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EDITORIALS
Nov 10, 2002

Instruments of pain

You have to love scientists. Diligently they toil away at their abstruse projects, oblivious to such important issues as war and peace and terrorism and who's going to win the Kyushu Basho. We pay them next to nothing, ignore their pointy-headed little reports and cheer them on only when they score the...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 10, 2002

Ishihara could be spiked with his own barbs

Exactly a year ago in the weekly women's magazine Shukan Josei, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara shot off a few of his patented provocative statements. His remarks about middle-aged women were particularly noteworthy. "Old ladies have proved to be the biggest obstacle to the progress of civilization," he...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 10, 2002

A wretched winter for Tories and royals

LONDON -- This is proving to a wretched winter for two of Britain's most hallowed institutions. The reasons say much about the way the country has changed -- and is changing.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 10, 2002

Clueing in on death, crime and happiness

The three dominant themes of this season's crop of drama series are detectives, fathers and hospitals, all of which can be found in this week's "Monday Mystery Theatre" (TBS, 9 p.m.). In "The Man Who Pursues the Truth," a brilliant surgeon investigates the death of a man who, like himself, lost a daughter...
BUSINESS
Nov 9, 2002

Industry crusader to proceed with care

Newly appointed industrial revival minister Sadakazu Tanigaki pledged Friday to proceed carefully with his new mission, stressing the difficulty of balancing public and private forces in selecting viable companies.
EDITORIALS
Nov 9, 2002

Changing of the Beijing guard

China is set to have a new generation of younger leaders. The Chinese Communist Party will announce a sweeping reshuffle at a plenary session of the Central Committee following the 16th Party Congress, which opened Friday for a weeklong session. The National People's Congress next spring will also choose...
JAPAN
Nov 8, 2002

Group for mentally ill admits subsidy abuse

A public-interest organization for families of the mentally impaired used more than 200 million yen in subsidies for purposes other than their original intent, group officials said Thursday.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 8, 2002

F.A. in free fall as Premier League clubs make play for power

LONDON -- It was Ron Saunders, the former Aston Villa manager, who once said: "If you're going to commit suicide, do it yourself."
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 8, 2002

Lil' Angel packs big league punch

The knock on Japanese players used to be that they were too small and underpowered to make it in North America's big leagues. But with the recent success of the Seattle Mariners' Ichiro Suzuki, that argument has been laid to rest.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Nov 8, 2002

Fishing for parental help on field trips

For me, a major benefit of moving to Japan was not having to chaperone school field trips anymore.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Nov 6, 2002

Feminist charts no-woman's-land between peaceniks and the SDF

On Sept. 3 and 4 this year, soldiers at a Ground Self-Defense Force base in Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu were joined by an improbable guest: Japan's premier feminist and antiwar artist, Yoshiko Shimada.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 6, 2002

A message of tolerance set in stone

History is never short on irony. The Indian subcontinent, now one of the world's most unstable nuclear hotbeds, once cradled a religion founded on nonviolence. And what is today a breeding ground for sectarian fundamentalism was the birthplace of a rich artistic heritage that drew deeply on the tolerant...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 6, 2002

Blanche the tormented focus of a fractured world

In this production of "A Streetcar Named Desire," the classic Tennessee Williams drama of human relationships, gone are all the hues and shades of human relationships bar one -- the relationship of its "heroine," Blanche DuBois, to the fragmented and fragmenting world she inhabits. As staged by director...
EDITORIALS
Nov 5, 2002

Extensive debate on the Constitution

A Lower House constitutional research panel last week released an interim report summarizing nearly three years of its discussions. The voluminous document covers a wide range of subjects, including the Emperor system, roles of the Self-Defense Forces and basic human rights. However, it leaves open the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2002

Nisei seeks 'kiyomoto' doctorate

Mark Oshima first wanted to study Japan's prewar colonial policy and become an academic, changed his mind and decided to earn a doctorate in 19th century kabuki, and ended up studying "kiyomoto" -- musical accompaniment to kabuki dancing.
COMMENTARY
Nov 5, 2002

Testing Koizumi's commitment to change

Last week was likely the most important in the tenure of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Three events -- by-elections, the unveiling of his economic plan and the start of normalization talks with North Korea -- tested his commitment to bringing about change in Japan.
COMMENTARY
Nov 4, 2002

Greatest generals gave peace a chance

LOS ANGELES -- Sometimes the vital struggle for peace and stability is too important to be left to civilian "experts," especially when there are exceptional generals to help save nations from disaster. That was patently the case after Japan's crushing World War II defeat: The Japanese certainly benefited...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Nov 4, 2002

Contributing to the crisis of capitalism

YAOUNDE, Cameroon -- During a conversation at a dinner in Shanghai recently with some Chinese friends, the comment was made that Japanese businessmen in China were now known quite willingly to accept various forms of bribes and kickbacks. The man who was making this comment, who knows Japan quite well...
COMMENTARY
Nov 4, 2002

Market approach to intimacy

LONDON -- The front page of Wednesday's Daily Mirror said: "Angus Deayton is a coke-snorting, hooker-hiring, three-in-a-bed love rat . . ." The front page of the Daily Mail said: "John Leslie is a vile, arrogant man who despises women . . ." Both men were sacked by their TV employers the same day.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2002

Russian youth dodge conscript military

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- It took a while to get the young deserter to talk. Roman had fled his army unit and was staying with Tatiana Barykina and her family, and they could see the scars on his wrist and sense the pain that hung upon him like a millstone.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 3, 2002

Bustling Chinatown's squeaky-clean world within

Even before you pass beneath one of the 10 ornamented gates marking the boundaries of Yokohama's Chinatown, you start picking up signals that you're about to cross into a different country.
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Nov 3, 2002

Sapporo makes quickest ever exit from J1

Consadole Sapporo was relegated to Division Two with four more matches remaining in the season -- the quickest ever exit from the top division of the J. League.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 3, 2002

Abductees watch fate unfold through TV

Fuji TV, the Asahi Shimbun and the Mainichi Shimbun received unanimous disapprobation for their Oct. 25 interview with Kim Hye Gyong, the 15-year-old daughter of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Korean agents in 1977 at the age of 13 and is presumed dead. The three media companies apologized,...
JAPAN / Media
Nov 3, 2002

Vernacular Views

Philosophy Professor Kenji Tsuchiya of Ochanomizu Women's University has got a big problem, as related in his column in the weekly Shukan Bunshun.
COMMENTARY
Nov 3, 2002

Bush's legacy of cynicism and contempt

U.S. President George W. Bush and his henchmen stole the presidency. They threw thousands of innocent people into prison without even charging them with a crime. They're gearing up to invade Iraq without bothering to come up with a substantial justification. Now some Democrats and progressive Americans...
BUSINESS
Nov 2, 2002

Targets for debt ratios to be part of rescue deal

The government is considering setting debt-ratio targets that companies in danger of folding will be required to meet before getting government help securing further financing, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma said Friday.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami