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CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jun 26, 2002

Stanley Smith: 'In the Land of Dreams'

These whiskey-voiced songs of riverboats, New Orleans nights and past loves will speak to you like mellow old friends. None will blow you away the first time through, but many will replay themselves in your head long after you've turned the CD off.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Jun 21, 2002

Bringing the classrooms to the children

Several hundred Japanese children sit enchanted as Justin Somi mimics a fluttering butterfly. Somi, a celebrated mime artist and musician, belongs to the Zia tribe that live along the Waria River Valley in Papua New Guinea. For two weeks this spring, he and five other Zia tribesmen visited schools in...
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2002

Abtronic aside, couch potatoes make TV shopping 110 billion yen juggernaut

The growing legion of TV shoppers in Japan has turned the relatively new market into a 110 billion yen colossus.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Jun 16, 2002

Refined wining and dining without pretension

Japan's trendy wine boom ended a few years ago. Still, interest in wine did not plummet; instead, it normalized. In groceries stores, elderly ladies and hip twentysomethings alike scrutinize the wine shelves. At many Tokyo izakaya pubs, diners can opt for a glass of house wine with their sashimi, odenor...
EDITORIALS
Jun 16, 2002

Thank God it's Monday

'A good name is better than precious ointment," according to the Bible. These days, that can mean more than just a good reputation, especially in business. It can mean a snappy title, too: something that will both stick in people's minds and make them smile.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 15, 2002

The gallery, house, studio and reputation Jay built

Consider this e-mail sent in early May: "What a beautiful day . . . hope you're enjoying the sunshine. It was like living in a rain forest here last week. Finally all my guests have gone, I caught up on sleep, and feel refreshed. Lovely!"
BUSINESS
Jun 15, 2002

Ecuador minister to explore family history in Japan

Ecuador trade chief Richard Moss' eight-day visit to Japan beginning June 23 will be a sentimental journey.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 13, 2002

Getting your just rewards for a lifetime of slog

Well here we are again. It's starting to get nice and hot and summer is well on us. Your questions and inquiries are coming in and we are also getting answers and ideas from our readers too. Great. That is just what we were hoping for.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2002

78% of consumers distrust food labels: poll

Seventy-eight percent of consumers across the country do not trust information provided in food labels, according to a recent survey by the Japanese Consumers Cooperative Union.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jun 12, 2002

The Breeders: 'Title TK'

Ahh, The Breeders -- champions of the low-tech, indie ethic of the early '90s. Those twin sisters, Kim and Kelly Deal, and their spooky-yet-sensual vocals. Those guitar riffs your kid brother could play, but could never pull off like they did. This was the band that helped bring college-rock aesthetics...
COMMENTARY
Jun 9, 2002

Labour's dearth of dissent

LONDON -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair could be suffering from the first signs of the madness of princes. It is paranoia, and it afflicts almost every political man who has ambition but does not have the security of the divine right of kings (the madness of kings being grandiosity or megalomania.)...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CLOSE NEIGHBORS
May 31, 2002

Tourism offers one path to better understanding

The pamphlets lined up at tourist centers scream, "Experience the real Korean-style aesthetic treatment and make your skin smooth!" "Spend three full days in Seoul sightseeing and shopping!"
JAPAN
May 30, 2002

Personal data leaked on 3,500 Web-site users

Personal information on about 3,500 users of Web sites at two companies and a university has been leaked via the Internet, company and university sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 30, 2002

Koizumi's office to be inspected over bomb threat

Police and security guards will conduct a special search of the Prime Minister's Official Residence in response to an e-mail threat that said explosives will be planted Thursday at the complex, government officials said Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 29, 2002

Few seek free viewings of games on TV

Cities in Japan serving as hosts for World Cup soccer matches will set up large TV screens in gymnasiums to show the games, but few local residents have requested the free tickets being made available.
JAPAN
May 28, 2002

Hacker hits Kommy customer files

Beauty treatment firm Kommy Corp. said Monday that personal information on more than 37,000 customers who have used its Web site has been leaked.
BUSINESS
May 28, 2002

Phone photo-swap service to kick off

KDDI Corp. of Japan and SK Telecom Co. of South Korea will launch a photo-exchange service for their cell phone customers to coincide with the opening of the World Cup soccer finals on Friday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
May 24, 2002

Off home in a blaze of space, light and shadow

For the past three years, the painter Beau Bernstein has lived a quiet and contemplative life in Kyoto. That is not to say he hasn't been busy. When the native New Yorker closes his Kyoto studio in July and returns to Manhattan, he'll take back with him an impressive new series of oil paintings.
JAPAN
May 24, 2002

Cops nab nine with wiretappping law

By using a wiretapping law for the first time since it entered into force in 2000, the Metropolitan Police Department has arrested nine suspects and put another on a wanted list in a drug case, the MPD said Thursday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 23, 2002

When it comes to giving money, just go with the flow

In answer to the reader in Mita-ku enraged with having to 'pay out' money for so many of the activities that at home she takes as freely granted (parties, weddings, funerals), best remember perhaps that everything has its price.
BUSINESS
May 22, 2002

Nissan, Toyota gear up to win lion's share of minivan market

Nissan Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. are gearing up for keener competition in the minivan market, auto industry officials said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 22, 2002

Theo Bleckmann and Ben Monder

Vocalist Theo Bleckmann only occasionally sings in an identifiable language, a trait that reinforces the impression that he is of another world, a messenger graced with an ethereal sense of beauty and a childlike fascination for exploring the unknown. His style is evocative and beckoning rather than...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
May 20, 2002

Parochialism produces few world leaders

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Following the appearance of one of the recent articles in this series on Japan in the global era, a colleague of mine, Dominique Turpin, who has been doing research on Japanese industry for some 20 years, came into my office and said, "Jean-Pierre, when are you going to start...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 19, 2002

Credit companies target the debt-ridden poor

Stop me if you've heard this one before. A bored young man answers his telephone and his face lights up. "Diving?!" he says. "I'll be there." In the next scene we see his friends on a pier, happily putting on scuba gear. Then, from the end of another pier, the young man comes running, with only a snorkel....
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2002

Rude awakening for East Timor

JAKARTA -- The world's youngest democracy will have to stand on its own feet from Sunday. On this day East Timor will become the first newly independent nation of the 21st century. After more than 400 years of colonial rule by Portugal, 25 years of Indonesian occupation and over two years under U.N....
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 17, 2002

We're all narrow-minded

It's a commonly held belief that we lose brain cells as we age. But, in fact, although our brains may not work as well when we get older -- learning becomes harder, memories fuzzier -- the number of cells they contain remains the same, about 28 billion. Scientists think the real problem is that the myelin...
BUSINESS
May 16, 2002

Cell phone penetration rate projected at 65.5% in 2006

The cell phone penetration rate for Japan will likely hit 65.5 percent in 2006, up from 52.8 percent at the end of 2001, research and consulting firm Gartner Japan Ltd. said Wednesday.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past