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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
May 5, 2002

Now is the season to indulge your shellfish gene

For thousands of years, populations living close to the sea have found shellfish an easily obtainable and convenient source of protein and trace minerals. Shellfish is the general term for crustaceans (shrimp, crab, lobster) and mollusks (clams, oysters, squid and octopuses). All of these shellfish (kokakurui...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 5, 2002

Memories are made of this

TOKYO CENTRAL: A Memoir, by Edward Seidensticker. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002, 256 pp. with b/w photographs, XXXVI. $30 (cloth) Translator extraordinaire, historian and beloved pedagogue, Edward Seidensticker has given us the definitive English versions of "The Tale of Genji" and the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 5, 2002

Live and learn and learn

Swimming. Piano. English conversation.
COMMUNITY
May 5, 2002

A plastic menagerie for kids of all ages

"Instead of only children, we started to think about what we could sell to people in their 30s, 40s or 50s."
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 5, 2002

When the people put pen to paper

DEAR GENERAL MACARTHUR: Letters From the Japanese During the American Occupation, by Sodei Rinjiro. Rowman & Littlefield; Lanham, Maryland, 2001, 306 pp., $29.95 (cloth) It boggles the mind that Gen. Douglas MacArthur received some 500,000 letters from Japanese from all walks of life during his tenure...
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2002

Why it must be Bush vs. Gore in 2004

NEW YORK -- It is impossible to overstate the importance of tossing U.S. President George W. Bush back onto the unemployment lines in 2004. His illegitimate presidency isn't even half-over, yet Bush's disreputable Cabinet of tin-pot gangsters has already succeeded in causing irreparable harm to our great...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 5, 2002

Straight from Tsukiji to Harajuku

What's the difference between an izakaya and a restaurant? Often very little, if the izakaya in question serves good food and comports itself with a degree of sophistication. Perhaps the best yardstick is the noise level. The louder the conversation and more voluble the pleasure, the less likely a place...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 5, 2002

Fighting society's evils: illegal bicycle parking

As social problems go, illegally parked bicycles probably rank relatively low, somewhere between sex service advertisements in phone booths and public urination. But the problem has become so intractable in certain areas that local administrations have resorted to ever more desperate moves in response...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 5, 2002

Girl, you'll be Madonna soon

It's no surprise that the mums have turned out in force to chaperone their kids at Britney Spears' show at Tokyo Dome: They've seen her recent, more raunchy videos, witnessed her fondling a huge snake during her performance at the MTV video awards and noticed that on her third and latest album, "Britney,"...
COMMENTARY / World
May 4, 2002

No end in sight to China's banking woes

While Japan's recession and its wobbly banks distract much of the world, the banking sector in China is in much worse shape. Xinhua News Agency has reported that central bank governor Dai Xianglong admits that nonperforming loans (NPLs) account for 26.6 percent of total lending by China's top four state-owned...
EDITORIALS
May 4, 2002

The general wins his vote

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has won overwhelming endorsement for five more years in office. The government claims that the vote gives the regime, which seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, a democratic stamp of approval. It does not: The election offers a veneer of legitimacy to a usurper....
JAPAN
May 4, 2002

Old habits die hard, especially group pressure to chug the ale

NARA -- Since the days of Prince Shotoku in the early seventh century, Japanese have been encouraged to respect "wa," or harmony in a group.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 4, 2002

Kita the hero again in win for Marines

Lotte rookie Takashi Kita drove home the game-winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning to lift the Lotte Marines over the Seibu Lions 4-3 at Chiba Marine Stadium on Friday.
JAPAN
May 4, 2002

Tide turns against Koizumi as voters give up hope: poll

More people disapprove of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet than those who approve of it for the first time since the Cabinet's inauguration last April, according to the results of a Kyodo News telephone poll.
JAPAN
May 4, 2002

Rallies held for, against change to Constitution

Groups for and against a revision of the Constitution held rallies Friday in Tokyo to mark the 55th anniversary of the supreme charter.
JAPAN
May 4, 2002

Tokyo execs disappear with chunk of firm's cash

Executives of a Tokyo-based company that sells health food products and promises to help clients set up their own health food business have gone into hiding, taking with them several billion yen of company funds, according to sources close to the case.
BUSINESS
May 4, 2002

Japan, France to start full-scale pension talks

Japan and France will launch full-scale negotiations as early as the fall on the conclusion of a social welfare pact, government sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
May 4, 2002

52% of firms expect October-March upturn

Some 52 percent of major companies expect an economic upturn in the latter half of the current business year, according to a recent survey by Kyodo News released Friday.
SOCCER / J. League
May 4, 2002

Jubilo holds onto lead

IWATA, Shizuoka Pref. -- Jubilo Iwata went down to 10 men but managed to draw 0-0 with Kashiwa Reysol at home in Group A action of the Nabisco Cup on Friday.
BUSINESS
May 4, 2002

Snow Brand Milk drafts austere rehab plan

Struggling dairy product maker Snow Brand Milk Products Co. has drafted a rehabilitation program that features a 90 percent reduction in capital and financial assistance from major creditor banks, sources close to the program said Friday.
BUSINESS
May 4, 2002

Pursuit of FTAs vital but troublesome

Last month, leading brewer Asahi Breweries Ltd. began shipping its Super Dry beer to Singapore from Japan, instead of from its facilities in China.

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’