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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 13, 2002

A traveler possessed by light

Part of the game of art nowadays is for artists, whatever their influence or orientation, to avoid classification. Once this happens, their work often devolves into well-worm cultural cliche. One 20th-century artist who escaped this process, though, was Paul Klee (1879- 1940), whose work is as hard to...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 13, 2002

Shiokawa backpedals on 1% growth pledge

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa apparently backtracked Tuesday on his weekend assertion that Japan's economy will grow 1 percent in fiscal 2003.
JAPAN
Feb 13, 2002

Human torso found in trash

A headless, limbless human torso was found Tuesday morning in a plastic bag at a trash collection site in front of an apartment building in Sumida Ward, Tokyo, police said.
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Feb 13, 2002

Nimaime wa so-so, baby

I hate to say it, but Love Psychedelico has succumbed to the dreaded "second-album syndrome" with "Love Psychedelico Orchestra," which was released Jan. 9. It's not a bad album -- in fact it has some great songs, like the opening track, "Standing Bird," which features a wonderfully infectious keyboard...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 13, 2002

Monoland: 'Cooning'

What the Berliner four-piece Monoland are doing with atmospheric rumbling and washes of distortion is not completely new to modern music. The confluence of dreamy vocals and sonic thunderclap recalls the short-lived shoegazer movement of the late '80s to mid-'90s. It was then that bands like Ride and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Feb 13, 2002

An art collector's dream on display

"In the mid-1950s, I saw an irresistible inflow of Western culture, mostly American, into war-devastated Japan. I witnessed a fading of our culture, which had been passed to us from generation to generation. As I watched the change, I felt a sense of fear that our next generation might not know what...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 13, 2002

Romance at the edge of reason

"I always believed it was taboo to portray madness on stage, and I never dared to do it before," Hideki Noda writes in the program notes to "Urikotoba (Fighting talk/Words for sale)," his latest enterprise as writer/director, now playing at Spiral Hall in Tokyo's Aoyama district.
EDITORIALS
Feb 11, 2002

Space business still awaiting liftoff

The second H-2A rocket, which is touted as the leading player in Japan's space development at the beginning of the 21st century, was successfully launched last Monday, deploying one of the two probes it was carrying into orbit. Following the successful launching of the first H-2A rocket in August 2001,...
COMMENTARY
Feb 11, 2002

Blame economy for weak yen

LONDON -- An article by Haruhiko Kuroda, vice finance minister for international affairs, appeared in the Financial Times on Jan. 23 under the headline "The yen's fundamental weakness." Perhaps it should have been titled "the fundamental weaknesses of the Japanese economy."
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Feb 11, 2002

Wrong time to be in the wrong place

Naohiro Takahara's Argentine adventure with Boca Juniors came to a suddenly and unhappy end a few days ago when the Argentine club decided to cut short the one-year-loan deal of the Japan striker.
COMMENTARY
Feb 11, 2002

Fixing the Foreign Ministry

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi paid a high price for sacking Makiko Tanaka as foreign minister — a free fall in his Cabinet's popularity ratings. The debacle highlighted three major problems involving the Foreign Ministry:
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
Feb 11, 2002

Recalling the Tabata district's golden age

Seeing the rows of houses and apartments clustered around JR Tabata Station, it is hard to believe the area was, until the beginning of the last century, a vast agricultural landscape marking the northeastern end of downtown Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2002

France, Britain, Italy rethink EU future

Until now, Italian, French and British attitudes toward the European Union have been completely distinct and predictable.
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2002

FTC moves raise doubts over Antimonopoly Law

For more than 120 years during the Meiji, Taisho and Showa eras, the government was the primary driving force of the Japanese economy. That changed as the nation entered the Heisei era, as the private sector began to play a public role previously monopolized by the government. This is why the nation...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Feb 11, 2002

Argentina's decline holds lessons for Japan

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- A J.P. Morgan analyst in Tokyo was quoted by The Globalist (Dec. 21) as saying, "Japan now faces the choice: either restructure its economy or become the Argentina of the 21st century -- a spent power." One would not have imagined even just a very few years ago that Japan and...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2002

Japan gears up for 30th anniversary of ties with Mongolia

It's not China alone. There is one more Asian country with which Japan is gearing up to celebrate -- albeit with much less fanfare -- the 30th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties this year: Mongolia.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2002

Kawaguchi mulls ways to curb pressure on Foreign Ministry

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi has been studying ways to curb political influence on diplomacy, and is considering a policy to make public anytime a politician approaches ministry officials concerning ministry affairs, sources close to her said Sunday.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2002

Bush to meet Koizumi on Feb. 18

U.S. President George W. Bush will meet Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Feb. 18 after arriving Feb. 17 for his first trip to Japan since becoming president in January 2001, according to Bush's schedule.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2002

Shonan merger plan races clock, though some balk

With its gently arching coastline overlooking Enoshima Island in Sagami Bay and a distant view of Mount Fuji and the Hakone mountain range, the Shonan area in Kanagawa Prefecture triggers memories of songs and movies about the picturesque area.
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ARCHIPELA-GO
Feb 11, 2002

Cold lands but warm hearts

The literally hang out the flags for visitors to the small town of Nishikawa in the snowy foothills of Yamagata's Dewa Sanzan mountains. A large British Union Jack was crossed with a Japanese Hinomaru over the entrance to Tamaki, a riverside restaurant famous for its Hina ryori (Doll's Festival food),...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2002

Scientists in Tokyo find that cloned mice have shorter lives

Scientists at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo have found that cloned mice have shorter life spans than mice conceived naturally.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2002

Yokohama locals put U.S. Navy's land to good use

YOKOHAMA -- It may be a bit hard to believe that in this day and age you can get free farmland in Yokohama.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2002

Cargo transport deregulation planned

The transport ministry plans to scrap regulations on the license system for cargo transport firms and allow trucking firms to transport cargo anywhere, ministry officials said Sunday.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji