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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 23, 2001

Japan well-served by 'soft power' strategy

Japan's International Relations: Politics, Economics and Security, by Glenn D. Hook, Julie Gilson, Christopher W. Hughes and Hugo Dobson. London & New York, Routledge, 2001, 532 pp. $32.95 (paper). Problem child, kingmaker and political gadfly, Ichiro Ozawa has long been one of the most ambitious men...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2001

Argentina has no choice but to default

NEW YORK -- Argentina is now experiencing one of its most severe economic and social crises in recent history. Riots are spreading through the country and the government seems increasingly unable to control the situation. The declaration of a state of siege for 30 days, although a necessary measure to...
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Dec 23, 2001

Buffalo Daughter: A new addition to the family

Being in a band is like being married to more than one person simultaneously. And like any married couple, bands have their own special neuroses. The dysfunctions of any given group are compounded by long hours in the hothouse confines of a studio and even longer hours on the road.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Dec 23, 2001

An o-tososan a year keeps the doc away

It's a rare occasion or ceremony that does not include some sake in Japan, and that harbinger of renewal, New Year's Day, is no exception. Although sake figures prominently in o-shogatsu celebrations from morning to night, opening the year with a prayer for health in the form of drinking o-toso is perhaps...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 23, 2001

Robbing the little guy of life's pleasures

Following the government's eleventh-hour decision to forgo a planned increase in the tax on happoshu foamy liquor the Asahi Shimbun ran an editorial cartoon showing a happy man sitting at the kotatsu and hoisting a can of the beerlike stuff in tribute to his TV, which showed Koizumi father and son toasting...
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2001

Coast guard sinks suspect ship in East China Sea

An unidentified ship spotted within Japan's exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea sank Saturday night after being shot at by Japan Coast Guard vessels that had been pursuing it, coast guard officials said.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 23, 2001

On a slow boat to Bangkok

SLITHERING SOUTH: by Steve Van Beek. Hong Kong: Wind & Water, Inc., 2001. 430 pp. with map and glossary, $11.95. Sliding (or bumping) down the shallow Ping River, the long tributary that joins the Chao Phya and flows through Bangkok, Steve Van Beek pondered his odyssey. Having begun in the river's headwaters...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 23, 2001

A gift from the South of France

At this time of year, the frigid streets of Tokyo feel a very long way from the sun-baked hills and turquoise seas of the South of France. But they have cold weather down there too. And for that we should be thankful -- because if they didn't have winter, the local fisher-folk might never have developed...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 23, 2001

Rethinking the threat that never was

NO MORE BASHING: Building a New Japan-United States Economic Relationship, by C. Fred Bergsten, Takatoshi Ito and Marcus Noland. Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics, October, 2001, 328 pp., $23.95 (paper). What a difference a decade makes. Ten years ago, the United States was widely...
EDITORIALS
Dec 23, 2001

Milking maids for all they're worth

Here's a well-timed debate. In the runup to Christmas, the traditional season of generosity and good will to all, the citizens of Hong Kong have been arguing the rights and wrongs of their government's pending proposal to cut the minimum wage of foreign (mostly Filipino) domestic workers for the second...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 23, 2001

Beating the game -- at last

"Dad, could you show me how to make a jump shot?" So my younger son once requested as we stood beneath a hoop in his junior-high playground.
COMMUNITY
Dec 23, 2001

Pearls reign as queen of gems

Pearls, the "Queen of Gems," have perhaps the longest history of any of the precious stones. References to them first appeared in 5,000-year-old Hindu legends in which the god Krishna was said to have discovered them and given one to his daughter Pandaa on her wedding day. China's "Shu King," a history...
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Dec 23, 2001

Classmates opened interpreter's eyes to East Europe states

For 14-year-old Mari Yonehara, each of her classmates was a window on the world. Far from their homelands, the students at her school in Prague, in what was then Czechoslovakia, had multinational backgrounds and were patriotic. But despite her five-year stay in the city and her near-perfect grasp of...
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Dec 23, 2001

Finding the Christmas spirit (and ale)

Christmas was once a lonely business for an expat in Japan. With no holiday, no family and everyone who could manage it having already left town, it was downright dismal -- even for a seasoned Japan-hand.
COMMENTARY
Dec 22, 2001

China remains a vital friend for Pakistan

ISLAMABAD -- Even before Gen. Pervez Musharraf embarked Thursday on his trip to China, which will last through Monday, analysts were quick to predict a new phase in the time-tested relationship between the two neighbors.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2001

Shanghai mayor's fate may signal storm

HONG KONG -- A political mystery arose in Shanghai as the year drew to an end. Few foreigners took much notice. Yet the unexplained incident could indicate that a bumpy year lies ahead for politics in China.
EDITORIALS
Dec 22, 2001

Reform budget a double-edged sword

The Finance Ministry's draft general-account budget, which was unveiled Thursday, is the first under the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Living up to his "fiscal reform" slogan, he has kept his pledge to cap bond issuance at 30 trillion yen. The borrowing limit, however, is a "double-edged...
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2001

Bloc agrees to reform civil-servant pay system

The three ruling parties approved a government plan Friday to introduce a new wage system for national government officials based on competency and achievements, party officials said.
BUSINESS
Dec 22, 2001

Governments wait to see how far yen will fall

Although the yen remains under downward pressure, Washington, Beijing and other countries across Asia have adopted a wait-and-see policy.
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 22, 2001

S-Pulse's Alex called up

Shimizu S-Pulse midfielder Alessandro Santos, known as Alex before winning a Japanese passport, has been called up for the Japan national team training camp slated for Jan. 21-25 for the first time, the Japan Football Association announced Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2001

AIDS devastation felt far beyond Africa

CAMBRIDGE, England -- I have just come back from a trip to Africa, my first in several years. I used to visit there frequently before my work became specialized on East Asia. This trip, to Botswana, was purely for a holiday.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2001

Penal Code violations leap to record high 2.5 million

The number of Penal Code violations reported between January and November hit a record high 2,508,983, the National Police Agency said in a report.
BUSINESS
Dec 22, 2001

Cheap burger policy under review

Ltd. has changed its half-price hamburger policy for weekdays at outlets in three prefectures, setting new discount prices that will run throughout the week, company officials said Friday. The company plans to extend the system to other areas next year, they added.
BUSINESS
Dec 22, 2001

Pundits see Japan-China spat as just the beginning

The recent trade dispute between Japan and China over three farm products was a harbinger of future trade friction between the two countries, according to pundits.

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