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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 3, 2002

Japan makes a profitable connection

THE MOBILE INTERNET: How Japan Dialed Up and the West Disconnected, by Jeffrey Lee Funk. ISI Publications, 2001, 200 pp. $32 (cloth) In the 1970s and '80s, Japanese carmakers flooded world markets with products fresh from factories where workers wore uniforms, sorted parts into brightly colored bins,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 3, 2002

It's not just who's cast but how they're cast out

A nother milestone in Japan-Korea cultural relations is achieved with the two-part drama special "Friends" (TBS, Monday and Tuesday, 9 p.m.). Japanese idol Kyoko Fukada and Korean heartthrob Wonbin portray a couple who meet in Hong Kong and then strike up a cross-Japan Sea e-mail exchange that turns...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Feb 1, 2002

Japanese squirrel

* Japanese name: Nihon risu * Scientific name: Sciurus lis * Description: The Japanese squirrel is an arboreal species, which means it lives in trees. It has a long, bushy tail, large tufted ears and sharp claws. Its fur changes color according to the season. In summer, the fur is red-orange. In winter,...
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2002

Analysts release ethical standards draft

The Security Analysts Association of Japan has unveiled a draft on professional ethical standards that calls for analysts to be banned from investing in securities that they recommend to investors.
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Jan 29, 2002

Bellmare looking at more than just soccer

J. League second division club Shonan Bellmare is making a unique challenge to transform itself into a multi-sports organization.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 28, 2002

Commission a model of global cooperation

Responding to the call by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in September 1999, then-Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy set up an independent, 12-member International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty to try to bridge the divide between international intervention and national sovereignty....
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jan 25, 2002

Serow

* Japanese name: Nihon kamoshika * Scientific name: Capricornis crispis * Description: Serows look like a cross between a goat and an antelope, with horizontal pupils and sharp, dagger-like horns. The ears are mule-like, narrow and tasseled, and are longer than the horns. Serows are the most primitive...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 24, 2002

Eco-tours venture into forests and 'forests'

Two weeks ago, this column introduced Stefan Ottomanski as an educator who thrives on uncertainty. However, he is the first to admit that he did not acquire this trait by choice: It is simply a necessity in his classroom.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 23, 2002

Revamped MOMAT opens with unfinished business

With "The Unfinished Century," its first exhibition since its renovation, the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, offers a comprehensive selection of works spanning the entire 20th century. The museum, and not only its exhibits, has become more comprehensive, too -- its improved facilities including a digital...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jan 23, 2002

3-D fantasies with a 1-D feel

The biggest event on the capital's contemporary art circuit this week was undoubtedly the opening of Mariko Mori's "Pure Land" at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. The fact that more than a few people were calling this exhibition a "retrospective" hints at how artspeak is changing, as the oldest...
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2002

Elvis wannabe crooners soothe to 'Rabu Me Tenda'

Dressed in a black tuxedo, a middle-aged former company executive took the stage, cued the six-piece band and launched into Elvis Presley's version of the syrupy '60s ballad "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me."
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2002

American brings kabuki to Japanese as well as foreigners

Mark Oshima never imagined he would appear on a kabuki stage when he first arrived in Japan in 1981, taking a year off from university to write his senior thesis on a theme that had nothing to do with the classical Japanese theater.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 20, 2002

Aramasa: The nostlagic taste of the great north

To duck under the rope noren at Aramasa and slide back its sturdy front door is to take a step into the past. Not a giant, disorienting leap all the way back to feudal Edo or the gilded age of Taisho, but an unthreatening half-pace back to the postwar days of Showa, when salarymen ruled the roost and...
SOCCER / World cup
Jan 18, 2002

Japan names Kirin Cup opponents

The Japan national soccer team will host Honduras and Slovakia in the Kirin Cup on April 29 (4 p.m. kickoff) at Tokyo's National Stadium and May 2 (7:20 p.m. kickoff) at Kobe Wing Stadium, respectively, the Japan Football Association announced Thursday in Tokyo.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jan 18, 2002

Great diving beetle

* Japanese name: Gengorou * Scientific name: Cybister japonicus * Description: This is a large, streamlined water beetle, highly adapted to an aquatic life. It is a powerful swimmer, with hind legs flattened like oars and fringed with long hairs. The body is green or black, with yellow-white bands...
BUSINESS
Jan 16, 2002

Dentsu obtaining rights to air Disney films

Dentsu Inc. said Tuesday it and Tohokushinsha Film Corp. have signed an agreement with Walt Disney Co. to purchase exclusive rights to broadcast Disney films in Japan.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2002

Fuchu trots out story of horse racing

Horses, once essential for farming and transport, have all but disappeared from modern Japan -- except to fuel our sense of competition at the track.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 13, 2002

Kanto defends collegiate rugby title

Kanto Gakuin University defended the National Collegiate Rugby Union Championship after beating Waseda University 21-16 on Saturday at Tokyo's National Stadium.
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Jan 13, 2002

Take me to your anti-leader

The Shibuya Takeshi Orchestra is one of the most singular, challenging and unusual jazz units in Tokyo. Many local groups strive for accomplished technique, pushing their instruments to the far edge of rapid-fire playing or polishing one style to perfection. The Shibuya Takeshi Orchestra, however, delights...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 12, 2002

Tabibito Travel: flexible, friendly, frugal and fun

I first meet Matthew Cox for coffee in the summer of 2000. He wants to talk about writing, get feedback on a couple of articles, and doesn't yet get the lesson to be learned from American compatriot Raymond Carver.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jan 11, 2002

Northern fur seal

* Japanese name: Kita-ottosei * Scientific name: Callorhinus ursinus * Description: Fur seals have bodies streamlined for life in the sea. They have four limbs (unlike dolphins and whales, which have only two), but the arm and leg bones are relatively short and are contained within the body. The hand...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jan 4, 2002

Horsefly

* Japanese name: Akaushiabu * Scientific name: Tabanus chrysurus * Decription: This is a stout-bodied insect with huge, iridescent compound eyes (the eyes touch in the center in males but are separated in females). They have one pair of wings and are strong fliers, able to cover long distances. The...
MORE SPORTS
Jan 4, 2002

Komazawa U. wins Tokyo-Hakone ekiden

Komazawa University, second at the halfway point after Wednesday's race, came from behind to win the overall title of the Tokyo-Hakone collegiate ekiden road relay Thursday for its first victory in two years.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 3, 2002

Death of domestic coal leaves legacy for future

Four decades of protection for the domestic coal mining industry are nearly at an end as the government moves to procure stable and more economical supplies from abroad.
SOCCER / J. League
Jan 1, 2002

Shunsuke reportedly off to Real

Yokohama F. Marinos and Japan midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura could be on his way to Spanish giant Real Madrid this month, a Japanese daily sports newspaper reported Monday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Dec 28, 2001

Native Horse

* Japanese name: Nihon zairaiba * Scientific name: Equus caballus * Description: Hoofed animal that bears its weight on its central third toe. Its family, called the perissodactyls, also includes tapirs and rhinos. The first horse ancestor was doggish and dog-sized, with four toes on the front foot....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Dec 26, 2001

Best of times, worst of times

The ominous statistics had been news for some time, but, being a slippery freelancer, I never thought Japan's worsening economic situation would affect me directly. The year 2001, however, proved this assumption wrong, as the mean old cutback beast reared up and hit me where it hurt the most -- right...

Longform

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