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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 21, 2003

The first Western master of woodblock

A Western man clad in a kimono sits in his tatami-floored studio with his paintings strewn about him. In the background a shamisen stands in a wooden box, its neck jutting upward.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 20, 2003

Putting the frighteners on Japanese travelers

Films, books and television programs can teach you a lot about those who dwell in the world outside yours.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
May 18, 2003

The fall and rise of rhinoceros

First of two parts Some years ago, the English adventurer Benedict Allen made the first solo crossing of the notoriously inhospitable but hauntingly beautiful Sand Dune Sea and the Kunene wilderness area of Namibia, in southwest Africa.
COMMENTARY
May 17, 2003

Let Asia resolve the North Korean crisis

WASHINGTON -- The Iraq war is over, but the Korean Peninsula is growing hotter. Obvious disagreement over policy toward the North has clouded South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun's visit to the United States, while Washington's recent nuclear talks with North Korea ended in acrimony. U.S. President George...
COMMENTARY
May 17, 2003

Long march back to China

LOS ANGELES -- History is full of irony for former empires. Historians of East Asia have maintained for some time that it was the Japanese war of aggression in China in the 1930s and 1940s that eventually drove the Chinese people into the arms of the Chinese Communist Party. After that, the equally forceful...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 13, 2003

Fingerprint IDs touted as leading security option

Have you ever forgotten your PIN number when attempting to withdraw cash from a bank ATM? If so, you are a target user for fingerprint identification systems.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 11, 2003

Moon over Matsushima

"God made me the messenger of the new heaven and the new earth of which he spoke in the Apocalypse . . ."
COMMENTARY
May 10, 2003

Let market forces decide corporate fates

WASHINGTON -- America's series of corporate scandals have demonstrated the power of the market to discipline errant businesses. Market forces can also rehabilitate firms, unless Uncle Sam decides to shoot the economy's wounded.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 10, 2003

Law unto himself meets Japanese country singer

Hearing a great cover of the country song "All You Ever Do Is Hurt Me" as he descended into Kenny's Country Music Station one Saturday evening in 2001, Chicago-born Dan Rosen wondered who the American woman singing it was. Imagine his surprise, then, when he looked at the stage and heard "this big, really...
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2003

End of the old world disorder?

Wars are cataclysmic events. Out of the destruction of major wars emerge new fault lines of international politics. To this extent, wars are the international, political equivalent of earthquakes, eruptions on the surface reflecting deeper underlying seismic shifts in the pattern of major-power relations....
COMMENTARY / World
May 7, 2003

Careworn Blair turns 50

LONDON -- As British Prime Minister Tony Blair passes his 50th birthday, the almost boyish bounce that characterized him in the years when he got to the top of the Labour Party, reformed it and then won two crushing general election victories has been replaced by a more careworn appearance. This may...
COMMENTARY
May 4, 2003

Rare chance for U.S. to fix tort lottery

WASHINGTON -- Trial attorney and U.S. Sen. John Edwards is well-liked by the plaintiff's bar. Too well-liked perhaps, since the Justice Department is investigating apparently illegal contributions to his presidential campaign -- which have since been returned -- from an Arkansas law firm. Although Edwards...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 3, 2003

Tit for tat in the game of Japanese gift-giving

"Beware of Japanese bearing gifts!"
EDITORIALS
May 2, 2003

Reviewing Mr. Koizumi's record

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, now just one week into his third year in office, sounds as upbeat as he did when he took office two years ago, even as the gulf between his words and deeds continues to widen. He says he is still firmly committed to his banner slogan: "structural reform with no sacred...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
May 1, 2003

Hanami with a shot of history

Vancouver, Canada, is a beautiful city. Not only for the magnificent mountains, for salmon spawning rivers, and a largely natural coast, but for the city's many trees. I am told that Vancouver has 124,000 street trees, 30,000 of which flower. The cherry trees especially are glorious.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 30, 2003

Pulling a few strings for teens

Last summer, at his annual Saito Kinen Festival in Nagano Prefecture, maestro Seiji Ozawa chose to perform the opera "Peter Grimes," in which the sea imagery represents the protagonist's emotions. Harpist Naoko Yoshino, one of the invited guest musicians, contributed greatly to the opera's success by...
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2003

Nobel chemist, ex-Kobe mayor among government honorees

Masatoshi Koshiba, winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry, and Kosaku Inaba, former chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, will be honored with the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun, the Cabinet office said in releasing the names of 4,301 men and 297 women in Japan on this...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 30, 2003

Matthew Sweet: "Kimi ga Suki * Life"

When applied to pop musicians, the term "big in Japan" tends to be pejorative, as if Japanese fans were less discriminating than those in the rest of the world. The only way to dispel the condescension inherent in the term is by example.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 30, 2003

Now (and forever) a girl's best friend

Once the home of a prince, the Teien Art Museum is now playing host to a king's ransom in jewelry comprising a truly sparkling survey of the bijoutier's art in the four centuries spanning 1540-1940.
EDITORIALS
Apr 29, 2003

A crucial contingency package

How should Japan deal with a military attack from abroad? This question has acquired greater urgency amid heightened regional security concerns. However, military contingency legislation now before the Diet should be debated from a long-term perspective. At stake is the fundamental question of how to...
COMMUNITY
Apr 29, 2003

Tama-chan: the questions that they tried to bur

Tama-chan has had an overwhelming e-mail response to the exclusive interview he gave to The Japan Times on April 1. This week he shares with us a selection of queries submitted by readers.
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2003

Pianist, barber to receive government medals

A maverick jazz pianist and a hearing-impaired barber are among the 810 people who will receive government medals Tuesday in recognition of their contributions to society, the Cabinet Office said Sunday.
EDITORIALS
Apr 27, 2003

Iraqis and their antiquities

The looting, ransacking and burning of Baghdad's great repositories of historical antiquities came as a shock to many -- including, apparently, U.S. troops in the field -- even though scholars all over the world had warned that a war could cause catastrophic cultural damage in Iraq. But now the damage...
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2003

Rengo to drop slogans on May Day

The Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) has decided that for the first time ever it will not display specific policy slogans at its main May Day rally, a Rengo official said Saturday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2003

Downsize, get out of China's way and rebuild: business chief

Japan should aggressively create new businesses to regain its global competitiveness, according to Kakutaro Kitashiro, new chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai).
COMMENTARY
Apr 26, 2003

An opportunity for APEC

HONOLULU -- The rapid spread of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, is a compelling demonstration of the need for a truly global health network to fight future epidemics. The particulars of this outbreak also highlight the role that the Asia-Pacific region will have to play in this effort. The...
BUSINESS
Apr 25, 2003

Sony group profit soars sevenfold

Sony Corp. said Thursday its group net profit in fiscal 2002 skyrocketed to 115.52 billion yen -- more than 7.5 times its 15.3 billion yen profit the previous year -- on strong movie sales and cost cutting.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 25, 2003

ASEAN needs to rise from '97 ashes

With many of its member nations still unable to recover from the impact of the region-wide financial crisis of the late 1990s, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations must "reinvent" itself so it can play a significant role in the regionalism that is emerging in East Asia, a think tank expert from...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2003

Aum Shinrikyo plagued by guru's whims, journalist says

The crimes perpetrated by the disciples of Shoko Asahara and those allegedly committed by the Aum Shinrikyo guru himself were the product of one man's whimsical impulses and not a concerted quest for power, according to journalist Shoko Egawa.

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers