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EDITORIALS
Apr 1, 2001

Not-so-brilliant green tea

Green-tea drinkers have been a little blue this past month in the wake of bad news from a group of Tohoku University researchers: Green tea, according to the Japanese scientists' recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine, may not be such a panacea after all. But consumers should not feel either...
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2001

Japanese workers turn increasingly to unusual avenues for their careers

Kyodo News At a restaurant in Tokyo's fashionable Ebisu district, eatery manager Mitsuho Abe skillfully slices fresh pieces of raw flatfish with a kitchen knife and prepares potherb mustard salad.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 31, 2001

Giants start with a bang!

The Yomiuri Giants, 18-9 against Hanshin last season, continued their mastery over the Tigers as the defending Japan Series champions powered their way to a 17-3 victory over the Tigers at the Tokyo Dome on Friday night in the opening day of regular-season action for the Central League clubs.
BUSINESS
Mar 30, 2001

Investors in the dark; Tokyo rally elusive

Although global stock markets have restored a degree of stability, skepticism abounds over what is in store for the months ahead. On Wall Street, worries remain over company profits and the U.S. Federal Reserve's stated aim to engineer a soft landing. Earnings reports for the January-March quarter, due...
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2001

Tepco delays MOX debut due to opposition in Fukushima

Tokyo Electric Power Co. will postpone the launch of plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel at its nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture because of opposition from the governor, company sources said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 29, 2001

Reform out of reach for Kim Dae Jung

SEOUL -- Some weeks ago, I attended an academic conference that attempted a critical evaluation of the performance of administration of South Korea President Kim Dae Jung three years after its inception. I sat on a panel with probably the most prominent liberal political scientist in South Korea today,...
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2001

Mori unrepentant for missing king's reception

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori came under fire Wednesday for skipping a reception the night before hosted by Norway's visiting King Harald V, only to later dine at a sushi restaurant with his LDP colleagues.
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2001

Ministers ordered to have emergency plan by early April

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori instructed his economic ministers Tuesday to compile by early April a package of emergency economic measures to support Japan's fragile economy, government officials said.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 27, 2001

When justice looks the other way

Directors, as they age, usually must either move with the times or find themselves waiting by a silent phone. Since the days of D.W. Griffith, Hollywood has been full of once lordly directors who, having fallen out of fashion, are relegated to telling anecdotes about their glory days to deferential young...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 27, 2001

Poetry for every mood and season

RYOKAN: Selected Tanka, Haiku, translated by Sanford Goldstein, Shigeo Mizuguchi & Fujisato Kitajima. Kokodo, 2000, pp. 218, 2 ,000 yen. LOVE HAIKU: Masajo Suzuki's Lifetime of Love: Translations by Lee Gurga & Emiko Miyashita. Brooks Books, 2000, pp. 112, 1,600 yen. UTSUMUKU SEINEN /LOOKING DOWN:...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Mar 26, 2001

Russians living 'la vida loca'

This semester I am teaching a Dostoevsky course. Implausible plots, stumbling dialogues, everybody in love with everybody, romantic triangles overlap like mating frogs, passions mount, money changes hands and is thrown into the fire -- the normal Dostoevsky stuff.
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2001

Anxiety hangs over USJ ahead of launch

By Natsumi Mizumoto Kyodo News Many Kansai residents are counting on Universal Studios Japan to help revive Osaka's stagnant economy, but the higher the expectations, the greater the looming sense of anxiety as its launch next Saturday draws closer.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Mar 26, 2001

Never say you've apologized too much

When Ursula Smith, my publisher friend up in Vermont, wrote to say, "I can't close without offering some (futile) form of apology, as one national to another, for that unfortunate accident off Hawaii," I said there was no need to apologize to me. It was an accident, and I wasn't too clear about the meaning...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 26, 2001

Bush's crash course in global diplomacy

U.S. President George W. Bush has just concluded a crash course in Northeast Asian politics. In the past three weeks, he has hosted South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen. Now Bush has to make sense of those visits, digest the various messages...
EDITORIALS
Mar 25, 2001

Ghosts on the loose

You may have thought that the big story out of Hong Kong last week was the slumping Hang Seng Index or continuing pressure from Beijing to crack down on the Falun Gong. But no, something much more fascinating was going on, and it was going on right inside one of the places that break, but don't usually...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 25, 2001

Hot rod 'tribes' roar into the night

It's 2:30 a.m. on a Friday night outside the Shibaura parking area, a thin strip of concrete and pavement stuck to a pillar under the belly of Tokyo's Rainbow Bridge. There's a flash of red taillights as vehicles speed in. New arrivals are greeted by leather-clad bikers revving their engines, spitting...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 25, 2001

Covering Japan on foot, for abused women, kids

In late 1999, photojournalist Mary King and IT systems analyst Etsuko Shimabukuro began to get itchy feet. Back in 1996 they had completed a two-year trip that took them through three continents. This time they decided to stay closer to home.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2001

Musician turns cosmopolitan ideal on its head

Hideki Togi's definition of what makes a person truly cosmopolitan might appear somewhat anachronistic in light of the "borderless world" concept that has become popular today.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 24, 2001

Ritchie's rogues return

"Snatch" is more than a movie: It's a bubbling, babbling comic strip on wheels. Not fitting into the usual British movie mold -- it's neither a Merchant-Ivory rendition of upper-crust angst, nor a working-class saga passed on by Ken Loach -- "Snatch" is in a genre by itself, showcasing a crack ensemble...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 23, 2001

How diplomats express Japan

An Australian diplomat found modern Japanese weddings exciting and representing of the adaptability of the nation's culture, while a British participant described how much he loves "onsen" hot springs. And both did so in smooth Japanese.
SUMO
Mar 23, 2001

Kaio moves to 12-0

OSAKA -- Ozeki Kaio cruised to his 12th straight win over title pretender Tamanoshima on Thursday to hold onto the lead at the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament and edge one step closer to his second Emperor's Cup.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 23, 2001

Giants' Maru-chan talks softly and carries a big stick

No one would've blamed Domingo Martinez if he never returned to Japan after the 1998 baseball season. After hitting .283 and smacking 30 home runs for the Pacific League champion Seibu Lions that year, the designated hitter wasn't given a gold watch or even a thank-you note for his efforts. Instead he...
JAPAN
Mar 22, 2001

Elementary school kids test online educational, cultural waters

Pupils of Nankadai Higashi Elementary School near Osaka are learning firsthand the significance of communicating with their counterparts in other countries via the Internet.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Mar 22, 2001

Bush rises while Mori falls

We are just past the halfway mark in the first 100 days of the term of U.S. President George W. Bush. How is he doing? How is he doing it? What is he changing?
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Mar 22, 2001

What's in a number?

At the end of each Nihonshu column, a recommended sake is introduced to readers. Along with the name and grade, three "vital statistics" are also given. These numbers -- the nihonshu-do, the acidity and the seimai-buai -- are supposed to give a clue as to how the sake might taste.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Mar 21, 2001

Detective work in snow country

Though farther south you are already reveling in springlike breezes, the steady accumulation of snow in the northern third of Japan continues to provide an opportunity for detective work.
LIFE / Digital
Mar 21, 2001

'Metal Gear Solid 2' is worth waiting for

"Zone of the Enders," a new game for PlayStation2 from Konami, is one of the finest giant robot games ever made. But it has been upstaged by a freebie -- a bonus demo Konami packed in with ZOE.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 21, 2001

Unfit to print

I was planning to write about the rivers of blood that are running through world stock markets. Paper losses of $4.5 trillion have a way of drawing the eye and demanding an explanation. But the world intervened. (Devoted cybernauts may get that column yet; stay tuned, kids.)
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2001

BOJ revives 'zero-interest-rate' policy

The Bank of Japan decided Monday to effectively revive the "zero-interest-rate" policy, only seven months after abandoning it, as it tries anew to get a hold on the nation's faltering economy.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji