Search - culture

 
 
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 13, 2003

Join the club: Today's Japanese fads

THE IMAGE FACTORY: Fads & Fashions in Japan, by Donald Richie, photographs by Roy Garner. London: Reaktion Books, 2003, 176 pp., £14.95 (cloth). Fads and fashions are not, of course, exclusively Japanese. Still, the unself-conscious abandon with which fads and fashions are adopted in Japan assures that...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 12, 2003

'Luxury Travel Show' hits town, aiming for TV

Varun Sharma is tall, handsome, immaculately dressed, and can talk the hind leg off a donkey. He is also a truly gentle man in displaying genuine concern for the bell "boy" at the new Marunouchi Four Seasons, who turned out to be a young woman of such tiny, fragile proportions that he feared for her...
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2003

University reform bills clear Diet

A set of bills to turn national universities into independent administrative institutions next April made it out of the Diet on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2003

Consensus culture hinders missile defense

HONOLULU -- If the Japanese are to build a defense against ballistic missiles, as increasingly seems likely, their main difficulty in making it work will be cultural -- not technical or political -- and will require a revolution in the way they make decisions.
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2003

City's bid to abolish education body stuns ministry

The drastic idea of abolishing a key administrative body put forward recently by a city in Saitama Prefecture has sent shock-waves through those involved in Japan's education system.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 6, 2003

The linden city turns over a new leaf

LEIPZIG, Germany -- German cities, even the larger ones, are associated with -- among other things German -- linden trees. In addition to the memory of Frankfurt's linden-lined streets, I remember a joyous summer evening in the city a few years ago when I had supper out in the courtyard of a local restaurant,...
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2003

Firms send science experts to schools to spur kids' interest

Although concerns are mounting about children's lack of interest in the physical sciences, classes in which companies send employees to conduct experiments at elementary and junior high schools are proving popular.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2003

Computer use up in schools, but over year tardy

Nearly all public schools in Japan are connected to the Internet, and 58 percent of these have their own Web site, it was learned Friday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Jul 3, 2003

Learning firsthand about rice cultivation

I have new respect for the rainy season. I used to hate tsuyu, these dreary weeks of drizzle. But now that I'm a farmer, I see the value of so much rain. I'm farming a bucket of rice on my balcony and can't keep up with the watering.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 2, 2003

On a director's storyboard far, far away

Is there a person in the Western world -- or even globally, given Hollywood's cultural reach -- who is unaware of "Star Wars"? In a society increasingly described as amnesiac, in which pop culture seems to come with an expiry date, George Lucas' movie trilogy (now with two -- soon to be three -- "prequels")...
BUSINESS
Jul 1, 2003

Insurance chief says no progress on terror fund

No progress has been made in talks to obtain government assistance to set up a pool of funds to help insure businesses against potential terrorist attacks, the newly appointed chairman of the Marine and Fire Insurance Association of Japan said Monday during his first news conference as the industry head....
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jun 30, 2003

Devolution trinity needs more than a moniker to succeed

Fewer subsidies, less transfers, more taxing power. Thus goes Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's "trinity" of local government reforms.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 29, 2003

The poetry and power of rock 'n' roll

For an artist as personal as Patti Smith, who once told an interviewer that it wasn't difficult to leave "the limelight and the applause" at the height of her popularity as a rock singer to become a full-time wife and mother, she certainly seems to derive a great deal of spiritual sustenance from direct...
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2003

Deep-sea germs useful in drugs

Bacteria that are effective in treating atopic dermatitis and other skin conditions have been discovered more than 10,000 meters under the sea.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2003

Japan-Europe venture aims to land humanity's first probe on Mercury

Japan and the European Space Agency are planning a joint mission that would be the first to land a probe on Mercury, a government official said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2003

Japan-Europe venture aims to land humanity's first probe on Mercury

Japan and the European Space Agency are planning a joint mission that would be the first to land a probe on Mercury, a government official said Wednesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 26, 2003

Shrimp farms: pawns in ecosystem destruction

Look just about anywhere in Japan and you'll find prawns. Fried, boiled, baked, frozen and fresh, they fill acres of shelves in department stores and supermarkets and are staples in sushi and tempura shops -- as well as being found in even the most unlikely bowl of noodles.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2003

Japan-Europe venture aims to land humanity's first probe on Mercury

Japan and the European Space Agency are planning a joint mission that would be the first to land a probe on Mercury, a government official said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2003

Decontrols seen leading to tuition hike

Roughly half of 92 national university presidents predict some form of tuition hike after their schools become independent administrative institutions in fiscal 2004 and are allowed to determine how much they will charge students, according to a Kyodo News survey.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2003

Nissan tries to hone the right environment

Just like corporate employees, young people need to be given a proper environment so they can realize their potential, Nissan Motor Co. President Carlos Ghosn said Monday at a ceremony for scholarship recipients.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 22, 2003

Evil war crims had it cushy

From behind a wooden lectern in Princeton University's Department of East Asian Studies last month, 85-year-old Tokio Tobita, a Japanese World War II veteran and convicted war criminal who served 10 years in Sugamo Prison, surveyed the intently focused faces of scholars, artists, students, American war...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 22, 2003

Singing the praises of soy

The telephone rang, and food-culture historian Hisao Nagayama, an advocate of the Japanese soy bean diet, excused himself from the interview and left his seat to take the call.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FRONT-RUNNERS
Jun 17, 2003

Kao cashes in on the golden elixir of weight loss

How can a soap-and-cosmetics maker succeed in selling a cooking oil at twice the price of its competitors in this time of economic belt-tightening?
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jun 16, 2003

St. Petersburg may rule again

MOSCOW -- St. Petersburg, the former capital of Russia, has turned 300. Founded in a Baltic swamp at a frightening cost by the only outstanding Romanov reformer, Czar Peter the Great, it remains the architectural wonder of the nation. The "Venice of the North," as St. Petersburg was labeled in the 18th...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jun 15, 2003

Life, in 22 million forms, in a bottle

Goggling out of its jar with dead, bulbous eyes, stained a ghastly yellow by its embalming alcohol, is a mutated octopus. Just behind it is another octopus, also in a jar. To its left is a bottled shoal of sea bass.
COMMENTARY
Jun 15, 2003

'Propaganda' effort reflects U.S. image

HANOI -- I just wrapped up a 10-day speaking tour for the U.S. State Department after participating in the department's Public Diplomacy (PD) program, which sends folks to speak to universities, think tanks and public forums. The trip took me to the Russian Far East (Vladivostok and Sakhalin) and Hanoi,...
BUSINESS
Jun 14, 2003

Manufacturing ties eyed with ASEAN, China

Japan should share manufacturing roles with China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations by capitalizing on the advantages of each region, the government said in a white paper on foundations for production released Friday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 14, 2003

Swallowing hook, line and endoscope

I am not squeamish by nature.

Longform

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