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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Apr 3, 2005

Ryu Murakami: Straight-talking wordsmith wields his pen like a sword

For nearly three decades since his seismic debut with "Almost Transparent Blue," which delved into the sex- and drug-fueled lives of Japanese youths in a town hosting a huge U.S. military base, author Ryu Murakami has often used his trademark explicit, offensive and guiltlessly cheerful language to dig...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 31, 2005

Boning up on a Man much maligned

Quarry workers in the Neander Valley in Germany dug up more than limestone when, in 1856, they came across parts of an old skull and skeleton. By 1864, other similar specimens had been found and studied, and the archaic human was recognized as a new species: Homo neanderthalensis. (Neander Tal means...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 27, 2005

A fully not-boring Indian adventure

SHANTARAM, by Gregory David Roberts. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2004, 936 pp., $24.95 (cloth). The lives that some people lead can put fiction to shame. One such example would be Australian novelist Gregory David Roberts, a former heroin addict who held up banks with a toy pistol. Apprehended and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Mar 27, 2005

Swing is the thing for bassist Nakamura

Not many Japanese jazz musicians have played in front of a President of the United States, but Kengo Nakamura is one. After leaving his hometown of Osaka to study at Boston's esteemed Berklee College of Music in 1988, where he switched from electric to acoustic bass, and struggling for a while to find...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 26, 2005

Makiko Tachibana

Each year in January, the first-year students at Bunka Gakuin High School present a weeklong exhibition of their original picture books in English. "My students themselves plan, write and draw the picture books. Their English is simple, but their stories are full of imagination and fantasy. Trying to...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Mar 24, 2005

Japanese wagtail

* Japanese name: Segurosekirei * Scientific name: Motacilla grandis * Description: Wagtails are easily identified by the way their tails wag frenetically when they walk. Even their flight pattern seems to wag -- they fly in an undulating wave. The head, throat and the top of the back and the wings...
COMMENTARY
Mar 21, 2005

Getting education on track

LONDON -- British and Japanese governments face major challenges in funding and organizing education, which is key to a nation's cultural and economic well-being.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 19, 2005

Roh publicly belittles alliance with U.S.

HONOLULU -- In a little noticed speech, President Roh Moo Hyun of South Korea has once again disparaged his nation's alliance with the United States and cast doubt on whether this partnership should continue. Roh told graduating cadets at the Korean Air Force Academy that South Korea was fully capable...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 19, 2005

P. Sivakami

CHENNAI, India -- Eight years ago, P. Sivakami went from Tamil Nadu to Tokyo to serve as Egional director of the Indian Tourist Office. She was in her early 40s then, usually dressed in a sari but often in slacks and a sweater, and still wearing her hair long and loose. She took her two young sons with...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 18, 2005

Women take shine to money management

Major banks and brokerages are holding seminars on finance and giving priority to sales of investment trusts aimed at women, who are apparently showing an increasing interest in the world of investing.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 10, 2005

Glimpsing the 'big picture' at the heart of gray matter

It is a commonly held belief that we don't tap into the full power of our brains. Self-help gurus make millions by exploiting this belief, separating people from their money by making them think there is a secret to tapping mysterious, unused reserves of brain power.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 6, 2005

Takebe Ayatari: The ultimate bunjin

TAKEBE AYATARI: A Bunjin Bohemian in Early Modern Japan, by Lawrence E. Marceau. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 2004, 370 pp. + xxi pp., 16 color plates, 122 b/w plates. $69.00 (cloth). Takebe Ayatari (1719-1774), the subject of this detailed and scholarly monograph,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 5, 2005

Classy acts to follow in voice, audition coaching

Last month, Alice Hackett and Robert Tsonos were facing each other onstage in "Les Liasons Dangereuses," produced by Tokyo International Players. Now they are facing me, talking about coaching and training actors, writers, businesspeople and teachers -- anyone who needs help with projecting personality,...
EDITORIALS
Mar 4, 2005

Ailment needs a national response

For sufferers of kafunshou (pollen allergy) or hay fever, this is shaping up into a really bad year. Because of last summer's sweltering heat, the amount of cedar pollen in the air is forecast to rise two or three times above average, possibly exceeding the worst-ever level of 1995. Reports say that,...
EDITORIALS
Mar 3, 2005

Increase pressure on North Korea

Talks with North Korea are deadlocked on two make-or-break issues: that country's nuclear weapons program and its past abduction of Japanese nationals. Last month, declaring that it has nuclear weapons, Pyongyang threatened an indefinite boycott of the six-party talks. It also refused to discuss the...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 2, 2005

Abuse taking a growing toll on children worldwide

NEW YORK -- It is a sad paradox that one of the most famous entertainers in the world today should be charged with abusing a child. If Michael Jackson, accused of abusing a boy at his Neverland ranch in California, is found guilty, the verdict will be a tremendous blow to his career.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 2, 2005

Goya brought to life in flamenco

La Yoko, as she is known by those in the flamenco world, is the woman responsible for not only bringing this ethnic gypsy-rooted form of dance into Japan but also establishing the first flamenco dance company on this far eastern island 36 years ago. In 1959, Yoko Komatsubara, after having seen the spectacular...
EDITORIALS
Mar 1, 2005

Slow response to AIDS

One of the world's worst disasters is under way in Africa. AIDS is devastating sub-Saharan Africa, and South Africa has been especially hard hit. The government in Pretoria, however, has played down the scale of the crisis and, consequently, has been slow to respond to it.
EDITORIALS
Feb 27, 2005

The British navy's pink carpet

'R um, sodomy and the lash" are the words Winston Churchill is popularly credited with using to sum up the traditions of Britain's Royal Navy. (A former assistant has said that Churchill never uttered the famous phrase but wished he had.) Either way, the idea that Her Majesty's naval forces have always...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 27, 2005

NHK's "Chikyu Fushigi Daishizen" sees green back in wasteland and more

There are few happy stories on the environmental front these days, but NHK will cover one of them on its nature program, "Chikyu Fushigi Daishizen (The Earth's Amazing Nature)" (NHK-G, Mon., 8 p.m.). Ashio Mountain in Gunma Prefecture has been bare for almost a century, the victim of sulfur-dioxide pollution...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2005

Insurers race to get into medical policies as population ages

The risk of getting sick may soon be more important than the risk of dying, according to the life insurance industry.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Feb 25, 2005

A reason to be happy: Spike Bar in Shibuya

Shibuya is now headquarters for Tokyo's cool party crowd. In the last six years or so, countless little bars have set up shop and made themselves part of the night circuit around the station. Whether along Miyamasuzaka toward Aoyama, up Dogenzaka toward Daikanyama or south along the Yamanote tracks toward...
BUSINESS
Feb 23, 2005

FSA calls on banks to fight cash card crime

The Financial Services Agency urged financial institutions Tuesday to step up efforts to tackle cash card forgeries.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2005

The right thing is not permanent tax cuts

WASHINGTON -- Since his re-election, President George W. Bush has emphasized the need for U.S. fiscal responsibility. He has pledged to halve the enormous federal budget deficit in his second term. He has vowed to put social security on a sound, long-term footing. And he has just submitted a 2006 budget...
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2005

With ANA back in black, next chief eyes new overseas routes

Chicago, Delhi, Bombay and Moscow.
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2005

Livedoor move may spur off-hour trading curbs

The government may impose restrictions on off-hours stock trading in the wake of Livedoor Co.'s surprise acquisition of a large stake in a radio broadcaster last week, Financial Services Minister Tatsuya Ito said Tuesday.
Japan Times
Features
Feb 13, 2005

Go! Go! Kingyo!

If you go down to Roppongi tonight, you're sure of a few surprises. Not least, in Tokyo's favorite party zone renowned for its glitz and sleaze, you're guaranteed a world tour of ethnic restaurants, along with enough bars, dance clubs and strip joints to satisfy every taste.

Longform

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