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COMMENTARY
Feb 3, 2002

A rare glimpse into the hermit kingdom

Ever since I came to Seoul some 5 1/2 years ago, I had wanted to go to North Korea. Numerous efforts to arrange a visit failed, but just a few days before leaving South Korea for good in early January I received an invitation to join a tour to Kumgangsan, the scenic mountains just north of the Demilitarized...
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2002

Cancer patients' consent sought to study samples

The National Cancer Center has launched a scheme under which it will ask all new patients to given written consent for their blood, tissues or medical records to be used for research, officials at the Tokyo hospital said Saturday.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2002

Kawaguchi, Ivanov plan talks to resolve islands dispute

Japan and Russia agreed Saturday to hold vice-ministerial talks in mid-March in Moscow to discuss the substance of a half century-long territorial dispute over four Russian-held islands off Hokkaido that Japan claims.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2002

Ministry 'cared too much' about Suzuki

The Foreign Ministry should have ignored remarks by a key lawmaker that two nongovernmental organizations be barred from an international conference on Afghan aid, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2002

Koizumi, Bush set to confirm goals during U.S. leader's February visit

Confirming Japan-U.S. cooperation in the fight against terrorism and discussing how to revive Japan's economy will be key issues during U.S. President George W. Bush's visit here later this month, Japan's ambassador to the United States has said in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2002

Mount Fuji slowly getting warmer

Climate change is causing Japan's mountains to warm faster on average than those in other countries, with the summit of Mount Fuji projected to be slightly warmer within half a century, according to the calculations of one expert.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2002

TV anchor aims to set new standards for news reporting

Most television news programs in Japan neglect their responsibility to inform people of what is happening in society by failing to present news in an understandable way.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2002

Koizumi, Ivanov agree on need for peace pact talks

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and visiting Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov have agreed on the need for talks to continue to facilitate the signing of a peace treaty between the two countries, a Foreign Ministry official said.
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2002

New warrant filed in Nichimen scam

OSAKA -- Police served a former civil engineering contractor in Tokyo with a fresh arrest warrant Saturday on suspicion of cheating major trading house Nichimen Corp. out of some 330 million yen.
COMMUNITY
Feb 3, 2002

Of nationhood and identity

Writer Ian Buruma was born in the Netherlands in 1951. He attended university in Japan and has spent a large part of his adult life in Asia. His nonfiction works include "The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and Japan," "Behind the Mask," "A Japanese Mirror" and "Voltaire's Coconuts." Buruma...
COMMENTARY
Feb 3, 2002

Judge Beijing by its deeds

NEW DELHI -- At a time of growing U.S.-Indian strategic engagement, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji's unusually conciliatory tone during his visit to India last week reflected his country's desire to decelerate that process by emphasizing areas of potential Sino-Indian cooperation. China is suddenly signaling...
COMMUNITY
Feb 3, 2002

Sake brewed with a feminine touch

SHIBATA, Niigata Pref. -- Orderly chaos might be a good way to describe the Ichishima Sake Brewery on this bone-chilling January morning.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 3, 2002

A little bit of Martha in every rabbit hutch

Considering the state of the Japanese economy, the current popularity of penny-pinching advice in the media is hardly surprising. There seems to be a fundamental paradox at work here, in that advertisers prefer programs and articles which encourage the spending of money, while the advice given out these...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 3, 2002

Sue Sumii looks back on a life well spent

MY LIFE: Living, Loving and Fighting, by Sue Sumii; interviews by Masuda Reiko, translated by the Ashi Translation Society, with an introduction by Livia Monnet. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 108 pp., $29.95 (paper) Sue Sumii (1902-97) is remembered for the multipart...
COMMUNITY
Feb 3, 2002

The Ponshu-kan: A small taste of heaven in Echigo Yuzawa Station

Echigo Yuzawa Station is a well-trod portal to Niigata's famed snow country, bustling this time of year with the comings and goings of skiers and boarders. But however fine the powder, there's an excellent reason to linger: The Ponshu-kan (Sake Museum) located in the station.
COMMUNITY
Feb 3, 2002

Sake's never been better -- so why the poor business?

Sake is so central to life in these islands that the name of the fermented rice drink is also the Japanese word for all alcoholic drinks.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 3, 2002

Japan makes a profitable connection

THE MOBILE INTERNET: How Japan Dialed Up and the West Disconnected, by Jeffrey Lee Funk. ISI Publications, 2001, 200 pp. $32 (cloth) In the 1970s and '80s, Japanese carmakers flooded world markets with products fresh from factories where workers wore uniforms, sorted parts into brightly colored bins,...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Feb 3, 2002

Clearly making the grade isn't such an easy task

One of the biggest barriers to learning about sake is the terminology used to define the various grades. It is not a simple linguistic matter, as even the average Japanese person, more often than not, does not know specifically to what the terminology refers. These terms were not coined at once, nor...
MORE SPORTS
Feb 3, 2002

Hingis-Seles final in store at Toray Pan Pacific Open

Martina Hingis can't recall the first time she faced Silva Farina Elia of Italy. Not because Hingis lost 6-3, 6-1, but because it happened in 1996 and the current No. 4 player in the world was only 15-years-old.
COMMUNITY
Feb 3, 2002

Whatever gets you through the night

Although aficionados tend to wax lyrical over the taste of their favorite tipples, shochu (a vodka-like spirit distilled from various grains) is always drunk swamped in a variety of mixes.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Feb 3, 2002

Are you ready to roll with the change on 'setsubun no hi'?

Today is arguably one of the strangest holidays to be observed in Japan: setsubun no hi, the turning of the seasons. Parents around the country strap on plastic ogre-masks and hop around the house while their young children pelt them with dried beans, yelling, "Demons out, good luck in." Beans are scattered...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 3, 2002

It's not just who's cast but how they're cast out

A nother milestone in Japan-Korea cultural relations is achieved with the two-part drama special "Friends" (TBS, Monday and Tuesday, 9 p.m.). Japanese idol Kyoko Fukada and Korean heartthrob Wonbin portray a couple who meet in Hong Kong and then strike up a cross-Japan Sea e-mail exchange that turns...
COMMUNITY
Feb 3, 2002

Mix a little something in your sake

Lining the back alleyways of the Minami district of Osaka there are dozens of small restaurants that just serve fugu -- blowfish -- world-famous for its potentially fatal flesh. Outside these shops there invariably rests a wooden board of some kind that is plastered with what appear to be decorative...
COMMUNITY
Feb 3, 2002

The long journey from rice to ambrosia

Sake is brewed -- and not distilled -- from rice. The alcohol content is initially about 20 percent, but this is usually watered down to about 16 percent, which is just a tad more than most wine. But sake is closer to beer than wine, at least in terms of how it is made.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 3, 2002

Tower's Bar Bellovisto: You're the tops, baby

There's not long to go till we see off the cold days of winter with pagan festivities of fertility and wild abandon -- no, not Mardi Gras and the Rio Carnival but the ritual observances of St. Valentine's Day. Some people like to send out cards; others mark the occasion through the selfless receiving...

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’