE TO LIGHT: Japan and the Shadows of War, Manoa 13:1, edited by Frank Stewart and Leza Lowitz. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001, 217 pp. Manoa, published by the University of Hawai'i, is a twice-yearly journal of Pacific Rim writing and graphic art, with each issue devoted to a particular...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 30, 2001

Symbols of the fleeting world

From earliest times, when the country was known as Akitsushima (Island of the Dragonfly), insects have buzzed, skimmed and flitted through the pages of Japanese literature.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 30, 2001

Going off the beaten track

Relaxed is not a term one would usually associate with Ken Ishii. As Japan's premier techno producer and DJ, he has created a sleek, cutting-edge repertoire that is bristling with tension.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 29, 2001

Peter Wain

Three years ago in London, Peter Wain held an exhibition of "qianjiang" painting on Chinese porcelain. Under the title "Awaiting Spring," the exhibition was acclaimed as "the first to be held anywhere in the world that is devoted entirely to qianjiang porcelain painting." At the time, Wain explained...
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2001

Koizumi pushes crisis readiness

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made a fresh vow Thursday to support the United States and actively take part in international efforts to combat terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2001

Full text of Koizumi's policy speech to Diet

Following is a provisional translation of the policy speech delivered by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to an extraordinary Diet session that opened Thursday for a 72-day session.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2001

Debate, don't deploy SDF: ex-bureaucrats

Two former top bureaucrats want the government to tell the international community what Japan can do within the limits of its war-renouncing Constitution to help the expected U.S.-led military retaliation for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2001

Health insurance costs face hike

Compiled from wire services The health ministry on Tuesday mapped out a medical reform plan that would increase the burden on employed workers and the elderly. The ministry submitted the plan to the tripartite ruling bloc Tuesday afternoon and hopes to implement it in October 2002. But the plan is expected...
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Sep 23, 2001

Wine loving in the city, from dusk till dawn

This week brings good news for wine lovers whose schedules tend toward the late end of the Tokyo grind. Nissin World Delicatessen has extended its hours to 8:30 p.m., and a new Shirogane wine bar is pouring until the wee hours.
BUSINESS
Sep 22, 2001

Yanagisawa says banks don't need state help

Major banks can maintain sufficient capital-adequacy ratios without public funds, even if 20 troubled borrowers were to fail, Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa said Friday.

Longform

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