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CULTURE / Books
Sep 8, 2002

Is life but a walk in the park?

The latest winner of the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for promising new writers of literary fiction, Shu'ichi Yoshida (born 1968), is being lauded for his light touch in portraying the loneliness and isolation of urban life today. At the Akutagawa Prize press conference, Yoshida said that he wanted to...
COMMENTARY
Sep 7, 2002

Moral obligation to war victims remains

HONG KONG -- More than half a century after World War II ended, relations between China and Japan are still marred by wartime events.
EDITORIALS
Sep 6, 2002

A blip on the economic screen?

Japan's latest GDP figures appear to support the government's view in last month's economic report that "signs of recovery are discernible in some sectors." In the April-June quarter, total output of goods and services increased 0.5 percent from the previous quarter, or 1.9 percent annually. It is the...
LIFE / Language
Sep 6, 2002

The cultural compromise tango

Our family is cosmopolitan. My marriage is a union of Britain and Japan; my brother's wife is from Colombia; and my sister-in-law's husband is Italian. When cultures come together, life is never boring. But international marriages also need skillful dancers to master the steps of the "cultural compromise"...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Sep 5, 2002

Unions build political power

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President George W. Bush spent Labor Day just like he did last year. He attended a union picnic in Pennsylvania. The difference is that last year he was courting the steelworkers. This year it was the carpenters. He and his advisers seem intent on improving his showing among union...
Japan Times
JAPAN / LEGACIES OF 9/11
Sep 5, 2002

Post-9/11 aid push highlights Japan ODA conundrum

In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, the world's major donor economies have increased their aid budgets in an effort to address a perceived link between terrorism and poverty.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 5, 2002

Soon we could all be Spiderman

Picture the scene: Athens, 350 B.C., and Aristotle is reclining in his chair in Plato's Academy. Leaning back to scratch his unruly beard, Aristotle notices a large pink-spotted gecko on the marble ceiling above him. The gecko scampers away faster than 1 meter per second, leaving Aristotle wondering...
Japan Times
JAPAN / LEGACIES OF 9/11
Sep 4, 2002

Iraq issue casts shadow on post-9/11 solidarity

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, two things crossed the mind of Shotaro Yachi of the Foreign Ministry: Japan must join the international community in condemning the acts, and must do everything possible to help the anticipated U.S. military response.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Sep 4, 2002

X Japan pianist/drummer is now a global commodity

If you've walked by the Laforet building in Harajuku recently, you might have noticed a huge banner that draped the structure's exterior featuring a masked character, looking something like a pro wrestler, poking his head out of what appears to be a body of water.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 4, 2002

No fear of flying

"There's no such thing as improvisation," the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia once said. "There's only composition. Only you do it quickly; you're composing on the spot."
CULTURE / Art
Sep 4, 2002

Designed to dazzle: a lacquerware celebration

The quintessential Japanese aesthetic is that of wabi sabi, a beauty associated with things that are simple, rustic, unpolished or even plain rundown. It is perhaps surprising, then, that this aesthetic is so little in evidence at an extensive exhibition at the Tokyo National Museum of one of Japan's...
BUSINESS / ON MANAGEMENT
Sep 3, 2002

Big raise, big head: Save the new executive from himself

A flattering article on an up-and-coming executive appeared in the business pages, followed by copycat stories in other media. When I complimented the boss on cultivating what seemed to be an extraordinary young talent, she looked me straight in the face and shook her head. "A major, major mistake. I...
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2002

Summit should move toward people-based action: official

The World Summit on Sustainable Development currently under way in Johannesburg must move beyond rhetoric and commit to action if the global environment is to improve, according to a Foreign Ministry official knowledgeable about Africa.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2002

Bill on SDF deployment to have wording altered

The government plans to make key amendments to the wording of a bill that dictates how the Self-Defense Forces will deal with a military attack in the hope that it will be enacted during the extraordinary Diet session expected to be held in the fall, informed sources said Saturday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 1, 2002

Tigers drop Swallows

Tetsuro Kawajiri pitched a three-hitter with 10 strikeouts for his first complete game in two years as the Hanshin Tigers snapped the Yakult Swallows' unbeaten streak with a 4-1 victory in the Central League on Saturday.
SOCCER / J. League
Sep 1, 2002

Jubilo starts well

IWATA, Shizuoka Pref. -- Seeking the J. League's first-ever title sweep, the first stage champion Jubilo Iwata got off to a good start by beating Vissel Kobe 1-0 with substitute forward Nobuo Kawaguchi netting the winner in the second half on Saturday night, the opening day of the Division One second...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Sep 1, 2002

How much do you really need to know?

The choice of yeast in sake brewing exerts marvelous leverage on the aroma and style of the final product. And, while creativity and diversity lead to better sake over time, things can indeed get out of hand. Today, there are so many different yeasts -- and ways of combining them -- that it almost ceases...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 1, 2002

'Seven Samurai' 101

SEVEN SAMURAI: The Ultimate Film Guides Series, by Roy Stafford. London: Longman/York Press/Pearson Education, 2001, 91 pp., 6.99 pounds (paper) "Would you be willing to do what is right, regardless of the consequences? To see good triumph over evil and use your strength and heroism to protect the lives...
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2002

Alleged abductees' kin hopeful, skeptical

Families of those believed to have been abducted to North Korea welcomed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's plan to visit the Stalinist state next month as an opportunity to make some headway on the thorny issue.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 31, 2002

Fear and loathing in XXL Las Vegas

The combination of classic American kitsch and the Japanese love for it makes Las Vegas a mandatory stop on any Japanese person's tour of the U.S. This is how I find myself in Las Vegas now with two Japanese home stay students.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2002

Artist hopes bird nest display in N.Y. inspires

Award-winning Japanese artist Mamoru Suzuki, who has collected more than 400 birds' nests from around the world, will hold an exhibition between Sept. 5 and Sept. 28 in New York to share what he considers to be nature's architectural wonders.
EDITORIALS
Aug 29, 2002

Inching toward normalization talks

Japan and North Korea are moving toward resuming the long-stalled talks to normalize relations. Foreign ministry officials from the two nations met in Pyongyang for two days earlier this week and agreed to continue consultations to explore the possibilities for restarting the negotiations. Also, Prime...
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 29, 2002

Red hot Swallows close gap on Giants

The Yakult Swallows are starting to look like birds of prey.
COMMENTARY
Aug 26, 2002

Diplomatic prowess for less

A ministerial meeting of the Initiative for Development in East Asia, held in Tokyo on Aug. 12, acknowledged the significance of maintaining adequate Official Development Assistance as a tool for strengthening regional cooperation and agreed to examine how to make more effective use of ODA. The meeting...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Aug 25, 2002

Down but not out: lessons learned in Ethiopia

Here we go again. Ten years on from the great environmental meetings and agreements made at the first Earth Summit in Rio, and the second Earth Summit is about to start in Johannesburg.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Aug 25, 2002

Mad Max: Beyond the laptop

Postmodern hijinks have become such a staple of contemporary pop music that genre bending and blending are hardly news anymore. What artist hasn't ransacked the back catalog of some long-lost funk or soul label, or lifted grooves from obscure jazz hepcats or, for the even more adventurous, modern classical...
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Aug 25, 2002

Hamako fires from the lips at today's lackluster Diet ranks

There have been many politicians who were well-known for their outspokenness while still serving in the legislature.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 24, 2002

Taking kids on a Disneyland home stay

If you stay in Japan long enough, there will come a time, equal to that of the Super Lotto, called "ongaeshi," when you have to pay back people who have helped you along your rocky limestone road to a comfortable life in Japan. I'm pretty sure that's why Japanese people always ask how long you have been...

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