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COMMENTARY
Nov 11, 2001

Unified war plan impossible

LONDON -- Giving parties is fun, but it also poses risks -- chiefly that of offending those who are not asked.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 11, 2001

Unlocking the 'qi'

Dressed in a white robe, a female qi master calmly stands in a room. Her face a mask of concentration, she puts her hands into a metal box. She quietly waits for three minutes. Then concentrates for seven minutes.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 11, 2001

In praise of Japan's 'Greatest Generation'

Perhaps as a reaction against the excesses of an age of material prosperity and greed, America in recent years has seen a spate of books and movies extolling the so-called Greatest Generation, the quiet men who went off to fight in World War II. Similarly, Japan now has "Project X," a popular NHK-TV...
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2001

Japan may share U.S. resupply mission

Japan and the United States are studying a plan to share with Britain the task of supplying and transporting fuel and materials for U.S. military forces operating in the Indian Ocean, government sources said.
BUSINESS
Nov 11, 2001

Ban placed on U.S. chicken imports

Japan has suspended imports of chickens and ducks from the United States because of concern over the possible spread of a type of influenza virus affecting poultry, the agriculture ministry said.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 11, 2001

Mixing it up in the States

THE SUM OF OUR PARTS: Mixed Heritage Asian Americans, edited by Teresa Williams-Leon and Cynthia L. Nakashima. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001, 296 pp., 22.95 (paper) High intermarriage rates, massive waves of immigration, and the easing of restrictions on global travel are blurring racial...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 11, 2001

Mizoguchi's street of shame

RED-LIGHT DISTRICT, the film by Kenji Mizoguchi, translated and annotated by D.J. Rajakaruna. Colombo: S. Godage & Brothers, 2001. 182 pp., $12.50 (paper) Kenji Mizoguchi's last film, the 1956 "Akasen Chitai" ("Red-Light District," aka "Street of Shame") may not be one of his best pictures but it is...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 11, 2001

Trying to sell the news to kids who don't care

We've heard a lot lately about the decline of literacy in the developed world, as more people turn to new technology as their principal source of information. Commentators often illustrate this claim with figures demonstrating how no one reads novels anymore or by citing the decline in advertising revenue....
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Nov 11, 2001

The days of eating dangerously

Whatever caused the first guy to figure out how to eat a blowfish and live — an attempt to impress a girl or perhaps a wealthy patron — we may never know, but we can be grateful that he did.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2001

Officials ignore domestic violence: poll

Japanese women who have survived abuse at the hands of their husbands or boyfriends say police, government offices and people around them typically turn a blind eye to their suffering, according to a Cabinet Office survey.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 11, 2001

Helping sisters do it for themselves

BEING A BROAD IN JAPAN: Everything a Western Woman Needs to Survive and Thrive, by Caroline Pover. Alexandra Press, 2001, 518 pp., 2,858 yen (paper) "Being A Broad in Japan: Everything a Western Woman Needs to Survive and Thrive" is a chatty and compendious handbook, covering topics from beauty care...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 11, 2001

Kanetanaka-So: Modern kaiseki set on the right course

These are not the best of times for Tokyo's ryotei, those rarefied houses of inconspicuous consumption, whose prime purpose is as venues for wining and dining, mutual back-scratching and political intrigue. With captains of industry cutting back on expense accounts, and Nagata-cho's mandarins under increasing...
BUSINESS
Nov 11, 2001

Agency offering vacation in New York for 20,000 yen

OSAKA -- A discount travel agency based here will offer a package trip to New York for a mere 20,000 yen, which includes a donation of 3,000 yen for cleanup operations after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 11, 2001

Prodigies in a flash -- but maybe much too soon

"My daughter can solve algebraic differentiation and integration." "My son reads the Nikkei Shimbun every morning." "My child has read 'War and Peace.' "
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Nov 11, 2001

How mold grew to be so unique

There are two things that make nihonshu unique among the world's alcoholic beverages. One is the process known as heiko fukuhakko, or multiple parallel fermentation. In short, this means that saccharification and fermentation take place simultaneously in the same vat, as opposed to sequentially, as in...
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2001

Calls for Cabinet shakeup dog Koizumi

Speculation that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will reshuffle his Cabinet sometime after the current Diet session ends Dec. 7 has not ebbed, despite his repeated denials.
BUSINESS
Nov 10, 2001

NTT Data interim profit down 3%

NTT Data Corp. said Friday it registered a consolidated net profit of 10.84 billion yen in the first half of fiscal 2001, down 2.8 percent from a year earlier.
BUSINESS
Nov 10, 2001

Beaujolais Nouveau arrives, will be released next week

OSAKA -- Bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau began to arrive at Narita and Kansai airports Friday morning as fans and label collectors waited for Thursday, when the first vintage of the century is to be released on markets worldwide.
BUSINESS
Nov 10, 2001

U.S. Chamber of Commerce urges reforms push

The U.S. business community is urging Japan to pursue reforms that will help the economy and attract more American investment, the visiting chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2001

Justice Ministry plans online foreigner-screening system

The Justice Ministry plans to introduce an online computer network to speed up the processing of information on foreigners arriving in Japan and facilitate the tracking of suspected terrorists, ministry sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2001

Survey details male, female eating habits

Around 50 percent of men in their 20s through their 40s have at least one enjoyable meal in the company of other people every day, according to a national nutrition report released Thursday by the health ministry.
EDITORIALS
Nov 10, 2001

Population growth: a global challenge

The world's population continues to grow at an accelerated pace. It is estimated to hit 9.3 billion in 2050, an increase of 50 percent from 6.1 billion in 2001, according to the latest annual report from the U.N. Fund for Population Activities. The key message from the report is that sustainable social...
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2001

Police to get submachineguns to fight terrorism

Police in 28 prefectures will be issued with 1,379 submachineguns by the end of March to combat terrorism, the National Police Agency said Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2001

MSDF heads for Indian Ocean

Two Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers and a supply ship left Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, on Friday for a two-month intelligence-gathering mission in the Indian Ocean as part of Japan's noncombat support of the U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan.
BUSINESS
Nov 10, 2001

LDP pushes JNOC privatization

Senior officials of the Liberal Democratic Party basically agreed Friday on a plan to transfer the oil stockpiling operations of Japan National Oil Corp. to the private sector following the liquidation of the government-affiliated agency.

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