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EDITORIALS
May 10, 2001

'Sold to the highest bidder'

U.S. President George W. Bush's plans for antimissile-defense highlight the threat posed by rogue nations. Many security experts warn that the real national defense issue is not ballistic missiles, but the warheads they carry. Nuclear proliferation is the danger. According to a new study, that threat...
JAPAN
May 8, 2001

Koizumi vows no sanctuaries from reform

The Prime minister's main policy points (Full text) The following is the gist of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's policy speech delivered Monday in the Diet.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 5, 2001

Nagashima lets you have your cake, and be it too

You will have heard of print club. But how about print cake?
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2001

Yamasaki eyes draft to revise Article 9

Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Taku Yamasaki has drawn up a tentative draft for constitutional revisions that include changing the wording of Article 9 to clarify that Japan will maintain land, sea and air forces and has the right to self-defense, political sources said Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2001

A high price for textbook flap

Japan ignores the history-textbook controversy at its peril. While many Japanese dismiss the tempest -- exaggerated attention, they say, given to a small group of nostalgic conservatives or a freedom-of-speech issue best left to constitutional scholars -- South Koreans see the new history textbook as...
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2001

Foreign minister vows to improve strained Japan-China relationship

New Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka vowed Friday to study past developments in Japan-China ties and talk to Chinese officials directly to improve Tokyo's strained relations with Beijing.
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2001

Koizumi chooses his top party officials

Junichiro Koizumi, the newly elected Liberal Democratic Party president, set about putting the party's house in order Wednesday by selecting the three lawmakers who will hold the top LDP slots.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2001

Koizumi dons many hats, fancies a good hairdo, too

Junichiro Koizumi, the Liberal Democratic Party's new president, has been dubbed by fellow lawmakers a maverick, an eccentric, a heretic and "the Don Quixote of the political world."
BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2001

Japan in quandary over Iran rail project

After several years of warming and rapidly advancing relations, Japan and Iran may be at a crossroads once again.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 2001

Ministry to promote city mergers

The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry will draw up measures as early as June to promote mergers among cities, towns and villages, sources said Saturday.
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...

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