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Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 11, 2001

Taking things one moment at a time

Monday night, the Nippon TV documentary series "Super TV" (9 p.m.) chronicles the last six months of a man with terminal cancer. Last year, the show's producers received a letter from the man's children, who explained their father's situation and asked them "to record his life right up until the last...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 11, 2001

In praise of Japan's 'Greatest Generation'

Perhaps as a reaction against the excesses of an age of material prosperity and greed, America in recent years has seen a spate of books and movies extolling the so-called Greatest Generation, the quiet men who went off to fight in World War II. Similarly, Japan now has "Project X," a popular NHK-TV...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 11, 2001

Mizoguchi's street of shame

RED-LIGHT DISTRICT, the film by Kenji Mizoguchi, translated and annotated by D.J. Rajakaruna. Colombo: S. Godage & Brothers, 2001. 182 pp., $12.50 (paper) Kenji Mizoguchi's last film, the 1956 "Akasen Chitai" ("Red-Light District," aka "Street of Shame") may not be one of his best pictures but it is...
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2001

Enact extra budget fast, Shiokawa advises Diet

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa on Friday called on the Diet to quickly enact the 3 trillion yen supplementary budget so the government can support the flagging economy while pursuing structural reforms.
BUSINESS
Nov 8, 2001

Shiokawa repeats budget vow

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa reiterated his view Wednesday that it would be ineffective to compile a second supplementary budget to finance pump-priming stimulus measures.
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2001

Surname law now said out of sync

After years of debate and shifting social trends, legislation that would allow Japanese married couples to keep separate surnames may finally hit the Diet floor.
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Nov 7, 2001

Art in the midst of 'iniquity'

I live in Kabukicho -- the infamous tangle of sex clubs and mahjongg parlors located just north of Shinjuku Station's East Exit. There are a number of reasons why I live where I do: the hundreds of wonderful all-night Asian restaurants and supermarkets; the fact that I can walk from my apartment to the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 7, 2001

Putting the regions back in the spotlight

There is cultural life thriving outside Kanto and Kansai. As proof of this, if proof were needed, the new Iwate Museum of Art in Morioka City opened to the public last month. Its core collection -- of 20th-century prints, paintings and sculptures by artists born, trained or resident in the region --...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 7, 2001

Empire State: 'Eternal Combustion'

If necessity is the mother of invention, then boredom is its long-lost uncle. Having grown bored with the present state of indie music, the experimentalist, postrock three-piece Empire State found inspiration by building their own instruments. Dr. Seuss-like contraptions such as "whirling xylo-cans"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 7, 2001

Prints make an impression

"The International Print Triennial in Kanagawa 2001" is running till Nov. 25 at the Kanagawa Kenmin Hall Gallery in Yokohama's Kannai district.
COMMENTARY
Nov 4, 2001

Attacks now an excuse to barbecue pork

WASHINGTON -- Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, it has been said, and never was it more obvious in the United States than in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Rescuers were still searching for bodies from the smoldering rubble when lobbyists descended upon Washington, D.C....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 4, 2001

Charlie Watts Tentet: Nothing but a jazz thing

In the 1960s, The Rolling Stones led the way in forging a rougher, rootsier style of rock out of R&B, '50s rock 'n' roll and Chicago blues. As the band's drummer, Charlie Watts helped set a new standard of rhythmic structure for rock, and his tight, anchoring beat was widely imitated. After that, what's...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 4, 2001

Thrift store retail that wags the dog

WASHINGTON -- Jeanie Naumann, manager of Wagging Tails Thrifts and Gift, says she can hardly believe it herself. It seems she just had to open the store, and the donations, volunteers, customers and profits started rolling in.
JAPAN / JOB JITTERS
Nov 3, 2001

Retirement not always time to relax

The red, blue and green flags of labor unions fluttered in front of the towering headquarters of a major bank in Tokyo's Marunouchi business district in early September as about 200 workers shouted, "The bank ought to carry out its social responsibility" and "We don't forgive the bank for dismissing...
JAPAN / JOB JITTERS
Nov 3, 2001

Retirement not always time to relax

The red, blue and green flags of labor unions fluttered in front of the towering headquarters of a major bank in Tokyo's Marunouchi business district in early September as about 200 workers shouted, "The bank ought to carry out its social responsibility" and "We don't forgive the bank for dismissing...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Oct 31, 2001

Product Placement

Turntablism is the physical part of DJing, the act of slipping records on spindles and manipulating them in whatever configuration inspiration dictates. Some solo turntablists liken themselves to jugglers, which means their craft only has meaning in a live context. DJ Shadow is one of the ablest turntablists...
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2001

Obituaries: Yu Fujiwara / Yoritsune Matsudaira

Yu Fujiwara, a ceramic artist specializing in Bizen stoneware, died Monday morning at an Okayama hospital, his family said. Fujiwara, who had been awarded the status of living national treasure, was 69.
Events
Oct 30, 2001

House of noble poets displays treasures from ancient Japan

KYOTO -- Tucked away near the southeast corner of Doshisha University in Kyoto is the last surviving house of Japanese nobility. Home to the Reizei family, it is now occupied by 54-year-old Kimiko Reizei and her husband, Tamehito, head of Tamao Kai, a school that teaches traditional "waka" poetry.
COMMUNITY
Oct 28, 2001

Kyushu's hoard of the purest gold

Down, down, down; bouncing down rock tunnels blasted through the innards of a mountain in the south of Kyushu. Steeply down, left and right and left again until, 225 meters below the mine's entrance, the heat builds up, the sulfur smell gets stronger and the certainty mounts that, alone, the chances...
JAPAN
Oct 28, 2001

'Linguistic chameleon' novelist finds a voice in Japanese

Novelist David Zoppetti describes himself as a linguistic chameleon when he changes personality according to the language he speaks.
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2001

Technology aids creation of new peace activism

Helmets, chanted slogans and clashes with police -- a common scene in Japan during demonstrations against the Vietnam War. Those days may be long gone, but after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States a new style of peace activism using the Internet and other technology has quietly been created....
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2001

Move to change electoral system decried

A move by the ruling bloc to partially change the House of Representatives electoral system has been widely criticized as a political compromise by the Liberal Democratic Party to please coalition partner New Komeito.
JAPAN / INTERNATIONAL RATIONALE
Oct 25, 2001

Foreign equity funds' ways changing face of Japan Inc.

When hunting for a company to buy out, Kenji Ueda doesn't wait to be introduced. The Ripplewood Holdings LLC executive director makes his phone calls cold.
CULTURE / Art
Oct 24, 2001

The sublime city and state of mind

Art history, like the military kind, is written by the victors. Thus Florentine Giorgio Vasari's encyclopedic "Lives of the Artists," published in 1550, is a propagandist's account of his home city's starring role in the artistic and intellectual phenomenon we now call the Renaissance.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 23, 2001

Falling for it hook, line and sinker

Autumn is my favorite time of year, and it's also the season for one of my favorite saltwater game fish, the hard-fighting Japanese yellowtail (Seriola quinqueradiata). A member of the jack family, this is the best-known and most widely distributed of three very popular and closely related sport fish...
BUSINESS / ON MANAGEMENT
Oct 23, 2001

Avoid sinking into the comfort zone

There's a common affliction suffered by baseball pitchers and corporate managers alike, a tendency that derails many careers, perversely, just when things couldn't be going any better. It's called "pitching too fine" in baseball, and if you're a fan, you know how heartbreaking it can be.

Longform

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