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COMMENTARY
Oct 21, 2002

It's not what Bush says but how he says it

HONOLULU -- The controversy swirling around President George W. Bush's foreign policy is remarkable for two things. The first is the consensus regarding its content. Observers generally agree that the Bush foreign policy is muscular, unilateralist and dominated by political realists who practice power...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2002

Problem calls for a 'concert of powers'

The stunning revelation that North Korea has a clandestine nuclear-weapons program casts a dark cloud over the future of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. It also dampens prospects for Japanese-North Korean normalization talks, not to mention the resumption of U.S.-North Korean dialogue.
COMMENTARY
Oct 21, 2002

Confessions from North Korea

SEOUL/PUSAN -- They say that a little bit of confession is good for the soul, but North Korea's sudden burst of religion is creating a moral dilemma for Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul. First, Pyongyang decides to come clean on the kidnapping of Japanese citizens, admitting to Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi...
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Oct 20, 2002

Emerson keeps Reds in top spot

SAITAMA -- The unbeaten Urawa Reds maintained the lead in the J. League Division One second stage after holding off Nagoya Grampus Eight 2-1 in extra time thanks to Brazilian striker Emerson's winning goal.
EDITORIALS
Oct 20, 2002

All the news, period

Ever since news first met the Internet, informed observers have been predicting the death of print newspapers. When it didn't happen after people began retrieving their daily news with the help of Internet search engines, the sages said it would happen after the major newspapers launched their own online...
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Oct 20, 2002

Time will tell if Zico's approach will pay off

When a new coach comes in, a team changes in various parts accordingly. That applies in the case of the Japan national soccer team, with the arrival of Zico who took over from Philippe Troussier after the World Cup.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2002

Peril of pre-emptive thinking

NEW YORK -- Should Washington go to war unilaterally, it will put at risk the hard-earned reputation since 1945 of being an essentially peaceful hegemonist that fights only in self-defense -- unlike the former Soviet Union, the expansionist bully that dressed up its aggression in the rhetoric of a universal...
COMMENTARY / World / GUEST FORUM
Oct 20, 2002

Scarcity not to blame for pain of hunger

In 1945, the year the vicious war ended, there was famine in Italy, Russia, Bengal, Burma and much of China; and yet there were unsellable surpluses of food in the United States, Canada and some Latin American countries. Products could have been shipped, stored and sold in quantities large enough to...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 20, 2002

Sommeliers ride high on Japan's wine wave

The last five years have seen an explosion in the number of certified sommeliers in Japan. Certain high-profile Japanese sommeliers have even achieved an almost rock star-like status, an unexpected development in a country where the title of sommelier did not even exist 30 years ago. Despite its lack...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 20, 2002

Thwarted prodigy scales the heights

In the world of popular classical music, few stars shine brighter than that of pianist Fujiko Hemming, whose debut CD, "La Campanella," has sold more than 900,000 copies worldwide and collected a Japan Gold Disc Award and numerous classical album of the year awards since its release in 1999.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 20, 2002

A bistro of his own

Tatsushi Shiokawa, 39, enrolled in 1991 at Le Cordon Bleu, Tokyo, where he was the only male student in his class. The following year he completed the three-part Classic Cycle -- then opened Bistro Campagne in Tokyo's Asakusabashi district.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 20, 2002

Personality professional tells young women to break mold

For Akiko Shimizu, director of the John Robert Powers School, getting the best out of her young students is not just her job, but a way to make herself more attractive.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 20, 2002

Turning into Japan's Everyman in a Nobel way

People who get selected to compete on Japanese trivia-based TV quiz shows are always getting asked questions about Japan's Nobel prizewinners. It's not as difficult as it sounds. Until two weeks ago, there were only 10 of them.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 20, 2002

Bon Appetit!

Le Cordon Bleu. The name conjures up images of starched linen laid three-ply across a table, heavy silverware and plain white plates bearing artfully arranged food. "Cordon Bleu" was once synonymous with all that is best in cooking. And if, in these days of fusion cuisine, its image seems a little stuffy...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Oct 20, 2002

Straight from the grill to the kitchen table

An expertly grilled fish stands out as one of the simplest to prepare — and most satisfying — dishes to complement crisp tsukemono pickles, a comforting bowl of miso soup and the staple of steaming hot rice. There are many incarnations of grilled fish in Japan. Almost every home is equipped with...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 20, 2002

Keeping tradition afloat

Outside, the air reeks of traffic fumes and it's the usual hurly-burly of inner-city Tokyo. But inside, in a small workshop abutting the Koto Ward Office in Toyo, the sweet scent of cedar fills the room. Two men work together, planing, sawing and chiseling golden-brown timbers into the elegant lines...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 20, 2002

Lessons from the kitchen

Keiko Sato, 34, studied at Le Cordon Bleu 2000-01, completing the three-part Classic Cycle. She now runs her own cooking studio in Shirokanedai, Tokyo.
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Oct 20, 2002

Orchestrating exchanges for peace

"The Japanese society of the eighth century was extremely internationalized and integrated with the rest of Asia. Foreigners comprised much of the skilled labor force and, like England in the 16th and 17th centuries, there was an active exchange of artists, musicians and statesmen with the mainland....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 20, 2002

A reality check for the relationship

U.S.-JAPAN RELATIONS IN A CHANGING WORLD, edited by Steven K. Vogel. Brookings Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 2002, 286 pp., $18.95 (cloth) The Japan-U.S. alliance is a remarkable achievement. The two countries are virtual mirror images of each other, and have, until recently, had relatively little...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 20, 2002

Apartment woes, life-or-death crises demystified

As proved by the Japanese government's successful lobbying efforts to retain the "Sea of Japan" on international maps to signify the body of water that separates the archipelago from the Korean Peninsula (South Korea wanted to change it to the "East Sea"), the Sea of Japan has an important value to all...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 20, 2002

When romancing medieval Japan, why stop at one?

ACROSS THE NIGHTINGALE FLOOR: Tales of the Otori (Book One), by Lian Hearn. Riverhead Books, 2002, 304 pp., $24.95 (cloth) For over a century, Asia has been a rich and enduring source of inspiration for fantasy and science fiction writers. Since James Hilton created the fantastic Himalayan utopia of...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 20, 2002

A city with the world on its plates

It is highly unlikely that Commodore Perry or any other of his crew had epicurean tastes, but the arrival of the Black Ships in 1853 signaled the start of an influx to Japan of foreign -- specifically Western -- food. With the subsequent opening of treaty ports and the Meiji Era's heady days of "bunmei...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 20, 2002

The garden of heavenly tofu delights

Traditional cuisine intersects with a distinctive modern sensibility at Sorano-niwa. Newly opened on one of Ebisu's quieter back streets, this is an almost textbook example of how some of Japan's most representative foods are being updated and repackaged for the new millennium.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 20, 2002

Okinawan music's healing embrace

"I've always felt that my role in life is to heal people through my music," says Yuriko Ganeko, a 54-year-old Okinawan singer and sanshin player. Ganeko, who favors purple eye shadow, heavy perfume and hoop earrings, was recently in Tokyo to promote her newest album, "Uta Asobi (Song Play)."
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 20, 2002

Liberated from language

IDEOGRAMS IN CHINA, by Henri Michaux. Translated by Gustaf Sobin, with an afterword by Richard Sieburth. New York: New Directions, 2002, 58 pp. with selected ideograms, $9.95 (paper) Poet Ezra Pound, following the lead of scholar Ernest Fenollosa, once said that Chinese was the ideal medium for poetry,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Oct 20, 2002

Put on your party hat and escape to Oz

At the mini five-ways down the hill behind Almond in Roppongi, one will find a pleasant second-floor bar in a building on one corner. Though small, it takes full advantage of the building's glass exterior walls, with every seat at the bar offering a view of the street. It feels spacious and safe from...
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Oct 20, 2002

Leeuwin Estate delivers a perfect hat trick

Wine lovers in Japan may have noticed the recent appearance of several new labels from Australia's Leeuwin Estate. Collectors have long coveted Leeuwin's Art Series wines. But these collectible, top-tier Leeuwin wines require cellar-aging to realize their potential and they bear a stiff cost commensurate...

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