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Tomoko Shibuya
For Tomoko Shibuya's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
JAPAN
Jan 5, 1999
Century of Change: Society short of leaps in women's education
Michiko Kanzaki, 77, still remembers how her elementary school teachers taught her to be like "the water that complies with its container" — that is, faithful to her country, dutiful to her parents and obedient to her husband.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 1998
Educators hammer out mandatory reforms
Staff writer
JAPAN
Oct 19, 1998
Atami's fortune no longer springs eternal
Staff writerATAMI, Shizuoka Pref. -- This used to be one of the most popular spa resorts in Japan, with streets packed with yukata-dressed tourists and hotel rooms fully booked for company parties.But such memories have been fading in Atami. Hard-hit by earthquakes and the recession, the city's central area seems more deserted than ever. "During my over 50 years in Atami, I never have seen such few tourists here," said Tomiichi Sugiyama, owner of a ryokan near JR Atami Station. "The number of customers at our hotel has dropped to one-third of what it was just a couple of years ago."The hotel cut the room rate in half -- to nearly 15,000 yen -- but that hasn't helped increase business. He said his hotel now earns merely one-sixth of what it did three years ago. Although Atami is not the only tourist spot to suffer a severe blow from the nation's economic slump, lately the sharp decline in business here has attracted nationwide attention.Atami, whose hot springs are noted for their success in healing maladies such as rheumatism and neuralgia, had its heyday in the late 1960s after bullet trains began to stop at Atami Station in 1964. The number of overnight tourists to the city topped 6.1 million in 1968, according to Kazuo Koiso, the city's tourism and commerce section chief.But as spa resorts increased nationwide, Atami's popularity gradually declined. The real jolt came in the early 1990s, when the bubble economy burst and people began to cut spending on luxuries. "Tourists used to come here in groups, but then they began to travel abroad or take trips by themselves," Koiso said, noting companies that used to entertain clients by bringing them to Atami in large groups are also staying away.He also blamed Atami's decline on the opening of new attractions in the Tokyo metropolitan area, such as the Umihotaru man-made island in Tokyo Bay. People in the Kanto region have accounted for about 80 percent of Atami's visitors.Last year, only about 3.6 million people came to the city for overnight visits, about half as many as three decades ago.Total revenues at the city's hotels dropped from 75.6 million yen in 1992 to 57.9 million yen in 1997, whereas that of restaurants fell from 8.7 million yen to 4.7 million yen during the same period, according to the city's finance office. Also, a series of earthquakes hit the region in March last year, scaring away an already dwindling number of tourists.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 1998
Educational changes at home urged for kids' sake
Staff writer
JAPAN
Jun 11, 1998
Peace Boat to take antinuclear messages to India, Pakistan
Staff writer
JAPAN
Jun 3, 1998
Dance, diplomacy do great pas de deux
Staff writer
JAPAN
Apr 1, 1998
Yamato center helped refugees break the ice with locals
Staff writer
JAPAN
Oct 6, 1997
Sannai-Maruyama excavation illuminating Jomon life
Staff writerAOMORI -- Men wearing only a shred of coarse fur hunt animals in the mountains while women and children gather shells and forage for nuts.This was the prevalent image of people of the Jomon Period, which lasted from about 12,000 to 2,300 years ago. But when the Aomori Prefectural Government began surveying a site for a suburban baseball stadium in 1992, this image was shattered.A few meters below the surface of the 5-hectare site, workers found countless relics 4,000 to 5,500 years old. They also found the ruins of a tall building, roads and wooden tools, making it the largest Jomon village ever discovered.When the prefecture canceled the stadium project and continued its exploration of the ruins, more findings from the Sannai-Maruyama site surprised archaeologists. Jomon relics including lacquerware, jade pendant heads, stone masks and pot chards, which filled some 40,000 cardboard boxes, were unearthed. More than 700 remains of dwellings and long rows of human graves, one measuring nearly 420 meters in length, also were found, said Yasuhiro Okada, chief of the Sannai-Maruyama Site Preservation Office.Some findings from the site shed new light on the still-mysterious life of the Jomon Period. Experts agree that the village thrived for the entire 1,500-year period, reversing previous assumptions that Jomon hunter-gatherers ran in nomadic tribes. The land was systematically divided into areas for dwellings, storage, burial and dumps. Okada pointed out that this revelation introduces the possibility that people then knew how to plan a village.The site also revealed that the Jomon people had more advanced skills than was previously believed, Okada said. In four of the six excavated holes, each measuring 2 meters across and 2 meters deep and lined up in two orderly rows, roots of burned chestnut trees were found.The research team concluded the trees served as pillars as tall as 15 meters. The team also found that the holes were tilted inward slightly, indicating that the six pillars must have supported a roof or top floor. Finds of cultivatable plant seeds, such as bottle gourd and burdock, and the recent genetic study on chestnuts revealed that the villagers may have engaged in farming, Okada said.Jade products, apparently from Niigata Prefecture or Hokkaido, and amber products, presumably from Iwate Prefecture, were also unearthed at the Sannai-Maruyama ruins. Experts said they are convinced the villagers traded with remote places.Although similar Jomon ruins have been unearthed in many other parts of Japan, the Sannai-Maruyama site is the only one that reveals the overall structure of a Jomon village, Okada stressed. "Discovery of the Sannai-Maruyama site creates the possibility that Japan could have been one of the origins of civilization," said Tetsuro Morimoto, an expert on comparative civilization. "We might have to rethink our preconception that Japan imported most of its culture from the continent."But Makoto Sahara, curator of the National Museum of Japanese History, said he thinks the recent craze over the Sannai-Maruyama site is misleading. "The intensive publicity gives the impression that the Jomon culture was fascinating and rich," he said, adding that only the tribe of the Sannai-Maruyama period was affluent and only in relation to food gatherers of that period in that region.

Longform

High-end tourism is becoming more about the kinds of experiences that Japan's lesser-known places can provide.
Can Japan lure the jet-set class off the beaten path?