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COMMUNITY
Jun 10, 2001

Home (not so) sweet home

"The word 'home' comes from the Nordic and Germanic languages and means a place of comfort, a warm fire and a place to sleep," said Colleen Lanki, artistic director of Kee Company, a Tokyo-based bilingual theater group.
LIFE
Jun 10, 2001

Joseph Conder: Enduring legacies of a 'high-collar' expat

Japanese domestic architecture has changed a lot in the last 100 years, but Western-style architecture was slow taking off and in fact the modern Japanese architectural establishment owes its organization, training system and much of its sense of style to one man: Josiah Conder.
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Jun 10, 2001

A daughter of Madagascar traces a path home to Asia

"I feel at home in Asia," said Hanitra, leader of the group Tarika, during a recent visit to Tokyo. "Africa is more foreign to me."
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Jun 10, 2001

Sake gold standards shifting

Last week, on May 30, the Zenkoku Shinshu Kanpyo Kai, or National New Sake Tasting Competition, was held in Hiroshima. This year 1,133 sake that made it through the nine regional competitions were tasted blindly by a panel of government-employed, highly trained judges. Out of these, 382 were given a...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 10, 2001

Zetton: A buzz that can't be resisted

Call it what you like -- drawing power, charisma, sex appeal or the Koizumi quality -- new restaurants need that extra something to succeed, no less than populist politicians with big, Beethoven-look hair. Zetton, the hot new place just up from Shibuya-bashi in Ebisu, has just the right sort of buzz....
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

Killings shock parents, residents

OSAKA — Shock and disbelief gripped the city of Ikeda, an affluent Osaka suburb, Friday following the murder of eight elementary school children as parents, teachers and neighbors struggled to find an explanation for why it happened.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

Global assessment of environment aims to provide layman's summary

Walter Reid is entering uncharted territory.
EDITORIALS
Jun 8, 2001

No answers in Nepal

The mountainous little Himalayan country of Nepal exploded into the headlines last week on the strength of an incident as bizarre, as mysterious -- and as bloody -- as the final scene of "Hamlet." On Friday, June 1, Nepal's King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev was shot to death along with his wife and seven...
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2001

Tokyo Gov. Ishihara tops national list as 'ideal father'

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, 68, topped the list of a national survey as the "ideal father," with respondents noting his leadership qualities, articulation and ability to get things done.
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2001

Ginza denizens fight to preserve glory in face of commercialism

Tokyo's Ginza district may have lost some of its past glory but several elderly people there are working to ensure that it remains a showcase of bustling Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jun 7, 2001

Jeffords bombshell overshadows tax bill

It has been interesting to watch the blame game explode in the week since U.S. Sen. James Jeffords decided to leave the Republican Party. In the immediate aftermath, there was a sense of disbelief, mixed with a bit of "we'll get a Democrat to switch and all will be well."
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2001

Chiba sees needs for press clubs

Chiba Gov. Akiko Domoto, a former TV reporter, said Wednesday that the prefectural government needs a press club due to the need for speed and accuracy in media coverage.
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2001

Men in 30s, 40s getting fat

Men in their 30s and 40s are increasingly becoming overweight and are also increasingly likely to have hyperlipemia, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 7, 2001

Good intentions jinx the 'living dead'

Doom and gloom this week for those who believe in the essential goodness of the human race, with two papers in the journal Science that implicate humans in mass extinctions of mammals in North America and Australia.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2001

Robbing of pork barrel has LDP squealing

When Hiroshi Kato, president of Chiba University of Commerce, stepped into a Tokyo hotel room one day in the early 1980s, he soon realized he had violated a political taboo.
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2001

New Zealand offering Japan 'soft trade' alternative: envoy

New Zealand is better-placed than other English-speaking nations to help Japan's goal of internationalizing its citizens, according to Ambassador Phillip Gibson.
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 5, 2001

Japan holds Brazil to draw

KASHIMA, Ibaraki Pref. -- Japan and Brazil played to a 0-0 draw in their final first-round game of the Confederations Cup at Ibaraki Stadium in Kashima on Monday, which meant that Japan finished on top of Group A and Brazil second.
LIFE / Travel
Jun 5, 2001

Sparks fly in Mexico's city of artists and artisans

SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, Mexico -- Having grown up in Los Angeles, where only the sanest of fireworks were legally sold, I was taught that colorful sparks shooting up higher than 30 cm would surely make someone pay for their reckless abandon. How happy I was to discover here that it's not necessarily true....
COMMENTARY
Jun 4, 2001

Japan needs its own third way

Since it debuted a little over a month ago, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration has been trumpeting the slogan "No structural reform, no economic recovery." Whether that is true is arguable. But there is no question that "structural reform" means reshaping Japan's outdated market economy...
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2001

Koizumi urged to rethink shrine visit

Former Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Koichi Kato, an ally of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, urged Koizumi to reconsider his pledge to visit Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on the Aug. 15 anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2001

New Komeito joins call to lift freeze on peacekeeping forces

The leader of New Komeito said he does not object to a view expressed by Taku Yamasaki, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, that the freeze on Japanese participation in U.N. peacekeeping forces should be lifted.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2001

Can Koizumi turn popularity into power?

Looking at Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's popularity and its spillover effect on the Liberal Democratic Party, one has to be impressed. Recent highly popular actions, such as the prime minister's decision not to challenge a court decision awarding compensation to leprosy victims, only add to the...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 2, 2001

Glen S. Fukushima

"To me, the U.S. and Japan are fascinating, as they stand at polar extremes in the way their societies are organized. Philosophy, culture, history set Japan apart from other industrialized countries, especially the U.S. Having spent many years in both the U.S. and Japan, I enjoy assisting the two peoples...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2001

New Zealand tailors defense to real needs

Some Kiwis can fly -- very fast. But the New Zealand government wants to clip their wings.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2001

Romance, danger lurk in e-mail personals

Upon meeting her 28-year-old date, "Koneko" found him to be as cool as she had imagined from his countless e-mails.
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jun 1, 2001

Japanese rat snake

* Japanese name: Aodaisho
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2001

Koizumi urges adoption of 'e-voting' in local polls

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi urged a government information technology panel Thursday to consider ways to introduce electronic voting in local elections, officials said.
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2001

Smokers' deadly paradise

For Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Hal Boyle, it wasn't too difficult to tell a man from a woman. "If it always offers you a cigar, it's a man," he quipped. "If it always is asking for a cigarette, then waits for a light, it's a woman."
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

Tobacco industry 'Insider' takes his campaign to Japan

Educational and grassroots activities will be crucial if Japan is to successfully reduce the nation's relatively high number of smokers and incidence of lung cancer -- one of the leading causes of death in this country, said scientist and tobacco educator Jeffrey Wigand.

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