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JAPAN
Aug 1, 2001

Producer promotes Asian women singers

Chika Asamoto is a professional saxophonist in her own right but nowadays she works chiefly as a producer to promote talented Asian female singers.
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
Jul 23, 2001

Seek justice, not provocation

China has reacted strongly to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's announcement that he will visit Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 15, Japan's anniversary of the end of World War II. Coupled with the history textbook issue, the statement has again unsettled Tokyo's relations with Beijing.
COMMUNITY
Jul 22, 2001

When we had heroes

They were voices in the silence, stars in the night they showed the way and they showed what was right
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2001

Foreign Ministry troubles exact a high toll

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- It is with hesitation that I write about the current imbroglio involving the Foreign Ministry. First, this is a matter for the Japanese to sort out. Second, suspicions of partiality may arise, given my diplomatic background. But in spite of these valid points, I humbly put forward...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 22, 2001

It's not always easy to see yourself as others do

On the face of it, the current controversy over Japanese history textbooks is just one more example of Japan not facing up to its militaristic past. On a deeper level, however, Korea's decision to forgo further liberalization of Japanese cultural imports until the offending texts are revised underscores...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 22, 2001

Cheers and tears for souvenirs

Akihisa Shirota, 36, clearly remembers the evening of Oct. 14, 1974.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jul 19, 2001

Midsummer notes and anecdotes

It was refreshing to see Japan's Shigeki Maruyama notch his first PGA Tour victory last Sunday at the Greater Milwaukee Open. Maruyama, one of the most charismatic and likable of any of the nation's professional athletes who play overseas, put an end to a miserable streak by Japanese golfers on the U.S....
COMMENTARY
Jul 16, 2001

Just concerns over jurisdiction

LONDON -- In the light of the recent rape case in Okinawa, I have some sympathy for the Japanese wish to extend further their rights to exercise full criminal jurisdiction in cases involving American forces in Japan. The American authorities need to understand the historical background to Japanese sensitivities...
COMMUNITY
Jul 15, 2001

A potter's journey

The late potter Michiaki Kaneshige said that even though he grew up in an ancient potting family, he never fully understood the value of Japanese culture until he left these shores.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 15, 2001

Comic ambassadors

A rather naive man decides to nip off to Hokkaido to enjoy the Sapporo Snow Festival without booking a place to stay. Wandering the snowy streets, he eventually comes across a solution to his problem -- a love hotel.
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 12, 2001

Is the world prepared to deal with the global economic downturn?

Economic policymakers must stand ready to take timely and decisive actions when incoming information suggests that the economy is most likely to significantly deviate from the targeted course for a sustained period. And in the uncertain world in which we live, they have to deal with both upside and downside...
MORE SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jul 12, 2001

New dawn for Mukai and his merry men

In 1999, the year of the last Rugby World Cup, Japan won the Pacific Rim Championship, recording a 37-34 victory over Samoa along the way. At the time many thought the victory marked the re-birth of Japanese rugby, and there was talk of Japan reaching the quarterfinals of the World Cup. Sadly, that was...
MORE SPORTS
Jul 10, 2001

Fiji captures Pacific Rim rugby title

Fiji's rugby team showed that any internal problems were behind it, when it beat Samoa 28-17, in the final of the Pacific Rim Championship on Sunday at Tokyo's Chichibunomiya Stadium.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 8, 2001

Fashioning jewels of enlightenment

KATMANDU -- Suman Ratna Dhakawa spills a tray of rings onto a bench and runs his fingers through the mass of metal as if it were a liquid. "My family all have been jewelry-makers, craftsmen or artists," says Dhakawa. "I have jewelry-making in my blood."
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2001

The Japanese Constitution gets a provocative look

FIVE DECADES OF CONSTITUTIONALISM IN JAPANESE SOCIETY, edited by Yoshio Higuchi. University of Tokyo Press, 2001, 368 pp., 8,000 yen. A major stumbling block for Japan on its road to becoming a more influential member of the global community has been a profound absence of voice. Japanese politicians,...
MORE SPORTS
Jul 6, 2001

Fiji, Samoa to contest rugby final

Fiji and its Pacific rival Samoa will play the final of the Epsom Cup/Pacific Rim rugby championship following victories in their respective semifinals at Tokyo Stadium on Wednesday. Fiji won the first game, overcoming Canada 52-23, while Samoa beat host Japan 47-8, to move both island sides into the...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2001

Life improving for Russian residents of the disputed Northern Territories

KURILSK, Russia -- After a time of neglect, the federal and local government are investing more in the economy of the Southern Kurils -- a group of disputed islands governed by Russia but also claimed by Japan. As the life of the islanders is gradually improving, they are less likely to agree to transferring...
EDITORIALS
Jul 3, 2001

A candid meeting at Camp David

There was something refreshing about the Japan-U.S. summit last weekend between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. President George W. Bush -- not only because of the way in which the U.S. managed the meeting at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, but also because, more importantly,...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 1, 2001

Nakasone as No. 1 reformer

JAPANESE EDUCATION REFORM: Nakasone's Legacy, by Christopher P. Hood. London and New York: Sheffield Centre for Japanese Studies/Routledge, 2001. 222 pp., 50 UK pounds (cloth). When neoconservatism was riding high, a leftwing cartoonist drew a pastiche of Edward Hopper's famous painting of a sad roadside...
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2001

Mbeki to get invitation for October visit

Reflecting a recent foreign-policy focus on Africa, Japan plans to invite South African President Thabo Mbeki as a state guest in early October, government sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2001

Summit eyed as launchpad for fresh ties

With Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's first summit with U.S. President George W. Bush to be held Saturday outside Washington D.C., Japan hopes to set in motion full-scale efforts to build fresh ties under the new U.S. administration.
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2001

Firms must pick and choose when pursuing western ways

As Japanese firms seek to adopt more elements of western-style business management practices and ideas, pressure appears to be mounting on corporate executives to increase shareholder value.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jun 28, 2001

Tuffy enjoying a hair-raising season

It's Opening Day 1994 at venerable Wrigley Field in Chicago. You're playing for the hometown Cubs and facing Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets, one of the premier power pitchers in Major League Baseball. By the end of the day, you'll have have homered in your first three at-bats of the season and added...
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2001

Cuban dancer teaches salsa to promote cultural exchange

Swinging in from half a world away, Alberto Romay, a Cuban dance instructor based in Tokyo, is bringing a taste of the Caribbean country's culture closer to the people of Japan.
COMMENTARY
Jun 25, 2001

Another blast from Mr. Bix

To more than 80 percent of Japanese voters, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi looks like a populist reformer. But to the American winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction, Koizumi is a "rightwing nationalist."

Longform

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