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EDITORIALS
Feb 13, 2002

Reading between the lines

According to the financial mandarins of the Group of Seven, the global economy has turned the corner. Despite recession in Japan and the United States, the world's leading economies, and the shock created by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the international outlook has improved. The statement released...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 6, 2002

The Japa-Rican Dream

NEW YORK -- From a New Yorker's point of view, young Japanese actor Masayasu Nakanishi definitely has chutzpah. How many other people would go out of their way to flash their dreams and frustrations in public, especially when the defeats equal or outnumber the successes?
COMMENTARY
Feb 3, 2002

Judge Beijing by its deeds

NEW DELHI -- At a time of growing U.S.-Indian strategic engagement, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji's unusually conciliatory tone during his visit to India last week reflected his country's desire to decelerate that process by emphasizing areas of potential Sino-Indian cooperation. China is suddenly signaling...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Feb 3, 2002

Clearly making the grade isn't such an easy task

One of the biggest barriers to learning about sake is the terminology used to define the various grades. It is not a simple linguistic matter, as even the average Japanese person, more often than not, does not know specifically to what the terminology refers. These terms were not coined at once, nor...
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2002

Population seen peaking at 127.74 million in '06

Japan's population is expected to fall to about 100.59 million in 2050 after peaking at roughly 127.74 million in 2006 -- a year earlier than in the last report -- according to an estimate released Wednesday by an institute affiliated with the health ministry.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 30, 2002

A real sound and light show

Ever go to an exhibition and think, "Hey, I can do that"? If the passivity of being an art gazer is getting you down, you might want to join the kids enjoying the latest innovation at the Urawa Museum of Art, a hands-on drawing room.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 30, 2002

On the outside, but looking in

The Agora Theater is tucked away near Komaba Todaimae Station, just five minutes from the hurly-burly of Shibuya. It was here that I saw "Boken Oh (Kings of the Road)" performed by Seinen Dan, a youth theater-group led by Oriza Hirata, 39, who wrote and directed the play.
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2002

Man wants name cleared in '63 Sayama case

A man sentenced to life in prison for the 1963 murder of a high school girl spoke out Friday against the Tokyo High Court's recent dismissal of his complaint over not being granted a retrial in 1999.
BUSINESS
Jan 26, 2002

Takenaka on defensive over extra budget

Fiscal policy chief Heizo Takenaka on Friday defended the government's second fiscal 2001 extra budget and its 4.1 trillion yen for public works as necessary to ward off rapid economic contraction.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 23, 2002

Royal treatment for a princely collection

The queen of the Princes Czartoryski Museum in Krakow is undoubtedly the "Lady With an Ermine," one of the few surviving portraits by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 20, 2002

Murder and mass suicide? Now that's entertainment

CHUSHINGURA AND THE FLOATING WORLD: The Representation of Kanadehon Chushingura in Ukiyo-e Prints, by David Bell. Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library, 2001. 170 pp. with 41 b/w plates, 45 British pounds (cloth) One spring day in 1701 there was an altercation in Edo Castle. Perceiving insult, a local lord...
COMMUNITY
Jan 20, 2002

When something Western this way came

Like a Yankee daimyo, on Nov. 23, 1857, Townsend Harris made a progress to Edo (now Tokyo) from his residence in Shimoda on the Izu Peninsula. Proceeded by an American flag made of Japanese crepe, Harris, on horseback, was escorted by a guard of six whose costumes bore the coat-of-arms of the United...
COMMENTARY
Jan 12, 2002

Japan's economic black hole

Realism is finally impinging on the economic debate here. The "structural reform" ideologues may remain blind to the contradiction between urging privatization and liberalization even as they are being forced effectively to nationalize a banking system suffering from past liberalization excesses. But...
BUSINESS
Jan 3, 2002

Tax panel chief leans toward broader base, not rate cuts

Tax Commission chief Hiromitsu Ishi said Wednesday he does not favor cutting taxes to stimulate the economy; instead he would broaden the tax base to better help the government fill its depleted coffers.
COMMUNITY
Dec 30, 2001

Starting anew through the ages

The world's most universally observed festival, New Year is also its most diverse, with timing, inspiration and celebration differing among countries, cultures and religions. For some, it is an occasion on which to give thanks for another year of survival; for others it's a vantage point from which to...
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2001

Teikyo University chief to quit post in admissions scandal

Shoichi Okinaga, chairman of the trustee board and president of Teikyo University, plans to resign the chairmanship over a scandal involving backdoor admissions, university sources said Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2001

AIDS devastation felt far beyond Africa

CAMBRIDGE, England -- I have just come back from a trip to Africa, my first in several years. I used to visit there frequently before my work became specialized on East Asia. This trip, to Botswana, was purely for a holiday.
BUSINESS / ON MANAGEMENT
Dec 18, 2001

Rampaging egos make perfect targets

We human beings are strange creatures. We'll work and slave and sweat blood to turn an idea into reality -- to start a business, compose an opera, run for political office or, most commonly, to create an initiative at our companies. And yet, when we do succeed, we immediately put everything we've worked...
JAPAN
Dec 14, 2001

Afghan conference adopts appeal

A three-day conference in Tokyo on the reconstruction of Afghanistan closed Thursday after adopting a comprehensive appeal that local nongovernmental organizations in Afghanistan be left in charge of the task.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Dec 12, 2001

The Silver Jews: 'Bright Flight'

David Berman's band suffers from an image problem. People are confused by the name, The Silver Jews (a reference to The Silver Apples and slang for Jewish people with blonde hair). Moreover, the music press seems convinced that they're a side project of influential indie-rockers, Pavement. True, Berman...
BUSINESS
Dec 6, 2001

Firms predict 18.8% profit drop

Downward revisions in corporate pretax profits may lead the Finance Ministry once again to lower its projected tax revenues, according to the results of a ministry survey released Wednesday.
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2001

Ministry mulls changes to travel advisory system

The Foreign Ministry may change its five-scale travel advisory system due to criticism that the information is vague and causing undue harm to tourism worldwide, a senior official said.
BUSINESS
Dec 5, 2001

'Happoshu' hike opposed by Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi voiced opposition Tuesday to a Finance Ministry proposal that the tax on low-malt "happoshu" beverages be increased.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 2, 2001

Yosano's poetry in motion

TRAVELS IN MANCHURIA AND MONGOLIA, by Akiko Yosano, translated by Joshua A. Fogel. New York: Columbia University Press, 164 pp., with a map, $39.50 (cloth), $16 (paper) In 1928, the celebrated poet Akiko Yosano was invited to travel through Northeast Asia by the South Manchurian Railway Company.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2001

Justice Ministry reveals deportee's bank deposits

The Justice Ministry has revealed that about 100 million yen was deposited into a bank account of one of nine Afghan men who were denied refugee status in Japan on grounds that they lack credibility as refugees.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell