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COMMUNITY
Nov 3, 2002

Japan's hometown of jazz

Yokohama's love affair with jazz first blossomed when the West was Roarin' in the 1920s. Back then, ocean liners were bringing passengers and ships' bands from all over the world, and Japan's maritime gateway was a major port of call for steamers plying between the famed entertainment hubs of Shanghai...
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Nov 3, 2002

Joy and pain falling in love again

"We're girls too nasty/We're girls too hot/We're punky girls so you can't stop us.'' Complete lyrics to Anadorei's 40-second-long "Girls Anthem"
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2002

Postal agency didn't collect taxes

Tax authorities have discovered that the Postal Services Agency failed to collect taxes on about 3.5 billion yen in interest in 2000, sources said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Nov 2, 2002

A disappointing economic package

The economic package that the government unveiled on Wednesday, together with the Bank of Japan's decision to expand the credit supply, represents a concerted attempt to fight deflation. The comprehensive program includes measures to accelerate disposal of bad bank loans, help rebuild debt-heavy but...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 2002

Louis XIV understood power, absolute power

Ovid's "Metamorphoses" (composed 8 A.D.) described the palace of the sun, tall-columned and fashioned from precious metals, inside which sat the radiant god Apollo on a throne studded with emeralds. The Roman poet's description was pure fantasy, but Louis XIV, King of France from 1643-1715, seemed set...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Oct 23, 2002

Rocket From the Crypt: "Live From Camp X-Ray"

John "Speedo" Reis' critical image is of a pop culture otaku who channeled his obsessions into decent rock 'n' roll that doesn't embarrass the artists it reveres. The name of his best-known group, Rocket From the Crypt, pays homage to both Rocket From the Tombs, the legendary Cleveland shock-rock group...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Oct 21, 2002

Contributing to the spread of democracy

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- In a recent editorial, the Financial Times admonished the European Union and its member states, "(for) having consistently failed to grasp the broad historic significance of the fall of the Berlin Wall nearly 13 years ago." It is in fact an awesome event, the significance of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 20, 2002

Okinawan music's healing embrace

"I've always felt that my role in life is to heal people through my music," says Yuriko Ganeko, a 54-year-old Okinawan singer and sanshin player. Ganeko, who favors purple eye shadow, heavy perfume and hoop earrings, was recently in Tokyo to promote her newest album, "Uta Asobi (Song Play)."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Oct 20, 2002

Put on your party hat and escape to Oz

At the mini five-ways down the hill behind Almond in Roppongi, one will find a pleasant second-floor bar in a building on one corner. Though small, it takes full advantage of the building's glass exterior walls, with every seat at the bar offering a view of the street. It feels spacious and safe from...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Oct 16, 2002

Educational crazy golf is a hole in one

If life is a crap shoot, then the Japanese educational system is a game of mini-golf, or so reckons Peter Bellars: That's the message behind the English artist's current Yokohama Museum of Art Gallery exhibition.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 13, 2002

Confessions over a cup of coffee

ON TSUKUBA PEAK: Tanka by Hatsue Kawamura. Five Islands Press: Wollongong, Australia, z2002, 93 pp., $20/1,500 yen (paper) MEMORIES OF A WOMAN: Tanka by Harue Aoki. Mura Press, Tokyo, 2001, 204 pp., 1,800 yen (paper) Women poets have a long and industrious history in Japan, where they have been writing...
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Oct 11, 2002

Kanji power unlocks the secret room of Japanese literature

Surely many of you, including overseas readers of The Japan Times online, live within 100 km of a Japanese-language bookstore or a university with a collection of Japanese books. Japanese literature is available, but confronting the sheer volume of offerings can be overwhelming.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 10, 2002

Giving you something to stretch your head round

Modern American anthropology owes a lot to one man: Franz Boas, widely regarded as the father of the discipline.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Oct 9, 2002

Pottery worth giving it all up for

Say the word "Momoyama" to any Japanese pottery connoisseurs, and their eyes will inevitably light up. Most ceramic enthusiasts would give up any Saturday-night vice to own just one Momoyama Shino, Bizen or Karatsu guinomi (sake cup) or chawan (tea bowl).
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Oct 9, 2002

Steve Earle: "Jerusalem"

The fuss over "John Walker's Blues," Steve Earle's look-see into the mind of the American Taliban, barely survived the actual release of the song a few weeks ago. John Walker Lindh, who is portrayed by Earle as a naive but well-meaning young idealist, has since tearfully owned up to his mistakes and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 9, 2002

The ugly truth about Pre-Raphaelite beauty

Had Sigmund Freud psychoanalyzed whole eras, not mere individuals, the late 19th century would have been a prime candidate for his therapist's couch. Take the example of empire-building Britain. Victorians may have been prudish to the extent of covering shapely table legs, but they were sexually voracious....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Oct 8, 2002

Nature's poster-bear on the brink

No animal, with the possible exceptions of the dolphin and the whale, has won more hearts and minds for the cause of wildlife conservation than the giant panda.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Oct 6, 2002

Into the night at Meguro's Saka Bar

When a friend took me on a tour of his favorite bars in Nakameguro, Saka Bar was the scheduled last stop. It scored this slot on the tour because of its notoriety in the area as a late-night hangout. On that first visit we arrived at 5 a.m. to find all stools at the bar taken -- though in an eight-seater...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 6, 2002

Down on the farm with the Tokio boys

According to research, currently the only TV show that men over age 45 can stomach, other than NHK's "Project X," is "The Tetsuwan Dash" (Nippon TV, Sundays, 6:55 p.m.). In the show, the boy band Tokio -- collectively and individually -- embark on large, time-consuming projects involving agriculture,...
EDITORIALS
Oct 3, 2002

Challenges for Mr. Takenaka

The reshuffled Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has a powerful economic portfolio that may well be described as "deputy prime minister for economic affairs." As state minister in charge of economic and fiscal policy as well as financial affairs, Mr. Heizo Takenaka is now the de facto economic...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 2002

Saving the banking system

The Bank of Japan announcement that it would purchase part of the stakes that banks hold in listed companies has raised question marks among investors.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 29, 2002

Modernism goes East

MODERNISM IN THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST AND JAPAN: 1918-1928, edited by Toshiharu Omuka, Kyoji Takizawa, Yoshiko Tachibana and Tsutomu Mizusawa. The Tokyo Shimbun, 2002, 254 pp., trilingual (Japanese/English/Russian), profusely illustrated, 2,500 yen (paper) In the autumn of 1920, two Russian artists arrived...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Sep 29, 2002

How is marine Miyakejima now?

In early July 2000, Miyakejima Island's 7,000-year-old volcano roared back to life. Continual eruptions led to the entire population being evacuated over the next two months as emissions of very fine, extremely heavy ash were replaced by lethal gases gushing daily from a new 400-meter-deep crater. What...
BUSINESS
Sep 28, 2002

State's handling of banks under scrutiny

All eyes are on how the government will try to prop up the nation's banks and get them to shed their nonperforming loans. With many experts viewing capital injections as a key step in this regard, we take a closer look at the issue:
BUSINESS
Sep 26, 2002

Aso rejects latest plan for RCC to pay more

A key LDP policymaker balked Wednesday at a proposal to allow the state-run Resolution and Collection Corp. buy collateral-backed bad loans at effective book value.
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2002

RCC should buy loans above market value: banker

The head of the Japanese Bankers Association indicated Tuesday that Resolution and Collection Corp., the government's debt collector, should purchase bank loans at above-market prices.

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