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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Oct 9, 2002

The Captains chart retro course

Nostalgia is a dangerous thing. In the wrong hands, it can be an outlet for excessive sentimentality and out-and-out kitsch.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Oct 8, 2002

Nature's poster-bear on the brink

No animal, with the possible exceptions of the dolphin and the whale, has won more hearts and minds for the cause of wildlife conservation than the giant panda.
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2002

Hussein finds 'useful idiots' in Washington

WASHINGTON -- Hitler found "Lord Haw Haw" -- William Joyce, who broadcast German propaganda to Britain during World War II -- in the dregs of British extremism. But Iraqi President Saddam Hussein finds American collaborators among senior congressional Democrats.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 6, 2002

Lifelong learning makes a dream come true

"Youth," said George Bernard Shaw, "is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children." Could he have said the same of a college education?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 6, 2002

Building bridges by degree

Life was tough for Yanan Shen at his undergraduate alma mater, located between Shanghai and Nanking in China's Chang Zhou area.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 6, 2002

When every channel is the same channel

Ever since the advent of that popular programming idea known as the "wide show" in the mid-1980s, so-called hard news and tabloid news have slowly merged into an alloy of informational reporting that defies easy categorization.
COMMUNITY
Oct 6, 2002

Cramming for life

Haruka Nakagawa is a typical 22-year-old Keio University student: full of life and always on the lookout for fun. She is one of many students who find studying a bore, and are more often spotted off campus than on it.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 5, 2002

Thai challenger Srichaphan boots Hewitt at Japan Open

Lleyton Hewitt may be the No. 1 tennis player in the world, but Friday afternoon at Tokyo's Ariake Colosseum he played second fiddle to a little-known slugger from Thailand.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 5, 2002

Rules of the 'genkan': First, wear shoes

There is a peculiar space in Japanese houses called the "genkan." Although "genkan" sounds like a Japanese English abbreviation for Genghis Kahn, the genkan has little to do with conquering and more to do with barriers. The genkan is the welcome pit just inside the front door that serves as a gathering...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 4, 2002

Solution to halting racist behavior not easy

LONDON -- UEFA is currently investigating three cases of racism during recent European ties -- Hajduk Split vs. Fulham, Valencia vs. Liverpool and PSV Eindhoven vs. Arsenal.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 4, 2002

Classy Chang leaves Japan smiling

As Michael Chang vividly recalls each memory of Japan, he sounds more like a grandfather telling family tales than the former No. 2 tennis player in the world. The good old days of the past flashed back to him, piece by piece, as Chang began talking as if this were his curtain call on this Asian island....
MORE SPORTS
Oct 4, 2002

Hewitt tested in AIG Japan Open victory

The weather was perfect. The expectations were high.
EDITORIALS
Sep 29, 2002

Bracing for the fall

For a week now, we have officially been experiencing autumn. The nights are longer than the days, extending their dark dominion by two and a half minutes every 24 hours. The air is turning cooler. Leaves and grasses are showing hints of yellow. We've even found ourselves reaching for a sweater occasionally,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Sep 29, 2002

How to gain flavors and influence yeasts

When looking at what makes sake special, one thing that comes up often is koji mold. It is the heart of the sake-making process -- no beverage in the world uses koji in its production the way that sake does. Of all factors involved in sake brewing, the addition of koji exerts the most influence on the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2002

Ken Hirai: Soul to soul

We've seen Ken Hirai do it time and time again: mesmerize audiences with his silky tenor voice and those sexily svelte good looks -- kneading the air up on stage as if to squeeze from it any drop of passion that his music has somehow failed to discharge.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 29, 2002

Modernism goes East

MODERNISM IN THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST AND JAPAN: 1918-1928, edited by Toshiharu Omuka, Kyoji Takizawa, Yoshiko Tachibana and Tsutomu Mizusawa. The Tokyo Shimbun, 2002, 254 pp., trilingual (Japanese/English/Russian), profusely illustrated, 2,500 yen (paper) In the autumn of 1920, two Russian artists arrived...
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2002

Music of the J-people

Japanese pop music is crap. So say many of my friends, especially the non-Japanese ones. They reach that conclusion after noticing that the charts are full of chipmunk-voiced idols who are long on looks and short on talent -- and whose shelf lives are only slightly longer than sushi.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 29, 2002

When mourning makes straight talk taboo

The shock that accompanied the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, quickly turned into a mood of national mourning that continues to hang over the United States a year later. As a form of social behavior, mourning comes with its own protocol, and in this particular case attempts to place the attacks...
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2002

Cabinet reshuffle to focus on reform

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he will reshuffle his Cabinet on Monday in line with a new policy agenda aimed at accelerating structural reforms.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Sep 28, 2002

Plague of smoke and scandal

MOSCOW -- The last few months have been tough on the people of Moscow. The exceptionally hot, dry summer resulted in peat fires in the capital's suburbs.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Sep 27, 2002

"Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident," "Jake's Tower"

"Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident," Eoin Colfer, Puffin Books; 2002; 288 pp. The risk with sequels is that they don't always live up to the expectations generated by the first book. But this story is clearly an exception.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2002

North Korea willing to reveal all about abductees: Foreign Ministry

North Korea has expressed readiness to disclose all information regarding the Japanese it abducted, including information on the cause of death of eight of them, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2002

It's not the economy, stupid!

Gerhard Schroeder will remain the German Chancellor after Germany's recent elections, but his majority in Parliament has become extremely narrow. His Social Democrats (SPD) got 38.5 percent of the vote, and so did the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) of his rival, Edmund Stoiber. The main reason Schroeder...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 26, 2002

U.K. comic is drawn eastward once again

As a lad in Liverpool, comedian Simon Bligh knew it was just a matter of time before he'd end up in Japan. Even the most English of culinary treats was being subjected to Orientation, drawing him Eastward.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 26, 2002

Oral hygiene, oral history and aural pollution

Flouride in Japan The queries we get! About looking after our teeth, for example. Nancy Ridenour, who lives in Gifu, recalls being told a decade ago by a Colgate rep that fluoride is not introduced into Japanese toothpaste, nor is it legal in water here. As a result, she's been bringing in supplies...
COMMENTARY
Sep 24, 2002

Building corporate integrity

A spate of corporate scandals have rocked Japan this year. Snow Brand Foods Co. and Nippon Ham Co. mislabeled beef, abusing the government's buyback program that was set up to bail out the beef industry following the outbreak of mad cow disease in Japan. Trading giant Mitsui & Co. was implicated in a...
BUSINESS / ON MANAGEMENT
Sep 24, 2002

What the U.S. Open can teach you about managing big changes

The recent U.S. Open at the Bethpage Black Course has been bountifully praised, and for all the right reasons: for being the first true public Open, for restoring a historic course to its original design and playing conditions, and for attracting fans from a considerably more populist demographic. The...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Sep 23, 2002

The future of the U.S. economy: tasks for top nations and the IMF

One year has passed since the terrorist attacks that hit New York and the Pentagon. Although the war in Afghanistan ended rather quickly, the danger of terrorism lingers on, and the Bush Administration's policy of not ruling out pre-emptive attacks has fueled new tensions. The recent slump in stock markets...
COMMENTARY
Sep 22, 2002

Label that foils compromise

Sept. 11, 2002, brought us no closer to sensible thinking about the causes of events a year earlier. The United States concentrated on its own sufferings, and plans for revenge against "terrorists." In Japan, a high-level NHK roundtable dragged out that favorite of aid agencies seeking bigger budgets,...

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan