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Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2001

Forum focuses on English skills in business

Company managers, educators and journalists met Tuesday at a forum in Tokyo to discuss the English language's influence in business, and the possibility of making it an official language in the Japanese corporate world.
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 14, 2001

Revitalized kyogen to a crossroads

With the new century, it seems that the world of traditional Japanese theater has taken a long, hard look at itself and is seeking new means of expression.
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Nov 14, 2001

To see a world in a bowl of tea

"Kokoro shugetsu ni nitari," which translates as "My mind is like the autumn moon," is a line from a Chinese poem expressing the Zen sensation felt strongly during this harvest season. Pure and reflecting without hesitation, the moon is a metaphor for our hearts and one that all of humanity could do...
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Nov 14, 2001

Like Sheena, only happier

Like many people, when I first heard Hitomi Yaida's music, I immediately thought: Aha, Ringo Sheena Lite. With her high-pitched, keening voice and energetic, guitar-based pop-rock style, Yaida certainly has a lot in common with Sheena, that twisted pixie.
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2001

Over 100 million yen spent from illicit funds: Tanaka

Foreign Ministry personnel used more than 100 million yen in illicitly pooled funds at the ministry over the past six years by padding hotel bills and other means, Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Nov 14, 2001

Consumer anxiety reaches record high

An index gauging consumer anxiety into the next 12 months has climbed to its highest level since 1977, a government-backed research institute said Tuesday.
Events
Nov 13, 2001

Kansai adopts antiauteur atmosphere

OSAKA -- Foreign filmmakers shun it for its high cost and lack of cooperation from authorities, while Japanese directors decry its dearth of sophistication and talent.
COMMENTARY
Nov 13, 2001

Japan must make the grade

In the last decade of the 20th century, Japan lost many of the tangible and intangible assets it had built up since World War II. In particular, there was a serious deterioration in the quality of human resources. The second half of the 1990s saw a sharp decline in university students' scholastic performance...
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2001

China to be named new WTO member

DOHA -- In a move planned for maximum publicity and a respite from divisive negotiations, China was set to be approved as a member of the World Trade Organization on Saturday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 11, 2001

Taking things one moment at a time

Monday night, the Nippon TV documentary series "Super TV" (9 p.m.) chronicles the last six months of a man with terminal cancer. Last year, the show's producers received a letter from the man's children, who explained their father's situation and asked them "to record his life right up until the last...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 11, 2001

Mixing it up in the States

THE SUM OF OUR PARTS: Mixed Heritage Asian Americans, edited by Teresa Williams-Leon and Cynthia L. Nakashima. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001, 296 pp., 22.95 (paper) High intermarriage rates, massive waves of immigration, and the easing of restrictions on global travel are blurring racial...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 11, 2001

Mizoguchi's street of shame

RED-LIGHT DISTRICT, the film by Kenji Mizoguchi, translated and annotated by D.J. Rajakaruna. Colombo: S. Godage & Brothers, 2001. 182 pp., $12.50 (paper) Kenji Mizoguchi's last film, the 1956 "Akasen Chitai" ("Red-Light District," aka "Street of Shame") may not be one of his best pictures but it is...
COMMUNITY
Nov 10, 2001

Welsh Society to sing its heart out for seeing dogs

Think Welsh and imagine small, dark, tough people with a passion for rugby and choral singing, the red dragon of the national flag, sunny daffodils (the national flower) and the green valleys of southern Wales. Yet here is Ursula Bartlett Imadegawa (known to friends as Ursula Bi) -- a blonde with green...
COMMENTARY
Nov 10, 2001

Brace yourself for the new McCarthyism

NEW YORK -- According to The Wall Street Journal I'm "probably the most bitterly anti-American commentator in America." The National Review calls me "a big fat zero, an ignorant, talentless hack with a flair for recycling leftist pieties into snarky cartoons that inspired breakfast-table chuckles among...
BUSINESS
Nov 10, 2001

Bill adopted to help older job-seekers

The government adopted a bill Friday to help people 45 and older find jobs under an emergency package of employment measures to cushion joblessness linked to the ongoing economic slump and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's economic reform programs.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 10, 2001

Eiko Todo

Eiko Todo says there are "thousands of children in Japan suffering from unrecognized dyslexia. Even after it is recognized, the children have practically no support from teachers, nor local education authorities."
JAPAN
Nov 9, 2001

Osaka court rejects lawsuit by forcibly moved homeless

OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court on Thursday rejected a lawsuit filed by 26 people demanding compensation for the city's clearing away in December 1998 of tents used by the homeless along the sidewalk in Nishinari Ward.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2001

Howard ahead as election draws near

SYDNEY -- In these days of crisis -- as Australia sends troops to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan and thousands of boat people try to reach Australia illegally -- what more does Prime Minister John Howard need to win a national election this coming Saturday?
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2001

Harassed leaders could play Kashmir card

T here is increasing concern that and the ongoing war in Afghanistan may well give India and Pakistan yet another reason to start a new war over Kashmir, a region they both claim as their own. In recent weeks, they have locked themselves deeper in their border conflict. Both countries, which have fought...
JAPAN
Nov 9, 2001

Osaka court rejects lawsuit by forcibly moved homeless

OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court on Thursday rejected a lawsuit filed by 26 people demanding compensation for the city's clearing away in December 1998 of tents used by the homeless along the sidewalk in Nishinari Ward.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 8, 2001

All the leaves are brown -- anyone know why?

In Japan, the beauty of leaves in autumn is revered with almost religious fervor. Part of the autumn weather forecast is devoted to showing the "leaf front" as the color change in trees moves across the country. Millions of tourists travel to marvel at the display.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 8, 2001

Memorial held for Mike Mansfield, longest-serving U.S. envoy to Japan

A memorial service for former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Mike Mansfield, who died Oct. 5 in Washington at the age of 98, was held Wednesday at a hotel in Tokyo.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 7, 2001

Just how low can they go?

Swordfish Rating: * Director: Dominic Sena Running time: 99 minutes Language: English Now showing
SOCCER / World cup
Nov 7, 2001

Chung wants Emperor at World Cup

South Korean World Cup Organizing Committee co-chairman Chung Mong Joon stressed the significance of a visit by Japan's Emperor to South Korea for the opening ceremony of next year's World Cup.
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Nov 7, 2001

Art in the midst of 'iniquity'

I live in Kabukicho -- the infamous tangle of sex clubs and mahjongg parlors located just north of Shinjuku Station's East Exit. There are a number of reasons why I live where I do: the hundreds of wonderful all-night Asian restaurants and supermarkets; the fact that I can walk from my apartment to the...
BUSINESS
Nov 3, 2001

Reform of public entities wins little ministry support

Government ministries and agencies are showing little enthusiasm for abolishing or reducing the amount of subsidies to public corporations under their jurisdiction, according to their individual reform plans released Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2001

Palau banks on environment to bring in the tourist dollars

The president of the Republic of Palau said Thursday that his island nation will protect its environment through education and the selective admission of foreign capital, while promoting tourism as its major industry.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2001

Applications to universities increase 1.6%

A total of 3,461,591 people applied for enrollment at Japanese universities in April, up 1.6 percent from a year earlier, according to a recent education ministry poll.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2001

Quick-stop face-lifts pull the lunch crowd

A new kind of plastic surgery that requires no scalpels or stitches and can be performed in mere minutes is becoming increasingly popular -- particularly with young women -- due to the relative ease in obtaining treatment.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 3, 2001

Japanese relieve stress in strange ways

Westerners typically take a vacation to relieve stress. We might go to the Caribbean, lie on the beach, read trashy novels and sip cocktails. Not so the Japanese.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo