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COMMENTARY
Jul 27, 2002

U.S. policies compel criticism

LONDON -- It is not anti-American or wimpish to criticize U.S. President George W. Bush's policies.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2002

Upper House panel OKs medical bills

A House of Councilors committee approved a set of bills Thursday to raise medical charges for the elderly starting in October and salaried workers in April.
COMMENTARY
Jul 25, 2002

Home of the brave, land of the snitches

WASHINGTON -- Washington "will do everything conceivable, everything humanly and technologically possible to preserve our way of life and our citizens," says Tom Ridge, director of the U.S. Office of Homeland Security. Unfortunately, the Bush administration seems ready to threaten our way of life in...
BUSINESS
Jul 22, 2002

Education key to boosting Japan's competitiveness

The Switzerland-based Institute for Management and Development releases an annual report on the international competitiveness of major countries.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 21, 2002

Sailing in the world

Japan's area is less than that of California, though its economic exclusion zone takes in an enormous 4 million sq. km of ocean. The length of the coastline per sq. km of land is second only to Denmark, yet Japan's annual celebration of its partnership with the sea, Umi no Hi (Marine Day), rated hardly...
BUSINESS
Jul 20, 2002

Follow the truth and not bureaucrats: Inose

People must share accurate information, not necessarily that issued by bureaucrats, in efforts to help a debt-ridden Japan, a key adviser on the streamlining of public corporations said Friday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Jul 19, 2002

S.U.N Project's 'Sexperimental' wonder; Delta captures Ebisu; Fuji calls

As their legend grows, it becomes more and more natural to recite the tale of S.U.N. Project in storybook form, which might go something like this:
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Jul 18, 2002

Net-based control system reality today

"The lights are on but nobody's home" used to be a slur, a criticism of inability, inadequacy, ineptitude. Not any more.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 14, 2002

Going to any lengths to avoid giving offense

Weird Tales of Self-Restraint No. 16: Heroes are Hard to Find
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 14, 2002

Buy 'em while supplies last

If there's one giant showroom where you can find up-to-the-minute electronic goods, it would have to be Akihabara's "Electric Town." In this high-tech mecca of global renown, emerging technologies hit the shelves with dizzying speed and deafening hype. If a product can leave an impression here, it can...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 14, 2002

It's a wired, wired world

If you were among the hordes of shoppers itching to spend summer bonuses last weekend, perhaps you got caught up in the frenzy in Akihabara. Everywhere in Tokyo's "Electric Town," the hunt was on for air conditioners, computers, MD players, stereos and the latest flat-screen TVs.
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2002

Coalition may amend bills on protection of information

The ruling coalition parties are considering amending controversial bills on the protection of personal information to include penalties for violations by bureaucrats and a clause to take freedom of expression into account, it was learned Saturday.
COMMENTARY
Jul 13, 2002

Unwarranted attack on U.S. drugmakers

WASHINGTON -- America's pharmaceutical industry leads the world. But that hasn't stopped U.S. politicians from threatening to destroy it.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 13, 2002

Nisei woodworker follows grain of ancestral roots

His mailbox in Kikoba, where the town of Hayama meets Yokosuka City in Kanagawa Prefecture, reads "toco," the Portuguese word for log. Lengths of bamboo lean against an outside wall.
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2002

Bad loans, job woes cloud China's 'rosy' future

Hardly a week goes by these days without Japanese companies advancing into China to tap its low labor costs or to gain a foothold in the huge market.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 10, 2002

Skist: 'Ellipsis'

If the purpose of abstraction is to get as far away from representative forms as possible, then the ultimate abstraction is something that's totally unrecognizable as anything. In the 1950s, Abstract Impressionists went to such lengths to avoid even suggesting the use of paint that judgment of their...
COMMENTARY
Jul 7, 2002

Getting that racial-quota feeling again

WASHINGTON -- "A minority of mean-spirited politicians and demagogues" have redefined the meaning of civil rights, equality and dignity, warns Julian Bond, chairman of the civil rights group National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The answer, he says, is to help the NAACP "with media,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 7, 2002

You don't know us, but . . .

The new live album from psychedelic folk duo Damon and Naomi recalls a bygone era. One can almost imagine them sharing a double bill with the Baez sisters in a smoky Greenwich Village coffee house: he hunched over his guitar, she dwarfed by her bass, her dark hair and white complexion looking naturally...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 4, 2002

GM crops' gene flow is a trickle not a flood

In Italy and France, genetically modified foods are the subject of intense public debate -- and the feelings of most of the public are negative. Speaking last month in Tokyo, Italian sociologist of science Massimiano Bucchi attributed public resistance to GM foods in these countries to the central role...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jul 4, 2002

A woodland to call not my own

On May 31 this year, our woodland here in Kurohime was finally designated as a Nagano Prefectural Trust, whose aim is to foster the rehabilitation of abused and neglected woodland, and to return it to greater and balanced biodiversity through continuing research and education.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2002

Lawyers defend poisoning suspect's silence

Legal experts and journalists in Japan sometimes forget that defendants in criminal cases are guaranteed the right to remain silent.
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Jun 30, 2002

Pioneer industrial designer creates folk crafts for the ages

The roots of Sori Yanagi, a pioneer of Japanese industrial design, lie in folk craft. The fusion of two seemingly opposite factors — the modern and traditional — makes his designs unique, yet surprisingly simple and attractive.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 30, 2002

Hear the one about the Japanese comedian?

Last Sunday, on the Fuji-TV show "Warau Inu no Hakken," two comic teams, Neptune and Uchan-Nanchan, attempted to "spread Japanese comedy" to the rest of the world. At a pre-World Cup exhibition match between the Russian national team and Shimizu S-Pulse held in Shizuoka, the five comedians who comprise...
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2002

Growing minority blurs borders of Chinatowns

In 1919, 15-year-old Zeng Yaoquan from Guang Dong Province, southern China, arrived at Yokohama port to work as a servant at a trading house that imported rice and other crops from China, run by one of his relatives.
EDITORIALS
Jun 28, 2002

Peace without Mr. Arafat

U.S. President George W. Bush has finally laid out his vision of Middle East peace, and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat does not seem to have a place in it. That is one of the few details in Mr. Bush's speech, which is long on "vision" and short on specifics. The call for a new Palestinian leadership...
COMMENTARY
Jun 27, 2002

Teetering on the edge of real democracy

ANKARA -- "The main obstacle to democracy is not Islam, but Kemalism," says Atilla Yayla, the unassuming head of Turkey's Association for Liberal Thinking. Turkey is a critically important country, but also an amazingly complicated and frustrating one. And while it has done better than most other Muslim...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2002

Aum Shinrikyo officer Niimi given death sentence for role in 26 murders

Senior Aum Shinrikyo figure Tomomitsu Niimi was sentenced Wednesday to death for his role in 26 murders and other crimes committed by the doomsday cult, including two deadly sarin attacks.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’