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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jan 1, 2003

So you thought '02 was good? Well, there's Mori to come

It looks, at first glance, like a refreshing case of "out with the old, and in with the new": In late 2002 the Tokyo art community bade a teary goodbye to its Mecca, when the falling-down old Sagacho building, home for years to some of Japan's most progressive gallery spaces, finally closed its doors...
COMMENTARY
Dec 31, 2002

Koizumi losing ability to lead

The most striking impression about 2002 is that the world has become increasingly insecure. When two jetliners hijacked by suicide terrorists crashed into New York's World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, old-fashioned big-power games ended and a new struggle between civilized society and international...
COMMUNITY
Dec 29, 2002

Winter's ancient symbol of vigor and life

In the contemporary Western world, Christmas starts with Christmas Eve on Dec. 24. and ends with Boxing Day on Dec. 26. In times now long past, though -- and on calendars now long since consigned to history -- the date of Christmas and celebrations of the birth of Christ have varied from Dec. 25 to Jan....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 29, 2002

A practical politician with his eyes fixed firmly on the stars

SPARKY: Warrior, Peacemaker, Poet, Patriot. A Portrait of Senator Spark M. Matsunaga, by Richard Halloran. Honolulu: Matsunaga Charitable Foundation, 2002, 259 pp., paper ($16.95) At a reception for a visiting Japanese prime minister held at the White House in 1981, Alexander Haig, recently confirmed...
COMMENTARY
Dec 29, 2002

Resist the potions of the past

LONDON -- "Capitulation bottom" is the ugly and inelegant phrase used by financial analysts in London to indicate the low point in the cycle of investor optimism and pessimism -- the point where investors give up in despair, sell their shrunken shareholdings, if they can find a buyer, and start putting...
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 28, 2002

Ihara to pursue coaching career

Urawa Reds and former Japan defender Masami Ihara admitted on Friday that hanging up his boots was a tough decision to make. But Japan's most-capped player made the decision in order to prepare for a new career as a future J. League coach.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Dec 23, 2002

Bleaker times may await the grandkids

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- In four weeks this series will have run for a year, and it will be time to bring it to an end. These last four articles, therefore, will constitute a combination of conclusions and parting thoughts.
COMMENTARY
Dec 23, 2002

Fundamentalism twists ethics of religions

LONDON -- Because of the events of 9/11 and al-Qaeda terrorism, we have all become deeply concerned about the malevolent aspects of Islamic fundamentalism. It is not always easy to remember that most followers of Islam are moderate and tolerant.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 22, 2002

Shibui ready to hit Nagoya road

Yoko Shibui, who finished third in the Chicago Marathon in October, said Saturday she plans to run in Nagoya in March in a bid to earn a place in the women's marathon at next year's World Championships in Paris.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Dec 16, 2002

Sicily's sobering message for grandparents

SYRACUSE, Sicily -- Sicily is an ideal place to ponder the fate of civilizations and to reflect on the future. This island off the boot of Italy, with a population of 5 million, has been a crossroads of civilizations for almost three millennia. The Greeks, Romans, Saracens, Normans, Catalans, French,...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2002

Anti-Americanism sharpens U.S. attitudes

HONOLULU -- As anti-American emotions have erupted in the Islamic world and Asia, the response from Americans has increasingly taken on a hard edge. Some of the rejoinders have been predictable, but others are a surprise.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 16, 2002

The thorny topic of 'office flowers'

Nowadays the term "OL (office lady)" is seen as semiderogatory (about time, too), and some companies have trashed it completely and started using simply jyosei shain (women employees). This is to differentiate them from sogoshoku (general worker), which is not gender-specific but is used to describe...
COMMENTARY
Dec 12, 2002

Which is worse, adultery or promiscuity?

JEJU, South Korea -- Adultery or promiscuity: Which is worse? Oddly enough, that question hung over discussions at the United Nations-ROK conference* that convened last week at this South Korean resort. Those of us debating "changing security dynamics and their implications for disarmament and nonproliferation"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Dec 11, 2002

In search of the real artist-potter Ogata Kenzan

"Sensational art finds are both desired and feared: desired because they become a form of pleasure and capital; feared because they displace something or somebody. Japan has had its share of such moments."
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Dec 7, 2002

NATO's Balkanization begins

MOSCOW -- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was established after World War II to protect Western Europe from a possible Soviet invasion. Once the Soviet empire crumbled, it was left without a purpose. In the euphoria of 1989-1991, it seemed that democracy and humanism had triumphed throughout Europe,...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 6, 2002

Newcastle's Robson set for dramatic return to Nou Camp

LONDON -- Dreams, apparently, do come true.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2002

China has robbed Keio University, Japan's Foreign Ministry of their independence

NEW YORK -- Japan has been in an uproar since five of its citizens who were abducted by North Korean agents more than 20 years ago were allowed to return home Oct. 15. But an even more ominous event for the country, though not prominently reported by the mass media, occurred last month: the "kidnapping"...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 1, 2002

A look at the trials of the uprooted

Though so-called international marriages continue to become more commonplace in Japan, the authorities still treat them as glaring exceptions that call for special treatment. If you're not a Japanese national and you want to make sure you can stay in Japan in the event you divorce your Japanese spouse,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 30, 2002

Randolph Stensen

Refugees International Japan will hold its annual ceremony "Light Up the Life of a Refugee Child" at noon on Dec. 5. The ceremony transforms Tokyo Station's north hall, the Marunouchi exit, into a glittering, pulsating Christmas scene, with the illuminating of a giant decorated tree, sales of cards and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 27, 2002

Groove Collective forged in the fires of a mad experiment

In the fall of 1995, I spent many nights in a dank basement club called the Cooler, a former refrigerated warehouse in Manhattan's Meatpacking District. The neighborhood was raw -- the slaughterhouse smell of blood and death had coagulated in the cobblestones of Gansevoort Street and at night tall transvestite...
COMMENTARY
Nov 26, 2002

Environmental security risks

HONOLULU -- The United States has become acutely aware of "new security threats" since 9/11. Transnational terrorism does not fit neatly within the mind-set that has guided U.S. national security thinking throughout the 20th century. The move to create a homeland security department is proof of the need...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Nov 25, 2002

'Asianization' and 'Wimbledonization' can avert final collapse

An economy is like a balloon. Pump hot air into it and it will soar up into the heavens. If it soars too high for too long, it eventually gets worn or torn, or both, and starts to collapse.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2002

Angolans starve as oil revenue vanishes

NEW YORK -- It is a sad paradox that one of the potentially richest developing countries in the world is going through one of its worst crises in history. It is a humanitarian crisis that is, to a large extent, the result of that country's corrupt leadership. While the threat of starvation rages throughout...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 22, 2002

Reduce friendly matches, not Champions League games

LONDON -- Tord Grip, the assistant to England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, once sat next to a supporter on a plane bound for a game in Germany. The fan remarked to the Swede who watches at least three games each week at home and abroad: "You must have lots of air miles."
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2002

Sept. 11 radically shifts policy priorities for U.S.

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have radically altered the policy priorities of the United States, which could have wide-ranging international implications for years to come, according to American experts taking part in a recent seminar in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Nov 13, 2002

Look again at potting traditions

In the world of Japanese ceramics, certain styles have clearly defined identities that have been appreciated down the centuries. Mere mention of Bizen pottery will likely bring to mind a rustic, brown, natural ash-glazed style.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 9, 2002

Restoring hemp to natural place in Japan's culture

Even as a child, Yasunao Nakayama knew of the importance of hemp, called "suna" in Japanese but most commonly known as "asa." His grandfather grew a plot of the stuff, for use in ritual Shinto ceremonies.
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.

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