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JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 15, 2003

Fish have feeling too

"It's OK to eat fish 'cos they don't have any feelings." So sang Kurt Cobain on "Something in the Way," from 1991's "Nevermind" album.
BUSINESS
May 14, 2003

Business lobbies push for creation of career centers

Two major business lobbies asked the government Tuesday to help create career centers to help boost employment among the young.
EDITORIALS
May 14, 2003

A landmark trade deal for Asia

The United States and Singapore last week concluded a free-trade agreement, the first ever between the U.S. and an Asian nation. The deal has political and economic significance, and holds out both promise and peril. While the FTA reaffirms the U.S. commitment to Asia, it could also constitute a threat...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 14, 2003

A new Kanjuro takes the bunraku stage

Yoshida Minotaro (real name: Miyanaga Toyomi) is rare among today's bunraku practitioners as he comes from the family of the prominent puppeteer Kiritake Kanjuro II, who died in 1986 at age 66, four years after he was designated a living national treasure. Minotaro was 33 years old at the time of his...
COMMENTARY / World
May 13, 2003

World must find peaceful solutions to WMD problem

BRUSSELS -- The international community was deeply divided on how to effectively deal with the potential threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Evidence that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein continued to maintain such an arsenal has yet to emerge from the rubble of the recent conflict.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 13, 2003

Off-the-wall fiction feeds weird ideas about Japan

If you review novels set in Asia, as this writer does, it follows that you read a lot of books. To call some of them "terrible" may be putting it kindly.
COMMUNITY
May 13, 2003

Write your own Japanese potboiler

1. Someone falls victim to a horrible murder in a U.S city. The solution lies in a cryptic message written on: a samurai sword; a Satsuma vase; a netsuke; an ancient scroll; a jade amulet; or an Astro-Boy comic book.
COMMENTARY / World
May 12, 2003

Time to push bigger deal with Pyongyang

WASHINGTON -- When South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun visits Washington this week, what can he and President George W. Bush possibly talk about?
EDITORIALS
May 11, 2003

Myanmar's gestures are not enough

Once again, the military government in Myanmar has made a symbolic gesture to placate international critics. The release of political prisoners is always welcome, but the government in Yangon does not question its right to use the opposition as pawns. The game must stop; nothing less than systemic reform...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
May 11, 2003

A versatile jazz, classical and Latin lover

The typical image of Latin jazz comes mainly from salsa. Certainly, large bands playing fast-tempo dance music peppered by a hot horn section, thumping bass, razor-sharp piano and a small contingent of percussionists comprise the most common -- and perhaps most exhilarating -- form of Latin jazz.
COMMENTARY
May 11, 2003

New round of hope for India, Pakistan

ISLAMABAD -- The latest indications of an emerging peace process between India and Pakistan, South Asia's two nuclear armed neighbors, have momentarily brightened prospects for stability across the region.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ARCHIPELA-GO
May 11, 2003

Family biking weekends for a song

UTSUNOMIYA -- Comfortable lodging for a family of four, with meals, for less than 20,000 yen? Yes, it's possible, even in Japan. That's all my family paid for a very enjoyable overnight in Utsunomiya, at a public facility that promotes bicycling.
EDITORIALS
May 10, 2003

Keeping a lid on SARS

Japan's health authorities are beginning to make a concerted effort to prevent the spread of the SARS epidemic. No case of severe acute respiratory syndrome has been reported in Japan so far, but health officials leave open the possibility that the deadly virus might be brought into the country by people...
COMMENTARY
May 10, 2003

The purpose of U.S. power

HONOLULU -- President George W. Bush declared victory in the war against Iraq last week. Anyone expecting the president to bask in success would have been surprised by the speech: Bush made clear that Iraq is merely one campaign in the ongoing war against terrorism. A perfunctory reading of the administration's...
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2003

France deserves far better than the dock

SEOUL -- For those old enough to remember the climactic U.N. Security Council face-off in 1962, during which the United States confronted the Soviet Union with incontrovertible evidence of Soviet missiles in Cuba, there's a lesson here. When America's U.N. ambassador, Adlai Stevenson, accused his Soviet...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 10, 2003

Japan's most honorable form of death

"Well, you don't have a fever," the doctor told me. Next, he looked down my throat.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
May 10, 2003

Matt Lagan

People say that the show must go on. They also say that what may happen behind the scenes only the actors know.
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2003

Postscript: The man who tore down the cloak of silence

BEIJING -- When SARS broke out in Guangdong Province, the government chose to keep quiet about it. It was a mistake that would not only endanger the world's health and economy, but also undermine the credibility of the Chinese government itself.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 9, 2003

Le Jardin: The fine art of museum dining

What could be more cultured and civilized -- indeed more pleasurable -- than to spend the morning strolling around a good museum and then, with legs aching and aesthetic senses saturated, to adjourn from exhibition hall to adjoining restaurant for a leisurely lunch? Especially when the cuisine is sophisticated...
BUSINESS
May 8, 2003

Yamaha Motor triples its net profit

Yamaha Motor Co. scored a record group net profit of 25.56 billion yen for the year through March, up roughly threefold from the previous year, the company said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
May 8, 2003

METI to open 10 youth job centers in '03

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry plans to open 10 youth job-placement centers by the end of the current fiscal year, ministry officials said Wednesday.
ENVIRONMENT
May 8, 2003

Emerging specialty puts focus on the 'green' way cities could be

Cities appeared relatively late in human history, and have gradually evolved over five millennia to support complex economic, political, religious, academic and military organizations and hierarchies. However, their concentration of wealth, talent and creativity that breeds cultural and scientific innovation...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 7, 2003

Japan Post to create model offices in bid to reform

Japan Post will try to improve its operations by creating 12 model post offices around the country so employees at its 24,000 outlets can learn about cost-cutting measures and improving productivity, Japan Post President Masaharu Ikuta said in a recent interview.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FRONT-RUNNERS
May 7, 2003

Shimadzu enjoys fruits of research and development program

If he had been a researcher at a major Japanese university, Koichi Tanaka could not have won the 2002 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
BUSINESS
May 7, 2003

Seafood firm, Waseda forge alliance

Seafood maker Natori Co. said Tuesday it will set up a joint venture with Waseda University to develop food items for the elderly.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
May 7, 2003

One door opens, another one closes

"The closing of a door can bring blessed privacy and comfort -- the opening, terror. Conversely, the closing of a door can be a sad and final thing -- the opening a wonderfully joyous moment."
COMMENTARY
May 5, 2003

Unity needed on nuclear issue

North Korea's statement that it already has nuclear weapons is most likely an exercise in diplomatic brinkmanship aimed at drawing the United States into direct dialogue. But if the statement is true, the security environment surrounding Japan and Northeast Asia will undergo fundamental change.
COMMENTARY
May 4, 2003

U.S. far from tying up Taliban's loose ends

ISLAMABAD -- Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan's transitional government, spent much of his time on a recent visit to neighboring Pakistan discussing the mounting security challenge faced by his beleaguered government.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
May 4, 2003

How to become a musical genius without trying

On the surface, you might think British techno animal Aphex Twin and Tokyo rock anarchists Bossston Cruising Mania have little in common. I mean, the one twiddles knobs while the other bunch plucks strings. But you'd be wrong. Take these four things off the top of my head: 1) they have no respect for...

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go