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COMMENTARY
Jul 21, 2003

Japanese-style management deserves updated appraisal

Japanese-style management was once widely acclaimed as ideal. Since the collapse of the bubble economy, though, it has been discarded as a model for its incompatibility with reform. Now the system is being revaluated, and active debate is going on in the business community on how to adapt it to changing...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 20, 2003

Desertification, Tsurutaro Kataoka back on TV; Nogiwa and Kuroyanagi together again

Desertification is one of the major ecological catastrophes the world in facing right now. It is estimated that every year the amount of land that changes from a state that supports vegetation to desert is equal to the size of the islands of Kyushu and Shikoku combined.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 20, 2003

Making sure your fragrance fits

There is always something sensual about the scent of the opposite sex -- or more particularly, the aroma he's wearing. On the streets, I pass by a man and often find myself glancing back, not because I've been struck by his looks but because I've caught a faint whiff of his cologne. The intoxicating...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 20, 2003

Scents of slimness

For most people, losing weight is about as easy as climbing a mountain on all fours. It's tough work. But for those who still want to try shedding calories (however daunting that might seem), there are any number of dieting methods and theories -- from simply exercising to becoming vegetarian; from eating...
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jul 20, 2003

Yokoyama's ship finally comes in

Ken Yokoyama is crazy.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 20, 2003

Taking readers to the edge

RUNNERS IN THE MARGINS: Poems by Akira Tatehata, translated by Hiroaki Sato. Vermont: P.S A Press, 2003, 103 pp., $12.95 (paper) The poet Akira Tatehata has a wide-ranging imagination as rich, and yet as controlled, as the brush of the most delicate artist. His poems are sometimes playful, sometimes...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2003

Japan Highway on the road to ruin; 617.477 billion yen in debt: document

A set of secret documents allegedly compiled by Japan Highway Public Corp. suggest that the semigovernmental corporation is in a state of capital deficit.
BUSINESS
Jul 19, 2003

Honda looks to shape brighter future by remodeling the past

Honda Motor Co. hopes to recover from a slump in domestic car sales by launching redesigned models of popular vehicles, according to Honda President Takeo Fukui.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 19, 2003

The lesson: don't lift weights with precious hands

Snatching a quick bite of sushi in Shinagawa Station one Friday evening in late June, a young man slips in beside me and after a quick glance to either side, hisses conspiratorially, "Tell me what to do . . ."
MORE SPORTS
Jul 18, 2003

New bilingual paper ready to launch

SportZone, an English-Japanese bilingual weekly sports newspaper, will make its debut on Friday, July 18.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jul 18, 2003

Matsui at midseason: Top scout likes what he sees

With the second half of the major league season set to get underway on Friday, I thought now would be a good time to get an expert's opinion on the progress of the New York Yankees rookie outfielder Hideki Matsui.
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Jul 17, 2003

Manga attempt to evolve against multiple threats

Manga and anime from Japan are increasingly popular overseas, with Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" receiving an Academy Award earlier this year. In their birthplace, however, manga seem past their glory days when loyal readers eagerly awaited the next installment from their favorite authors, such as...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Jul 17, 2003

Exploring a once bleak, medieval upland

In 1601 Tokugawa Ieyasu established a nationwide highway network radiating from Edo and designated post stations on the roads to serve the needs of travelers. Shinagawa, on the city's southwestern perimeter, was the first of these post stations on the Todaido, the most frequented route between Edo and...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 17, 2003

Humble marvels of nature

The mechanics of flight are beyond me, and I especially can't imagine how bumblebees can become airborne. Images of a jumbo jet taking off without a runway spring to mind.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 17, 2003

Japan must think outside the box if it hopes to get ahead: creativity guru

Japan needs to set up a "Ministry of Creativity" to think its way out of the economic slump it has endured for a decade, according to the world's leading authority in the field of creative and conceptual thinking.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2003

'Manifesto' replaces slogans in election wordplay

Now that there is a fall election in the air, once again politicians are couching their platforms with the buzzword "manifesto."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 16, 2003

Jazz swinging out in the open

Jazz fans have dozens of excellent festivals to choose from throughout Japan, with lineups covering a broad base from slick, traditional-minded swing to in-your-face free jazz. At most festivals, one would have to have to be either deaf or drunk to love everything on the schedule, but part of why festivals...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 16, 2003

It's an absurd, absurd world

Theatrical experiences don't get much more intimate than at the Umegaoka Box in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward. The room-size home of the Rinko Gun theater company is barely four meters from front to back (including the floor-level acting area) and 15 meters across, meaning there's no place for either the 40...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 16, 2003

Fuji's hipper hop

Despite its immense popularity in Japan, hip-hop has until recently suffered from poor representation at summer music events. The Fuji Rock Festival seems keen to make up for lost time this year, augmenting the usual legion of club-oriented DJs with a veritable roll call of some of today's most innovative...
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2003

Top lotto winners longtime players with A blood

About 60 percent of lottery winners who claimed more than 10 million yen in prizes last year were players who have been buying lottery tickets longer than 10 years, according to a survey by Mizuho Bank.
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2003

Honda chief wants weaker pound

Expressing concern over the strength of the British pound against the euro, Honda Motor Co. President Takeo Fukui has called for Britain to adopt the single European currency, the Financial Times reported Monday.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 15, 2003

Hold the fort

Over dinner not long ago, I noticed a friend wasn't wearing one of his prized antique wristwatches.
COMMENTARY
Jul 13, 2003

Shabby cause to shed blood

The bad news is that the Japanese government wants to send troops to Iraq. Tokyo's rush into overseas military involvements is far stronger than anyone would have imagined possible even a few years ago.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jul 13, 2003

The Cumbrian sense of fair play

For most of the year, Appleby is a sleepy little English market-town in eastern Cumbria, not that far from the Scottish border. Surrounded by green fields spotted with sheep, Appleby is dominated by a castle that overlooks a gently sloping high street flanked by small shops. It has lots of benches with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Jul 13, 2003

The sum of their parts -- and more

One of the common impressions of Japanese jazz is of skilled technicians working studiously within the confines of jazz tradition to turn out polished music. Indeed, many Japanese jazz musicians fail to exploit the full potential of jazz improvisation, preferring instead to remain dedicated, humble craftsmen,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 12, 2003

'Luxury Travel Show' hits town, aiming for TV

Varun Sharma is tall, handsome, immaculately dressed, and can talk the hind leg off a donkey. He is also a truly gentle man in displaying genuine concern for the bell "boy" at the new Marunouchi Four Seasons, who turned out to be a young woman of such tiny, fragile proportions that he feared for her...

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan