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CULTURE / Art
Apr 22, 2001

You will read this -- now

Tokyo recently witnessed the latest stage of an arresting visual campaign -- the sudden appearance around town of black, white and red posters and stickers featuring the iconographic face of pro-wrestler Andre the Giant and the ominous message "Obey" printed below.
EDITORIALS
Apr 15, 2001

Prepare now for demographic changes

The rapid aging of Japan's population, combined with a steady decline in the birthrate, makes it certain that the productive-age population will begin to fall sharply in the not-so-distant future. As a result, the entire population will also start shrinking, making it necessary to redesign the economic...
COMMUNITY
Apr 15, 2001

A yen for thrift

There was a time when Japan prided itself on its thriftiness. Hard times after World War II produced the need to save money and cut every corner. Children were taught that each grain of rice was sacred and not to be wasted. Sardines and mackerel were standard fare, beef reserved only for special occasions....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 7, 2001

Paper and gold yield a life

PAPER SON: One Man's Story, by Tung Pok Chin, with Winifred C. Chin, with an introduction by K. Scott Wong. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000, pp. 184, 15 b/w photos, $15.96. In this account of his tribulations and triumphs in Gold Mountain (the Chinese immigrant's euphemism for the United...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 25, 2001

Hot rod 'tribes' roar into the night

It's 2:30 a.m. on a Friday night outside the Shibaura parking area, a thin strip of concrete and pavement stuck to a pillar under the belly of Tokyo's Rainbow Bridge. There's a flash of red taillights as vehicles speed in. New arrivals are greeted by leather-clad bikers revving their engines, spitting...
EDITORIALS
Mar 6, 2001

The horns of a dilemma

At first glance, it looks like humanitarianism on the cheap: Send the hundreds of tons of beef that are being discarded in Germany to North Korea, where millions of people are reportedly on the brink of starvation. But it is not that simple: Germany's cattle are being killed because they might have bovine...
JAPAN / BENCH REFORM
Feb 28, 2001

Fight gets under way to increase public's access to legal aid

Lawyer Masaki Kunihiro had never dreamed his life would be so busy in the small city of Hamada, Shimane Prefecture.
JAPAN
Feb 15, 2001

Politicians test online waters for votes

Staff writer In a country where nearly 30 million people out of the 120 million population use the Internet, about 400 out of 732 Diet members have their own Web site.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2001

Few lessons for Wahid in Estrada's fate

There are a growing number of students on the streets of Jakarta who are hoping to do to Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid what was done last month to Philippine President Joseph Estrada: depose him through the deployment of people power.
EDITORIALS
Feb 4, 2001

Ginger, the new IT girl

Among the many things for which whiz-bang American inventor Dean Kamen is famous is an automated wheelchair that can ride over uneven ground and climb stairs. That particular breakthrough device was code-named "Fred." Now, as everyone this side of the grave must have heard, there is also "Ginger." Some...
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2001

CD-ROMs aid the visually impaired

KYOTO -- Yuko Shiomi, a professional narrator with the radio station KBS Kyoto, speaks into a microphone. Her role is that of "Kakuunsai," a fictional character depicting a distinguished calligrapher.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2001

CD-ROMs aid the visually impaired

KYOTO -- Yuko Shiomi, a professional narrator with the radio station KBS Kyoto, speaks into a microphone. Her role is that of "Kakuunsai," a fictional character depicting a distinguished calligrapher.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2001

Can peace be globalized in the 21st century?

The 20th century is usually referred to as a century of "war and revolution" that brought unprecedented bloodshed and misery. While this is true, the description is not sufficiently accurate. During the religious wars of the 17th century, for example, Germany, as the main battlefield, lost an estimated...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2001

Progress alone won't be enough

IT, shorthand for information technology, was a buzzword in Japan in 2000. Never before had computers and the Internet caused such a furor in the media. To be sure, IT had created a boom several times in the past, but its impact had been confined to the corporate sector. In contrast, the latest boom...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2001

Wanted: a leadership strategy

Japan has stepped into the 21st century under not-so-comfortable political circumstances. Public approval ratings for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori remain extremely low, and half of the nation's voters say they have no political party to support. While the government has launched one stimulus...
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

Aum ranks' rights compromised by fear

NAGAREYAMA, Chiba Pref. -- As night falls, all the houses in this quiet bedroom community melt into darkness.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 24, 2000

Roll up your sleeve when Lance comes calling

Hospitals come and go -- especially on our island. You can always tell when the hospital comes because it's a large mobile contraption that rolls off the ferry. When it's time to go, it rolls back onto the ferry and you can wave goodbye to the hospital as it goes back out to sea. It's basically a big...
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2000

Town's win against dam had a cost

KITO, Tokushima Pref. -- This remote village lies along the upper stream of the 125-km Naka River.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2000

Kagawa folks get to bottom of their 'udon' bowls in more ways than one

TAKAMATSU, Kagawa Pref. -- As a native of a prefecture famous for Sanuki "udon" (wheat noodles), Kazutoshi Tao thought udon was a simple component of daily life -- until he visited a place where customers whip up their own variety.
COMMENTARY
Dec 23, 2000

Robert Downey's problem is not criminal

Drugs can exercise a powerful hold over the human person. Witness American actor Robert Downey, Jr.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2000

Societal barriers facing disabled may prove the most formidable

As deputy chief of the Japanese delegation at the Sydney Paralympic Games this summer, Tsunenobu Wakana was impressed with the handicapped-friendly facilities and transportation system.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2000

U.S. presidential elections should go global

LOS ANGELES -- Americans watching events play out in Florida since Nov. 7 may feel a surreal sense of powerlessness; their president is being chosen by a handful of Palm Beach residents, it seems. In short, Americans have now gotten a taste of the way the rest of the world feels with each presidential...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Dec 5, 2000

Audio Active beams down the space dub

Masa of Audio Active has gone AWOL. I'm at the new offices of his management company, Beatink, in Shibuya. Tae, who arranged the interview, is refilling my coffee cup and apologizing, telling me that the main man is not answering his keitai and nobody knows where the hell he is.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2000

Middle-class myth comes tumbling down

This is the eighth of a 10-part series on contemporary Japan.
COMMENTARY
Dec 3, 2000

Britons going nowhere fast

LONDON -- Is Britain in crisis? Many people think so, after a month in which large swathes of England have been inundated by filthy flood water. Television news showed comic snippets of boats in the streets rescuing old ladies and dogs, snaps of sturdy men and women counting their blessings as the flood...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 12, 2000

Japan's not-so-silent media conspiracy

Some months ago I went up to Tohoku to give a public lecture sponsored by a television station. After the talk there was a delightful, informal dinner, during which I chatted with an old friend, a producer at the station.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2000

White paper hails volunteers

Volunteer activities are becoming increasingly important in Japanese society as it undergoes changes to the lifetime employment system and traditional corporate culture, according to an annual government white paper on lifestyles released Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 22, 2000

Bidding goodbye to the monoculture myth

Some years ago I was sitting at the counter of a rather exclusive sushi restaurant in the Roppongi district of Tokyo when I noticed that a middle-age man a few stools along was making monosyllabic comments each time I ordered a morsel of sushi or slipped one into my mouth.
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2000

How dead is dead enough?

The line between life and death has grown increasingly obscure in the United States, the world's most active organ-transplant community, as surgeons grapple with a delicate problem: Organs available for transplant may become less viable if pronouncement of a donor's death is delayed until death is beyond...

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight