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LIFE / Travel
Feb 23, 2003

Austere monks in a lavish monastery

It seems at first that they are not of this world, these monks living out their lives of mountain seclusion. They glide purposefully -- as if on some devout mission from on high -- through the monastery corridors. At times, they flit by at great speed, their black tunics and dark blue robes swishing...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 23, 2003

The picture of innocence?

Sex, nudity and violence -- there's a lot of it happening in Kobe.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Feb 23, 2003

Try to score a pint here

Sports bars and pubs were big business during the 2002 World Cup Soccer finals cohosted by Japan and South Korea. Many opened in Tokyo just in time to milk the influx of fans. But for the three partners who teamed up to create the Clubhouse in Shinjuku, the soccer was simply a bonus. Their target had...
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2003

Bill seeks to ensure genetic engineering doesn't get out of hand

The government is facing an unusual challenge -- regulating a science that has not yet proved harmful.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 21, 2003

Shimizu to lead Japanese squad

Two-time Olympic medalist Hiroyasu Shimizu and 12 other Japanese skaters will enter the season's final leg of the World Cup speedskating competition to be held March 7-9 in Heerenveen, the Netherlands, the Japan Skating Federation said Wednesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Feb 20, 2003

How to label all life, and lichen?

I am an inveterate binocular user, rarely going anywhere without a pair. They are useful not merely for enjoying scenery, and birds and mammals in their natural settings, but also for the odd peregrine falcon perched incongruously atop an urban high-rise, or for admiring architectural detail in close-up...
EDITORIALS
Feb 18, 2003

Heed the voice of the people

Last weekend, more than 6 million people demonstrated worldwide, pleading for peace and protesting U.S. plans to wage war against Iraq. The demonstrations, the largest since the Vietnam War, are proof that U.S. President George W. Bush has not convinced the world that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein poses...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2003

U.S. forces should go home

CAMBRIDGE, England -- In the recent presidential election in South Korea, candidate Roh Moo Hyun played to the populist tune when he called for U.S. troops to leave the country. This was a response to the highly emotional popular reaction to the deaths of two South Korean girls who were accidentally...
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2003

WTO still divided on farm trade tariffs

The World Trade Organization will draw up another proposal on farm trade reforms before its self-imposed March 31 deadline to set new rules, as members remained sharply at odds over the first draft issued by a WTO panel chief earlier this week, officials said Saturday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Feb 16, 2003

The turbulent isles are tranquil at last

Last of two parts Despite its appearance of timeless peace and tranquillity, the Seychelles has a turbulent history. Originally discovered by the Dutch, this remote archipelago in the Indian Ocean rapidly became a haunt of pirates.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 16, 2003

Climb every mountain, saving souls on the way

BONE MOUNTAIN, by Eliot Pattison. New York: St. Martin's Minotaur, 2002, 306 pp., $24.95 (cloth) Novelist Eliot Pattison really knows how to spin a story. He also wants you to sympathize with the plight of Tibetans, which is not difficult to do. "Bone Mountain," Pattison's third novel set in Tibet, is...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 15, 2003

Local boy with a liking for the finer things in life

Living in Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's "furusato" (hometown), it seems likely that Hisataka (Issa) Koizumi is related.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 13, 2003

Ensuring age is the crown of life

The English scholar John Bailey said his wife Iris Murdoch, a prolific, perfectionist novelist and lecturer, became like "a very nice 3-year-old" as her Alzheimer's disease progressed. The disease made the proteins in her brain "misfold" and collapse, forming clots called amyloids that disrupt normal...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2003

Koizumi's revenge has cost Japan dearl

Special to The Japan Times CAMBRIDGE, England -- A lot has been written about Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's third visit to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. Much of it had a high emotional content. Now that the initial furor has died down we can step back and give it a bit more thought.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 2, 2003

Can 007 fire up the Japanese on N. Korea?

As North Korea's threatening bluster continues to make international headlines, it seems almost bizarre that Japan, which would be in direct physical peril if a conflict erupted on the Korean Peninsula, has its mind on something else, namely Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents. Though important,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Feb 2, 2003

Sexuality takes a suggestive form in Eden

First of two parts The Vallee de Mai, on Praslin Island, the second-largest island in the Seychelles archipelago, is a heavenly spot. But for some, it is also a glimpse of hell or, as Milton put it, "Paradise Lost."
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2003

Economy top priority: Koizumi

Admitting that the Japanese economy is struggling to find a way out of the recession, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made clear Friday that reviving the economy will be his top priority for this year, declaring he will take "all available policy measures" to fight deflation.
COMMENTARY
Jan 31, 2003

War drums making al-Qaeda restless

ISLAMABAD -- Across the Mideast, the fact of life remains that violence breeds more violence. Thus the warning by Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah that al-Qaeda terrorists may stage retaliatory attacks if the United States leads a war against Iraq cannot be ignored. Speaking on the sidelines...
MORE SPORTS
Jan 30, 2003

Da Costa, Thys to run in Tokyo

Brazil's Ronaldo da Costa and Gert Thys of South Africa will run in next month's Tokyo International Marathon along with top Japanese invitee Shigeru Aburaya, organizers said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2003

Nonbinding water forum declaration to tout private funds and rice paddies

The government has compiled the rough draft of a declaration to be adopted at an international conference on water issues in March, calling for a greater injection of funds and technology to make safe drinking water available to more people worldwide.
EDITORIALS
Jan 26, 2003

Bananas on the brink

Bananas don't usually figure much in the news. True, there were a few occasions in recent years when the ubiquitous yellow fruit slipped off the health and food pages and onto Page 1. Mostly those stories concerned the long-running dispute between the United States and the European Union over barriers...
LIFE / Travel
Jan 26, 2003

A warrior's hometown goes prime-time

Ohara, a tiny village nestled in the mountainous region of northern Okayama Prefecture, is usually pervaded by a sense of tranquillity. Its landscape is one of rice fields punctuated by gently rising hills and the infrequent sound of a passing train.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 26, 2003

Should zoos become extinct?

Though I prefer seeing animals in the wild, I confess to being intrigued by zoos. I'm certainly not alone in my interest, as the long and varied history of zoological institutions shows.
SOCCER / J. League
Jan 24, 2003

Cafu to join Marinos

Brazil right-back Cafu of AS Roma has agreed to join the Yokohama F. Marinos after the current European season, the J. League Division One club announced Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 22, 2003

This 'Pilgrim' is hardly progress

After the bubble economy burst in 1991, disillusionment and emptiness were felt throughout Japan. When "Pilgrim" was first performed in 1989 by The Third Stage Theater Company, however, most people foresaw only continuing prosperity, fueled by rising stock and property prices and the strengthening yen....
BUSINESS
Jan 18, 2003

WTO meet in March should tackle investment rules: Japan

Japan wants the informal ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization that it will host next month to address investment rules and other topics, in addition to the main issue of farm trade.
COMMENTARY
Jan 16, 2003

Japan plods path of isolation

HONOLULU — Japan continues to be the odd man out in Northeast Asia. While the other states in the region have been forging ties and building networks with each other — even North Korea — Japan has lagged behind. Tokyo could be marginalized in its own neighborhood. That risk has motivated Japanese...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2003

DDT our best weapon in war on malaria

NEW YORK -- A serious debate is raging over the use of DDT to combat malaria. As one of the world's most serious tropical diseases, malaria kills more than a million people a year -- most of them young children. To a great extent, success in controlling malaria is owed to the use of DDT in spraying houses...

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past