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COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jul 11, 2004

Exile in America inspired a revolution

MOSCOW -- George Balanchine was an exile thrice. The first time came without his consent and even without his prior knowledge, as his family went from its native Georgia in the Caucasus to the capital of Russia, St. Petersburg, before he was born.
EDITORIALS
Jul 10, 2004

Assessing Mr. Koizumi's reforms

It has been three years since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi launched a "no reform, no growth" program for economic revival. What has changed, or has not changed, under his administration? Simply put, are people better off now than they were three years ago? Voters will give their answers in Sunday's...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Jul 9, 2004

Dancing in the streets

South of the Chinzanso/Four Seasons Hotel on the Kandagawa -- where our walk finished last month -- Kagurazaka is a vibrant town named after its sloped main street, The Kagurazaka. This hilly area has a maze of lanes and short but steep hills, making it a thrilling adventure for urban walkers. In pockets...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Jul 9, 2004

A tale of two Pichons

Our favorite scene in "Tampopo," Juzo Itami's 1985 cult film about gastronomic excess, begins with two bums finding an expensive-looking bottle behind a Shinjuku hotel with a bit of wine left in the bottom. They deliver it to a compatriot, a sommelier who'd apparently seen better days but still has sharp...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 8, 2004

Renewable energy sources offer global chance to shed fossil fuels

As the leading national consumer of fossil fuels, the United States churns out almost a quarter of all the industrial carbon dioxide worldwide. Apologists say this is the price that must be paid in exchange for driving the global economy. Realists see such hubris as eventually undermining human viability...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2004

Doctor plans global trek to explore how Japanese got here

A Tokyo surgeon and explorer plans to embark on a five-year journey Thursday to trace the origins of the Japanese people.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / A GAIJIN'S TALE
Jul 6, 2004

Stranger's kindness

A non-Japanese-speaking friend came here recently, and found a place in Kawasaki and a job in Hamamatsucho. Traveling to work, it was difficult for him to remember the names of the stations from Kawasaki to Hamamatsucho, so he remembered the big stations and then counted the number of stops in between....
COMMENTARY
Jul 5, 2004

Genuine educational reform

As part of the government-proposed trilogy of reform, a review will be made of having the national treasury pay the costs of compulsory education. Present plans call for transferring some government revenues generated by the consumption tax and other sources to local autonomies and abolishing various...
Japan Times
Features
Jul 4, 2004

Fears that falling voter turnout may 'threaten democracy'

"Are you only interested in Japan as far as sports are concerned?" asks a newspaper advertisement that has been running recently to alert people to the Upper House election July 11.
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2004

Hot summer expected to warm up economy

Hot temperatures this summer are expected to spur consumer spending, which in turn will boost corporate earnings and give a lift to the entire economy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jul 4, 2004

Vitamins, chill pills and indie rock

Everyone goes home, seeks out some sympathetic tunes, and cries now and then. I know hardened punkers with Belle & Sebastian albums hidden under their futon. Let's face it, every rock 'n' roller needs a metaphorical teddy-bear to cuddle at times even if they'd never admit it -- hence the enduring spirit...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 4, 2004

Seiichi Kanise: Media insider casts an outsider's eye on Japan

After 17 years' experience as a top-flight news reporter both at home and abroad, in 1991 Seiichi Kanise began a 10-year stint as a TV news anchorman. Then, after covering a wide range of news events, in 2003 he accepted an offer from the Tokyo-based Bunka Hoso (Nippon Cultural Broadcasting Inc.) radio...
COMMUNITY
Jul 3, 2004

Japanese antique textiles taking over life and home

For any enthusiast keen to know the state of the Japanese antique textile market in the U.K., Marilyn Ratcliffe knows more than most. When we talk -- her already soft Cheshire burr blurred by hay fever ("they just mowed the grass in fields nearby") -- she has just the day before returned from a vintage...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 3, 2004

Kashmir ripe for a solution

BRUSSELS -- The dispute over Kashmir has soured Indo-Pakistani relations since 1947 when, with the partition of India, the Hindu ruler of a mainly Muslim principality dithered his way to war. By the time he finally chose India, after having signed the formal accession, Indian tanks and troops were driving...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 2, 2004

Losing battle being fought to keep Kanagawa beaches clean

FUJISAWA, Kanagawa Pref. -- It's almost 5 a.m. and the sky is warming as the sun rolls up to burst open the horizon. The pacific rhythm of the ocean waves dominates the soundscape of the virtually deserted beach.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 2, 2004

Sony Walkman to go head to head with Apple's iPod

Sony Corp. said Thursday it will release on July 10 a Walkman portable music player that can store up to 13,000 songs, a move expected to pose a serious challenge to Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod, a dominant leader in the field.
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Jul 1, 2004

"The Supernaturalist," "The Reading Bug and How to Help Your Child Catch It"

"The Supernaturalist," Eoin Colfer, Puffin Books; June 2004; 291 pp. It's official. There's an N.E.C.B. out there (a New Eoin Colfer Book, that is). And if you're not a first-time reader, this should have the same effect on you as it does on so many others, so get on the Internet, call your nearest...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 30, 2004

Creating mirages: the Muslim world onscreen

While Hollywood has a long tradition of demonizing Muslims, Japanese filmmakers have taken a decidedly more benign approach
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 30, 2004

Not over till the 'fat paunch' sings

In the world of opera, a new production by Jonathan Miller is a significant event.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jun 30, 2004

Skeletons come out of the closet

For a decade now, Yoshiko Shimada has been a lonely but tireless torchbearer of feminist consciousness in Japanese contemporary art. After spending time in Germany and America, the 44-year-old returned to Japan in the mid-1990s to tackle taboos -- subjects such as the Emperor's complicity in World War...
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2004

MMC apologizes to shareholders, seeks tax breaks

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. chief executive Yoichiro Okazaki said Tuesday that the company plans to start negotiations with the government in July to receive favorable tax treatment for its revival plan under the Industrial Revitalization Law.
COMMENTARY
Jun 30, 2004

Iraq handover spells relief

LONDON -- Day One of modern Iraq. Never before have the people of Iraq had their political destiny in their own hands. There have been no celebrations. The sound of gunfire is of killing, not festivity.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jun 29, 2004

Who is to blame for the beheading of a South Korean in Iraqi?

Ichiro Kosuga Record Company, 25 It's not just one person, but first it's Bush, then the people who support him. Bush started it obviously, but the guy went there himself knowing it was dangerous.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 29, 2004

Visa villains

With U.N. studies advising more immigration, and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's worldwide campaign for more foreign visitors, Japan is not doing itself any favors with its new legislation on visa overstays.
Japan Times
Features
Jun 27, 2004

Baby pictures

She hung up the phone and looked out of the living-room window. The house was on a slight rise and she could see most of Fairview Estates -- the rows of wide, orderly streets, the big houses and neat lawns, children on bicycles, the mail truck making its rounds. It all looked too neat, too much like...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 27, 2004

A feast of culture on Hokkaido menu

Modernization and industrialization have ensured that the traditional lifestyle of the Ainu has been destroyed as thoroughly as the traditional customs of their Japanese neighbours.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2004

Flagging heart for the EU

LONDON -- More than 40,000 Britons have made a special trip to Portugal for a two-week European festival while, back at home, tens of millions of others are following the festival, alternatively rejoicing and groaning, on television screens in pubs and bars, city centers and homes. Euro 2004 is the most...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 27, 2004

Nothing like vintage tech

It's been said that the musical style now referred to as "electro" wriggled to life in the early '80s, when the heavy thump of funk collided with burgeoning synthesizer technology. Jittery, bass-heavy and bombastic, electro lurked on the half-courts and back-alley clubs of New York City, embraced mostly...
COMMUNITY
Jun 26, 2004

Pottering with intent between Japan and Hawaii

Eat your heart all those who dream of creating a sustainable life in "real Japan." Most people have no inkling as to how to find a way, but some do, and Tom Morris and his wife, Kae, are two of them.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight