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COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 11, 2002

Permanent status and foreign driving licences in Japan

Reader AEB from Kyushu writes: "I am single, have lived here in Japan for almost 10 years, and have a stable job. I hope to apply for permanent residency. I heard that you must have lived here for 10 years consecutively, or be married to a Japanese national.
COMMUNITY
Jul 11, 2002

Keep those cards and letters coming, folks

When customers sound off about problems, good companies listen, even in Japan
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jul 10, 2002

The Sept. 11 Care Bear Bunch

Cleveland-born, New York-based Dan Asher lives and works in an East Village apartment/studio. Although the 54-year-old artist didn't actually see the hijacked jetliners crash into the Twin Towers on Sept. 11 last year, he has followed -- with not a little consternation -- the many changes that struck...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2002

Asian trainees keep Kawaguchi's furnaces blasting

After a hard day's work at a blast furnace in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, Vietnamese trainees cheered as they watched a recent World Cup soccer match on TV.
COMMENTARY
Jul 9, 2002

Turmoil after Diet adjourns

The regular Diet session, which was extended in late June for 42 days through the end of July, is entering a critical period. Since it opened in January, the Diet has performed poorly, with a number of key bills still awaiting action.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 9, 2002

Japan's close encounter with the West

'By reading, hearing, and by observation in foreign lands, our people have acquired a general knowledge of constitutions, habits and manners as they exist in most foreign countries. . . . Japan cannot claim originality as yet, but it will aim to exercise practical wisdom by adopting the advantages, and...
COMMENTARY
Jul 8, 2002

Erosion of respect for sweat

Few doubt that the scholastic abilities of young Japanese, from grade school children to university students, have declined markedly. Some critics blame the problem on the system of "yutori kyoiku" ("relaxed education") introduced in Japanese public schools; others blame the nation's declining birthrate....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 7, 2002

Violinist who plays off the scale

Most people expect the kind of music played on a violin to be classical. Unless they're listening to internationally known violinist and composer Taro Hakase, that is, whose violin demonstrates melodies that can't be easily pigeonholed into any one musical category.
COMMUNITY
Jul 7, 2002

Until we meet again

For as long as men and women have looked at the stars, they have read in the distant constellations stories of life close to home, filling the sky with maidens and monsters, lovers and heroes, hunters and beasts.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
Jul 6, 2002

Everyone's a winner at Tokyo sports gallery

One of most heart-warming memories of the soccer World Cup will be the rival players exchanging their shirts after each game.
SOCCER / J. League
Jul 4, 2002

Antlers adviser tabbed to head J. League

Special adviser to Division One side Kashima Antlers Masaru Suzuki has informally been tabbed as the new chairman of the J. League, soccer sources said Tuesday.
Japan Times
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE EXTRA
Jul 4, 2002

Henry, Horan sing praises of Japanese rugby

The Japan rugby team has, particularly in the last 30 years, had a number of false dawns. The 1970s saw it lose narrowly to England (6-3 in 1971 and 21-19 in 1979); the 1980s saw it lose to Wales 29-24 in 1983 and beat a weakened Scotland team 28-24 in 1989, and in 1999 it beat Samoa 37-34 to win the...
LIFE / Digital
Jul 4, 2002

The Simpsons on DVD -- hi-fi Americana

Fox Home Video has just released "The Simpsons Season Two DVD Collection." If you have not heard of the Simpsons, you have a little catching up to do.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2002

Koizumi backs Kim's stance on shootout

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday told South Korean President Kim Dae Jung that he supports his demand that North Korea apologize for starting the recent maritime shootout near their border in the Yellow Sea.
JAPAN
Jul 1, 2002

Euthanasia doctor defends actions

A doctor accused of performing unlawful euthanasia defended her actions as ones of conscience in a recent interview with Kyodo News.
COMMENTARY
Jun 30, 2002

Tollgate mentality in Japan

Straddling the Keiyo Expressway linking Tokyo and Chiba is the Funabashi tollgate. A long row of booths collects a 200 yen toll from most drivers. Perennial jams at the tollgate have long caused frustration to me and others heading toward Chiba. People late for planes at Narita suffer even more.
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Jun 30, 2002

Pioneer industrial designer creates folk crafts for the ages

The roots of Sori Yanagi, a pioneer of Japanese industrial design, lie in folk craft. The fusion of two seemingly opposite factors — the modern and traditional — makes his designs unique, yet surprisingly simple and attractive.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jun 30, 2002

Spice it up, with a little or a lot of heat

Globally the most common spice or flavor-enhancing element used today is the chili pepper. Chilies are used raw, cooked or pickled as a vegetable or dried (ground into a powder or reconstituted) as a seasoning in almost every corner of the world. There are thousands of varieties of chili peppers employed...
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2002

World Cup home-stay program hailed as success

The 2002 FIFA World Cup, which comes to a close Sunday, offered local municipalities throughout Japan an opportunity to hold various exchange programs with visitors from in and out of the country during the one-month event.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 30, 2002

Even a sultan would approve

No matter their relative prowess on the soccer field, there can be no disputing which of the nations that reached the semifinal of the World Cup would deserve to be champions, were the title decided on culinary merit alone. With all respect to the gastronomy of Germany, Brazil and South Korea, none can...
COMMENTARY
Jun 29, 2002

A dangerous new doctrine

LONDON -- "I will not wait on events while dangers gather." Thus speaks U.S. President George W. Bush -- and in doing so appears to state, in plain and simple language, a revolutionary new doctrine that upends five decades of thinking about global security.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 27, 2002

Newshungry TV viewers fighting for English service

To start off, we have a request from "Friends of Foxnews," who are working to keep Foxnews, the up and coming challenge to CNN and BBC and the only non-edited English language news program on SkyPerfecTV here in Japan.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 27, 2002

Japan's farmers start to go green

Hardly a week goes by without the emergence of some new scandal in the Japanese food industry. But whether it's the use of illegal additives or the mislabeling of imported meat as domestic, the outcome is the same: further breakdown in trust between consumers and the farmers and companies involved in...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jun 26, 2002

Stanley Smith: 'In the Land of Dreams'

These whiskey-voiced songs of riverboats, New Orleans nights and past loves will speak to you like mellow old friends. None will blow you away the first time through, but many will replay themselves in your head long after you've turned the CD off.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jun 26, 2002

Photo selection offers the whole picture

Before World Cup events kicked off in Japan, there were distressing media reports of how hotels planned to refuse service to foreigners; and of stadium-area restaurants and bars intending to close their doors on game days, from fear of furigan (hooligans).
BUSINESS / ON MANAGEMENT
Jun 25, 2002

Nosy bosses foul up

Every CEO needs to know how to strike a balance between staying aloof from the nitty-gritty of his company's operations and getting too involved in the day-to-day details of those employees and divisions far from the corner office.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jun 24, 2002

U.S. lessons Japan may prefer to skip

NEW YORK -- Americans love to learn and teach lessons. The Japanese love to seek and accept them.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 23, 2002

The nature of the Zen mind

Zen gardens, those wonderful treasures of Japan, can be enjoyed in several ways: as pure abstract works of art; as representations of Zen principles; or as tools to transport one's mind from the cares of everyday life to a higher state of consciousness.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 23, 2002

Overcoming the tyranny of distance

TREASON BY THE BOOK: Traitors, Conspirators and Guardians of an Emperor, by Jonathan Spence. London: Penguin Books, 2002, 302 pp. 7.99 UK pounds (paper) In his short story "The Great Wall of China," Franz Kafka wonderfully evokes the enormity and complexity of imperial China by describing the travails...

Longform

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