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JAPAN
Sep 1, 2002

Iraqi painter exhibiting in Tokyo

An Iraqi painter will hold an exhibition in Tokyo in September to help Japanese gain a different view of the Middle East, the organizers of the art show said Saturday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Sep 1, 2002

How much do you really need to know?

The choice of yeast in sake brewing exerts marvelous leverage on the aroma and style of the final product. And, while creativity and diversity lead to better sake over time, things can indeed get out of hand. Today, there are so many different yeasts -- and ways of combining them -- that it almost ceases...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 1, 2002

Tokyo's blueprints of th past - and the future

Tokyo is an ugly city. Sure, it may not suffer from the smog of Mexico City, be blighted by Johannesburg-style shantytowns or possess Houston's plate-glass vacuity. Nonetheless, the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, World War II bombing and subsequent construction booms have combined to obliterate the...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 1, 2002

Hitting English language-learning overdrive

The Japanese media is in the middle of another of its sporadic English-language learning frenzies, which, this time, seems to have been sparked by an Education Ministry decision to promote English conversation lessons in public elementary schools.
EDITORIALS
Aug 31, 2002

Failure is not an option

Aside from its size, the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg is a touchstone that indicates how serious the international community is about reconciling its needs with the world's limited resources. It is billed as the largest United Nations gathering in history.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 31, 2002

Falun Gong seeks peace and freedom to practice

Shinly Shaw is slender with short hair, and Chinese. This is how she described herself so I could pick her out in the crowd. Luckily we found one another in Tokyo Station, but only the second time around.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2002

'Confessed' killer awaits appeal ruling

It has been nearly five years since Manalili Villanueva Rosal was taken into custody on suspicion of murdering her lover in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture.
BUSINESS
Aug 31, 2002

Ikuta appointed chief of new postal firm

Posts minister Toranosuke Katayama on Friday appointed Masaharu Ikuta, chairman of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd., as the first head of a new public corporation to be established in April to run the nation's postal services.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 31, 2002

Fear and loathing in XXL Las Vegas

The combination of classic American kitsch and the Japanese love for it makes Las Vegas a mandatory stop on any Japanese person's tour of the U.S. This is how I find myself in Las Vegas now with two Japanese home stay students.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Aug 30, 2002

Harbor seal

* Japanese name: Zenigata-azarashi * Scientific name: Phoca vitulina stejnegeri * Description: Harbor seals are pinnipeds -- mammals adapted to life in the ocean. Their limbs are modified into flippers, each with five digits. The fore flippers are used for grooming, scratching and fighting; the hind...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 29, 2002

Japan and U.K. forge new green links

NAGANO -- Last weekend in Johannesburg, 65,000 people were limbering up for the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2002

Persian-language court interpreter lives life on a tightrope

Keiko Kawashima's job as a Persian-language court interpreter sometimes requires her to respond to calls in the middle of the night.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 28, 2002

Spoon: "Kill the Moonlight"

Since forming in the early '90s, the Austin, Texas, band Spoon has continually sharpened its sound to such a fine edge that its new album, "Kill the Moonlight," could conceivably be performed live with only singer-songwriter Britt Daniels on vocals, drummer Jim Eno on tambourine and a tape of the simple...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 28, 2002

Ninagawa gives his best -- all over again

People always comment on Shakespeare's incredible productivity, but director Yukio Ninagawa surely deserves to be right up there with him -- at least in terms of hard work.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 28, 2002

Amadou and Mariam: "Amadou and Mariam"

This album smokes. Amadou and Mariam play a rollicking, good-natured blend of bluesy R&B and Malian dance band music. Amadou sings and plays a seamless rhythm guitar and the occasional crackling lead, while Mariam sings in a voice of sweet fragility.
BUSINESS
Aug 27, 2002

GDP report expected to show 0.2% growth

Government reports this week are expected to show Japan's economy expanded slightly in second quarter and pulled out of recession, thanks to growing exports, according to a survey released Monday by Bloomberg News.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Aug 26, 2002

Emphasize the beauty for grand objectives

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The best book on the modern Japanese political economy is the late Shigeto Tsuru's "Japan's Capitalism: Creative Defeat and Beyond," published by Cambridge University Press in 1993. Tsuru holds to the great original tradition of economics as a sub-branch of moral philosophy,...
EDITORIALS
Aug 26, 2002

The only superpower and the ICC

With globalism setting the pace for the 21st century, the need to strengthen the rule of law is growing. From this perspective, the creation of the International Criminal Court as the world's first permanent war-crimes tribunal is of historic significance. A treaty establishing the court came into force...
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2002

Electromagnetism linked to leukemia

A midterm analysis of survey results compiled by research institutes has found a correlation between childhood leukemia and infrasonic electromagnetic waves.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 25, 2002

The man who holds the purse strings

For better or worse, the Ryukyu Islands, whose most prominent member is Okinawa, have produced more major J-pop acts since 1995 than any other part of Japan save Tokyo.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 25, 2002

Your planet needs you!

From the depths of our oceans to our atmosphere's ozone layer, there is little doubt that the global environment is taking a beating. Even so, most of us are still waiting for someone else to take action, which is why the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development starting this week in Johannesburg,...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 24, 2002

Taking kids on a Disneyland home stay

If you stay in Japan long enough, there will come a time, equal to that of the Super Lotto, called "ongaeshi," when you have to pay back people who have helped you along your rocky limestone road to a comfortable life in Japan. I'm pretty sure that's why Japanese people always ask how long you have been...
Japan Times
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
Aug 24, 2002

Taro Okamoto museum throws open artist's inner sanctum

Even to those who are clueless when it comes to art and culture, the name Taro Okamoto will probably ring a bell. After all, the late avant-garde artist was responsible for the famous statement "Geijutsu wa bakuhatsu da!" ("Art is an explosion!")
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2002

Kyoei Mutual pulls out of Millea group merger

Kyoei Mutual Fire & Marine Insurance Co. on Thursday formally announced that it will not join the Millea Insurance Group, bidding to instead strengthen its finances as a subsidiary of the National Mutual Insurance Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives (Zenkyoren).
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 22, 2002

Managing Foreign Ministry's fault lines

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- The drama at the Japanese Foreign Ministry is still unfolding with a multitude and variety of acts, inviting continuous comment and debate. I believe that certain aspects should be clarified before proceeding to a postmortem of the crisis or to estimates about the future. First,...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Aug 22, 2002

Life stranger than fiction at Fulham

LONDON -- If Junichi Inamoto is feeling warm after training he could always stand between coach Jean Tigana and "the chairman's adviser for football" Franco Baresi to cool down.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 22, 2002

Seeking medical redress and keeping control of Spam

What a day we live in! I am writing this week's column from Los Angeles, where The Japan Helpline began in 1975 and where we have our U.S. offices. As usual, we had an emergency here!
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Aug 22, 2002

Blooms to brighten summer's days -- and nights

Japan's floral symbol of summer, the asagao (morning glory; Ipomoea purpurea) is an interesting climber with beautiful blooms that has been cultivated on these islands for more than 1,000 years since being brought from China during the Nara Period (710-784). Before that, its origins are a matter of some...

Longform

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