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ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 26, 2001

Environmentalist on the stump

Despite the sky-high popularity of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, suspicion remains that his Liberal Democratic Party has simply cloaked its wolfish heart in a soft perm. Many environmentalists fear that after Sunday's election the LDP will step up efforts to stimulate the economy by undertaking the...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 26, 2001

The king is a beast, but the queen is a democrat

Imagine a place where all the females give birth at the same time, where grandmothers nurse their daughters' children and baby-sit for them, and where all children are raised in a protective nursery. Where females join together in defending the community against dangerous strangers and those of the same...
EDITORIALS
Jul 25, 2001

Missing the target on small arms

A United Nations conference last weekend approved a historic agreement to fight global trafficking in small arms. Despite years of preparation, agreement hinged on last-minute negotiations, largely to meet U.S. objections. Fortunately, delegates understood the magnitude of the problem and put progress...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2001

Why Japan won't back down on whaling

LONDON -- "They do not allow them free for a moment -- not even at cocktail parties," said Atherton Martin, former Environment and Fisheries Minister of Dominica, describing how the Japanese ride herd on the representatives of countries whose votes they have bought at International Whaling Commission...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2001

Lost and found in a dream

Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) Rating: * * * * * Director: Hayao Miyazaki Running time: 125 minutes Language: JapaneseNow showing Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli animators had their biggest-ever triumph with "Mononoke Hime (The Princess Mononoke)," an eco-fable set in premodern...
COMMENTARY
Jul 25, 2001

A nasty taste of things to come

LONDON — Conventional wisdom has it that the future is impossible to predict, or at least to predict with any accuracy.
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2001

Stranded on Planet Hollywood

Planet of the Apes Rating: * * Director: Tim Burton Running time: 120 minutes Language: EnglishNow showing Michael Clarke Duncan in Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes" -- (C)2001 Twentieth Century Fox Director Tim Burton is quite clear on this matter: His version of "Planet of the Apes" is no mere "remake"...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2001

Something for everyone under the big blue sea

Dykkerne Rating: * * 1/2 Director: Ake Sandgren Running time: 91 minutes Language: DanishNow showing This is my second week in a row writing on a film from Scandinavia, so I'm suffering somewhat from Big Blonde People Overload. Especially since the latest involves apple-cheeked, sturdy-boned youngsters...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2001

Pick a question, any question

Good news: We members of the Japanese masu-komi were privileged to attend the premiere press conference for Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes."
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 25, 2001

The Avalanches: 'Since I Left You'

According to the credits on their debut album, "Since I Left You," The Avalanches are six young men, only two of whom play instruments (guitar and piano/percussion). The rest are listed as "mixers," which makes sense when you consider that the record contains no less than 900 samples. Surprisingly, no...
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 25, 2001

On the origin of speciesism

That there's something menacing about the title "Planet of the Apes" says more about our ignorance than it does about the writer's ingenuity: Earth is already a planet of apes.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 25, 2001

Alex Sipiagin: 'Steppin' Zone'

Pity any young trumpeter having to play in the shadows of Wynton, Miles and Louis. All the innovation's been done, all the peaks have already been reached. Still, there's always room for good music. Alex Sipiagin's second recording, "Steppin' Zone," may not propel him up there with the masters, but it...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 25, 2001

The misanthropic genius of Ensor

Living in densely populated cities, we survive by ignoring the crowd, by refusing to acknowledge those forced into physical proximity with us. The artist, however, is excluded from this luxury. He is expected to be aware of everything around him, including the seething mass of humanity. The etchings...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 25, 2001

Labyrinth of Bombay

An exhibition of paintings and installations by Indian artist Atul Dodiya, depicting the kaleidoscopic changes to the city of Mumbai (Bombay), is being held at The Japan Foundation Forum in Akasaka, Tokyo.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 25, 2001

Gimmickry belies a true phenomenon

A survey of 20th-century art would identify few individuals with as remarkable a story as Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), the Mexican painter whose life was one of those stranger-than-fiction phenomena. Already crippled by polio, the teenage Kahlo was impaled on a steel handrail in a trolley accident that shattered...
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 25, 2001

All the world's Miyagi's 'logos & pathos' stage

In the world of Japanese contemporary theater, the Ku Na'uka company is famed for its unique "logos & pathos" method, in which each role on stage is performed by one narrator/speaker (in the "logos" role) and one performer/mover (in the "pathos" role).
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 25, 2001

Iggy Pop: 'Beat 'Em Up'

Iggy Pop would take two tabs of LSD before a show (to get him in "the mood") and then during a chaotic performance by his band, The Stooges, the stage would be bombarded with beer bottles from irate punters. As the acid majorly kicked in, Iggy, no longer able to stand up, would writhe on the floor screaming...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 25, 2001

Multimedia artists cross continents

Multimedia artworks created by five award-winning Japanese artists active in Europe are now on show at Axis Gallery in Roppongi, Tokyo.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 25, 2001

Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros

Though I have been a fan of Joe Strummer since The Clash, even I had my doubts last year, when I first saw him live with the Mescaleros at Akasaka Blitz. The band spent a shaky first hour probing the audience for signs of recognition of songs from their first album "Rock Art and the X-Ray Style." In...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 24, 2001

Visiting educators find confidence lacking

Japan should make greater efforts to instill a sense of self-confidence in its children and help them to develop the ability to express themselves, according to foreign educators invited to speak at a recent discussion session in Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Jul 24, 2001

A turning point for the G8?

At this year's G8 summit of advanced industrialized nations in Genoa, Italy, history was made. Not because anything concrete was done, but for the worst possible reason: A demonstrator lost his life during protests against the meeting. Now the antiglobalization movement has a martyr, and the G8 must...
LIFE / Travel
Jul 24, 2001

Signs of the cross in China

LOU GUAN TAI, China There is only one way into the pagoda, through a small window 10 meters above ground. Climbing the walls would likely land me behind bars: The building is around 1,300 years old and leans as prominently as the Tower of Pisa -- no doubt a result of an earthquake 500 years ago.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jul 24, 2001

Temporary water, but it greens the desert

The San Bushmen call the Central Kalahari "The Land God Made in Anger," and most of the time the description holds good.
LIFE / Travel
Jul 24, 2001

Religious sites, relics indicate Christ beat Buddha to Japan

In 1949, former Kyoto University professor Sakae Ikeda wrote a letter in a Japanese newspaper requesting help. "Whoever may want to help reintroduce Nestorianism . . . to Japan . . . is requested to write me," the letter pleads.
EDITORIALS
Jul 23, 2001

A move toward multipolarity

China and Russia -- the two neighboring major powers that have been at odds for decades -- have begun building relations of lasting friendship. The signing last week of a treaty for this purpose will have a significant bearing on the future of Northeast Asia as well as the world at large. The new friendship...
COMMENTARY
Jul 23, 2001

Seek justice, not provocation

China has reacted strongly to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's announcement that he will visit Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 15, Japan's anniversary of the end of World War II. Coupled with the history textbook issue, the statement has again unsettled Tokyo's relations with Beijing.
COMMENTARY
Jul 23, 2001

'Fair' easier said than done

LONDON -- The term "fair competition" is a word like "motherhood." We all regard it as desirable and a good thing. But it is an economic proposition that is not easily attainable, and if it is achieved can only be maintained by constant vigilance. Some of those who pay lip service to the concept show...
SOCCER / J. League
Jul 23, 2001

Perryman takes over at Kashiwa Reysol

Kashiwa Reysol manager Akira Nishino was dismissed and his assistant and former Shimizu S-Pulse manager Steve Perryman has taken over the post, the J. League Division One club announced Sunday -- a day after the end of the first stage.
COMMENTARY
Jul 23, 2001

Creating enemies and losing influence

LOS ANGELES — In Moscow and Genoa this past week, the faint outlines of a reactive global containment policy toward America emerged.

Longform

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