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Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 15, 2004

An island alone that is worlds apart

If it were possible to view the Japanese archipelago rising from the Pacific in profile, a distinct, lonely, broad cone would be immediately apparent between the high peaks of the Japanese Alps of Honshu and the even higher peaks of Taiwan. That cone is the long-isolated, mountainous island of Yakushima,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Jan 14, 2004

New year musing of a 'pottery poet'

As this is the first Ceramic Scene of 2004, I'd like to wish all readers a Happy and Healthy New Year!
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 11, 2004

Japan's 'Seabiscuit' shows losers can be winners too

There are few cliches as dubious as "Everybody loves a winner." Does everybody love a winner? The fans of the Hanshin Tigers certainly don't love the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2004

Family plot not for all women

Women in Japan may have made great strides in deciding how they live their lives, but such freedom has yet to translate into their final resting place.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2003

EBRD must rethink its role

LONDON -- When people hear the word "globalization" they differ in how they react. Some think about how globalization has spread around the world raising incomes and the quality of life wherever it goes. Others think about how the capitalist forces of the West extend their exploitative tentacles to grab...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 21, 2003

Gray lining for the silver years

BLESSED WITH OLD AGE: Demographic Change and the Family in Japan's Aging Society, edited by John W. Traphagan and John Knight. New York: State University of New York Press, 2003, 248 pp., $71.50 (cloth), $23.95 (paper). Aging is not what it used to be. Fuwaku, "no longer straying off course" once described...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Dec 17, 2003

A family unit to value in tech's brave new world

The Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Shinagawa used to be a family home, and it must have been a very nice one because it is a beautiful place, designed and built in the late 1930s in the Bauhaus style. The hardwood floors and comfortably high ceilings create a relaxing atmosphere in the one-time dining,...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 12, 2003

Everton's 'Roonaldo' having growing pains

LONDON -- From having the world at his feet Wayne Rooney is now the recipient of boots up the backside as the Everton striker attempts to fulfill the potential he showed last season.
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2003

Sex offenders facing harsher punishment

Justice Ministry is eyeing a drastic Penal Code amendment that would see rapists and other sex offenders punished more severely, ministry officials said Thursday.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 11, 2003

Guiding U.S. corporations to the greener side

Elizabeth Sturcken could easily have passed for a hotshot IT executive, dressed for the part in a business suit and low heels. Instead, the 37-year-old resident of San Francisco is a major player in the drive for environmental change.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Dec 4, 2003

Alarm mars a runaway success story for salmon

In October, I spent some time in Vancouver. I have grown-up children there, as well as grandchildren and a lot of old friends, most of whom I met while working for the Environmental Protection Service. Even though I left Canada in 1978 to come to Japan and pursue the often dubious course of a writer,...
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 2003

Milestone for an iconic mouse

An old mouse turned 75 last week, briefly distracting the world from wars, suicide bombings, elections and other momentous matters. It wasn't just any old mouse, you see; it was the white-gloved, bulbous-eared rodent Mickey Mouse, better known here as Miki Kuchi. This peculiar creature actually goes...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 22, 2003

When nice girls go bad

My wife has gone through "the change."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2003

Iraqi glad Hussein fell but rues the cost

Life in Iraq may no longer be the "prison" it was under the murderous regime of Saddam Hussein, but Tallal F. Abdalridah is still tormented by the fact that the U.S-led war on his country resulted in the loss of so many innocent lives and in so much social disruption.
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Nov 6, 2003

'Grotesque' cuts too close to the bone

Do the suffocating pressures of Japanese society produce monsters? Does trying to live by men's rules drive women crazy? These are two of the questions posed by Natsuo Kirino in her powerful new novel, "Grotesque."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 1, 2003

Gerri Sorrells

Born in Tokyo, Gerri Sorrells is credited with being an original "bi-lin gal" who used two languages in her first work for NHK TV. At the time she was still an undergraduate student in the International Division of Sophia University, Tokyo. Undertaking outside professional work while she was studying...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 26, 2003

Writer behind the writer

As a reporter in Tokyo in the late '60s, what was your professional interest in Yukio Mishima?
JAPAN
Oct 23, 2003

Nepalese man's lawyers preparing bid for retrial

Lawyers for a 37-year-old Nepalese man whose life sentence for murder was upheld this week by the Supreme Court are preparing to file for a retrial, it was learned Wednesday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 19, 2003

Out of the ordinary

SELECTED POEMS 1976-2001, by Peter Robinson. Manchester, Britain: Carcanet, 2003, 139 pp., £8.95 (paper). NO VISION WILL TELL: 100 Selected Poems 1992-2002, by Scott Watson. Sendai, Japan: Bookgirl Press, 2002, 123 pp., 1,500 yen (paper). Both of the poets reviewed here, one British and the other American,...
COMMUNITY
Oct 18, 2003

Archaeologist turns west to save Siberian culture

Kazuo Morimoto made history in the early 1980s when he discovered a large Paleolithic site at Narita, north of Tokyo. Now his attention is balanced between digging up the past and preserving the future -- the future of a once-nomadic tribe in Siberia.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 15, 2003

When three women are company, not a crowd

After a one-month break, I got back to my old haunts last weekend and was delighted to encounter -- by pure chance -- two "three-women" plays on Tokyo stages.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 11, 2003

Dogs in Japan bow-wow before masters

Stray cats can be seen all over Japan: under parked cars, in alleyways, or in the parks being fed rice by "o-baa-chans." But you never see stray dogs. Why not? Is it the fault of Viagra? Cats are getting it but not dogs?
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Oct 9, 2003

Does ' baka explosion' indicate identity crisis brewing in Japan?

Japan has been witnessing something of a baka explosion recently. Whether or not the actual number of idiots or incidents of idiotic behavior are on the increase or not, there is certainly a sharp rise in the public irritability index, a lowering of the threshold at which people call others "baka."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2003

Foster parenting getting belated attention

The 60-year-old mother has been a foster parent half her life, caring for 11 kids besides her own two children.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2003

Challenge of building peace

"At the top of the pyramid which we call civilization there is still the terrible fact of war. We cannot call ourselves a fully civilized people as long as that possibility exists and is, indeed, taken for granted." These are the heartfelt words of John Kenneth Galbraith, a man who witnessed firsthand...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 8, 2003

Reflections on Vieira de Mello's sacrifice

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- The international community has lamented last month's death of a brave and honest man dedicated to the service of his fellow human beings to a degree matched by few others.
COMMENTARY
Sep 7, 2003

Exams fail to rock the boat

LONDON -- Summer is examination season in Britain with results posted in mid-August. These are important for young people as entry to university, especially a more prestigious one, depends on the results they achieve.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 7, 2003

For Barry Eisler, when it rains, it pours

In Tokyo this month to promote his latest work and research story ideas, Barry Eisler shares his thoughts on the art of fiction -- and martial arts.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 6, 2003

Twenty-five years in Japan makes this old hand a 'half'

Late this past summer, I officially became a "half."

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