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CULTURE / Music
Apr 22, 2001

Killing the Buddha -- form vs. content in hogaku

Nagauta shamisen players and singers line up in perfect rows across the kabuki stage, facing the audience while singing deeply expressive music with deadpan faces.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 19, 2001

Intelligent elephant mamas never forget

Elephants form some of the most intimate social relationships seen outside primates. The female-led society provides a high level of care to its members: Little elephants are bathed and carried over obstacles, and mothers frequently touch their young with their trunks. If disturbed, calves and the matriarch...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Apr 15, 2001

Music of the gods on 20 koto strings

There is a wealth of contemporary compositions for the koto. Since the war, various Japanese composers have expanded the repertoire of this ancient string instrument and provided new contexts for its traditional sonorities while encouraging the development of new and experimental techniques.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 14, 2001

Capital solution by accident rather than design

Asked whether she is surprised to find herself ruling the roost in corporate splendor on the 18th floor of the Shin-Nikko Building in Toranomon, Sakie Fukushima nods emphatically. Very surprised, she says. "I've never planned a single step of my career. Basically I'm not a very confident person."
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2001

ID system keeps alcohol vending machines handy

It means an additional search through your wallet before cracking open a cold beer from the liquor vending machines most of us take for granted. But rest assured, it's for a good cause.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 5, 2001

Climate change blamed for Okinawa coral death

Scientists at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa have published evidence showing that global climate changes in 1998 devastated coral reefs around Sesoko Island. The report, published in the April edition of the journal Ecology Letters, comes on the heels of George W. Bush's unilateral abandonment...
EDITORIALS
Apr 1, 2001

Not-so-brilliant green tea

Green-tea drinkers have been a little blue this past month in the wake of bad news from a group of Tohoku University researchers: Green tea, according to the Japanese scientists' recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine, may not be such a panacea after all. But consumers should not feel either...
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2001

Agriculture Minister vows to open Isahaya floodgates

Agriculture Minister Yoshio Yatsu on Tuesday announced that he will open the water gates of a dike closing off a large part of Isahaya Bay to see if it improves water quality in the Ariake Sea.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 20, 2001

Globalization does its work on Japan

GLOBALIZATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN CONTEMPORARY JAPAN, edited by J.S. Eades, Tom Gill and Harumi Befu. Trans Pacific Press, Melbourne, 2000. 295 pp., 3,250 yen (paper). The word "globalization" is used with increasing frequency these days. It is variously employed to describe the increasing degrees...
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2001

Heir to reed traders promotes appreciation of the marsh grass

OMIHACHIMAN, Shiga Pref. -- When the wind blows, common reeds in front of Yoshihiro Nishikawa's house make a unique sound. Inside, the house is filled with all kinds of products made of the reeds. Nishikawa's head is also filled with reeds, or at least knowledge about them.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 11, 2001

Ignatius Cronin

At the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Ignatius Cronin holds the title of director of international public relations. His brief covers "everything from checking the level of English used everywhere inside the hotel and in its promotional materials and in-house magazine, to news releases and consultation on...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Mar 5, 2001

Bush works on tax cuts while Clinton dodges more controversy

WASHINGTON -- "Beauty and the Beast" was on television Monday night -- the movie, not the continuing news saga of our current president and the most recent former one. That show seems to be a never-ending saga.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 4, 2001

Edo children depicted in ukiyo-e prints

What were the daily lives of children in the Edo Period like? What kind of toys did they play with? What did they study? If you have ever pondered questions like these, the answers can soon be found at the Tobacco and Salt Museum in Shibuya, Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2001

'Learned societies' still have a key role

CHIANG MAI, Thailand-- The complex cultures of Asia have always attracted the interest of Western scholars. This is the origin of what came to be later known as "Learned Societies," institutions based on intellectual curiosity and a deep-rooted volunteer spirit.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2001

Writer ponders role of men today

As a youth, Masayoshi Toyoda wondered why he was expected to follow in the footsteps of his father in the family business simply because he was the only son, but had no way to express his feelings.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Feb 16, 2001

Get out of my inbox

How much e-mail do you get a day? How much of it is junk mail? I get about 80-100 messages daily, and random sampling (i.e., the day I wrote this) shows that about 25 percent was unsolicited mailings, better known as spam.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 11, 2001

Christopher Hughes

Bath in southwestern England, his birthplace and home for his first 18 years, played its part in the makeup of Christopher Hughes. Several generations of his family have lived in that beautiful town of squares, crescents and terraces. Set in a bend of the River Avon and famed since Roman times, Bath...
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2001

FTC to discuss holding companies

The Fair Trade Commission said Wednesday that its panel to study a possible revision to the Antimonopoly Law will hold its first meeting Feb. 15.
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2001

Panel seeks ways to aid ailing life insurers

The Financial System Council, an advisory panel to the government, will consider ways to help Japanese life insurers restore their financial health, officials of the Financial Services Agency said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2001

Panel seeks ways to aid ailing life insurers

The Financial System Council, an advisory panel to the government, will consider ways to help Japanese life insurers restore their financial health, officials of the Financial Services Agency said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2001

Inefficient public works projects creaking under debt burden

KOBE -- The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, the world's longest suspension bridge, looks superb as it spans the Akashi Strait, linking Kobe and Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 4, 2001

Shizuo Mochizuki

Shizuoka, the warm, sunny prefecture known for its peaceful hillsides where tea bushes grow, has always been home to Shizuo Mochizuki. His father kept a shop in Shizuoka where he sold Japanese cakes. Mochizuki says that neither tea bushes nor sweet cakes especially influenced him in choosing to make...
COMMUNITY
Jan 31, 2001

Kinder makes learning kanji fun

Slippery snow is turning to slush. It is midwinter in Kanto, time for bundling up in fleecy sweaters and heavy coats. But at the two Hikari Yochien schools in Kawasaki, boys and girls are playing outdoors wearing nothing more than gym shorts.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 29, 2001

Toward the future of medicine

How alternative is alternative medicine these days?
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jan 28, 2001

American Kenneth Jones

"Walk in, you'll be in Kyoto," proclaims the brochure of Kyoto-Kan, Akasaka.
COMMENTARY
Jan 24, 2001

Time for Japan to root out corruption

LONDON -- Fifty years ago this year, the San Francisco Peace Treaty was signed and the Japanese government began preparing to resume full sovereignty. Then-Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida was a shrewd politician. He knew that the peace treaty, despite the difficulties some of the clauses would cause for...
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2001

China parents said top task masters: poll

While the development of children's skills and interests is a primary concern among Japanese parents, the majority of Chinese moms and dads attach greater importance to the education and discipline of their offspring, according to the results of a recent survey.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan