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COMMENTARY
Mar 25, 2003

Weak tobacco pact reflects Japan's lukewarm attitude

The member-nations of the World Health Organization have recently approved a draft Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), putting an end to four years of negotiations. The draft is expected to be adopted at the general meeting of the WHO in May, and will take effect after 40 countries have ratified...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 23, 2003

Art on the fast track

OK, so manga are hugely popular -- but so are 500 yen umbrellas on a rainy day. Like those cheap plastic parapluies, though, manga seem little more than a temporary feature of daily commuting. Those young furiita and salarymen who thumb through the pages with barely a pause can't be getting much from...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 23, 2003

Japan's dumb leaders fail to exercise tongues

In the weeks leading up to the invasion of Iraq, it was common for reporters throughout the world to sample public opinion about it. As journalism, man-on-the-street interviews are more or less a sideshow, since, depending on the country, they offer little of substance in terms of information. Americans,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 13, 2003

Water, water -- where?

These days the talk is all about oil, but wait a couple of decades and oil politics could be a quaint historical artifact.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2003

Glimpses of Indochina life 330 years ago

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Against the current drama of the Iraqi issue, other national and regional developments seem to fade out of focus. One such "minor event" that is heading toward oblivion concerns the tiny landlocked country of Laos. At the beginning of the year, unexpected news from there made...
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 8, 2003

Matsui's father confident son can play in majors

Some words of caution from Hideki Matsui's father: His son will adjust to the big leagues, but it may take a little time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 5, 2003

Not just another pretty spaz

Singer-songwriter Rhett Miller, who is in Tokyo for a few days plugging his album "The Instigator" is feeing encouraged. "I told my manager I wanted to come back in May with a band," he says between sips of green tea at the offices of Warner Music Japan. During a solo acoustic showcase the night before...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 2, 2003

The lady explorer who took a native interest in Hokkaido

"Mori is a large, ramshackle village . . . a wild, dreary-looking place with a number of . . . disreputable characters . . . a forlorn, decayed place." Yubetsu "looks like the end of all things, as if loneliness and desolation could go no farther."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 26, 2003

Freed jazz

Musicians can be extraordinary in so many different ways. John Coltrane was on a radical quest for enlightenment until the day he died. Bill Evans could voice chords in ways no one else ever imagined. Like a cat, Theolonius Monk could step off an edge and always land on his feet. And Miles Davis? You...
COMMENTARY
Feb 20, 2003

Farcical economic flip-flops

Japan's economic debate has moved from the bizarre to the ridiculous. Just two years ago we were told that fiscal restraint was the key to economic recovery. Annual bond issues to finance government spending would not be allowed to exceed 30 trillion yen ($250 billion). In other words, cutting demand...
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.
COMMENTARY
Feb 8, 2003

Advice for Roh Moo Hyun

HONOLULU -- A recent visit by South Korean President-elect Roh Moo Hyun's foreign-policy transition team reveals that the incoming administration's policy toward North Korea is still very much in the formative stage. As a longtime student of Korean security affairs, allow me to offer South Korea's incoming...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 6, 2003

Freaks that are something to quack about

In 1832 the young Charles Darwin embarked on one of the most epic journeys in the history of biology, if not of all science. As a naturalist on the H.M.S. Beagle, Darwin saw things that challenged the prevailing view of how life arose. On returning to England five years later, he began work on what he...
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."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 1, 2003

Need a guide to Japan's flea markets? Here it is

Rather, here he is: Theodore Manning, whose book "Flea Markets of Japan: A Pocket Guide for Antique Buyers" was published last month. He no longer lives here, having returned last year to America after a 10-year stretch, so I call him in his new home base of Chicago and we talk by phone.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jan 28, 2003

Doing the tango, mama-san misery and chopper care

Learning the tango Today I found white and pink plum trees in full bloom in a local hillside cemetery.
EDITORIALS
Jan 24, 2003

The next BOJ governor

The Bank of Japan's governor, Mr. Masaru Hayami, is to retire in late March when his five-year term expires. At the moment, who will succeed him is a matter of speculation. There is no question, however, that the next governor will face the same difficult challenge that has confronted the outgoing governor:...
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2003

New Diet session opens up new questions

The Diet opens a 150-day session Monday amid widespread speculation in Nagata-cho that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi may dissolve the House of Representatives and call a snap election sometime this year -- possibly even during the session.
EDITORIALS
Jan 16, 2003

From business to politics

A fter a nine-year break, Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) this year is resuming its role in mediating political donations from affiliated companies. The aim, of course, is to increase its influence on politics. In other words, Nippon Keidanren is seeking to sway politics with the policy...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 16, 2003

When two hemispheres of the brain work as one

The French surgeon Paul Broca had a patient in his care in 1861 who had fallen and broken his hip. Eighteen months earlier the man, called Lelong, had collapsed with a stroke that left him unable to speak. When Lelong died on Broca's ward, a hip fracture being a fatal condition in those days, an autopsy...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jan 16, 2003

LeBron's new wheels really no big deal

NEW YORK -- What's all the frenzy and fury about LeBron James cruisin' around Akron in his new whip, a Hummer H2 purchased by mom, "To Son, With Love?"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Jan 8, 2003

Redeemers with feet of clay

Of the 14 ceramic objects designated as national treasures in Japan, the fact that no fewer than eight are chawan (tea bowls) is a clear sign of their importance in the culture.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 3, 2003

Vast visions made real

First of two parts These days the United States may not be pulling its weight and taking any kind of responsible lead vis-a-vis climate change and the Kyoto Protocol. In the past, however, there have been undeniable -- if occasional -- grand American visions or strokes of inspired leadership. One such...
CULTURE / Music
Jan 1, 2003

2002: The sound of a year

Chickens Coming Home to Roost Award Last fall, Dr. Dre was sued by an Indian composer who said the producer used a sample of the composer's music in Truth Hurts' hit single "Addictive" without permission and without giving credit. The composer accused Dre of "cultural imperialism" and "perpetuating...
COMMENTARY
Dec 26, 2002

A rising China lifts Asian economies

HONG KONG -- For many years now, a debate has raged over the political and economic implications of a rising China, both for the region and for the world. That China is rising is not a matter of debate.
COMMENTARY
Dec 23, 2002

Contrived crisis in education

Educational reform is becoming a political issue in Japan. At the center of the controversy is the Education Basic Law, which took effect in 1947 when the Constitution was established. Earlier this year the Central Council for Education, an advisory panel to the education minister, published an interim...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Dec 18, 2002

Chris Botti: "December" & Ella Fitzgerald: "A Swinging Christmas"

At the end of the year, music takes an ugly turn. Blaring from speaker after speaker are the same feeble renditions of songs that sound worse with each passing commercialized year. And what's worse, you probably know all the words. Even on hearing background music, the lyrics start to circle uncontrollably...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 15, 2002

Chushingura Chushingura

Snow has been the backdrop to some of Tokyo's most colorful and epoch-making events.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 12, 2002

Tomjanovich should add Washington to staff

NEW YORK -- If Sacramento Kings president Geoff Petrie, a two-time NBA Executive-of-the-Year winner, wants to earn permanent Petey Props, he will apply for the NBA's first legal exception.

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’