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LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Feb 20, 2003

Nokia fails to N-Gage Japan

Nokia's N-Gage mobile telephone/video game system, unveiled earlier this month, plays better than GameBoy Advance-quality games and has a built-in cellular telephone. So why aren't Nintendo executives shaking in their boots?
EDITORIALS
Feb 19, 2003

No cause to celebrate GDP growth

It may come as a bit of a surprise to learn that Japan's sluggish economy expanded for four straight quarters in calendar 2002. The truth is, though, it expanded only after the effect of deflation, or the continued decline in the prices of goods and services, was applied. The nation's deflation-adjusted...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 19, 2003

Welcome to the terrordome

"Terror" is much on our minds these days. Whether we believe that terrorist activity has made the world a more dangerous place to live, or condemn the "war on terror" as a mere cover for U.S. President George W. Bush's political ambition, the concept of terror has saturated our daily life.
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2003

Police arrest six over deadly Kabukicho fire

Six people were arrested Tuesday for alleged professional negligence in connection with a fire that claimed 44 lives in an unsafe building in Tokyo's Kabukicho nightlife district in 2001.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 19, 2003

When utopia went to hell

Although the 1920s and early 1930s were turbulent years indeed in the new Soviet Union forged out of 1917's October Revolution, despite civil war, famine, purges and mass deportations, many still clung to the dream of a workers' paradise promised by the revolutionaries who overthrew the Czarist regime....
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2003

Aid for workers of Japanese ancestry

The labor ministry plans to strengthen support for foreign workers of Japanese ancestry to help them find jobs and better settle in the country, ministry officials said Monday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / NOTES FROM THE SMOKE
Feb 18, 2003

Disturbing artwork and disturbed fish on the Koenji trail

A recent visit to the suburb of Koenji reminded me of my JET program orientation in Kansai; I visited a temple, learned some outlandish local customs, ate sushi, and was shown around a vintage toy store with cosmic price tags.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Feb 17, 2003

"Holes," "Love That Dog"

"Holes," Louis Sachar, Bloomsbury; 2000; 233 pp. It's hard to say why life is so downright unfair to some children. Take Stanley Yelnats: He gets bullied at school and is ignored by his teachers. And then one day, he gets hit on the head by a pair of sneakers that seems to fall out of the sky. He doesn't...
COMMENTARY
Feb 17, 2003

Fears of 'anti-Americanism' overblown

MANILA -- In 1996 Samuel Huntington published his epochal work "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order." In it, he argues that, since the demise of the Cold War, cultural divides have become the focal points of international conflicts. Judging from recent editorials in American and...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2003

Profits perpetuate horrors of child labor

MADRAS, India -- There is Dickensian distress in India, where child labor persists despite a law and a court order. Fifteen million children below 14 continue to work in the most horrific of conditions in blatant violation of the Indian Supreme Court ruling, which had called for the enforcement of the...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 16, 2003

Don't be too quick to jump on the bondwagon

Two weeks ago, post offices and financial institutions began taking orders for new Japanese government bonds targeted exclusively at individuals and set to go on sale March 10. Post offices immediately booked sales for all 50 billion yen worth of bonds they were entrusted with, and the remaining 280...
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.
JAPAN
Feb 15, 2003

Group offers info on Europe's 'Utopias'

An Osaka-based nonprofit organization promoting "eco-villages" provides information on such communities in Europe. It also makes arrangements for people who wish to visit or stay at one.
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2003

Japan NGO demands Beijing release 120 North Korean refugees, supporters

A Japanese nongovernmental organization helping North Koreans who have fled to China demanded Thursday that Beijing release at least 120 refugees and their supporters allegedly detained since October.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2003

Japan urged to take lead in easing of drug patents

As host of an informal ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization, Japan should take the initiative in easing rules on pharmaceutical patents so developing countries can have better access to desperately needed drugs, according to Dr. Tatsuo Hayashi, president of Africa-Japan Forum.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NETWISE
Feb 13, 2003

Japanese get real on 2 Channel

It was 1975 when University of North Carolina graduate student Steve Bellovin developed a handful of short programs to facilitate communication via UUCP (Unix-to-Unix Copy) between the University of North Carolina and Duke University. The scripts were later rewritten in the computer language "C" and...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 13, 2003

Ensuring age is the crown of life

The English scholar John Bailey said his wife Iris Murdoch, a prolific, perfectionist novelist and lecturer, became like "a very nice 3-year-old" as her Alzheimer's disease progressed. The disease made the proteins in her brain "misfold" and collapse, forming clots called amyloids that disrupt normal...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 13, 2003

Have we got the will to survive?

"State of the World 2003," this year's edition of a report published annually by the Worldwatch Institute, arrived in my mailbox several days before the shuttle tragedy, but it sat on my desk unopened until the morning of Columbia's fiery descent.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 9, 2003

Titillating tales from China's perfumed city

SHANGHAI: The Rise and Fall of a Decadent City, by Stella Dong. Perennial/HarperCollins, 2001, 318 pp., $15 (paper) Great cities deserve the attentions of writers who combine the historian's pursuit of accuracy with the willingness to be swayed by impressions, prejudices, anecdotes and flawed opinions....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Feb 9, 2003

Female vocalists singing a new tune

In the past, female jazz singers in Japan were often just pretty faces up front. They had to sing, of course, but their main role was often to provide a contrast to the usually all-male band.
COMMUNITY
Feb 9, 2003

Hole in one: Hole in pocket

All golfers dream that -- be it only once in their lifetime -- they might, miraculously, achieve a hole in one.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 9, 2003

Caddie rises to big game

Caddies are part of playing golf in Japan. So it is often with relief that Japanese golfers find they are allowed to negotiate a course without strangers in their midst when they play abroad.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Feb 8, 2003

Wanted: hosts for U.S. troops

MOSCOW -- Foreign-policy alignments have gone mad worldwide. A bizarre diplomatic coalition consisting of Russia, China, France and Germany now confronts the United States, Britain, Italy and Poland. Who could have imagined such a combination just 10 years ago besides readers of political thrillers?...
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2003

Karzai to attend Feb. 22 conference

Afghan President Hamid Karzai will make a four-day visit to Japan beginning Feb. 20 to attend an international conference to help establish peace in Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2003

Death and despair await Iraqi civilians

NEW YORK -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's forceful presentation to the U.N. Security Council failed to convince key council members of the need for an immediate war against Iraq. Concern for the consequences of another conflict in the region could possibly explain France, China and Russia's...
Japan Times
JAPAN / PREFECTURAL FARE
Feb 8, 2003

Yamaguchi outpost touts relaxed alternative to madding crowd

The fresh air of Yamaguchi Prefecture may be far removed from Tokyo, but stepping inside Oidemase Yamaguchi Kan (Welcome-to-Yamaguchi Building), its outpost in the Nihonbashi business district, can make a visitor feel half-way there.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2003

Ancient voices, timeless tales brought back to life

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- "Thai" or "Tai"?
COMMENTARY
Feb 6, 2003

Love beneath the headlines

LONDON -- France is in everybody's bad books. In Washington, France has been dismissed -- along with Germany -- as "Old Europe," paralyzed by traditional views and unable to come to terms with the security imperatives of the global age. In London, anti-French feeling has been building up in official...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2003

North Korea escapees form help group

A group of escapees from North Korea announced Wednesday they have formed an association to help support them in Japan.

Longform

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