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ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 14, 2002

You win some and you lose some . . .

Ten years ago, on March 12, 1992, this column began its life on these pages. Though it's still "green," when compared with colleagues who have graced The Japan Times for several decades, Our Planet Earth has now appeared more than 245 times.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2002

No alternative to Saudi peace 'vision'

BEIRUT -- There is little new about Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's proposal for full Arab "normalization" with Israel in return for a full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories and the establishment of a Palestine state. A vision more than a plan, it leaves vague or unmentioned potential stumbling...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Mar 11, 2002

Business schools buck international trend

Seventh in a series
COMMUNITY
Mar 10, 2002

Swing your (same sex) partner round and round

The shouts of the caller are heard continuously over the country and western music on the sound system. His words, like magic, control the movements of the dancers on the floor. The dancers are arranged in groups of four couples -- leads and their partners, just as in all square-dancing groups. But in...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 10, 2002

They're simply the bomb

When Ozomatli played on the closing night of Fuji Rock Festival 2000, they emptied out the Red Marquee. The hundreds of safety-pin punks, rag-head ragamuffins, permanent-press mods and glow-stick ravers had disappeared -- last seen following the band. Like a soccer team of drum-toting Pied Pipers, Ozomatli...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2002

Poverty and disease: our deadliest enemies

Consider this: More people died of AIDS on Sept. 11 (and every day since) than died during the terrorist attacks in New York, and over 8,000 people die from diseases every day that are easily preventable by vaccinations.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 9, 2002

Kasit Piromya

It is still early days for the public to note the Thai Food Festival on May 11 and 12. For organizers Team Thailand, however, time is getting short, especially as this year's festival will be double the size of those of the last two years. The festival aims to strengthen the ties between the peoples...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 6, 2002

Ali Hassan Kuban: 'Real Nubian'

Sadly, this third international release from the godfather of Nubian soul, Ali Hassan Kuban, will be his last. Kuban died in June of last year, having spent his life singing and playing his particular brand of raw, earthy, energetic music. Fortunately, "Real Nubian" catches Kuban at the height of his...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 5, 2002

The trauma of unwanted pregnancy

1. Marie's story Only two people know about Marie's abortion. One is her ex-boyfriend, by whom she became pregnant 12 years ago, and one is her husband. Her parents, her brother and her friends know nothing of the fact that as a 19-year-old she took a plane to London from Dublin to terminate her pregnancy....
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2002

Beating the U.N. endgame in Cambodia

CANBERRA -- The U.N. Secretariat's Feb. 8 announcement ending further cooperation with Cambodia on jointly run Khmer Rouge trials has set off a round of international commentary, mostly unfavorable to Cambodia. Here is an attempt to set the record straight, based on reliable public sources.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 3, 2002

Nasty, brutish, and flawed

A SUDDEN RAMPAGE: The Japanese Occupation of Southeast Asia, 1941-1945, by Nicholas Tarling. London: Hurst & Company, 2001, 286 pp., $36 (paper) As a rule, there are few positive accounts in Western literature of Japan's occupation of Southeast Asia during World War II, and this book by Nicholas Tarling...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 2, 2002

Leslie deGiere

While she was still a student at San Francisco State University, Leslie deGiere took a break from lectures and went to London. "I had lived in America my entire life, and wanted to go somewhere else," she said. "I was interested in British history and literature, and decided to spend some time in London....
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 1, 2002

Tempest over headscarves ruffles Singapore's multiracial calm

SINGAPORE -- As the controversy over the prohibition of wearing the Muslim headscarf, the tudung, in public schools in Singapore moves on to the next stage, a cardinal doctrine of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations -- noninterference in the domestic affairs of member countries -- looks set to...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2002

Familiar faces fail to stir French voters

PARIS -- It could happen only in France. The president of the Republic is running for re-election as the opposition candidate while his main challenger is defending the government's record over the past five years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 27, 2002

When the gods come down to earth

Next month, a taste of one of Japan's oldest folk arts comes to Tokyo's National Theater -- a two-day program of Shiiba Kagura, a colorful and profoundly religious dance that hails from a remote region of Kyushu.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 27, 2002

Looking longer and seeing more

If you love art, you probably like nothing more than browsing at an exhibition; then perhaps, enthusing with friends that evening about what you saw. Maybe you even indulge in buying the occasional artwork.
BASEBALL / MLB
Feb 24, 2002

Ex-Orix star Neel in trouble with law

SEOUL -- Disgraced former Orix BlueWave player Troy Neel is making news off the field again.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2002

English in U.S. doesn't need protection

Twenty-six American states have already passed laws declaring English their official language. Iowa wants to make it 27.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2002

Globalization is both a bonus and curse, Nobelist Sen says

Although globalization has produced remarkable opportunities and improvements in the lives of people around the world, there are a number of others who have suffered increased insecurity, according to an Indian scholar who, in 1998, became the first Asian economist to win a Nobel Prize.
EDITORIALS
Feb 22, 2002

His own worst enemy

There are many reasons to object to U.S. President George W. Bush's "axis of evil" comment in his State of the Union address last month. Including Iran in this unholy triumvirate may be the most troubling, since it could undermine elements in that country that have been trying to move Tehran toward some...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2002

Southeast Asia scores its outside players

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Three outside players influence, to various degrees, the destiny of Southeast Asia: the United States, Japan and China. Their influences may intensify or wane over a specific period, depending on the prevailing over- all geopolitical and economic framework. How then can we evaluate...
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2002

Tepco may muscle in on Tohoku power turf

Tokyo Electric Power Co. may submit bids for three electricity retailing contracts in the Tohoku region, threatening to muscle in on Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s territory, industry sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2002

Accused killer Hayashi wins redress

OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court has ordered Shinchosha Co. and its president to pay 6.6 million yen in compensation to Masumi Hayashi, who is on trial for mass murder in a 1998 curry poisoning incident, for running a photo and drawing of her without permission.
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 2002

So little to celebrate

Last Saturday, North Korea celebrated the 60th birthday of "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il, which marked the beginning of four months of festivities. It is hard to imagine what the country is celebrating, apart from survival: The economy is in a mess and shows no sign of improving, and the North Korean government...
BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2002

Officials say Bush gave tacit warning on economy

Economic ministers said Tuesday they understood U.S. President George W. Bush had issued "tacit" calls for Japan to revive its economy during his summit with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2002

Moving beyond the Kashmir problem

MADRAS, India -- Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's recent visit to Washington began with a plea for third-party intervention in Kashmir, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 17, 2002

Let the masses consume

CHINA'S CENTURY: The Awakening of the Next Economic Powerhouse, edited by Lawrence J. Brahm. John Wiley & Sons, 2001, 421 pp., $24.95 (cloth) Pick up an international paper published before Sept. 11, and China is either on the front page or generously featured inside. Not anymore. The rising giant of...
COMMENTARY
Feb 16, 2002

Kim Dae Jung vs. the 'axis of hawks'

SEOUL -- When the political leaders of the United States and South Korea meet, North Korea takes center stage. This preoccupation with the communist regime has a long tradition in U.S.-South Korean relations. Another tradition -- if we may call it that -- is the unvarying effort on both sides to publicly...
EDITORIALS
Feb 13, 2002

Reading between the lines

According to the financial mandarins of the Group of Seven, the global economy has turned the corner. Despite recession in Japan and the United States, the world's leading economies, and the shock created by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the international outlook has improved. The statement released...
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2002

FTC moves raise doubts over Antimonopoly Law

For more than 120 years during the Meiji, Taisho and Showa eras, the government was the primary driving force of the Japanese economy. That changed as the nation entered the Heisei era, as the private sector began to play a public role previously monopolized by the government. This is why the nation...

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