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EDITORIALS
Sep 26, 2004

Google: mirror or lamp?

Google, the world's most popular search engine, hasn't even been around for a decade -- it was founded in 1998 -- yet it is already hard to remember life without it. It has its rivals, notably Yahoo, Microsoft, Ask Jeeves, which launched a test version in Japan last month, and now Amazon, whose fancy...
EDITORIALS
Sep 26, 2004

A memo to the weather gods

It's late September, the season of equinoctial change and harvest moons, and we would like to remind the weather gods that this is supposed to mean something. It is not supposed to portend more and more days of July-like heat, but cooler temperatures, crisper air and a hint of color in the leaves --...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 26, 2004

Mourinho's method wins many games, not many friends

LONDON -- Returning from Chelsea's 3-0 Champions League win over Paris Saint-Germain in France last week this correspondent was the last passenger to leave the team's plane. A police officer at Gatwick Airport asked: "Did they win?"
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 26, 2004

Who knows if it is teaching or torture?

I WOULDN'T WANT ANYBODY TO KNOW: Native English Teaching in Japan, edited by Eva P. Bueno & Terry Caesar. JPGS Press, 2004, 252 pp., 2,500 yen, $25.00 (paper). Tall stories are clearly better than short ones, at least in the world of publishing. A whole industry has grown out of the perceived, often...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 25, 2004

Joan Burk

This year, the Association of Foreign Wives of Japanese celebrates its 35th anniversary. Founder Joan Burk says she has a special bond with the unique organization. "I think of AFWJ as my baby," she wrote from her present home in Canada. "I will always be interested in everything about AFWJ and its members....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 24, 2004

Northern delights of Sapporo

Despite its easy proximity, brought by the relatively short flying time from Tokyo, an air of remoteness still hangs over Hokkaido. Physically the island is more a last outpost of Siberia than an integral part of Japan. In Hokkaido, little rice grows, scant cherry trees bloom, no rainy season descends,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Sep 24, 2004

Hiding in the heart of Babylon . . .

Six is the number of trees in Roppongi (the kanji for the area literally reads "six trees"). Three sixes is the number of the beast, as everyone knows. And I've often thought that if you tripled the amount of mayhem to be found in Roppongi on any given night, you'd have a rough approximation of hell....
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2004

Bets off on Australian election

SYDNEY -- The long reign of Prime Minister John Howard is coming to an end if the latest pre-election opinion polls are any guide. But who believes polls? Certainly nobody caught up in a new round of election frenzy suddenly sweeping Australia.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Sep 23, 2004

"The World Came To My Place Today," "Faerie Wars"

"The World Came To My Place Today," Jo Readman and Ley Honor Roberts, Random House; 2004; 24 pp.
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 2004

A new broom in Jakarta

Mr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is set to become Indonesia's next president. The former general has been projected as the landslide winner of this week's presidential ballot. His victory could usher in a new era in Indonesian politics: He is the first president of the post-Suharto era who is genuinely qualified...
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2004

Japan's diplomatic might

In late August, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi visited four Central Asian states to build a new framework of regional dialogue. The creation of the "Central Asia Plus Japan" forum means that Japan is pushing strategic diplomacy in the geopolitically important Silk Road region, surrounded by Russia,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 19, 2004

Kondo trumpets his way

For six nights this week six different combinations of Japanese musicians will gather with bassist Bill Laswell and saxophonist John Zorn at the Pit Inn in Shinjuku. Among those onstage will be drummers Tatsuya Yoshida of The Ruins and Yoshigaki Yasuhiro of Rovo, guitarist and manipulator of electronics...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Sep 19, 2004

Wat a middle-aged way not to get so wet

There are good times to arrive in Bangkok weighed down with expensive camera gear, recording equipment and a snappy new tropical suit just tailored in Singapore.
Japan Times
Features
Sep 19, 2004

A flavor of Lima with Fujimori to the fore

Visit any Latin dance club and you'll hear the salsa music blaring well before you get through the doors. But this month at dance clubs across Japan there'll be another sound as well: the buzz over a new, free-of-charge magazine on Peruvian life in this country that's being distributed not only at clubs...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 19, 2004

In search of an elusive identity

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN, by Don Lee. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004, 318 pp., $24.95 (cloth). THE PEARL DIVER, by Sujata Massey. New York: HarperCollins, 2004, 335 pp., $23.95 (cloth). One formula frequently applied to the mystery novel involves adoptees who reach adulthood and seek to track down their...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 19, 2004

TV Tokyo's "Umi o Koeta Kazoku Ai #5" and more

On Monday at 8 p.m., TV Tokyo presents a special program that ranks "The 10 Best Villages in Japan Where You Can Live Comfortably on 100,000 yen a Month."
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 19, 2004

Chechen-Arab connection goes far back

CHICAGO -- As gunmen seized a school full of hostages in southern Russia last week, President Vladimir Putin had held a meeting that might have seemed to some like a distraction.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2004

Uniqlo chain plans to enter U.S. market in 2006

Fast Retailing Co., a casual-clothing store chain known for its Uniqlo brand, will try to enter the U.S. market as early as 2006, company President Genichi Tamatsuka said in a recent interview.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 18, 2004

Ian Nish

LONDON -- Forward-thinking programs drawn up during World War II gave opportunity to many non-Japanese young people to become specialists in Japanese studies. An undergraduate at that time, Ian Nish joined the ranks of those who embarked upon sterling work that turned them into Japan experts. He speaks...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 17, 2004

Shiroyama bravely battles on

In matters of war, history is most often recounted from the perspective of the conqueror and rarely, if ever, passed down from the point of view of the defeated. So it's not surprising that the historical significance of the remnants of 16th-century Hachioji Castle on western Tokyo's Mount Fukazawa --...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 17, 2004

Food fit for a doge on canals of Venice

Eating where the tourists eat is always a risky proposition, especially in a city like Venice, whose sole raison d'e^tre is tourism. Along the city's main arteries and tourist sites, the restaurants are often disappointing -- and sometimes even disastrous. But, as we found on a quick visit there earlier...
EDITORIALS
Sep 16, 2004

UNSC quest raises questions

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly later this month, will express Japan's desire to become a permanent member of the Security Council. There is almost unanimous agreement that Japan should play a larger international role. This does not necessarily mean,...
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Sep 16, 2004

Reading-out-loud renaissance falls upon deaf ears

I'm a fan of "Doraemon," the long-running children's television show about a blue robot cat from the future, who lives with an average family on the outskirts of Tokyo. The Japanese is relatively easy to understand, and I love Doraemon's magic pocket, from which he pulls amazing tools like the dokodemo...
BUSINESS
Sep 16, 2004

Personal financial assets up in June

The balance of personal financial assets stood at 1.425 quadrillion yen at the end of June, up 3 percent from a year earlier, as a rise in stock prices increased appraisal gains on securities holdings, the Bank of Japan said Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 15, 2004

Here's to a classic 'comeback'

The Return Rating: * * * * 1/2(out of 5) Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev Running time: 111 minutes Language: Russian with Japanese subtitles Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Perhaps the most dispiriting aspect of the global corporate culture that's spread like mold over...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 15, 2004

You can't beat an old master

Coffee Jiko Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Hou Hsiao- hsien Running time: 103 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Yasujiro Ozu's trademark style -- the low camera angles, the straight cuts, the actors talking at the camera in medium closeup...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 15, 2004

A robot could have scripted this

I, Robot Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Alex Proyas Running time: 115 minutes Language: English Opens Sept. 18 [See Japan Times movie listings] When was the last time you were enthralled by a big-budget sci-fi flick?
EDITORIALS
Sep 14, 2004

Breaking the cycle of terrorism

Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the world is not safer and the war on terrorism appears to be getting harder to win, no matter what U.S. President George W. Bush says. The proliferation of terrorist attacks is a fact of life no one can disregard. It is time for the international community to...
BUSINESS
Sep 14, 2004

Suzuki unveils restyled 650,000 yen Alto minicar

Suzuki Motor Corp. on Monday took the wraps off a restyled Alto minicar that features a low price tag and high fuel efficiency.

Longform

Ayumi Matsuki, a priestess at Yoshiwara Shrine, shows off some "o-mamori" charms. She says visitors to the shrine have increased since the NHK drama “Unbound” began airing this month.
Tracing Tsutaya Juzaburo, Edo’s media maverick