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COMMENTARY
Oct 25, 2004

China reconstructs past to chart future

NEW DELHI -- How folklore guides Chinese foreign-policy interests was brought out by Beijing's recent spat with South Korea over the ancient kingdom of Koguryo, which was founded in the Tongge River basin of northern Korea and, at its height, included much of Manchuria.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Oct 25, 2004

Manchuria as a whipping post

NEW YORK -- The New York Times has an intriguing take on Japan. The latest example is an article with the heading "Atrocity Amnesia: Japan Rewrites Its Manchuria Story" (Sept. 19).
COMMENTARY
Oct 25, 2004

ODA looks wasted on China

This year Japan marks the 50th anniversary of the official development assistance program it launched after getting out of the postwar economic chaos. The Foreign Ministry's 2004 white paper on ODA boasts that Japan, now one of the world's largest ODA providers, has made major contributions to the economic...
COMMENTARY
Oct 25, 2004

A dialogue that can persuade Muslims

LOS ANGELES -- Whoever emerges as the next president of the United States must work hard indeed to set U.S. relations with the global Muslim world aright. Leaving aside America's pressing domestic concerns, that issue might prove Job No. 1 for George W. Bush or John Kerry.
EDITORIALS
Oct 24, 2004

Tallying national happiness

I n most countries, progress is measured in terms of GNP or GDP -- gross national or domestic product. But one small country has adopted a startlingly different yardstick. In 1972, the king of Bhutan declared that progress in the landlocked Himalayan mini-kingdom would henceforward be gauged in terms...
Rugby
Oct 24, 2004

Brave Lupus bruise Big Blue

The Toshiba Brave Lupus juggernaut kept rolling along on Saturday as the most feared pack in Japanese rugby brushed aside IBM Big Blue 67-18 at Tokyo's Chichibunomiya.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2004

Western Japan faces increased flooding

The densely populated urban areas of Osaka and Nagoya as well as the western Kyushu region surrounding the Ariake Sea are at risk from rising sea levels resulting from higher oceanic temperatures.
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2004

French reporter conducted espionage for Russia in Russo-Japanese War

Russia obtained information on Japan's strategy for the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War, including the plan for a major offensive in northeastern China in March 1905, through a Tokyo-based French correspondent and other sources, according to the recent study by a Russian scholar.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 24, 2004

Best not to forget the women in the debate on stem-cell research

Embryonic stem-cell research is a hot topic in the upcoming elections in the United States. John Kerry has said that one of his first acts if elected president will be to reverse the Bush administration policy of no federal funding for ESC research. And in California, voters will decide whether or not...
Japan Times
Features
Oct 24, 2004

Kitty collector plans afterlife together as well

Some have ridiculed her taste. Others have called her infantile. Yet Asako Kanda, a 31-year-old receptionist at a crafts and culture school in Tokyo, has never had any qualms about her long-running love affair with Hello Kitty.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 24, 2004

You put a spell on us

"Earnest, to me, is a bad word." Dean Wareham is reclining on a cream-colored couch in the offices of P-Vine, his Japanese record label, looking over a list of adjectives a popular Web site uses to describe his band, Luna. Curious, amused and slightly wary, he skims the list, eyebrows raised, quickly...
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2004

Public mixed on brain-death transplants

The public is divided over whether to allow transplants of organs from brain-dead people who have not made it clear whether they wish to become donors, according to a government survey.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 24, 2004

Martin, Medeski and Wood: "End of the World Party (Just in Case)"

The latest Medeski, Martin and Wood release, "End of the World Party (Just in Case)," goes further than ever into unpredictable musical zones. Unlike most jazz or even jazz-influenced bands, MMW foregrounds carefully crafted sounds and juicy grooves rather than traditional chords and melodies.
Japan Times
Features
Oct 24, 2004

The cat's whiskers of Kawaii

At 10 a.m. last Saturday, the moment the doors of the Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo's Nihonbashi district were opened, a small scrum of people rushed in, headed straight to the escalators and then up to the fifth floor.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 24, 2004

Nihon TV's "Tatta Hitotsu no Takaramono" and more

Former idol superstar Seiko Matsuda makes her 2-hour TV drama debut this week in "Tatta Hitotsu no Takaramono (Just One Treasure)" (Nihon TV, Tues., 9 p.m.), which is about the short life of a special boy.
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2004

Series of powerful quakes rock Niigata

A series of powerful earthquakes, with the first one measuring a preliminary magnitude of 6.8, rocked northwestern Japan in quick succession Saturday evening, leaving at least five people dead, several others missing and more than 500 injured in Niigata Prefecture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 24, 2004

Soi Bangkok-Tokyo Festival

Over the last few years, a new generation, nurtured on everything from European techno to American indie rock, have been transforming Bangkok's music scene. Indie labels such as Small Room and Hualampong Riddim have blossomed -- and nestled among the hostess bars and karaoke clubs that litter Bangkok's...
COMMENTARY
Oct 24, 2004

The alliance hasn't expired

HONOLULU -- Much recent U.S. strategic thinking about Asia has focused on China or the prospect of a nuclear-armed North Korea. These concerns have overshadowed important changes in Japan that have been influenced in part by developments in those two countries.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 24, 2004

Credit some viewers for trying to think

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- As one of the millions of television viewers glued to his screen trying to keep pace with the overwhelming flow of international news, I often find myself pondering the pluses and minuses of present-day advances in computers, electronics and information technology. The other day...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 24, 2004

Japanese postcards on the edge

ART OF THE JAPANESE POSTCARD, essays by Anne Nishimura Morse, J. Thomas Rimer and Kendall H. Brown, foreword by Malcolm Rogers, preface by Leonard A. Lauder, printing notes by Joan Wright, biographies by Tomoko Okamura. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, MFA Publications, 2004, 288 pp., 300 color illustrations,...
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2004

Tentative accord reached on U.S. beef

Japan and the United States on Saturday agreed in principle to resume U.S. beef imports as early as next spring, although a final accord on specific conditions for lifting the ban was left to further negotiations.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight