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CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Sep 9, 2001

Kichijoji ain't nuthin' but a jazz thang

Kichijoji offers more jazz per tsubo than almost any place in the city. Not only are rents cheaper than inside the Yamanote Line, but small-niche businesses seem to thrive here. Teeming with shops, restaurants and clubs, it is dynamic without being overwhelming. With clubs presenting live jazz every...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 9, 2001

This is the season of our national discontent

Last week's edition of Aera (Sept. 3) looked at the current "Age of Discontent," while Bungei Shunju published a special issue in August on ways to find happiness. Both themes currently feature on the shelves of Japanese bookstores as well.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 9, 2001

For your regular viewing pleasure

Those who believe young people don't have proper peer models should check out TBS's "Sekai Ururun Taizai (World Sojourn)," which, every Sunday at 10 p.m., features a young celebrity traveling to a distant corner of the globe and living with a local family while learning a local skill or craft.
COMMUNITY
Sep 9, 2001

To hide or not to hide - the balding man's dilemma

For most men, the mere mention of going bald provokes a quickened pulse-rate and the onset of hyperventilation. To say the thought of hair loss scares most males is to dramatically understate the case.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2001

10 more top ministry officials used public cash for hotel bill

About 10 senior bureaucrats from the Foreign Ministry stayed at a luxury Tokyo hotel and made a lower-ranking official, who is now under arrest, pay their bills with public money he had pooled, police sources said Saturday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 9, 2001

Making space to swing a cat in a rabbit hutch

Blame for the consumer spending slump is usually pinned on widespread anxiety over an uncertain future. But another reason, one that isn't discussed as much, is that most citizens already have everything they want.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Sep 9, 2001

Grater expectations

Oroshigane, traditional Japanese graters, come in all shapes and sizes. From orosu (to grate or cut) and kane (metal or metal tool), this kitchen essential was originally made exclusively of copper or steel. Now stainless steel, aluminum and plastic predominate, but one can still find graters made of...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 9, 2001

New Sensationalism in the city

SHANGHAI, by Riichi Yokomitsu. Translated with a postscript by Dennis Washburn. Center for Japanese Studies, Ann Arbor; University of Michigan Press, 2001. 242 pp., $45 (cloth), $18.95 (paper). Riichi Yokomitsu's first novel, "Shanghai," was published in magazine installments between 1928 and 1931....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 9, 2001

Adan: A hidden tropical paradise

The chances of discovering Adan by accident are about as great as seeing snow in Okinawa -- in summer. It lies in anonymous residential territory in an unprepossessing quadrant of darkest Mita, well away from the regular foraging trails of mainstream Minato Ward. But even if you were to stumble unaided...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Sep 9, 2001

Katsuya Takasu, holding back the years

Katsuya Takasu regards his body as a vehicle to carry his mind. So what he had done to his face two years ago was, as he puts it, "just like fixing an old jalopy."
SOCCER / J. League
Sep 9, 2001

Choi tallies twice as JEF tops Reds

South Korea forward Choi Yong Soo scored two goals in the first half as JEF United Ichihara downed the Urawa Reds 2-1 at Tokyo's National Stadium on Saturday night.
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Sep 9, 2001

Home is where the harvest is

If you yearn to glimpse a vineyard in autumn, consider visiting one in Japan. In several prefectures, quality-minded vintners are exploring the grape varietals, cultivation techniques and microclimates needed to produce first-class wines.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2001

Official says he padded bills for 20 years

An assistant director of the Foreign Ministry who was arrested Thursday on suspicion of defrauding the state out of some 423 million yen by padding hotel bills for international meetings in 1995 has admitted padding accommodation fees for the past 20 years, investigative sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2001

Cabinet to start on extra budget

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday instructed his Cabinet to begin work on a supplementary budget for the current fiscal year after official data confirmed that the nation's economy shrank in the second quarter of 2001.
SOCCER / J. League
Sep 8, 2001

Urawa's Okano moves to Kobe

Urawa Reds forward Masayuki Okano will move to Vissel Kobe on a 5-month loan, the Reds announced Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2001

South African president to visit

South African President Thabo Mbeki will begin a three-day visit to Japan on Oct. 1 to deepen ties between the two countries, Foreign Ministry Press Secretary Norio Hattori announced Friday.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 8, 2001

Minamoto to retire after season

Olympic bronze-medalist and 50-meter freestyle national record-holder Sumika Minamoto said Thursday she will retire at the end of the current swimming season.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2001

Natural gas station still standing

Almost six months have passed since a natural gas fuel station was opened on the premises of the metropolitan government complex in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward as part of a public campaign to reduce vehicle exhaust pollution in the capital.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2001

Asahi, Daiwa mull joining to form No. 5 bank group

Tokyo-based Asahi Bank and Osaka's Daiwa Bank said Friday they are considering integrating to form Japan's fifth largest banking group.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 8, 2001

Martial arts in Roppongi? Meet the Karate Bros.

Some interviews are straightforward and others are not. And some are just plain funky. I believe I'm meeting two brothers. In fact I meet an extended martial arts family, all of whom have something to say. It's more like chairing a meeting -- or a succession of meetings.
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2001

Criticism mounting over planned bond issue limit

Senior Cabinet members broke ranks Friday to criticize Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's plan to limit government bond issues to 30 trillion yen for this fiscal year.
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2001

Steel firms drop earnings outlook

Five major steelmakers on Friday revised downward earnings forecasts for the year to March due to decreased profitability springing from flagging demand and product prices.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2001

Defense chief heads to East Timor

Defense Agency Director General Gen Nakatani left Friday for the United States, Indonesia and East Timor, government officials said.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic