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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 24, 2002

Moral absolutism on trial

ONE MAN'S JUSTICE, by Akira Yoshimura, translated by Mark Ealey. New York, San Diego and London: Harcourt, 2001, 276 pp., $23 (cloth) In every society, even the most apparently open-minded, there are times when some questions become taboo. In the United States right now, such questions include anything...
COMMUNITY
Feb 24, 2002

Overseas and under pressure

For people moving to a foreign country, the simplest daily activities can become a nightmare.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 24, 2002

Images of a common brutality

HELL IN THE PACIFIC: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima and Beyond, by Jonathan Lewis and Ben Steele. London: Channel 4 Books, 2001, 288 pp. $30 (cloth) TALES BY JAPANESE SOLDIERS OF THE BURMA CAMPAIGN. Edited by Kazuo Tamayama and John Nunneley. London: Cassell, 2000, 252 pp., $24 (paper) If you've ever...
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2002

Globalization is both a bonus and curse, Nobelist Sen says

Although globalization has produced remarkable opportunities and improvements in the lives of people around the world, there are a number of others who have suffered increased insecurity, according to an Indian scholar who, in 1998, became the first Asian economist to win a Nobel Prize.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 23, 2002

Martha Stewart does a Japanese house

Today I will give Martha Stewart a tour of my house.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 23, 2002

Jaw-Shen and Yoshiko Tsai

The husband in this team is a research fellow at the NEC Fundamental Research Laboratories, Tsukuba. He is also head of the Riken Macroscopic Quantum Coherence Laboratory, Wako. He keeps the title of professor from his guest positions at institutes and universities, which include the University of Tokyo....
BUSINESS
Feb 23, 2002

Foreigners snap up stocks

Foreign investors turned net buyers of Japanese stocks for the first time in five weeks last week.
COMMUNITY
Feb 23, 2002

Beauty and brains behind company clear as glass

Company President Narumi Tanaka is alone Monday morning, holding the fort in her office in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward. Her staff -- three full-timers, one part-timer and her husband -- are out and about on what she calls "the client site." A good thing, we agree, because it means TRANSe Project is at full...
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Feb 22, 2002

Silver water beetle

* Japanese name: Gamushi * Scientific name: Hydrophilus acuminatus * Description: Adapted for aquatic life, water beetles have streamlined bodies and heads. Despite this, they are not powerful swimmers, having normal legs that are not flattened like oars for swimming. Most of their lives are spent...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2002

Chino cements image as ADB's best chief ever

MANILA It was the most important night of the year. As "Show 2001" got off to a start, the hall was packed to standing room only, and talented employees -- mostly Filipinos -- strutted their stuff in aid of local charities.
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 20, 2002

Master of life's joys and sorrows

Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724), Japan's foremost playwright, was born Sugimori Nobumori, the second son of a samurai of the feudal lord of Yoshie in Echizen (now Fukui Prefecture). Because he could not inherit his father's samurai status, Nobumori resolved to be a playwright, and took the pen name...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 20, 2002

From 'kimono as canvas' to modest couture

What is so fascinating about royal dress? Clearly, in the case of Diana, Princess of Wales, her fame and glamour set the style for millions of people worldwide. But for countless centuries, the dress of the ruling classes has been about far more than just setting a trend: It has confirmed the high status...
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2002

Teens sentenced for fatal beating at train station

The Tokyo District Court handed down indeterminate sentences of three to five years Tuesday to two 19-year-old boys who fatally assaulted a banker on a train platform in Setagaya Ward in April.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 20, 2002

Onward klezmer voyager

Like people, music travels. How else could a handful of Japanese musicians have come to embrace klezmer, a centuries-old Eastern European folk music historically associated with traditional Jewish weddings?
Japan Times
Events
Feb 19, 2002

Swim meet to spotlight river filth

OSAKA -- Anyone for a dip? The Dotonbori River has been running through the center of Osaka's bustling Namba district since it was diverted as a waterway in the early 16th century. But the filth in the river makes the idea of holding a swimming tournament in it sound like a joke.
COMMUNITY
Feb 17, 2002

'Konbini wars' coming to a street corner near you

A young woman running late for a job interview realizes she's forgotten her lipstick. Minutes later, a 70-year-old steps into a store to buy some oolong tea and finds he's out of cash. Turn the clock forward to midnight, and a bachelor steps off the last train home wondering where he can find a bite...
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Feb 17, 2002

The heart of the jungle

While the ink on this page was still drying, several dozen bankers were careening toward the hangover of a lifetime. Of course, a Sunday hangover is nothing unusual for the average salaried employee, but for these chosen few -- these fast-track Masters of the Universe with brain cells aplenty to burn,...
COMMUNITY
Feb 17, 2002

Vive la Kansai-Kanto difference

OSAKA -- Despite corruption scandal after corruption scandal, there is still evidence that not all bureaucrats are bad. Driven by public interest, an army of elite government bureaucrats (and their corporate counterparts) are diligently investigating the really important issues that divide Kansai and...
COMMUNITY
Feb 17, 2002

Waseda and Keio: rivals to the core

It was Oct. 22, 1933, at the Jingu Baseball Stadium. The winner of the day's So-Kei (Waseda vs. Keio) match would lift the trophy for the year.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 16, 2002

Towels, tea & sympathy under CLAIR umbrella

I have arranged to meet Shingo Ishida, a program coordinator in the Guidance and Counseling Division of the JET Program Management Department in the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations. (Gulp, what a mouthful!) But after colleague Nicola Chilton -- working in a similar capacity under...
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Feb 15, 2002

Lifting weights and building character

When Feng Ming received the official letter inviting him to come to Japan, he was prepared to say no. It was 1999 and China, the undisputed powerhouse in the weightlifting world, was preparing for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. As a coach at Nanking Athletic University, Ming was training some of the country's...
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Feb 15, 2002

Greater horseshoe bat

* Japanese name: Kikugashira-koumori * Scientific name: Rhinolophus ferrumequinum * Description: Quite a large bat, the greater horseshoe bat is a buff-brown color, body length 60-80 cm, wing length 60-65 cm. Its distinguishing feature, however, is the complex and grotesque horseshoe-shaped nose that...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Feb 14, 2002

Vinatieri deserved Super Bowl MVP

The sports media blew it again last week.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Feb 14, 2002

Take time to savor Ryoanji's splendors

The stone garden at Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto is perhaps the most famous of all Japanese gardens, and in 1994 it was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 14, 2002

Of arms races and sex battles

On Valentine's Day, what better subject to tackle than sex? Well, maybe love, but that's not what gets evolutionary biologists all hot and bothered. Sex is where it's at -- the battle between the sexes. Males and females interact like two superpowers engaged in an arms race -- each escalation in arms...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2002

Southeast Asia receives terrorism wake-up call

HONG KONG -- The wake-up call has been loud and clear. As the alarm sounded, it confirmed that terrorism in Southeast Asia is a problem in need of attention. The most urgent wake-up call did not come from the southern Philippines, where around 650 U.S. troops are now being deployed as Washington opens...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 13, 2002

Korean art of fine living

In celebration of the upcoming 2002 World Cup soccer finals co-hosted by South Korea and Japan, the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum will hold an exhibition titled "Masterpieces of Korean Art from the Joseon Dynasty" from Feb. 19. The exhibition consists of 300 works of art of the Joseon, or Yi, Dynasty...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 13, 2002

Michelle Wilson: 'Wake Up Call'

With searing vocals, Michelle Willson delivers her clear-eyed statements on work, love and life from a woman's point of view. And in that regard, nearly every cut on her fourth release, on which she teams up with the tight, rocking Evil Gal Festival Orchestra, is a wake-up call.

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