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COMMENTARY
Aug 26, 2002

Shrinking realm of privacy

LONDON -- Privacy is now increasingly recognized as an important human right, but its limits are not easy to define. How far, for instance, should the press be prevented from intrusive photography of VIPs? The media generally argue that it is their job to report on the movements and actions of public...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 24, 2002

When guilt goes beyond crime

First of two parts. The second will appear on this page tomorrow. If you kill one person, an old joke goes, you get sent to jail. Kill 20, you get sent to a mental asylum. Kill 20,000, you get sent to Geneva for peace talks. The story is very much a reflection of the mass atrocities of the 20th century....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 22, 2002

Cyclists ride the wave of local crackdown

Japan's authorities never set out to make their communities bicycle friendly. Rather, history, climate and population density have contributed to making much of Japan a cyclist's dream.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 15, 2002

A load of computer clubs and a wad of financial advice

This column may be produced in Tokyo, but the newspaper circulates nationwide and indeed is read online worldwide. So we feel we are not doing our jobs properly to focus on Tokyo alone. While we have heard of a Macintosh computer group in Osaka, there must be others -- and in Nagoya, Fukuoka and Sapporo,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 14, 2002

Linda Thompson: "Fashionably Late"

In 1972, shortly after she married former Fairport Convention guitarist Richard Thompson and became pregnant, the sometime folk and commercial jingle singer Linda Peters began suffering from a rare psychological disorder called hysterical dysphonia. "You open your mouth and nothing comes out," is how...
BUSINESS
Aug 13, 2002

Chogin credit unions launched

OSAKA -- Business began Monday at three credit unions created to take over the banking operations of the failed Chogin Kinki Credit Union, which mainly served pro-Pyongyang Koreans in Japan, after officials at the lender were arrested for allegedly sending public money it received to North Korea.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Aug 11, 2002

FBI -- why not give it a shot?

Fifteen years ago, Shokuan-dori was a dark no man's land trapped in the vacuum between Kabukicho and Shin-Okubo. The latter, at that time, was an area buzzing with life as it gained momentum as headquarters for Tokyo's non-Japanese Asian foreigners. But it wasn't until several years later that a few...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Aug 11, 2002

Really making a meal of it in Austria

Second of two parts One of the most heady delights for any wine lover is a visit to a vineyard. Hike or bicycle through the countryside, then sip wine and unpack a picnic near lush, green rows of vines. In the warm afternoon, tromp down into the winery's cool, dark cellar that smells of damp earth and...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 11, 2002

Old Edo's many-splendored glories

The Tokugawa Shogunate may have been crumbling, and Commodore Perry's "Black Ships" may have been tearing aside the veil behind which Japan hid from the world for more than 200 years . . . but the commoners of eastern Edo were preoccupied with other matters: A craze for potted plants was sweeping the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 7, 2002

Artists of the Sun King eclipsed

Even as art galleries and museums around the world contend with falling visitor numbers, stepping inside a Japanese museum can feel more like braving Mitsukoshi on the first day of the summer sales.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 6, 2002

Tussling over a stolen treasure

ATHENS -- In 1801, Thomas Bruce, the seventh Earl of Elgin and British ambassador to Constantinople, hit upon what he considered a splendid idea.
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Aug 4, 2002

Salaryman quits to devote time to family name: Tokugawa

Tsunenari Tokugawa drew a salary for more than 38 years, climbing the corporate ladder to become executive vice president of major marine shipping company Nippon Yusen K.K.
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2002

Obituary: Shinshin Aoki

Shinshin Aoki, curator of the only museum in Japan dedicated to those who died in the Auschwitz concentration camp, died Wednesday of esophageal cancer at a Fukushima Prefecture hospital, his family said Friday. He was 67.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
Aug 3, 2002

Artist's work brings copper plate color prints to life

An impression of stillness amid the wonder of color is a beautiful thing to behold.
Japan Times
JAPAN / KANSAI BEAT
Aug 2, 2002

Sheep replace lawn mowers on river bank

OSAKA -- Sheep graze as children watch or pet them -- a sight reminiscent of a farm or zoo. Such a scene, however, might become more common on riverbanks here as the animals are used as an alternative to lawn mowers.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2002

Alliance planning to digitize Beijing museum exhibits

Toppan Printing Co. has teamed up with the Palace Museum in Beijing's Forbidden City in an effort to digitize images of the museum's exhibits, according to organizers who unveiled the project at the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 31, 2002

Charanga Habanera

It says alot that Charanga Habanera were voted most popular band in Cuba in 1999; there, music is more important than even politics. The group's salsa is not the cheek-to-cheek, swing-around kind familiar to many dancers and listeners, but a rougher, more frenetic style called timba.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 31, 2002

Modern Paintings of Mongolia: taking great steppes

Dividing his massive empire between his sons, Genghis Khan's grand legacy to the eldest was all the land from the Aral Sea westward "as far as the hooves of Mongol horses have reached."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 31, 2002

New and improved Pops!

How can anyone market one of the world's great orchestras in an era when orchestral music is growing ever less essential to the cultural fabric and the recording industry itself is ailing?
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2002

Tokyo-area highway toll hike to 800 yen in the pipeline

Metropolitan Expressway Public Corp. said Monday it may hike expressway tolls in the Tokyo area by about 100 yen to 800 yen as early as December.
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2002

Koizumi set to issue financial stability directive

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi indicated Thursday he will instruct his Cabinet ministers to step up measures to stabilize the financial system and reassure bankers before the imposition of a cap on all bank deposit guarantees in April.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Jul 25, 2002

Expense no object at Meiji jewel in Kobe's crown

Though it's neither very large nor very old, Sorakuen Garden in Kobe is one of the best-designed pond-strolling gardens (kaiyushiki-sensui-teien) I know, with many interesting features and plants of exceptionally high quality.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jul 24, 2002

Women whose work is never done

"Senko (Flash)," singer/songwriter UA's first single in three years, further cements her status as one of J-pop's most enigmatic and original artists. Released July 24, "Senko" is a dark, moody piece that's half tone poem and half pop song. UA and co-producer Rei Harakami have created a sparse, ambient-ish...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 21, 2002

Let's have some quiet, please

SPACES FOR SILENCE, text by Caro Ness, photos by Alen MacWeeney. Foreword by Ruth La Feria. Tokyo/Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 2001, 142 pp., 135 color plates, 4,500 yen (cloth) The late Jiddu Krishnamurti once said that religion is frozen thought, and that out of it one builds temples. The implication...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 17, 2002

It takes a village . . .

The feat of building a community takes vision, commitment and lots of time. But once every year, a massive village materializes on a mountainside in Niigata Prefecture in late July, only to vanish into thin air less than a week later.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 14, 2002

Living outside the box

The days of Japan as the No. 1 business model for the world are long gone, but a new and perhaps more interesting model combining Japanese and Western elements seems to be developing. Unfortunately, the transition from a system based on lifelong employment, seniority and unthinking loyalty to one's company...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jul 14, 2002

Where the surf's always up

Drunkard is an older form of the noun "drunk," which, according to my Concise Oxford English Dictionary, means "deprived of proper control of oneself by alcoholic liquor." Unlike its modern shortened form, it is not a word one hears used much these days, which gives it a slightly old-fashioned, almost...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji