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ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 23, 2004

Good stuff, people and advice on how to tailor your consumption

It's back-to-school time again, and whether you are going back, sending your child off, or just getting swept up in the streams of backpack-wielding kids, change is in the air. Time for new books, new people and new gossip, and time to clear the desk even if only for a place to rest your head.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 22, 2004

And in the tattered black tights, Papa

Backdrop Papa Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Toshio Lee Running time: 98 minutes Language: Japanese Opens Oct. 8 [See Japan Times movie listings] Boys want their fathers to be heroes. Men want to be heroes to their sons. These truisms sound old-fashioned in today's unheroic Tokyo,...
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2004

'Fat liberation' movement declares war

WASHINGTON -- Another civil-rights movement is stirring in America. A "fat liberation" movement. Complains Marilyn Wann of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, "We're living in the middle of a witch hunt."
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2004

Curb spread of WMD in U.S.

LONDON -- The failure of Congress to renew a 10-year ban on the sale of assault rifles and other dangerous weapons may seem to politicians a simple price to pay to win the support of the National Rifle Association in the forthcoming presidential election.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 19, 2004

Unexpected tales of the quotidian

A VIEW FROM THE CHUO LINE AND OTHER STORIES, by Donald Richie. Tokyo: Printed Matter Press, 2004, 127 pp., 1,500 yen (paper). And what a captivating view it is. Here are 27 short stories set in Japan -- elegantly minimalist musings on society, humanity and relationships. Perfect for train reading, some...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 19, 2004

9/11 conspiracy theories enthrall Japanese audiences

Only three years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, American mainstream media are providing scant coverage of ceremonies to mark the tragedy, according to Japanese reporter Akihiko Reizei on the Internet news service Japan Mail Media. A resident of New Jersey, Reizei said that unlike the...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 18, 2004

The perfect touch for fall: Christmas

Every eight years, our neighborhood has "matsuri toban," or festival duty, which means we are in charge of all the island festivals for the year. One house within that neighborhood volunteers to set up decorations, receive guests at festival times and host the Shinto gods for the year.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Sep 17, 2004

Chance of player strike increases

The first strike in the history of Japanese baseball looked increasingly likely Thursday after representatives of the country's professional baseball teams ruled out a key player demand.
EDITORIALS
Sep 16, 2004

UNSC quest raises questions

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly later this month, will express Japan's desire to become a permanent member of the Security Council. There is almost unanimous agreement that Japan should play a larger international role. This does not necessarily mean,...
EDITORIALS
Sep 14, 2004

Breaking the cycle of terrorism

Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the world is not safer and the war on terrorism appears to be getting harder to win, no matter what U.S. President George W. Bush says. The proliferation of terrorist attacks is a fact of life no one can disregard. It is time for the international community to...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 12, 2004

"Pitanko Kankan" on TBS and more

One reason Iraq has fallen into chaos following the U.S. invasion is that it was never much of a unified state in the first place. In fact, it has only been a country since 1920. On Wednesday at 9:15 p.m., NHK-G helps explain how Iraq came to be through the story of Thomas Edward Lawrence, better known...
EDITORIALS
Sep 9, 2004

Mr. Anwar returns

I n a surprise move, Malaysia's Supreme Court has reversed a conviction of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and set him free. The decision is yet another indication of the differences between Prime Minister Abdullah Bedawi and his predecessor, Mr. Mahathir Mohamad. It is too early to say whether...
COMMENTARY
Sep 9, 2004

Seoul is not the proliferator

LOS ANGELES -- Fundamentally, as they tend to say in particle physics, the big brouhaha over the secret South Korean uranium-enrichment experiment is an absurdity.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Sep 6, 2004

Presidential race promises to be a thriller

WASHINGTON -- In polling completed just as the Republican National Convention convened, the two candidates continued to run neck and neck. The result was a slight gain for President George W. Bush and a disappointment for his challenger, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. (Kerry had gotten a bit of a bounce...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Sep 6, 2004

End-of-summer thoughts

"The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved" (Jeremiah 8:22).
CULTURE / Music
Sep 5, 2004

Russian pays tribute to music of motherland

Novelist Leo Tolstoy, poet and novelist Boris Pasternak, dance impresario Sergei Diaghilev and choreographer George Balanchine were all distinguished Russians in their own fields. Although they lived in different times, they are bound together by their deep love for music.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 4, 2004

Elizabeth Gardiner

KEELE, England -- The university in Keele in the English Midlands is only 42 years old. Before 1962, it was the University of North Staffordshire, itself a youthful, postwar institution. The programs put into place at the University of Keele turned away from specialized single degrees in favor of bridging...
COMMENTARY
Sep 4, 2004

China favored in cross-strait tug-of-war

HONG KONG -- When Singapore's then Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong visited Taiwan in July on what was described as a "private and unofficial" trip, China reacted angrily. Among other things, it canceled a visit by its top banker to Singapore and warned darkly of "grave consequences" for which "the...
EDITORIALS
Sep 3, 2004

Sparing banks without spoiling them

For all practical purposes, big banks in Japan have turned the corner in their efforts to clean up their bad loans. For small and medium-size banks, though, no light is yet visible at the end of the tunnel. With caps on deposit insurance due to be fully reinstated next April, smaller lenders have no...
EDITORIALS
Sep 2, 2004

DPJ must shed turf mentality

Mr. Katsuya Okada, president of the Democratic Party of Japan, secured a second term as head of the largest opposition party Monday, the deadline for filing candidacies for president. Since Mr. Okada is the only candidate, he will be formally re-elected without a vote on Sept. 13. That's to be expected,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 2, 2004

"A Gathering Light," "The Coldest Day in the Zoo"

"A Gathering Light," Jennifer Donnelly, Bloomsbury; 2004; 383 pp. "Tell the truth!" It's not just children who get that all the time: Writers do, too. The only difference is that writers don't have to treat the truth too literally, as Jennifer Donnelly shows us in "A Gathering Light."
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2004

Koizumi under pressure to raise consumption tax

With the government unable to find further effective ways to cut expenditures, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's goal of reconstructing government finances is facing a crucial test.
EDITORIALS
Aug 31, 2004

Medal bonanza was not a fluke

The performance of Japanese athletes at the Athens Olympics came as nothing less than spectacular for their compatriots.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 31, 2004

'I want to clear my name and the name of my country'

One morning Islam Mohamed Himu woke up to find the Japanese media camped outside his home, and plainclothes police officers banging on his front door.
COMMENTARY
Aug 31, 2004

Feeling the enemy's breath

LONDON -- The Americans are going home. Or, to be more precise, after more than 60 years, 70,000 American military personnel are to be gradually withdrawn from the European arena. Since the present number of American troops under "European command" is 116,000, this will leave in the longer term between...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2004

Okada assured of return to DPJ helm

Katsuya Okada was assured of re-election as president of the Democratic Party of Japan on Monday after no one stepped forward to challenge him.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Aug 30, 2004

Financial-sector shakedown afoot

Amid close scrutiny both in Japan and abroad, the integration of Japan's major banks is progressing at a rapid pace -- and triggering unprecedented legal battles in the process.

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