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Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2004

Creator of blue LED wins ¥20 billion patent payout

The Tokyo District Court on Friday ordered midsize chemical maker Nichia Corp. to pay an unprecedented ¥20 billion to the inventor of a key semiconductor device for his transfer of patent rights to the firm.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2004

U.S. oil firm leaves toxic legacy in Ecuador

NEW YORK -- Drilling for oil without adequate safeguards is one of the most destructive industrial activities both for people and for the environment. This danger has been particularly stark in the case of oil exploration and exploitation in the forested areas of the Amazon basin.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Jan 29, 2004

Japan is learning to love (and loving to learn) Chinese

Every day, it seems, more and more Japanese want to communicate -- in Chinese. One million Japanese, says Web magazine ChinaGate, are learning Mandarin and other Chinese dialects. At Japanese universities and schools, Mandarin has overtaken French and German to become the most popular language after...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 25, 2004

To give proves easier said than done

JAPAN'S "CULTURE OF GIVING" AND NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS, by Akira Matsubara and Hiroko Todoroki, translated by Richard Forrest. Tokyo: Coalition for Legislation to Support Citizen's Organizations, 2003, 45 pp., free (paper). Japan's transformation is proceeding quietly, slipping beneath media radar screens...
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2004

Rokkasho in dark, or wary, about ITER

OSAKA -- Just weeks before a decision is made on whether Japan or France gets to host the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project, Japanese officials are conducting a last-ditch international campaign to secure support.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2004

Group urges landlords to accept foreign tenants

Finding a place to live is one of the biggest difficulties foreign residents of Japan face, and one of the main reasons is that landlords are reluctant to accept them as tenants.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2004

Blackhawks eyed for dispatch

The Defense Agency is considering dispatching UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters of the Ground Self-Defense Force to Iraq, agency sources said Monday.
COMMENTARY
Jan 19, 2004

Okinawans await assurance of lighter military presence

HONOLULU -- During a visit to Okinawa, which has long borne a disproportionate share of the U.S. military presence in Japan, I was peppered with questions about the impact of planned redeployments. Okinawans have high hopes that the moves will lighten their burden. I could not reassure them.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 18, 2004

On a mission for the future of funk

Coming up with a technical definition for funk isn't easy, but New York Times critic Jon Pareles did a pretty good job in his review of a Nov. 2003 concert by the New Orleans band Galactic. Stating that the "discipline of funk [is] the repetition and deliberate space that give the music its solidity...
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2004

Shiretoko named candidate for UNESCO heritage list

Japan on Friday formally endorsed the Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido as its candidate for UNESCO's World Heritage List.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jan 17, 2004

Me and cell phones? A really bad connection

The whole world is going to hell in a hand basket, and Japan is leading the way.
EDITORIALS
Jan 14, 2004

Mr. Bush sets his sights on Mars

For as long as humankind has been capable of wonder, men and women have looked to the stars and dreamed. For centuries, they had to be content with just that. Only a mere half century ago, we first escaped the Earth's atmosphere; a decade later an American astronaut lowered himself to the lunar surface....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Jan 14, 2004

New year musing of a 'pottery poet'

As this is the first Ceramic Scene of 2004, I'd like to wish all readers a Happy and Healthy New Year!
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 13, 2004

Forensic science fiction

We periodically hear from nationalists about Japan's distinctiveness -- how "Japaneseness" is a matter of "race" and "blood," not citizenship or culture. This is usually disregarded as mere unscientific sentiment from fringe elements.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 9, 2004

Morioka vs. Major League Baseball: Not a pretty picture

In the beginning it seemed like a dream, the opportunity of a lifetime, but it ended up being more like a nightmare.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 8, 2004

Corporate America's attack on common sense

Common sense may keep us out of harm's way and save us from terminally bad deciEsions, but a recently leaked chemical-industry memo inEsists that common sense is bad for business. Elsewhere in the corporate sector, too, common sense is increasingly seen as a dogged nuisance that hinders mindless conEsumption...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 6, 2004

Mobile phone giants strive for pre-eminence in 3G market

Anticipating that third-generation services will dominate the mobile phone market within a few years, NTT DoCoMo Inc., KDDI Corp., and Vodafone K.K. are rolling out new handsets with a range of advanced 3G functions.
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2004

Golf courses and gardens may be added to CO2 calculation

Japan may include golf courses and gardens in residential and public areas, including those at shrines, in carbon dioxide absorption calculations to meet its goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, Environment Ministry officials said Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 5, 2004

What a liberal/conservative view means

MUNCIE, Indiana -- The new year is a good time to examine current applications and definitions of liberalism and conservatism. Writers to the letters section of newspapers often pen their missives in absolutes with few illustrations of what their ideological pronouncements mean or imply for citizens,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 4, 2004

Innovative dance program aims to shift the balance

In the arena of artistic production, a publicly run performing arts facility on the Sea of Japan coast is issuing a challenge to Tokyo, the nation's center of cultural activity. The Niigata City Performing Arts Center (Ryutopia) has tapped Jo Kanamori, a 29-year-old star dancer and choreographer, to...
COMMENTARY
Jan 4, 2004

No East Asian card too wild

HONOLULU -- The National Intelligence Council, which does strategic analysis for the U.S. government, recently published parts of its "2020 project" (www.cia.gov./nic/NIC_home.html), examining forces that will shape the world through 2020, region by region. The East Asia analysis posits three "broad...
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2004

Gold medal hopefuls air their thoughts, expectations for upcoming Olympics

Here is what the athletes say of their Olympics hopes:
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2004

Tokyo can aid key ally by luring it back into multilateral fold

It is often said that 9/11 has changed the world. Certainly, the world being swayed by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in the wake of that event appears to prove the saying correct.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 1, 2004

Salaryman blues? Don't worry, be happy on less

Few people may think economist Takuro Morinaga and investment guru Robert Kiyosaki have anything in common.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat