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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 20, 2002

Sinead O'Connor: "Sean-Nos Nua"

Though she's done the occasional traditional Irish song as a guest on other people's records, Sinead O'Connor has never explored her country's musical heritage in depth. Now, after more than 10 years of trying to express her adolescent earth-mother iconoclasm, she gives up and goes the trad route with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 20, 2002

Playing for that extra reason

The Willem Breuker Kollektief is a 10-piece jazz ensemble of mad Dutch that will stop at nothing -- not even onstage nudity -- to entertain themselves and their audience.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Nov 19, 2002

Seeking spiritual succah in the Negev desert

The largest natural crater in the world has a past almost as awe-inspiring as its present.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 17, 2002

Move north paid off for Blue Jays' Hinske

Funny how things work out sometimes.
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2002

Prison guard held over killings

OSAKA -- An Osaka prison guard was arrested Saturday by prefectural police on suspicion of murdering his daughter-in-law and grandson in April, police said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 17, 2002

Skeletons in the academic closet

"Those who have put out the people's eyes reproach them of their blindness'' -- John Milton (1608-74)
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 17, 2002

Superiority met altruism when West advised East

TO CHANGE CHINA: Western Advisers in China, by Jonathan D. Spence. New York/London: Penguin Books, 2002, 336 pp., 21 b/w photographs, $15 (paper) This intelligent and entertaining book is a reprint of the original 1969 American edition, much missed and sought after, and now available again. In it, Jonathan...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Nov 17, 2002

Getting syrupy about music

When I first heard the term "self-cover," I thought it referred to errant politicians or bureaucrats making excuses for themselves when caught with their pants down, metaphorically speaking or otherwise.
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Nov 17, 2002

A guide in wine is a friend indeed

It's a story we've heard dozens of times before, in slightly varying versions. An acquaintance who does much corporate entertaining decided to treat a few office-mates to a late meal in Daikanyama. After an under-10,000 yen bottle of red, the sommelier suggested that they might like an unlisted Shafer...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 17, 2002

Conveying messages of unity

It is estimated that an average of 220 people "evaporate" every day in Japan. The reasons are many, but can mostly be reduced to debt, love affairs, personal tragedy and involvement in crimes. And with no end in sight for the recession, the number is increasing year by year. Last year, about 80,000 Japanese...
COMMENTARY
Nov 16, 2002

Dark days for Britain's Tories

LONDON -- The once-mighty Conservative Party, which dominated the British political scene for most of the 20th century, has now fallen on very bad times.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2002

Former Tokushima governor given suspended prison term

The Tokyo District Court sentenced former Tokushima Gov. Toshio Endo to a suspended three-year prison term Friday and fined him 8 million yen for bribery.
Japan Times
JAPAN / PREFECTURAL FARE
Nov 16, 2002

Fukushima tourist office gives natives taste of home

Kotaro Takamura's poem about a homesick woman in Tokyo pining for her native Fukushima Prefecture more than 60 years ago could just as easily have been written about many of the displaced locals living in the capital these days.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 16, 2002

A whole lot of shaking going on in my mind

Earthquakes are not laughable affairs. The breadth of the destruction and depth of the human tragedy demand only a solemn response.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 15, 2002

And you wonder why women don't want to have babies . . .

Rumiko, the 29-year-old president of her own computer-graphics company, says she has decided to become an achiragawa no ningen (person who has crossed over to the other side) by having a baby.
BUSINESS
Nov 15, 2002

BOJ credit-easing measures likely: experts

Nearly 90 percent of economists expect the Bank of Japan to further ease its grip on credit within six months, according to a Kyodo News survey released Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / KANSAI BEAT
Nov 15, 2002

University-business tieup breathing life into crafts

KYOTO -- Kimiko Oike, a professional maker of "mizuhiki," or decorative strings, knows she has a lot to learn from amateurs.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2002

Prison abuses in spotlight following guard arrests

The ongoing allegations of abuse of inmates at Nagoya Prison have highlighted human rights concerns that have been raised by domestic and international watchdogs over Japan's prison system.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 13, 2002

Dishonor avenged, love avowed

This month, following the lead of the Kabukiza, the National Theater in Tokyo also presents "Kanadehon Chushingura (The 47 Loyal Retainers)" to mark the upcoming 300th anniversary of the famous act of revenge carried out by the 47 ronin (masterless samurai) on the night of Dec. 14, 1702 (on the old calendar)....
COMMENTARY
Nov 12, 2002

The realistic path to reform

In the mid-1970s, Keynesianism came in for criticism in the world of economics, and neoclassical economics -- which sees the market as almighty -- became the mainstream theory. One underlying reason for this was the economic decline of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 10, 2002

A straight-shooter wherever she goes

With her Nikon camera, dozens of film rolls and a strong social conscience, photojournalist Natsuko Utsumi travels the world to capture the human face of the issues that shape public debate.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Nov 10, 2002

Balladeer does it in his own good time

If there are no second acts in American lives, as F. Scott Fitzgerald said, for some musicians at least, there's a second take. After famed recording sessions in the late 1950s that made him popular, Jimmy Scott's unique vocal style was not heard again on a new recording for some 30 years. Then, in the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Nov 10, 2002

Delicate pauses to refresh

There are really two kinds of restaurants.
EDITORIALS
Nov 9, 2002

Changing of the Beijing guard

China is set to have a new generation of younger leaders. The Chinese Communist Party will announce a sweeping reshuffle at a plenary session of the Central Committee following the 16th Party Congress, which opened Friday for a weeklong session. The National People's Congress next spring will also choose...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 9, 2002

Hunching to keep from dying of cold poisoning

If I could bring one thing from my home country to Japan, it would be a fireplace. Of course, the hearth wouldn't make it through the security check these days. But still, to have an open fire blazing in the living room would be nice, not to mention warm.
JAPAN
Nov 9, 2002

New Cabinet ministers' assets average 36 million yen

Six ministers who were appointed in a September Cabinet reshuffle have an average of 36 million yen in assets, excluding stockholdings and savings in ordinary deposits, according to a Kyodo News survey based on Diet report released Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 9, 2002

Shoko Sugitani

A dozen years ago, pianist Shoko Sugitani owned nine pianos, which she kept in different places. She is now down to seven, some of them in Duesseldorf and the rest in Tokyo. She has a favorite piano that she takes with her to important concerts. For the concert scheduled with the Warsaw Philharmonic...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 8, 2002

DoCoMo group profit plummets

NTT DoCoMo Inc. said Thursday its group net profit for the fiscal half plummeted 95.3 percent year-on-year to 4.17 billion yen, due to hefty appraisal losses on its overseas investments.

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