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COMMENTARY
Oct 20, 2003

Pension plans on life-support

LONDON -- A flood of articles in the European media recently has warned about the growing problem of paying pensions as the populations of European countries age and birthrates decline. For Japan, this problem looks especially acute.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 19, 2003

The gangsters that just keep coming back

THE YAKUZA MOVIE BOOK: A Guide to Japanese Gangster Films, by Mark Schilling. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2003, 336 pp., $19.95 (paper). When Mark Schilling was interviewing veteran filmmaker Seijun Suzuki for this book, the director suddenly asked the author: "Why are you interested in yakuza movies?"...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 19, 2003

Tigers players hope to win one for the skipper

I knew I was on my way to a special Japan Series Saturday when several people on my jam-packed Japan Airlines flight were wearing Hanshin Tigers jerseys. There was one Hiyama 24, a couple of Imaoka 7s and several Igawa 29s.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 19, 2003

Two local novelists strut their stuff

THE BANG DEVILS, by Patrick Foss. New York: HarperCollins, 2003 305 pp., $13.95 (paper). AMBASSADOR STRIKES, by Robert J. Collins. California: McKenna Publishing Group, 2003 260 pp., $19.95 (paper). With so much rich material to draw upon, the relatively small number of English novels set in the Kansai...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 18, 2003

The stress of getting things right

If you're like me, one thing you do not need is more stress.
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2003

Erotic art, cartoon flowers await visitors to Mori museum

A painting of a Chinese baby holding an Oreo cookie and giant figures of a bear talking with a police officer are among the works being shown at a new museum devoted to modern art, which is opening Saturday in Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2003

Farmers win round vs. TV Asahi

The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a high court's rejection of a suit filed by Saitama Prefecture farmers seeking damages from TV Asahi Corp. for a report on vegetable dioxin contamination.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Oct 16, 2003

Tyulenii fur seals are all washed up and in no hurry to go

It felt as if we were an invading force as we set the bows of our black rubber zodiac boat for the shore. Tyulenii Island, a raised tableland of sandstone barely a kilometer long and less than half that wide, was our target. Winds blowing up the Sea of Okhotsk were pushing a rising swell along the unprotected...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2003

Plastic surgery makeovers luring the insecure

Risa Arato never liked her hooded eyes -- even her friends said she had a perpetually stony gaze. And she hated the way her sunglasses slipped down her nose. But the clincher was meeting her estranged father for the first time since childhood and being told she hadn't turned out very cute.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2003

Returnees frustrated over kin-reunion impasse

Japanese nationals who were abducted by North Korea but returned to their homeland last year voiced frustration Tuesday over the government's lack of progress in effecting a reunion with the children they left behind in Pyongyang.
EDITORIALS
Oct 12, 2003

Policy debate apt to decide poll

Vigorous policy debates between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition Democratic Party of Japan are likely to feature prominently in campaigning for the Nov. 9 general election, due to begin officially on Oct. 28. The buzzword is "manifesto" -- a published list of campaign promises....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 12, 2003

Back to life, back to prosperity

Ecuador was built on bananas. Then, in the 1970s, this tiny South American country struck oil. Forward thinkers, though, are looking to tourism to keep Ecuador's economy afloat when the oil dries up -- as it is expected to do an estimated 15 years from now.
COMMENTARY
Oct 12, 2003

Eco-radicals twist tax law to feed habits

WASHINGTON -- Corporate misbehavior remains much in the news in America. One day it is Enron; next it is the New York Stock Exchange. Big Labor, too, must routinely be called to account.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 12, 2003

From Padaung backwater to the halls of Cambridge

FROM THE LAND OF GREEN GHOSTS: A Burmese Odyssey, by Pascal Khoo Thwe. London: Harper Collins, 2002, 304 pp., $24.95, (cloth). Toward the end of this captivating memoir the author confesses that while studying at Cambridge, "Sometimes I locked myself up in my room for three or four days, just to have...
BUSINESS
Oct 11, 2003

BOJ further loosens easy monetary stance

In a furious attempt to keep interest rates down while simultaneously acknowledging signs of economic growth, the Bank of Japan said Friday it will increase the maximum amount of money it means to pump into banks.
COMMUNITY
Oct 11, 2003

Find your writer's voice via the Amherst method

As a break from academia in 2001, American-born Ella Rutledge decided to try her hand at creative writing.
JAPAN
Oct 10, 2003

LDP has last laugh as reform plan crumbles

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi compromised with his Liberal Democratic Party on Thursday and agreed to leave the timing of the privatization of the nation's postal services ambiguous in the party's campaign policy.
EDITORIALS
Oct 10, 2003

American dream, or nightmare?

Mr. Arnold Schwarzenegger, bodybuilder and movie star, is the new governor of California. Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, replaced Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, after 54.9 percent of voters Tuesday said "yes" to recalling the incumbent and 48.2 percent picked the Terminator to lead the historically...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Oct 9, 2003

Primaries and polls

WASHINGTON -- Here we are less than four months away from the actual start of the 2004 presidential race. Delegates will begin to be selected in late January. The preliminary season is in its final stage. The third quarter of 2003 proved to be reasonably decisive for the Democrats.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Oct 9, 2003

TV icons hit the road

What do you get when you cross America's favorite dysfunctional family with the video game "Grand Theft Auto III"? You get "The Simpsons: Hit & Run," a new game from Vivendi Universal Games for Xbox.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 9, 2003

Behavior, genes in bed together

The job of undertaker is not one that is restricted to human society. In honeybee colonies, too, some individuals have the task of removing the cadavers of their dead fellows.
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Oct 8, 2003

The future's so pink ...

In preparation for the arrival of Junichiro Koizumi, George Bush, Vladamir Putin and 18 other world leaders for the Oct. 20-21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok, Thai authorities have swooped down on the city. They have rounded up and shipped out hundreds of Cambodian beggars, thousands...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 8, 2003

Bygone beauties in the modern age

Shoen Uemura was a rarity -- one of the few Japanese female artists who worked in a traditional style and found recognition and acclaim. "The Shoen Uemura Retrospective," an exhibition showing at the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum (then moving to the Utsunomiya Museum in Tochigi Prefecture later this...
EDITORIALS
Oct 6, 2003

Can Rengo stand up for the weak?

Over the years the image of Japanese trade unions as labor's standard bearer has become steadily tarnished. Their activities no longer hit the headlines except during annual labor-management negotiations. Even the name "shunto" -- the spring labor offensive -- now seems almost irrelevant because the...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2003

British National Party must be stopped

BRUSSELS -- There has been a step-change in the activity and success of the British National Party. It is now a serious element in electoral politics. Driven by new ways to attract voters, party members no longer cry "repatriation." Instead, their slogan "pensioners before asylum seekers" is aimed at...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 5, 2003

Role of victims in court needs careful monitoring

In the past, the press was often accused of bearing down too hard on victims of crimes and their families. In the most extreme cases, the media would camp outside the homes of victims who didn't want to talk to them (the family of the Kobe boy who was beheaded by another boy in 1995) or imply that a...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2003

World holds vested interest in a successful South Africa

PRETORIA -- The last 10 to 15 years have not been the best advertisement for the human species. Our brutality toward fellow human beings, including children and women, seems to plumb ever-lower depths. The positive side of identifying with fellow members of a particular religion, race, tribe or ethnic...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2003

Fertility experts urge health insurance help

In response to the increasingly serious problem of Japan's falling birthrate, patients and medical professionals involved in fertility treatment are calling for the cost of treatment to be covered by national health insurance.
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2003

NPO hypes green acres to city retirees

Faced with a bleak future of depopulation and possible oblivion, Japan's rural communities are looking to gray power for a new lease on life.

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