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Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 6, 2002

The Japa-Rican Dream

NEW YORK -- From a New Yorker's point of view, young Japanese actor Masayasu Nakanishi definitely has chutzpah. How many other people would go out of their way to flash their dreams and frustrations in public, especially when the defeats equal or outnumber the successes?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 6, 2002

Diary of a not-so-mad man

"I'm not the Antichrist, I'm not the Iron Man, I'm not the kind of person you really think I am . . . I try to entertain you the best I can, I wish I'd walked before I ran," Ozzy Osbourne sings in "Gets Me Through," the opening track on his new album, "Down to Earth." It is at once a touching thank-you...
COMMUNITY
Feb 3, 2002

Sake's never been better -- so why the poor business?

Sake is so central to life in these islands that the name of the fermented rice drink is also the Japanese word for all alcoholic drinks.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Feb 3, 2002

A bar that's right on the Button

Ebisu hides many secrets -- especially at night. And Button -- a neat, two-story attic perched on top of a building near the Nishi-Ebisu fiveways -- is one of the area's most precious. And you know it the instant the elevator doors open onto the sixth floor.
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2002

Tokio, Asahi Mutual scrap tieup

The merger of Tokio Marine & Fire Insurance Co. and Asahi Mutual Life Insurance Co.'s life insurance businesses, touted for March 2003, has been scrapped. The decision, reached during a meeting Thursday morning between Tokio Marine President Kunio Ishihara and Asahi Mutual President Yuzuru Fujita, has...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 31, 2002

The virgin birth of stem cells

Parthenogenesis -- when eggs develop into embryos without being fertilized by sperm -- occurs in some insects and reptiles. There is a persistent report that a virgin birth once took place in humans, but this should be regarded as mythical.
COMMENTARY
Jan 26, 2002

A revolution in British politics

LONDON -- The British Constitution has long been widely admired, if not always understood.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 20, 2002

Ladakh: India's timeless Buddhist jewel

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Once again tensions are mounting on the famous Line of Control that separates India and Pakistan. The crisis brings to mind images from an earlier pilgrimage I made to that area when I visited Ladakh, an almost inaccessible region in the state of Jammu and Kashmir that is known...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jan 20, 2002

Fifty lashings for serving up wet noodles

This week, former teenage beauty queen Ryoko Sakaguchi returns to "Tuesday Suspense Theater" (Nippon TV; 9:03 p.m.) for the fifth time. She stars in "Rinsho Shinrishi (Clinical Psychologist)" as college lecturer Yuri Matsunami, who uses her psychoanalytical skills to solve murder mysteries that leave...
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jan 13, 2002

A space-age think pad with the sweet smell of success

Each year begins with a clean sheet. Like the first page in a new diary, it is pure and unblemished. (The coffee-and-ink stains come later as we juggle our resolutions with the realities of life.) As such, the simple, white world of Bar Kapa seems an appropriate place to start. Even after two years of...
SUMO
Jan 11, 2002

Konishiki making impact after sumo

Hollywood, home to some of the biggest stars on earth, soon may have to make room for the biggest star of all. Former sumo wrestler Konishiki on Thursday revealed his plans to make it big in Tinseltown.
JAPAN
Jan 8, 2002

Fixed international marriages often disappoint

During the late 1980s, several local governments in northern Japan arranged marriages between Japanese men and foreign women mainly from other parts of Asia, including China, the Philippines and South Korea, in an effort to solve the shortage of brides in farming communities in depopulated areas.
LIFE / Language
Jan 6, 2002

Kids: They've got it figured out

The year's end is a natural time for reflection. Every December, I take a break from the hectic activity of the season and sit down for a quiet cup of tea. I look back at the year passed and reflect on the year to come.
COMMENTARY
Jan 4, 2002

Globalization's Faustian pact

LONDON -- The glories of globalization are taking on the specious glitter of a Faustian pact. We human beings have been promised that capitalism will never die; the threats of crashes, revolution and depression have been banished by vigorous free markets and judicious state interventions, all held in...
JAPAN / ANCIENT TRADITIONS
Jan 3, 2002

Religious groups grope to keep, attract flock

Second of two parts Staff writer In the crisp morning air, two young men fervently chant a sutra in front of a shining 2-meter statue of Amida Buddha, which is of cardinal importance in the Jodo sect, at Kaihoji Temple in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 30, 2001

Simple words for Zen living

TO SHINE ONE CORNER OF THE WORLD: Moments with Shunryu Suzuki (Stories of a Zen Master Told by His Students), edited by David Chadwick. Broadway Books, 2001, 144 pp., $16.95 (cloth) Is it possible to impart the wisdom of Zen through words? Or are the lessons of mindful living communicable through action?...
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2001

My heart will go on . . . for 1,000 years

Sennen no Koi Hikaru Genji Monogatari Rating: * * * Director: Tonko Horikawa Running time: 143 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2001

Women's rights activist Kato dies at 104

Shizue Kato, one of the first Japanese women to become a Diet member and a pioneer of women's rights in Japan -- particularly known for her advocacy of birth control -- died Saturday from respiratory failure at a relative's house in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward, her family said. She was 104.
JAPAN / Media / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 23, 2001

Remembering the year that was

It's the penultimate week of the year, which means regular variety shows get to save a bit of money by looking back at the year's highlights. "Sanma's Karakuri TV" (tonight at 7, TBS), a mix-and-match assembly of out-of-studio comedy skits hosted in-studio by Osaka funnyman Sanma Akashiya, presents an...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 2001

Collective might in service

NEW YORK -- "The Responsibility to Protect," the report by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, was presented to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York on Dec. 18. ICISS was set up by Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy and fully supported by his successor,...
BUSINESS
Dec 20, 2001

Mitsui to boost foundation funds

Mitsui Mutual Life Insurance Co. is moving to beef up its foundation funds by around 100 billion yen to improve its credibility, industry sources said Wednesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Dec 20, 2001

Concern over threat to rare blue corals

Ancient and complex, the rare blue coral reef of Shiraho, Ishigaki Island -- part of the Ryukyu island chain, Japan's southernmost -- is one of the world's biggest and perhaps oldest blue coral reefs. Though only 3 km long, it contains at least two-thirds the number of species of Australia's 2,000-km...
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2001

Nepalese man awaiting murder ruling sees wife for first time in eight years

Many foreign workers head for Japan with the promise of a better life. But for Govinda Prasad Mainali the dream turned to tragedy as he awaits a ruling by the Supreme Court over a murder charge.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 16, 2001

Bringing young and old together

GENERATIONS IN TOUCH: Linking the Old and Young in a Tokyo Neighborhood, by Leng Leng Thang. Cornell University Press, 2001, 209 pp., paper ($39.95) As Japan's traditional three-generation households go nuclear and fewer young couples have children, the care of the nation's elderly has become an increasingly...
LIFE / Travel
Dec 11, 2001

Poor from war, rich in culture

The serpentine road to Luang Prabang winds around mountains that rise above green valleys and rocky gorges, alongside ramshackle villages with no electricity and past fields of corn and rice. If you're not much of a daredevil, then don't get a window seat, because the bus has to navigate hairpin turns,...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 9, 2001

Mental health challenges remain unmet

NEW YORK -- One aspect not frequently considered of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center tragedy, the anthrax scare, and thousands of people fleeing in terror from Afghanistan is that these events may create or exacerbate mental health problems. Unless they are properly treated, many among those involved...
ENVIRONMENT
Dec 9, 2001

The heat's on nature in Japan

Think of Japan 100 years from now. The average global temperature has risen by up to 6 degrees, and here is no exception. Just as the cherry blossom wave passes up the country each spring, the frontier of many species, both plant and animal, has been moving steadily northward for a century.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Dec 8, 2001

Kazuko Honjo

When she speaks, Kazuko Honjo sets off an avalanche of words. She has ideas and energy, inborn talent and developed skills, insights and understanding. Now that she is taking stock and formulating plans, she has reached, she says, her turning point.
EDITORIALS
Dec 2, 2001

Birth of an Imperial princess

A new baby is always cause for rejoicing, but the birth of a child to the Crown Prince and Princess on Saturday comes as especially bright news at this somber time. In an instant, the symbolic value of the monarchy -- sometimes doubted or forgotten -- becomes clear again. For a brief, shining moment,...

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