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JAPAN
Aug 6, 2000

Marist headmaster inspired by nation's morals, quake ordeal

KOBE -- What is behind Japanese people's moral behavior remains a mystery to Brother George Fontana, although he has spent 11 years here as headmaster of Marist Brothers International School in Suma Ward.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 6, 2000

It's Delhi's move in Kashmir

India recently celebrated the first anniversary of victory over Pakistan-backed incursion into the Kargil sector of Kashmir. Some victory: The two had faced off in the most dangerous nuclear confrontation since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. They have gone to full-scale war three times already and...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 6, 2000

Breaking down the Japanese inferiority myth

Do Japanese people have an inferiority complex? Japanese people often tell me they feel inferior to foreigners. You've probably heard Japanese people say some of following yourself:
CULTURE / Music
Aug 6, 2000

Bach Collegium Japan fetes anniversary year with passion

Bach Collegium Japan: July 28, Masaaki Suzuki conducting in Suntory Hall -- "Saint John Passion," BWV 245 (Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685-1750) featuring Gerd Tyrk, Stephan MacLeod, Chiyuki Urano, Midori Suzuki and Robin Blaze
CULTURE / Film
Aug 5, 2000

Free tickets for screening of Kevin Smith movie 'Clerks'

"Clerks" Film distributor Uplink Co. is giving away pairs of tickets for the U.S. movie "Clerks" to five readers of The Japan Times. The movie will open Aug. 19 as Shibuya Cine Amuse's late show.
JAPAN
Aug 4, 2000

Nepal sees Mori visit as landmark

Nepalese Ambassador Kedar B. Mathema said Thursday that Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's planned visit to the Himalayan country later this month will "definitely help to further strengthen the bond of friendship that exists between our two countries."
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2000

A decade on, Hussein remains a force

Special to The Japan Times UMM QASR, southern Iraq -- The Iraqi-Kuwaiti frontier officially ranks as one of the world's most dangerous flash points. But these days, the only threat to man or beast beneath a ferocious sun is the snakes and scorpions that inhabit these burning sandy wastes. "This is the...
LIFE / ALTERNATIVE LUXURIES
Aug 3, 2000

Lessons of the past inspire a future

Calligraphy by Nako Oizumi The evolution of a single human neither starts with their birth, nor stops with the end of their childhood. Each of us has been given pieces of the past by previous generations from which we make new meaning and, in turn, hand it on to the young.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 3, 2000

Okinawa seen through the summit prism

It's a common belief that the annual G-7 or G-8 summits accomplish little more than allowing the leaders of the industrialized world to get together and make a show of global unity. Consequently, the only thing you can count on in the post-summit analyses is that they will dwell on what wasn't discussed,...
COMMUNITY
Aug 2, 2000

An unlikely affinity with a Japanese ghost

"Before I continue to pour out my soul, let me confide in you that Lebanon is one of those countries that produces nothing but its own periodic tragedies." --"Dear Mr Kawabata," by Rashid al-Daif
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2000

Cabinet approves 9.4 trillion yen for public works in new budget

The Cabinet approved guidelines for fiscal 2001 budget requests Tuesday that will allow policy-related spending to rise slightly above this year's 48.09 trillion yen.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 2, 2000

Nature bites back in the Everglades

There isn't another river like it anywhere else in the world.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 2, 2000

'Grampa' walks among us

In most head counts my international family totals five: my wife and two sons, plus my mother-in-law and then yours truly. This reckoning, however, fails to include my father-in-law, who at times will visit for days on end.
EDITORIALS
Aug 1, 2000

Educational reform, not regression

It has long been recognized that Japan's educational system is badly in need of reform. Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori repeatedly makes it clear that he agrees. The indications are plentiful: the collapse of classroom discipline in elementary schools; the rising rates of prolonged absenteeism and physical...
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 1, 2000

Part 1: The most hated man in football

So the South Africans want to sue after failing to win the 2006 World Cup. Sue who? Well, they haven't quite figured that one out yet, but they know the World Cup was theirs by right. Right?
CULTURE / Books
Aug 1, 2000

Sowing authentic 'seeds of peace'

HIROSHIMA WITNESS FOR PEACE: Testimony of A-Bomb Survivor Suzuko Numata, by Chikahiro Hiroiwa. Translated by Tadatoshi Saito. Tokyo: Soeisha Books/Sanseido, 1,000 yen. Thirty-six years ago, not two decades after an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Kenzaburo Oe was already writing about the imperative...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2000

Revise the tax treaty fairly

Thomas Donohue's article "Time to update the U.S.-Japan tax treaty" (The Japan Times, July 19) misleads readers about the issues in the Japan-U.S. tax treaty. The issues are more complex than he indicates.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Aug 1, 2000

Hard training is its own reward as big event looms

Note: By the time you read this you're still probably suffering a hangover with the force of two stars colliding in a distant galaxy (courtesy of Fuji Rock Festival): far out and painful, in other words. Well, this article concerns the Fuji Rock warmup weekend, an annual ritual where Fuji Rockers imbibe...
BUSINESS
Jul 31, 2000

Third phase of monetary rule prompts G8 to renew focus

This year's Group of Eight summit was concluded over the weekend in Okinawa, wrapping up a series of meetings that began July 8 with the G8 finance ministers in Fukuoka.
EDITORIALS
Jul 31, 2000

Real support, not 'sympathy,' is key

Japan and the United States agreed earlier this month to cut the Japanese share of the cost of maintaining U.S. forces here -- special host-nation support, which is often called the "sympathy budget." The cut, about 3.3 billion yen a year, is actually a drop in the bucket -- 1.3 percent of the approximately...
COMMUNITY
Jul 30, 2000

When life gets you down, litigate, litigate, litigate

SAN FRANCISCO -- There are those in the U.S. who tie up the courts with questionable lawsuits. Then there's Patricia Alice McColm.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 30, 2000

Nigel Mortimer

When he was a youth, Kiyomu Shimomura found his mentor in the late scholar Masahiro Yasuoka. Yasuoka wrote the draft of the statement made by the Emperor Showa at the end of World War II. That was the first time for a Japanese emperor to speak to the people, and in his radio address to the nation he...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 30, 2000

Brown as they wanna be -- ganguro phenomenon on film

Katrin Paul is making good use of her time studying photography in Tokyo. Full of intense Germanic energy, Paul observes the social environment of Tokyo from the perspective of an outsider in "Playing Summer," her second exhibition in as many months. A closer look at the Shibuya youth scene, the exhibition...
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2000

Judge sentences third Aum cultist to death for role in Sakamoto killings

A key Aum Shinrikyo figure was sentenced to death Friday for playing an important role in the murders of an anticult lawyer, the lawyer's family and another member who wanted to leave the cult.
COMMUNITY
Jul 29, 2000

The miracle of life awaits at the end of a long, hard road

Organ donation is not something most of us have to think much about. But for Fernando, a Peruvian with a life-threatening kidney condition residing in Tokyo, the only option that offers any hope for the future is a kidney transplant.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 29, 2000

Foreigners are key to economic reform

There are several indications that the Japanese economy is recovering from a serious depression. It seems that a large number of people share the opinion that structural reform is necessary to continue this recovery and put the economy on a steady and sustainable growth path.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 28, 2000

Free tickets to AYO concerts

The Asian Youth Orchestra returns to Japan next month, for concerts on Aug. 7 and 8 in the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space (Tokyo Geijutsu Gekijo). This is the 10th year that AYO will perform in Japan. The 104 talented young men and women of the AYO represent the finest young musicians in Asia. The San...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2000

Pessimists in the mist: Japanese still mired in crisis of confidence

It's hard to find a word that has so traumatized a generation as has "globalization." The term has become a convenient shorthand for all the uncertainties and unknowns of daily life, a catch-all for the problems that tug at economies and threaten to unravel traditional social structures.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2000

Female civilians get intro to SDF boot camp

NARASHINO, Chiba Pref. -- The First Airborne Brigade is widely known as Japan's toughest Ground Self-Defense Force unit. But a recent two-day training session for "new recruits" did not appear to be as rigorous as its reputation.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji