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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 20, 2005

The earnestness of being important

THE HEREDITY OF TASTE, by Natsume Soseki, translated by Sammy I. Tsunematsu, introduced by Stephen W. Kohl. Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 2005, 201 pp., 1,300 yen (paper). MY INDIVIDUALISM and THE PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF LITERATURE, by Natsume Soseki. Translated by Sammy I. Tsunematsu, introduced by...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Mar 20, 2005

Samba viva samba! Matsudaira style!

With the mercury rising to 17 degrees, March 8 was unusually warm for the time of year in Tokyo. Spring was in the air. At Tokyo Dome that evening, though, it was distinctly subtropical as 20,000 people broke out into a midsummer-style sweat.
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Mar 20, 2005

Money makes money for savers of note

It's neither pretty nor fancy, and it's made of garbage. Yet a recent addition to the plethora of piggy banks available to the nation's would-be penny-pinchers is proving particularly popular with hard-core fans of the Japanese saying that goes: "Kane no aru tokoro ni kane wa nagareru (Money flows to...
Features / WEEK 3
Mar 20, 2005

Quake amateurs shake skeptical pros

With surprisingly little fanfare, the Japan Meteorological Agency, which keeps tabs on tens of thousands of earthquakes a year, has been setting up a network of ultra-sensitive electronic motion detectors that will pick up on the kind of minute seismic quivering that heralds a major quake.
Features / WEEK 3
Mar 20, 2005

On a wing and no fare

When Momoko Sasaki goes traveling, she literally "goes an extra mile" to enjoy perks that few of her peers have likely ever dreamed of.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 18, 2005

Hakone museum displays the true genius of Lalique's glasswork

An inspirational new attraction is coming to Hakone, the highland resort in Kanagawa Prefecture renowned as a stomping ground for the rich and famous. In addition to its luxury hotels and ryokan, the curative powers of its spa water and astoundingly beautiful scenery, Hakone will soon offer another attraction...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 18, 2005

Women take shine to money management

Major banks and brokerages are holding seminars on finance and giving priority to sales of investment trusts aimed at women, who are apparently showing an increasing interest in the world of investing.
Japan Times
Features
Mar 13, 2005

'The executioner of Tokyo'

Gen. Curtis E. LeMay is without doubt one of the most controversial military commanders in U.S. history. Dubbed the "father of the U.S. Strategic Air Command" (SAC) and an icon of the U.S. Air Force, Le May is also known as a belligerent Cold War warrior who provided the template for the warmongering,...
Japan Times
Features
Mar 13, 2005

'Scorched and boiled and baked to death'

Kayo-chan was in the fifth grade when the Great Tokyo Air Raid took the lives of her parents, her grandparents and two of her brothers -- along with some 100,000 other people -- as World War II was drawing to its end.
EDITORIALS
Mar 11, 2005

Recalling the alternative to peace

It has been 60 years since U.S. bombers destroyed much of Tokyo in the spring of 1945. Survivors of the "Great Tokyo Air Raids" -- most of them now in their 70s and 80s -- are few and far between. Words like "B-nijuku" (B-29), "bokugo" (air-raid shelter) and "shoidan" (incendiary bomb) are no longer...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / COUNTER CULTURE
Mar 11, 2005

Omotesando goes one step beyond

Omotesando has seen a flurry of buildings for up-market fashion brands open in recent years, most notably Jun Aoki's Louis Vuitton flagship store and Herzog & de Meuron's Prada tower. Now, the thoroughfare lined with trashcans inscribed with "the Champs Elysees of Tokyo" is blessed with another architectural...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 10, 2005

Japan's spartan home remedies short on comfort, ice cream

It's that time of year again, when "kaze (colds)" and " infuruenza (influenza)" merge with the "sugikafunsho (hay fever)" to generate and spread that oh-so-miserable feeling.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Mar 10, 2005

Mandarin duck

* Japanese name: Oshidori * Scientific name: Aix galericulata * Description: The male Mandarin duck is the last word in avian cuteness. With a wingspan of 68-74 cm, and a body that's 41-49 cm long, he has highly elaborate plumage, with long orange feathers on the "cheeks" of his face, swished-back...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 8, 2005

Creating laws out of thin air

With terrorists striking fear into governments worldwide, Japan too is currently considering its own version of America's Patriot Act, to be passed in a year or two.
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2005

High-end matchmaker finds Japan eligible for expansion

Chased by a busy schedule 24 hours a day, months and years pass until you suddenly notice that your encounters with the opposite sex are limited and you seldom have a chance of meeting a soul mate, let alone a spouse. Hiroko Ozawa, president of Destina Japan, noticed that many of her peers felt that...
EDITORIALS
Mar 6, 2005

Dolls without borders

'T here is no new thing under the sun," said the preacher (Ecclesiastes, 1:9). Well, the preacher had it half right. Sometimes people come up with a brand-new thing in response to an age-old reality. Consider the case of Hong Kong-based software developer Eberhard Schoeneburg. According to recent reports,...
Japan Times
Features
Mar 6, 2005

Issey Ogata: Comic chameleon

Issey Ogata is nothing if not versatile. Alone on an empty stage, he has audiences in fits as he performs his seriously funny one-man shows portraying characters as diverse as a classic sarariman (office worker) and a folk-song diva -- one after another.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 2, 2005

Goya brought to life in flamenco

La Yoko, as she is known by those in the flamenco world, is the woman responsible for not only bringing this ethnic gypsy-rooted form of dance into Japan but also establishing the first flamenco dance company on this far eastern island 36 years ago. In 1959, Yoko Komatsubara, after having seen the spectacular...
Japan Times
Features
Feb 27, 2005

Inquest service fuels ardor for 'democracy'

Earlier this month at a coffee shop near JR Matsudo Station in Chiba Prefecture, Tatsuhiko Ojima, 64, recalled how startled he was two years ago to receive a letter from the Matsudo branch of the Chiba District Court. It notified him he had to attend the court because he had been selected to serve a...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 27, 2005

Where there's magic, there's Buddha

THE DHARMA OF DRAGONS AND DAEMONS: Buddhist Themes in Modern Fantasy, by David R. Loy and Linda Goodhew, foreword by Jane Hirshfield. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2004, 155 pp., $14.95 (paper). David R. Loy and Linda Goodhew's "The Dharma of Dragons and Daemons" is subtitled "Buddhist Themes in Modern...
Features
Feb 27, 2005

Workings of a watershed

One day, in just a few years' time, people all over Japan will begin to find unexpected official letters in their mailboxes. Perhaps anxious that they have done something wrong, or failed to make a payment, it will be with considerable tredipation that most seek out the contents.
Japan Times
Features
Feb 27, 2005

Preparing for justice that's seen to be done

Criminal hearings are open to the public, but the average person taking a seat in the public gallery would have a hard time understanding what goes on. The procedures are not only unclear, but they are also thickly clothed in legal jargon. What's more, many trials take months, or sometimes even years,...
Features
Feb 27, 2005

Judges 'on bended knee'

For the 21 years of his life as a judge, Akira Rokusha lived a closeted existence. From his home in an official residence alongside fellow judges and other courthouse employees, he was taken to the court in a special minibus, and he spent his days off reading and reviewing material related to his cases....
Features
Feb 27, 2005

New order in court

May 21, 2004, was an epoch-making day for Japan; it was the day the Diet passed a law to introduce a new criminal court system that will involve ordinary citizens in the administration of justice for the first time in postwar history.
Japan Times
Features
Feb 27, 2005

Schools in saibanin front line

One morning late last month, Public Prosecutors Ryuji Hatano and Kunio Ooyama were immersed in an alleged robbery case in court. But the court was in a classroom.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Feb 24, 2005

Spotted nutcracker

* Japanese name: Hoshigarasu * Scientific name: Nucifraga caryocatactes * Description: Nutcrackers are members of the Corvid (crow) family. An adult bird is approximately the size of a jackdaw, with a wingspan of 17.5-19 cm and a body length of 32 cm. They weigh 155-215 grams. Like other crows, their...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 23, 2005

Foreign stars to battle Japan stars in March 14 charity game

Kudos: To Bobby Valentine, Trey Hillman, Tsutomu Ito, Kazuhiko Ushijima and all the players who will participate in the Pro Yakyu Charity Game at Tokyo Dome on Monday, March 14.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Feb 23, 2005

Lights up on gifted artist

The Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts is the ne plus ultra of honors in Canadian art. Some 2,000 of the country's cultural elite attend the annual awards ceremony, a black-tie affair held at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. But last year, organizers faced a dilemma:...

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?