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Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Mar 27, 2003

Hitachi's friendly face

A 19th-century merry-go-round has been restored recently in the city of Orleans, 130 km south of Paris, thanks to the efforts of former JET Clarisse Carl. It is something her two children, ages 8 and 5, are proud of. But for Carl, an assistant to the president of Hitachi Europe, it is just one of her...
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2003

Disputed isles are target of new lawmaker group

A nonpartisan group of Diet lawmakers met Tuesday to mark the establishment of a parliamentary league seeking the speedy return of the four Russian-held islands off Hokkaido and more contact with their residents.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Mar 26, 2003

Life: the home movie, Japan: the video game

Two very different female video artists have brought pleasantly complementary exhibitions of their recent work to the Tokyo Opera City Gallery. Elija-Liisa Ahtila, 43, from Finland, and Japanese artist Tabaimo, 27, both opened with impressive solo efforts at the spacious Shinjuku gallery Friday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 26, 2003

Ibrahim Ferrer: "Buenos Hermanos"

"Buenos Hermanos" is yet another great album of Cuban music. But it's worth noting some of the other reasons why this album is such an achievement.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 26, 2003

Secrets of the lost kingdoms of mystery

Mayan civilization flourished and faded more than a millennium ago, and the mystery of its decline has fascinated archaeologists ever since. Although experts debate whether it was a Toltec invasion or the effects of drought that spelled the end of the Maya, all agree that it was the dense jungle that...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2003

Songs of oppressed now serve to inspire

War and oppression leave not only legacies of death and suffering, but throughout the ages the sorrow they have also inspired songs.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 25, 2003

Family at risk as dad locked up

In a dingy apartment in Kawaguchi, Saitama, Turkish Kurd Meryem Kosan and her children Merve, 4, and Mehmet Serxwebijn, 12 months, wait for their father Erdal to come home.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 25, 2003

Japan's refugee policies failing

Erbil Suleyman has never read the Czech writer Franz Kafka, but he should. Since arriving in Narita Airport on Nov. 13, 1998, as a Kurdish refugee from Turkey, Suleyman's life has resembled one of Kafka's stories, with their hapless characters trapped in absurd situations over which they have little...
COMMUNITY
Mar 23, 2003

From ancient to modern

As quintessentially contemporary as manga may seem, the oldest extant manga-style drawings actually date from the eighth-century zare-ga (play pictures), scrawled graffiti-like in the attic of the Horyuji Temple in Nara.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 23, 2003

Comic culture is serious business

Can anyone be in this country a week and not notice manga -- Japan's unique contribution to comics?
Japan Times
JAPAN / PREFECTURAL FARE
Mar 22, 2003

Tokyo gets taste of Okinawa longevity

Last in a series Okinawa is well-known for the longevity of its people. Its subtropical climate may be one reason, but a major contributing factor is most likely the southern-most prefecture's healthy foods.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 22, 2003

Saddening absence of options for Japan

I don't wish to speculate on why the United States has embarked on a war against Iraq at this time. What is clear is that U.S. President George W. Bush and the influential aides in his administration believed -- without appearing to entertain the slightest doubt -- that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 21, 2003

Gonpachi: Elevated dining at this three-in-one

Nobody would claim that Shibuya is among the most attractive neighborhoods of this metropolis. And yet, as with so many other less than salubrious districts, when viewed at night from a suitable distance -- say 14 stories above the ground -- it does take on an undeniable glow that could almost be called...
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2003

Water pushed as human right

KYOTO -- Is access to water a basic human right? This is one of the fundamental questions government delegates to the World Water Forum are grappling with as they prepare for a ministerial conference this weekend.
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2003

Hayami says Jesus guided him through five-year ordeal

Outgoing Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami on Wednesday credited his faith in God for pulling him through a turbulent and difficult five-year term.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Mar 20, 2003

"Coraline," "Frankenstella and the Video Shop Monster"

"Coraline," Neil Gaiman, Bloomsbury; 2002; 171 pp.     "We are small, we are many     We are many, we are small     We were here before you rose,     We will be here when you fall."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Mar 20, 2003

Walking on waters that were

Tsukiji, now famous as home to the world's biggest fish market, was reclaimed from the sea in the 17th century. Its transformation from seabed to seashore came after the magnificent first city of Edo, designed by Shogun Ieyasu in 1603 and completed around 1650, was destroyed by a fire in 1657. Then,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2003

Bangladesh flood-control aid projects should heed locals' advice: NGO chief

KYOTO -- In Bengali, the word "flood" has a positive meaning, as floods bring fertility to the land.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 19, 2003

Kenny Brown: "Stingray"

Some blues come smooth-planed and varnished. Other blues leave splinters. Kenny Brown's "Stingray" is the latter. Accompanied only by bass and drums, Brown eschews all slickness and gets to the core of hardworking blues.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2003

Iraqis living in Japan worry about families back home

Iraqis residing in Japan expressed concern Tuesday for their loved ones back home who face imminent war following the 48-hour ultimatum issued by U.S. President George W. Bush.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 19, 2003

The conductor, his wife, her lover

A recent survey by Theater Guide magazine put Koki Mitani ahead of even Shakespeare as the dramatist best known in Japan.
BUSINESS
Mar 18, 2003

Japan Post customers to have greater choice of ATM access

Customers of Japan Post will be able to do their banking at convenience stores under a tieup between the public postal corporation and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and IY Bank, sources said Monday.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 16, 2003

Sitting here in limbo

This week, commercial television networks enter that twilight zone between seasons where they trot out the same variety standbys: real-life police documentaries, musical impersonation contests, blooper shows, etc.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 16, 2003

Style police

The advertising executive for a multinational soft-drinks company gasps in horror as the gorgeous celebrity he has hired as the face of his multimillion ad campaign turns up for the photo shoot in a ketchup-stained T-shirt and jeans. No panic, though, because he's hired someone who earns a living making...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Mar 16, 2003

Prison for some, refuge for others

Second of two parts Robben Island is more than a world-famous symbol of racial reconciliation. On the insistence of Nelson Mandela, who was imprisoned here for 18 years, Robben is also "a monument to [ecological] preservation."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 16, 2003

Yoji Yamada

A director since 1961, with 77 films to his credit, Yoji Yamada, 71, is a Japanese film industry icon. His "Tora-san" series, about a wandering peddler who is forever falling in love, but never gets the girl, generated 48 hit installments -- and made Yamada the most successful Japanese director of his...
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2003

Magazine vindicated in top court privacy ruling

The Supreme Court on Friday overturned a Nagoya High Court ruling that ordered a weekly magazine to pay compensation for violating the privacy of a man accused of taking part in murders in 1994 when he was a minor.
COMMUNITY
Mar 15, 2003

Historian seeks clear U.N. mandate for peace

German-born Klaus Schlichtman is a peace historian. An academic who found his way late in life -- a "seeker" in every sense of the word.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?