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Events
Oct 30, 2001

House of noble poets displays treasures from ancient Japan

KYOTO -- Tucked away near the southeast corner of Doshisha University in Kyoto is the last surviving house of Japanese nobility. Home to the Reizei family, it is now occupied by 54-year-old Kimiko Reizei and her husband, Tamehito, head of Tamao Kai, a school that teaches traditional "waka" poetry.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Oct 30, 2001

The holiday that never began . . .

Romania has more brown bears per square kilometer than any other country in the world. Unspoiled forest covers 80 percent of the Carpathian mountains. Transylvania is home to thousands of wolves and 30 percent of Europe's lynx population. Wild boar, chamois, eagles and red deer abound.
COMMUNITY
Oct 14, 2001

High-flying ad man comes down to earth in Shikoku

Eleven years ago, Toshihito Takahashi was a high-flying advertising copywriter with a leading Tokyo agency, one of the select few whose work regularly appeared on the nation's TV screens.
JAPAN
Oct 8, 2001

Ozawa warns against unprincipled SDF action

Opposition Liberal Party leader Ichiro Ozawa reiterated his opposition Sunday to a bill aimed at allowing the Self-Defense Forces to extend logistic assistance to an expected U.S.-led military operation against terrorists.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2001

Macedonia historian delighted at award

Macedonian historian Dr. Kosta Balabanov has expressed his delight at receiving this year's Japan Foundation special prize for his contribution to introducing Japanese culture to the Balkan country.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 7, 2001

A lonely struggle for recognition

LEGACIES OF THE COMFORT WOMEN OF WORLD WAR II, edited by Margaret Stetz and Bonnie B.C. Oh. M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, NY, 2001, 230 pp., $55 (cloth) More than 50 years after the end of World War II, the question of whether or not the Japanese government bears responsibility for forcing tens of thousands...
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2001

A-bomb survivor sues state for lost medical benefits

OSAKA -- A South Korean man filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Japanese government, seeking compensation for the termination of his medical benefits as an atomic bomb survivor on the grounds that he left Japan to return home, his lawyers said.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 4, 2001

Putting fear and hope on the genome map

Future historians might well classify this week as typical of the early 21st century, in that there is a flurry of reports linking specific genes to human diseases, and at the same time there is a voice warning against seeing genetics as a "magic bullet," the solution to all our problems.
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2001

Japan considering aid for Afghan refugees in Iran

Japan may provide humanitarian aid for a tide of Afghan refugees escaping to Iran in fear of military retaliation for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2001

Dispatch of Aegis ship suspended

The government will not dispatch a top-of-the-line Aegis destroyer to the Indian Ocean to back the anticipated military retaliation for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, official sources revealed late Thursday. The government had been considering sending the 7,250-ton Kongo on an intelligence-gathering...
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2001

MSDF fleet awaits mission

The Defense Agency will dispatch a state-of-the-art Aegis destroyer and three other Maritime Self-Defense Force ships from Nagasaki Prefecture's Sasebo Base to the Indian Ocean, possibly as soon as Thursday, to support U.S. activities following the terrorist attacks it suffered, government sources said....
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2001

Koizumi starts preparations so SDF could support U.S.

Japan will prepare for the dispatch of its Self-Defense Forces to lend noncombatant support to U.S. forces should Washington take retaliatory action against terrorists, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced Wednesday.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 19, 2001

They'll do it theeeeeeir way

Girl bands . . . you've gotta love them.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Sep 16, 2001

Good things come in simpler packages

A Ministry of Education and Science directive that takes effect next spring will require public schools to teach a Japanese instrument in junior-high-school music classes; up to now the focus has been entirely on Western music.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 13, 2001

Shaping up the economy: more parks, fewer highways

One of the joys of visiting the United States is having a chance to check out the alternative press. This summer, while in Vermont (which some say is a state, and some a state of mind), I picked up a free copy of "Green Living: A Practical Journal for Friends of the Environment."
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2001

Truly, madly, but not too deeply

Zeitaku na Hone Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Isao Yukisada Running time: 107 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2001

Suzuki denies all links with Kenyan project

The following are excerpts from an interview with Lower House member Muneo Suzuki about a controversial hydropower project in Kenya. The interview was conducted on Aug. 22 in Tokyo.
JAPAN / History
Aug 30, 2001

A half-century of media pigeonholing

Japan is a nation of children who were led astray by their military, re-educated under the benevolence of the United States, and rose to become America's important ally. It became a nation of salaried men and office ladies gaining, for a few brief years, through international trade what it had failed...
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2001

Opposition parties urge extra session

Four opposition parties submitted a petition Wednesday to the House of Representatives, urging the Cabinet to convene an extraordinary Diet session as soon as possible to deal with the worsening economy and other pressing matters.
EDITORIALS
Aug 29, 2001

An alternative to Yasukuni

The government is considering building a national cemetery for the nation's war dead. The immediate reason for this is the political and diplomatic backlash caused by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Aug. 13 visit to Yasukuni Shrine. The visit has provoked angry protests from China and South Korea....
CULTURE / Music
Aug 29, 2001

Boy Bands II Men Bands

On July 9, the day after the Backstreet Boys announced on MTV that their tattooed bad-boy member A.J. McLean was entering a rehabilitation facility for "alcohol and depression," advertisements appeared in the Japanese dailies announcing the Boys' Japan dome tour in November. Tickets, however, would not...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 22, 2001

Nina Persson: 'A Camp'

Not too many musical groups preface their name with the indefinite article, but A Camp doesn't describe a band so much as the state of mind that led to this album's recording. Promoted as a Nina Persson solo effort in fact, if not in name, the record of the same name is loose and uncluttered, dabbling...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2001

Yasukuni still casts a long, ugly shadow

The annual official visits to Yasukuni Shrine by Japanese government dignitaries in recent years have raised controversy and negatively affected Sino-Japanese relations. This summer was no exception, as Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi paid homage at the shrine on Aug. 13, two days before his previously...
EDITORIALS
Aug 15, 2001

The prime 'rogue state'

For the Japanese, the first half of August is a period of soul-searching, remembering those who died in World War II and renewing our hopes for world peace. But more than half a century after the end of the war, and in spite of the termination of East-West confrontation, the world today remains a potentially...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 12, 2001

'Model' family vs. maternal love: a nation judges

Last week, the Japan Office of the Nevada Center for Reproductive Medicine announced that a 60-year-old Japanese woman gave birth to a healthy baby at Jikei University Hospital in Tokyo. Though the woman's identity and the child's gender were not revealed, the mother released a statement through the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2001

Feelings run deep about Yasukuni

Staff writer Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi says he simply wants to pay his respects for those who died for Japan.
LIFE / Travel
Aug 7, 2001

On a quiet crusade to end a tradition of injustice

BANGKOK -- On the first lunar cycle of the first month of this year, Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, an eminent Buddhist scholar, threw away her makeup, gave up eating meals after midday and relinquished the luxury of a comfortable bed. A month later, one day before the auspicious date of Buddha's holy Makhapuja...

Longform

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