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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Nov 21, 2004

Toilet humor in the Tokyo underground

"Tell Franck he's an asshole," barks David Pallash down the phone to me. "And that he is just tooooo French."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 20, 2004

Shiraishi, island of mists and trances

Shiraishi is an island of trances, a place where one is lured into long contemplative pauses. I can sit on top of the mountain and look out over the sea for hours, awed by the beauty of the Inland Sea. Like getting lost in your favorite song, or an entire CD, these are the moments when our mind is so...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 10, 2004

Manga animates new millennium

Manga took a giant leap into its future on New Year's Day 1963, when space-age cartoon images from Osamu Tezuka's famed comic book "Tetsuwa Atomu (Astro Boy)" came to life in Japan's first original animated TV series. This was the birth of anime, which has now mushroomed into a multi-billion-dollar global...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 27, 2004

Artistic encounters of the oriental kind

LONDON -- Three figures sit round a clover-shape table: a bearded and slippered Chinese sage, a periwigged European, and a Japanese aristocrat whose kimono bears his ancient family crest. The sage, arms crossed, gazes impassively into space; the samurai is cuddled up close to the Westerner, casting a...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 23, 2004

Hiring, firing by the book in nicest possible way

Tom Nevins, a leading expert on Japanese rules of employment and personnel policy and practices, must have the busiest "meishi" in business. Not only does it open up, offering four sides of information, but contains a discount card for the many books he has written. A name card within a name card, so...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Oct 7, 2004

"The End of the Beginning," "Change Your Room"

"The End of the Beginning," Avi Harcourt, Dorling Kindersley; 2004; 140 pp. "Hmmmm," said the ant. "You'll need a lot of questions answered."
COMMENTARY
Oct 4, 2004

CCP eyes reforms while sustaining Hu

HONG KONG -- A key policy document endorsed by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party at the same time that it approved Hu Jintao as Jiang Zemin's successor as the country's top leader calls for urgent steps to enhance the party's ability to govern while outlining a cautious strategy of...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 25, 2004

New Center for Creative Arts up and running

Anyone passing the South Korean Embassy in Tokyo's Moto Azabu in recent months may well have wondered about the flag reading "RBR -- New Center for Creative Arts" flying from the building opposite. Also the steady flow of visitors -- every age, color, race and creed.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 24, 2004

Northern delights of Sapporo

Despite its easy proximity, brought by the relatively short flying time from Tokyo, an air of remoteness still hangs over Hokkaido. Physically the island is more a last outpost of Siberia than an integral part of Japan. In Hokkaido, little rice grows, scant cherry trees bloom, no rainy season descends,...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Sep 23, 2004

Putin's bloodless coup d'etat

MOSCOW -- In what amounts to a coup d'etat five years after he came to power in August 1999, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a number of measures annihilating the fragile system of checks and balances constructed during President Boris Yeltsin's tenure in the 1990s.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 19, 2004

Cubist on the turntables

A cacophony of electronic bleeps and disjointed drum rolls kick off the second and latest CD "Sensation" by Ryo Kato, aka DJ Klock. What follows is a series of drill-like drum riffs that start, stop then start again several times before settling into a jerky hip-hop-like beat. Later, this transient groove...
COMMENTARY
Sep 15, 2004

The Tiananmen Square massacre myth

China's recent ceremonies to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of former leader Deng Xiaoping have given the Tiananmen massacre myth yet another lease of life. Most media commentators, the BBC especially, have rehashed the standard condemnation of Deng as a hardliner who instigated a massacre of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 1, 2004

Shaking it up on Sado

SADO ISLAND, Niigata Pref. -- Step one: right leg forward, left leg back.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 22, 2004

N.K. officials bitten by bulldog Japanese journo makes good TV

One of the problems the Japanese government has to contend with in its dealings with North Korea is the fact there is interaction between the two countries that it can't control, such as that which travels over the airwaves. Being a totalitarian dictatorship, North Korea doesn't have the same problem,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 18, 2004

Chilling tales to cool the heat off summertime in Ginza

The Kabukiza in Ginza is currently presenting three shows, all of which feature 49-year-old Nakamura Kankuro, performing alongside members of his family -- his sons Kantaro and Shichinosuke, as well as brothers-in-law, Fukusuke and Hashinosuke.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 15, 2004

Mad Max and a mango make for a mind-bendingly memorable city tour

After half an hour of clinging to the back of Mr. Tuc's scooter, the question needs to be asked. It really does.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Aug 9, 2004

Ozawa show gives no straight answers

When the Mori Art Museum opened its doors almost a year ago, media attention naturally focused on its prime location atop the Roppongi Hills complex (with a dazzling panoramic view of Tokyo), the debut exhibition "Happiness," and the talented and affable British gallery director, David Elliott. Less...
Japan Times
Features
Aug 8, 2004

The art of seeing

Photographer Jun Akiyama is taking ostrich strides down a Tokyo sidewalk, snapping pictures on a flimsy-looking tourist camera. Click! A child's curious glance is frozen in grainy black-and-white. Click! Akiyama catches a moment of anxiety on an old woman's face.
EDITORIALS
Jul 25, 2004

The governor and the 'girlie men'

Say this much for California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger: He is never boring. The "Governator" proved that again recently when he said that opposition lawmakers campaigning against his budget proposals were "girlie men." The remark caused a furor among U.S. Democrats. It also reignited a more general...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 14, 2004

Little House on the Pavement

Once Upon a Time in the Midlands Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Shane Meadows Running time: 104 minutes Language: English Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] A woman is caught between her bad-boy, rock 'n' roll ex-husband and the sweet, adoring current lover in "Once...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jul 4, 2004

Vitamins, chill pills and indie rock

Everyone goes home, seeks out some sympathetic tunes, and cries now and then. I know hardened punkers with Belle & Sebastian albums hidden under their futon. Let's face it, every rock 'n' roller needs a metaphorical teddy-bear to cuddle at times even if they'd never admit it -- hence the enduring spirit...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 4, 2004

Seiichi Kanise: Media insider casts an outsider's eye on Japan

After 17 years' experience as a top-flight news reporter both at home and abroad, in 1991 Seiichi Kanise began a 10-year stint as a TV news anchorman. Then, after covering a wide range of news events, in 2003 he accepted an offer from the Tokyo-based Bunka Hoso (Nippon Cultural Broadcasting Inc.) radio...
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Jul 1, 2004

"The Supernaturalist," "The Reading Bug and How to Help Your Child Catch It"

"The Supernaturalist," Eoin Colfer, Puffin Books; June 2004; 291 pp. It's official. There's an N.E.C.B. out there (a New Eoin Colfer Book, that is). And if you're not a first-time reader, this should have the same effect on you as it does on so many others, so get on the Internet, call your nearest...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 30, 2004

Not over till the 'fat paunch' sings

In the world of opera, a new production by Jonathan Miller is a significant event.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 27, 2004

A feast of culture on Hokkaido menu

Modernization and industrialization have ensured that the traditional lifestyle of the Ainu has been destroyed as thoroughly as the traditional customs of their Japanese neighbours.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 19, 2004

Walt Disney 'imagineer' also promotes 52 virtues

It has taken John Kavelin 40 minutes to drive from his job as director of design and production at Tokyo Disneyland to his home in Minami Azabu. At least 20 minutes faster than if he took the train, he notes, pleased.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 12, 2004

Martin Katz

Recently Martin Katz came on a first visit to Japan. He brought to exhibit in Tokyo a collection of diamond jewelry valued at 10 billion yen. The collection included many pieces worn by Hollywood stars at the red-carpeted award ceremonies of the Oscars. Martin is widely known as the jeweler to whom Hollywood's...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 12, 2004

Conviction, vision led Reagan to greatness

WASHINGTON -- A great man has died, moving a piece of the present into history. It is a history that many of us have been part of and that shapes our future.
JAPAN
May 22, 2004

Freed abductees hope Koizumi brings their kin

The five Japanese repatriated in 2002 after being abducted by North Korea in 1978 expressed strong expectations Friday that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would return from his trip to Pyongyang with their eight family members.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building