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EDITORIALS
Nov 14, 2001

Another great leap forward

Fifteen years of hard bargaining paid off last weekend as China joined the World Trade Organization. The tenacity and persistence of Chinese negotiations are proof of the importance China's leaders attach to entry into the WTO. It marks China's re-emergence as a modern nation and will fully integrate...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2001

Astronaut's husband more than happy to play waiting game

"In the history of humankind, the first Asian husband of someone who has been into space."
CULTURE / Music
Nov 11, 2001

Back in brass -- and loving it

In the '60s and '70s, when rock was king, for any North American teen who dreamed of musical fame, learning to play the electric guitar with suitably straddle-legged machismo was the only route to nirvana. Taking up other unfashionable instruments like the trumpet, saxophone, tuba, clarinet, squeeze...
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.
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...
COMMENTARY
Nov 10, 2001

At last, Mori solution gets reconsidered

The events of Sept. 11 have at least done some good. To bolster its war on "terrorism," the United States seems willing finally to put an end to its highly contrived legacy of Cold War, anti-Beijing policies. Meanwhile, Japan may be ready to end its highly contrived, 50-year Cold War dispute with Moscow...
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2001

Afghan man tells Osaka court of Taliban brutality

OSAKA -- An Afghan man suing the Japanese government for not granting him refugee status testified before the Osaka District Court on Friday of the cruelty inflicted upon him and his family by the ruling Taliban in his home country.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 10, 2001

Exotic Japan found in mundane things

I had just purchased a sweat shirt at the Gap, picked up some shampoo at the Body Shop and ordered pizza from Pizza Hut when I received an e-mail saying: "You live in Japan? How exotic!"
EDITORIALS
Nov 9, 2001

ASEAN dares to dream

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has once again demonstrated its willingness to dream. This year's summit meeting, held this week in Brunei, ended with a call to conclude a free-trade area with China. It is a seductive vision, but it is hard to envision the project's success: ASEAN is already...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / LEARNING BY HEART
Nov 9, 2001

Music, dance help young minds and bodies grow

For American Amy Nanavati, the mother of 1-year-old Elizabeth, moving to Tokyo from New York earlier this year felt overwhelming. And then she discovered Kindermusik.
JAPAN
Nov 8, 2001

Japanese merit peace prize: scholar

A U.S. scholar engaged in spreading the spirit of the Japanese Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 will propose Thursday in New York that the article and the Japanese people be awarded a special Nobel Peace Prize, his supporters in Japan said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2001

Imperial eyes shielded from reality of homelessness

The homeless at Ueno Park were up early Monday, with hundreds of the park dwellers quietly disassembling their tents and packing their belongings onto carts soon after dawn.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 7, 2001

MLB contraction: Say it ain't so, Bud

Just about the time you are reading this, officials of Major League Baseball should be discussing an issue that has never come up before in our lifetime: contraction. You know the story; MLB commissioner Bud Selig has said folding two franchises, rolling back the majors from 30 to 28 teams, may be a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 7, 2001

Belly dancin' the night away

W hether at hip, ambient club events, in evening classes, at gyms and sports halls, or at Middle Eastern restaurants, belly-dancing is experiencing a revival in Tokyo. It is tempting to dismiss this as an oriental cliche: either a titillating amusement for bored suburban housewives, or an exotic divertissement...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 7, 2001

The boy is back in town

'Fantasma," released in 1997, was arguably the most internationally acclaimed Japanese pop record since Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Solid State Survivor." A sonic journey through musical history, from Bach to the Beach Boys, it became a fixture on critics' "best-of" lists that year its creator, Cornelius,...
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2001

Labels eyed to track cows' history

The farm ministry has begun developing a system to numerically label every package of beef to show consumers the birthplace of the cow it is from and the farms where it was raised, ministry sources said Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2001

Murky international image of Koizumi

CAMBRIDGE, England -- We get the leaders we deserve, so we are told. But do we always know who our leaders are? I am constantly frustrated in China by being told what a great prime minister Margaret Thatcher was.
COMMENTARY
Nov 4, 2001

NGOs poised to invigorate Korean politics

SEOUL -- Nongovernmental organizations and local political autonomy have both contributed greatly to the advancement of democracy in South Korea. Both have been instrumental in checking centralized political power, bringing political decision-making closer to the people and increasing the political awareness...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 4, 2001

Charlie Watts Tentet: Nothing but a jazz thing

In the 1960s, The Rolling Stones led the way in forging a rougher, rootsier style of rock out of R&B, '50s rock 'n' roll and Chicago blues. As the band's drummer, Charlie Watts helped set a new standard of rhythmic structure for rock, and his tight, anchoring beat was widely imitated. After that, what's...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 4, 2001

Cities that go with the flow

LEARNING FROM THE JAPANESE CITY: West Meets East in Urban Design, by Barrie Shelton. London: E. and F.N. Spon/Routledge, 2001, 210 pp., profusely illustrated, 42.50 British pounds (cloth) In this interesting study of Japanese urban space, the author writes that when he thinks of the Western city he envisions...
CULTURE / Art
Oct 31, 2001

The gift of Ghibli

When I first heard that Hayao Miyazaki was planning a museum in Mitaka dedicated to the films that his Studio Ghibli animators and he had created over the years, I imagined animation cels framed on beige walls. Save for dedicated fans, it wasn't the most thrilling prospect for a Saturday afternoon, especially...
Events
Oct 30, 2001

Forum holds up Omi feudal merchants as models of corporate responsibility

OMI-HACHIMAN, Shiga Pref. -- The 20th century socioeconomic system saw most people consumed with the pursuit of profit. Today's businesspeople, however, must re-examine their raison d'etre as the idea of corporate responsibility takes hold.
SOCCER / THE BALD TRUTH
Oct 30, 2001

Nakata not doing the business for Parma

Hidetoshi Nakata is in serious danger of turning into the "Plonker of Parma." Or worse still, the Japanese Nigel Clough.
COMMUNITY
Oct 28, 2001

Kazuo Ishiguro: In praise of nostalgia as idealism

Kazuo Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki in 1954, and at age 5 he moved with his parents to London, where he has lived ever since. In 1986, his second novel, "An Artist of the Floating World," was nominated for Britain's leading award for fiction, the Booker Prize. Three years later, his next and arguably...
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Oct 28, 2001

A rough guide to the indies

Japan's indie music scene is a fractured miasma of competing and collaborating subgenres. The sheer number of bands is, as anyone who has looked at Pia's live house listings recently, overwhelming. Like a fan searching for a hidden venue in the twisted back streets of Shimokitazawa or Koenji, you can...

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