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BUSINESS
Jun 22, 2004

More Japanese turning to black vinegar as healthy pep drink

Drinking black vinegar for its health benefits has become increasingly popular, with sales of the brownish-red brew posting significant growth over the last two years.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 19, 2004

Things you must do before leaving Japan

Leaving Japan? Don't. At least not until you've experienced some of these must-do things here:
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 19, 2004

Doom and despair -- worry, worry, everywhere

"If there's one thing I've learned from my life in Japan," I tell my wife over a pot of black coffee, "it's how to worry."
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 6, 2004

"Kaiteki Sumaeru Navi" on TV Tokyo and more

The new series, "Kaiteki Sumaeru Navi (Comfortable Living Navigation)" (TV Tokyo, Monday, 10 p.m.), satisfies its viewers' hunger for information about better residential spaces than the ones they occupy by visiting five gorgeous or unusual private homes. This week's menu:
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 6, 2004

Japan is back to the Stone Age when it comes down to transplants

Is Japan still in the medical Stone Age? A look at American depictions of the medical profession might make you think so. Last Tuesday, NHK had a bunch of celebrities sitting around and rapturously discussing the American hospital soap opera "ER" and its mature take on the physician-patient dynamic....
COMMENTARY
Jun 3, 2004

1-2 punch to modern health

LONDON -- In the "bad old days," tuberculosis and epidemics of infectious diseases were the main killers. In advanced societies today, the No. 1 killers are cardiovascular problems and various forms of cancer. Some of these diseases can be traced to hereditary causes, but lifestyle and environment are...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
May 23, 2004

Should be handled with extreme caution

Violence is in, pop-pickers. You've seen those pictures of those troops whooping it up in Iraqi jails. Violence is clearly fun. It's cool. It basically rocks! Just ask Bush and Rumsfeld. They kicked the whole thing off.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 23, 2004

"Noka no Yome ni Naritai" premiers on NHK and more

The flight of young people from rural areas into big cities seems irreversible. Though the problem is usually discussed in terms of lifestyle choices, the fact is there isn't much money in agriculture and young women don't want to marry farmers.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 1, 2004

The well-heeled, gut-knotting yacht life

I wanted to sail through the Seto Inland Sea as my great-grandfather had done 100 years ago on a U.S. Navy ship. He had kept a diary of his experiences, and I yearned to be a modern great-grandfather like him. I started near the Kii Channel, where he would have entered Osaka Bay, located at 33 degrees...
COMMENTARY
Apr 18, 2004

Death of Deng's triangular relationship

HONG KONG -- One certainty emerges amid the democratic turmoil in Taiwan and Hong Kong and amid the authoritarian turmoil in the higher reaches of the Chinese Communist Party, which is skilled at concealing its innate factionalism: The triangular relationship between China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, as envisaged...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2004

High-altitude training boosts weight-loss

High-altitude training has been found to be more effective for boosting weight-loss, increasing energy consumption and burning fat than training at sea level.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2004

Hemophiliac targets hepatitis C blunders

A hemophiliac who achieved fame through his dogged fight to make the government accountable for the use of HIV-tainted blood products is picking a fight again, this time over Tokyo's handling of hepatitis C.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Mar 20, 2004

Back to the future in Russia

MOSCOW -- The outcome of Russia's presidential elections was known long before the polls opened March 14. President Vladimir Putin had successfully marginalized the opposition by placing mass media under state control and exiling tycoons who were supplying opposition groups with donations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 14, 2004

The evening still young for Rickie Lee

In the CD booklet of her new album, Ani DiFranco says that "art is activism" and therefore it's pointless to try and distinguish them in terms of their effect on each other. But political engagement can often have a stultifying effect on an artist's work. It's easy to fall back on platitudes when trying...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 12, 2004

Toyota trumpets walking robots

Toyota Motor Corp. unveiled four humanoid robot prototypes Thursday, some of which can walk and play the trumpet.
Japan Times
Features
Mar 7, 2004

We've seen the future of wine, and she's called Bridget Jones

Was it really only 1995 when Bridget Jones chainsmoked her way through the first of many glasses of Chardonnay?
COMMENTARY
Mar 1, 2004

Asian tale of two technologies

MANILA -- Media developments influence not only our private lives, but also affect the way our societies and politics are organized. Before coming to the Philippines two years ago, I spent nearly six years in South Korea. In both countries, I observed the impact of media on political and social developments....
Japan Times
Features
Feb 29, 2004

Pooch paradise

A dog's life in Japan can be about as close to canine heaven on earth as it gets.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 26, 2004

Getting underneath the language of skin

"Obsessed" is probably the right word to describe the Japanese's woman's relationship with her hada (skin). From her earliest years, she is exhorted by her elders to look after her skin -- scrub, cleanse, moisturize -- to achieve that tsuru-tsuru (polished) texture and shittori (moist) feel. If a young...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 22, 2004

A first step to understanding the homeless

The mayor of Kawasaki, Takao Abe, is currently under attack from a group of city residents who don't want a planned homeless shelter put in their neighborhood. Last month, Abe rejected the residents' request for a meeting to hear his explanation of why a disused chemical factory in the Tsutsumine district...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 22, 2004

The Great White Yonder: Japan's 'Siberia'

Once upon a time, there was a chilly little town by the sea. It had ice and snow to spare, but not a single winter resort facility. Its fading downtown managed to be both antiquated and charmless. Fishing, once the lifeblood of the town, had seen its best days, and for every new inhabitant, more than...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 12, 2004

To run, or not to run, the race issue

Last year, when Californians had to choose between Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger and incumbent Democrat Gray Davis to be their governor, they also had to vote on another divisive issue: Proposition 54. This law, the so-called Racial Privacy Initiative, sought to ban the state collection of information...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2004

Diet curbs smoking in line with beefed-up health law

The Diet enacted a law last year to protect people from lifestyle-related illnesses, including cancer and other diseases caused by passive smoking, and now lawmakers have taken steps to protect themselves, removing all ashtrays from around the plenary chambers of both houses.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 1, 2004

Speaking out from the streets

Diana was born in Santa Marta, Colombia, in 1973, the third of four children. Her father was an electrician who worked on construction projects that often took him away from the family for months at a time. There wasn't much money in the house, but all the children went to school -- their sharp-tongued...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 1, 2004

Japanese Mafia struggles

THE JAPANESE MAFIA: Yakuza, Law and the State, by Peter B.E. Hill. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, 323 pp., $35 (cloth). In this superb book Peter Hill challenges prevailing interpretations of the yakuza and, in doing so, explores the pathology and dynamism of contemporary Japan. He dismisses...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 31, 2004

Preconceptions on Japan expats go out window

When Gwyneth Merner asked if she could interview me for her Division 3 thesis, we struck a deal: She could talk to me if I could talk to her. Now we are in her father's home overlooking Sagami Bay, and she is getting to know what it feels like to be on the other side of the table, so to speak.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2004

Mad cow disease: a blessing in disguise

Mankind's history is rife with examples of natural phenomena radically changing its existence, the ice ages and small pox to name two. HIV has had a profound effect on sexual behavior the world over. Now, a mysterious protein -- a prion -- is about to change the eating habits of many people in the West...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 25, 2004

Happy Ko-Edo exile

Midori Fujii calls herself a "cityscape exile."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 25, 2004

Japan's culture dictates: Thou shalt eat meat

On Jan. 15, the animal rights organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, announced that CBS had refused to accept a 30-second TV spot from the group for the network's Feb. 1 Super Bowl broadcast. CBS explained that its policy is not to accept "advocacy advertisements." PETA, which would...
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2004

Japanese food is healthiest, and chew it, Japanese doctors say

Doctors and specialists believe people should eat more traditional Japanese meals with rice as the main staple, to safeguard against lifestyle-related illnesses.

Longform

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