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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 13, 2002

School festivals of fun in the name of sport

Autumn in Japan means much more than cooler temperatures and colorful leaves. It means . . . sports!
COMMENTARY
Oct 12, 2002

Cost cuts could compromise health care

WASHINGTON -- Public-spirited rhetoric usually masks intense interest-group combat in Washington, D.C., like that over pharmaceutical patents. Health insurers, which barely survived the Clinton administration's assault, are targeting drug-research firms.
COMMENTARY
Oct 12, 2002

In pursuit of terrorists and oil

NEW DELHI -- U.S. President George W. Bush is taking a big gamble with his single-minded mission to get rid of a toothless but unsavory dictator, who, far from being a menace to U.S. security, is not a threat even to his neighbors. Bush, who accuses Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein of being "a homicidal...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 11, 2002

Irish media not too Keane on McCarthy

LONDON -- It is difficult to imagine a coach can be under pressure after his team made a positive impression at the World Cup finals, has lost only three of its last 27 games and just seven of 41 competitive matches during his 6 1/2 years in charge.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Oct 9, 2002

The Captains chart retro course

Nostalgia is a dangerous thing. In the wrong hands, it can be an outlet for excessive sentimentality and out-and-out kitsch.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 8, 2002

U.N. aims higher with sweeping reforms

Shakespeare's aphorism is as applicable to organizations as to individuals: "the evil they do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones." Let it not be so with the United Nations. Rather, let us recall with pride the process of reform in the organization. Much, in fact, has already...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 2002

EU needs a common purpose

LONDON -- Since the original European Common Market was founded in the mid-1950s, the Continent sought a common economic role, to be followed by growing political integration. Now, there is general agreement on the first count that a new institutional framework is needed to give the community more political...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Oct 7, 2002

Brainstorming to bring positive change

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- In an article on the IMF/World Bank meeting in Washington last month entitled "A Washington gathering of incompetents," Gerald Baker, while lambasting policyma- kers in the United States and the European Union, handed the first prize for incompetence to Japan. "Every time it...
COMMENTARY
Oct 7, 2002

Political reform the only option for China

HONG KONG -- China's late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping deserves much credit for trying to modernize the country and remove it from its Maoist ideological straitjacket. He emphasized pragmatism, not ideology. He put China on the path to a market economy. And, perhaps most important, he tried to lift...
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2002

Hussein finds 'useful idiots' in Washington

WASHINGTON -- Hitler found "Lord Haw Haw" -- William Joyce, who broadcast German propaganda to Britain during World War II -- in the dregs of British extremism. But Iraqi President Saddam Hussein finds American collaborators among senior congressional Democrats.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 6, 2002

When every channel is the same channel

Ever since the advent of that popular programming idea known as the "wide show" in the mid-1980s, so-called hard news and tabloid news have slowly merged into an alloy of informational reporting that defies easy categorization.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Oct 6, 2002

Take time for a journey of the senses

Imagine a break in the day where the hustle and bustle of life is put aside, and your total attention is given over to the senses and the discovery of new wines and unexpected, heartening bargains. Tasting and evaluating wine is a challenge, one that requires endurance, focus and discipline, but it can...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Oct 6, 2002

Asagiri Jam keeps it real

"Are we all going to wake up dead tomorrow?" asks my pal Dave as our taxi crawls up a steep, winding road on a fog-drenched mountain.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 6, 2002

Iseya: Tempura with a tale to tell

Iseya is a diamond in the rough-and-ready neighborhood that lies to the north of Asakusa. Set between the sleazy, winking red lights of the Senzoku soaplands and the grim and grimy flophouses of San'ya, this is far from tourist territory. And Iseya is no tourist restaurant. But without doubt it's a shitamachi...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / THE PARENT TRIP
Oct 4, 2002

More than just child's play

Until I became a mother, I had never heard of a playgroup. Three babies later, I can say that establishing a thriving playgroup has been one of my greatest achievements in recent years.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Oct 4, 2002

Finding inner silence in the shamisen

When Catriona Sturton first arrived in Japan in August 2000, she knew very little about Japan or its culture. Little did the 24-year-old assistant language teacher know that she would become a skilled shamisen player. But that is exactly what happened -- her musical performances were recently broadcast...
COMMUNITY / NOTES FROM THE SMOKE
Oct 4, 2002

A chance to see the best of Michaelangelo and Michael Owen

Major Sports Bar #23 in Takadanobaba is a real sports fan's sports bar.
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Oct 3, 2002

A tale worth telling of (our) nature in the raw

I've been away in sunny climes for a while, and now I'm back at my desk in Kurohime. Actually, it is sunny and fine here as I write this, too, but there is a chill in the air, and flocks of small birds are twittering through the trees, migrants, coming down from higher up the mountain. Looking over my...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2002

Tibet: a bridge between India and China

MADRAS, India -- The issue of Tibet has plagued relations between India and China for well over four decades. When China annexed the small Himalayan nation in the 1950s, New Delhi found itself in a difficult position, given its special ties with the Tibetan people: India had an open border with Tibet,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Oct 2, 2002

Oppai -obsessed oeuvre that isn't well-rounded

I'm often asked the question: "What characterizes Japanese contemporary art?" At the risk of over-generalizing, I usually reply that two qualities recur among artists at the vanguard of this country's creative culture -- an obsessiveness vis a vis the subject, or an obsessive attention to detail in the...
EDITORIALS
Oct 1, 2002

A baffling Cabinet reshuffle

When Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi launched his Cabinet on April 26, 2000, he made a public pledge to the effect that he would not shuffle his Cabinet for an unjustifiable purpose. On Monday, he carried out his first Cabinet change allegedly for the purpose of accelerating structural reforms -- the...
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2002

N. Korean aid depends on abductions' resolution

Japanese economic aid to North Korea must be based on the settlement of the abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents, a Japanese official said Sunday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2002

Empress goes to Switzerland to attend kids' book congress

Empress Michiko left Saturday for Switzerland to attend a jubilee congress in Basel to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the International Board on Books for Young People.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2002

Ken Hirai: Soul to soul

We've seen Ken Hirai do it time and time again: mesmerize audiences with his silky tenor voice and those sexily svelte good looks -- kneading the air up on stage as if to squeeze from it any drop of passion that his music has somehow failed to discharge.
BUSINESS
Sep 28, 2002

Brother Industries to establish printer unit in Shenzhen

Brother Industries Ltd., a major maker of sewing machines and computerized documentation machines, said Friday its Hong Kong subsidiary will form a new arm in Shenzhen, China, to manufacture ink-jet printers for use in digital hybrid machines combined with facsimile machines.
COMMENTARY
Sep 28, 2002

U.S. report surprises few, worries many

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- I spent a week earlier this month in Vladivostok, Russia, lecturing to university students. Focusing on U.S. foreign policy, I was trying -- honestly, I can say -- to convince them that American foreign policy was less unilateralist than it seemed, and that the U.S. didn't deserve...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2002

Relatives demand details on abductees, rap Koizumi

The families of Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea met for the first time with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday and demanded that the government confirm the information from the Stalinist state regarding the fates of the missing people.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building