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Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Mar 18, 2004

The wonder that is winter

The seasons have a powerful effect on me, which perhaps explains my need to anthropomorphize and personify them. Temperate Japan's six distinct seasons roll on inexorably: spring, rainy, summer, typhoon, autumn and winter. Though battered and bruised by the perceptible effects of global climate change,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 17, 2004

Welcome to the phonyverse

When interviewing the codirectors of "Party Monster" -- Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, along with James St. James, author of the book on which the movie's based -- the hardest thing was to get them to hype their own film. After fielding questions on kosu-purei ("costume play") and bars in Shinjuku's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 17, 2004

Ghosts in the machines

Japanese science-fiction animation, from Katsuhiro Otomo's seminal "Akira" (1988) on, often points toward a post-apocalyptic, post-human future. For all the blasts 'n' babes, the curvy heroines in Spandex pouring thousands of rounds into clanking foes, the essential vision is dark -- more "Blade Runner"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 17, 2004

A 'kitchen sink' filled deep

Strange, but true: These days, the chance of seeing a quality Japanese "kitchen sink" (domestic) drama about ordinary people's everyday lives is rarer than the opportunity of watching yet another reworking of Shakespeare, Chekhov or Tennessee Williams. Now, though, and until the end of the month, theatergoers...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 14, 2004

Tomasz Stanko: "Suspended Night"

Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko's newest release, "Suspended Night," is a masterpiece of minimalist beauty. A suite of interconnected compositions, "Suspended Night" simply numbers its "Variations" I to X. The unaffected simplicity and flexible modal structures strip down chords and melody lines to allow...
JAPAN
Mar 12, 2004

Chinese being frozen out of student visa process

Things are looking pretty grim for Chinese students who have their sights set on pursuing their Japanese language studies here.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2004

Justice minister vows registry revisions to end birth-record prejudice

Justice Minister Daizo Nozawa said Monday that steps will be taken to stop family registry birth records from distinguishing between children born out of wedlock and those born to married couples.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Mar 9, 2004

Freecycling, sun lamps and dancing

Clothes, fabrics, toys Anne recommends a charity organization in Stellenbosch, South Africa, that helps people in shanty towns to get back on their feet. "They're always looking for donations of secondhand clothes, dress fabrics and toys for the creche."
COMMENTARY
Mar 9, 2004

Perilous drop in readership

One long-standing trend in Japan has been the "shift away from print" -- an aversion to serious reading. For example, in the past four years, book sales have continued to decline. Compared with other countries, the books being read woefully lags in quality and quantity.
EDITORIALS
Mar 9, 2004

Diet's plate remains full

Diet deliberations have been proceeding fairly smoothly since the 150-day regular session opened on Jan. 19. This augurs well for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who wants to avoid a legislative gridlock before July's Upper House election. He cleared a major hurdle last month when the Diet approved...
EDITORIALS
Mar 7, 2004

Life lessons from Mars

In all the excitement over the NASA Mars rovers' various landings, photo shoots, malfunctions, recoveries and excursions, another aspect of their mission has been neglected: what could be called their teaching, as opposed to their learning, mission. As Spirit and Opportunity keep fit and busy on the...
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2004

Weather satellite could go up as early as November

Japan plans to resume use of its H-IIA rocket and launch a new weather satellite as early as November to replace an aging satellite, as the investigation into a failed launch last year is almost finished, government sources said Saturday.
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?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 7, 2004

Levitation, drug claims and, er, melons blur reality in Asahara trial

The sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system that the religious cult Aum Shinrikyo carried out exactly nine years ago this month is often cited as the first mass terrorist strike against civilians, and like al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Aum's former guru Shoko Asahara is accepted as the mastermind...
COMMENTARY
Mar 7, 2004

EU's false trilateral dreams

LONDON -- The idea that the European Union should be run and managed by a hard core of countries, meaning France, Germany and -- if it can be coaxed along as well -- Britain, is once again doing the rounds.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2004

Furor over postal reform minister rumbles on

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi went on the defensive Friday after posts minister Taro Aso voiced anger at being bypassed in a decision to appoint a postal privatization minister.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Mar 6, 2004

Despite track record, scrutiny of Ferguson remains relentless

LONDON -- Perhaps the real truth as opposed to what we have been told will never be known.
EDITORIALS
Mar 2, 2004

Lowering the bar in Beijing

One thing is very clear after last week's round of six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis: No one wants the negotiations to fail. While that has spurred diplomacy to solve the problem, it also means that "progress" could become illusory. Apparently, agreement to continue working-level discussions...
CULTURE / Music
Feb 29, 2004

More hot licks of raw power

The Foxys have got more than just dirty, raw, fast-as-hell rhythm and blues music in common with The Gimmies. They also throw stuff at journalists. But this time I was minding my own business when Saitama-based singer/guitarist Ryo Hashida collided with my table at a show and sent my beer flying over...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 29, 2004

To improve the East, must we move West?

JAPAN: The Burden of Success, by Jean-Marie Bouissou. London: Hurst & Co., 2002, 374 pp., £35.00 (cloth), £14.95 (paper). Jean-Marie Bouissou, who lived in Japan in the 1980s, is a political scientist at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and the Centre Franco-Japonais de Management. "The Burden...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 29, 2004

Nihon TV's "Super TV" explores festivals and more

Japan has many regional festivals, and some are very strange. Within the set of strange festivals there is a subset of events called hadaka matsuri, which means "naked festivals." At these revelries men strip down to fundoshi (loincloths) and do weird things.
EDITORIALS
Feb 28, 2004

Give 'irregular' workers a fair shake

Continued corporate restructuring in Japan has taken a heavy toll on regular workers. One result of this is a sharp increase in the number of "irregular" workers, such as part-timers and temporaries. Now they number about 15 million, representing a third of the labor force; in the case of women, one...
EDITORIALS
Feb 26, 2004

An endorsement from Mr. Annan

With Japan taking an important part in the reconstruction of Iraq, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's five-day visit here, starting last Saturday, could not have come at a better time. His trip has given Japanese government leaders -- including not only Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Foreign Minister...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 26, 2004

Sex (selection) and the City

It's colloquially well known that women can feel competition from other women, as this scene from "Sex and the City" shows:
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Feb 26, 2004

Spacecraft takes us back to future

Between the early niche years of "Pong" and the release of "Pac-Man," video gaming became where people went to play science fiction.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 25, 2004

Who will save us from the scourge?

Zebraman Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Takashi Miike Running time: 115 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] What genre conventions hasn't Takashi Miike bent, twisted or simply exploded? How about "Audition," whose tender dream of May-December...

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat