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JAPAN
Aug 7, 2001

Attitudes shifting on separate names for married people

The government sees a big change in attitudes about separate surnames by married couples and plans to discuss the possible introduction of a two-name system, the top government spokesman said Monday.
BUSINESS
Aug 6, 2001

Wine exporters focus on Asia

BORDEAUX, France -- Japan is firmly back on the agenda for many wine exporters despite its continued economic slump, and value for money at the lower end should improve further. However, futures prices already indicate the prestige 2000 Bordeaux vintages won't be cheap.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Aug 4, 2001

Felix

Most passengers boarded the RMS St. Helena in Cardiff, South Wales. Some went on board in Tenerife, Canary Islands. Felix, who is of Spanish-Cuban descent, joined the ship in Tenerife, as the resort island is his home. He had never set foot on St. Helena.
BUSINESS
Aug 4, 2001

METI to test hydrogen fuel gas stations

Hydrogen gas stations for fuel-cell vehicles will open in April on a three-year trial basis.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 1, 2001

American talking the talk down in Hiroshima

Most interpreters working for Japanese baseball teams are Japanese. Though there has been a need for translators in a variety of languages in recent years as the suketto (foreign "helpers") hired by Central and Pacific League teams have come from various countries, most of the men hired to change Nihongo...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 1, 2001

There's 'cheerleader angst'

Bring It On Rating: * * * Director: Peyton Reed Running time: 98 minutes Language: EnglishNow showing Thank you, O Lord. Such was my reaction after viewing "Bring It On," a bouncing-with-exuberance tale of high school cheerleaders. Hey, where are you going? Don't put down the paper just because...
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2001

Elderly seen warming to overseas home-stays

Yujiro Hamada, 77, is typical of a rising number of middle-aged and elderly Japanese who have rejected more common overseas package tours in favor of extended stays abroad.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2001

Chen seeks a 'middle way' for Taiwan

TAIPEI -- March 2000 saw a sea change: the election by universal suffrage of Chen Shui-bian as president of the Republic of China. The Nationalist Party (KMT) no longer ruled Taiwan. This finally put to rest the trite old misconception that ethnic Chinese are not ready for democracy.
COMMENTARY
Jul 30, 2001

Foreign policy falls short

LONDON -- Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi cannot afford to let Japanese foreign policy become a hostage to nationalist agitation and populist pressures. Japan needs friends in Asia as well as in the rest of the world. Its relationship with the United States remains crucial. Koizumi has worked hard to...
COMMUNITY
Jul 29, 2001

Every breath you take

The children were considered lucky when they were admitted a place at the popular Sashigaya public nursery in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward. Little did their parents know what a high price their young ones might have to pay for the privilege.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2001

Legalization: The drug war's best weapon

LONDON -- In Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Switzerland it is practically impossible to get arrested for buying or using "soft drugs." In the Netherlands, users may buy up to five grams of cannabis or hashish for private use at 1,500 licensed "coffee shops," and they are opening two drive-through outlets...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2001

Something for everyone under the big blue sea

Dykkerne Rating: * * 1/2 Director: Ake Sandgren Running time: 91 minutes Language: DanishNow showing This is my second week in a row writing on a film from Scandinavia, so I'm suffering somewhat from Big Blonde People Overload. Especially since the latest involves apple-cheeked, sturdy-boned youngsters...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 22, 2001

Thanks to 'doken kokka,' are Japan's best decades behind it?

THE EMPTINESS OF JAPANESE AFFLUENCE, by Gavan McCormack. Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe, 2001 (2nd edition), 311 pp., $27.95 (paperback). What went wrong? A decade ago few would have predicted the sustained malaise that has gripped Japan since the early 1990s.
SOCCER / World cup
Jul 21, 2001

Oita gearing up to play World Cup host

Oita, one of the 10 World Cup hosts in Japan, expects two things from hosting the World Cup next year -- to promote the southern city around the world and to make Oita Stadium recognized as a major sporting and cultural destination.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 21, 2001

Life through the lens in Seoul, Paris and Tokyo

It is hard to imagine Mi-Yeon producing art prints of such emotion and refinement amid the familial clutter of her apartment, but maybe this is the mark of the true artist: beauty can be created against all odds. "My daughter's at kindergarten," she offers as explanation.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 18, 2001

Painting all the layers of knowledge and color in the Buddhist universe

'There is no room for originality in thangka painting," says Yumyo Miyasaka. "The iconography, the colors, even the way you hold the brush -- everything must be done just so." Self-expression is not the goal here; the pictures are an aid, a tool for meditation. The self is what you are trying to lose....
CULTURE / Art
Jul 18, 2001

Nature not nurture links Japan and Art Nouveau

Anyone writing about Art Nouveau here in Japan is expected to deferentially mention the strong Japanese influences on this late 19th-century art and design movement. Indeed, the exhibition now at Shibuya's Bunkamura of furniture and glassware from the important French Art Nouveau center of Nancy goes...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 18, 2001

A breakfast to blow your mind

I recall reviewing a group exhibition at an embassy gallery last year and referring to it as a "hodgepodge" of styles and media. So incensed were the amateur curators that they fired off a complaint to the paper protesting the use of the word. When the husband of one of them caught up with me in public,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 15, 2001

Inking the moment

A sheet of white washi paper, a brush, an ink stone, a black ink stick and a good mood -- these are the ingredients for a work of shodo (calligraphy).
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2001

U.S. fear of bilingualism is unfounded

In Quebec, French signs by law have to be twice as big as their English translations. The top spot in the Los Angeles radio market belongs to KSCA-FM, a Spanish language station.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 14, 2001

Red Army daughter seeks to set record straight

"My parents named me after the month of a certain political action," explains May Shigenobu. "But in Japanese I am known as Mei, which means 'life.' " The specific political operation to which she is referring? The bombing by Japanese leftwing radicals of Lod Airport in Tel Aviv on May 30, 1972.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2001

Turning talk of free trade into policy

LONDON — Japan's trade sanctions joust with China is small beer in world terms — or even in the context of the overall commerce between the two nations. But it sounds a warning bell — all the more so since it is just one of a series of challenges to free and open trade that could throw into doubt...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 12, 2001

Jaws was born a rambling shark

A dark dorsal fin breaks the surface of a gleaming seascape. A ghost-faced killer glides silently through the water . . . the theme tune to "Jaws" automatically plays in the brain.
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 11, 2001

Renegade samurai lead first revolution

Executives of Japan's top 200 corporations were recently given a survey in which they were asked the following question: "Who in the past millennium of world history would you choose to help Japan solve its present financial crisis?"
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Jul 8, 2001

When your number's up . . .

Although all that you will ever need to know about a sake is contained in one, intention-laden sip, sometimes the technical mumbo jumbo can be fun to study as well. The industry always seems to offer one more piece of information every few years, be it the amino acid level, the number of days the tank...
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 7, 2001

Biodiversity crucial for ecosystems

Wildlife variety is the spice of life -- we know it, and now scientists have confirmed it. Biodiversity is crucial for ecosystems to work properly, according to a French-British study published in Nature this week.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 7, 2001

John Delp

"Being different" is a key to his success, John Delp believes. When he founded his travel business, he made a significant policy decision "to concentrate on serving the foreign community." A third factor lay in his applying the company motto, "the executive touch," to the comfort and well-being of his...
EDITORIALS
Jul 6, 2001

Face-lift won't solve CCP's problems

The Chinese Communist Party, which celebrated its 80th anniversary on July 1, is giving itself a face-lift. In a speech marking the event, President Jiang Zemin said the party will grant membership to private business managers. That should come as no surprise, however, given that the CCP has been campaigning...

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow It