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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 29, 2002

Where sea meets sky

Although Brittany is part of France, it was, for many centuries, a wild and windswept country of Celts, where people preserved their own language, customs and faith.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 27, 2002

Pet Shop Boys: 'Release'

More than 16 years ago, Neil Tennant emerged as the Noel Coward of dance pop when he and fellow Pet Shop Boy Chris Lowe exhorted all the young dudes to "make lots of money." Like the playwright, Tennant sauntered on to the scene fully jaded, his wit already acerbic, his ironies prickly with cynicism....
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Mar 25, 2002

Lighthearted songs for the heaviest of times

NEW YORK -- My colleague Jeff passed on to me a writer's query posted on the Internet. As it happened, the inquiring writer was a novelist of whom I am a fan, and the subject on which he sought help was intriguing. He wanted to know about Japanese popular songs -- especially popular military songs --...
COMMENTARY
Mar 24, 2002

Talk of a turnaround remains premature

ISLAMABAD -- If President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, felt he was winning over world opinion following his recent kudos-winning trips to Japan and the United States, he couldn't have chosen a worse moment.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Mar 24, 2002

Music, an improvised definition

Improvised music poses a considerable critical challenge. It now takes in such a wide variety of styles -- from jazz to minimalist electronica, from contemporary classical music to rock -- there is no one absolute set of criteria by which to judge it.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 21, 2002

Blooms tell curious tale of two cities

Ninet years ago, on March 27, 1912, passersby on the northern bank of the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. may have been surprised to see two elegant ladies digging holes. They may have been even more surprised had they known that the women were Helen Taft, wife of U.S. President William Howard Taft,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 17, 2002

The Imperial family: celebrities or deities?

At a press conference to mark his 68th birthday last December, Emperor Akihito surprised reporters by saying that he felt a strong "kinship" with Korea.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 10, 2002

A picture-perfect millennium tribute

THE TALE OF GENJI: Scenes From the World's First Novel, by Murasaki Shikibu. Illustrated by Masayuki Miyata, translated by H. Mack Horton. Kodansha International, 2001, 240 pp., 3500 yen (paper) "The Tale of Genji," renowned as the world's first great novel, is now nearly 1,000 years old. The intervening...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 6, 2002

Clinic: 'Walking With Thee'

Despite the surgical masks and scrubs that the members don for publicity photos, the Liverpool art-punk quartet Clinic is fairly gimmick-free. Their up-to-the-minute DIY aesthetic -- built around melodicas rather than guitars, drum kits rather than drum machines -- places familiar musical ideas in a...
EDITORIALS
Mar 4, 2002

Creating new demand is the key

An antideflation package put together last Thursday by the government and the Bank of Japan has disappointed everyone. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi himself has acknowledged that it includes "no quick remedies." A key policymaker in the ruling coalition has described it as a "patchwork of stopgap...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2002

Help the huddled masses

To Canberra's continuing irritation, the scandal of the Norwegian freighter Tampa will not go away. It now turns out that the Australian government's election victory last year may have been conceived in deceit and born in sin.
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2002

Tama mayor arrested in garbage firm bribery case

Police on Sunday searched the Tama mayor's office and other places for evidence that Mayor Kunihiko Suzuki accepted bribes from the head of a Tokyo waste-collection company. Suzuki was arrested Saturday.
BUSINESS
Feb 22, 2002

Koizumi opposes book-value loan deals for RCC

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi indicated Thursday that he does not support a proposal that the state-run Resolution and Collection Corp. buy bad loans at "effective book value" rather than at market value.
BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2002

Keep that video collection -- new DVDs are around corner

The DVD player just went the way of the VCR.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 20, 2002

From 'kimono as canvas' to modest couture

What is so fascinating about royal dress? Clearly, in the case of Diana, Princess of Wales, her fame and glamour set the style for millions of people worldwide. But for countless centuries, the dress of the ruling classes has been about far more than just setting a trend: It has confirmed the high status...
BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2002

Officials say Bush gave tacit warning on economy

Economic ministers said Tuesday they understood U.S. President George W. Bush had issued "tacit" calls for Japan to revive its economy during his summit with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2002

Takenaka ups deadline for fund-injection decision

Economic and fiscal policy minister Heizo Takenaka said Sunday the government may decide by the end of March whether an additional public fund injection into major commercial banks is necessary.
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2002

Environment activists plan chilly reception for Bush

While the government prepares to roll out the red carpet for U.S. President George W. Bush as he arrives today in Tokyo for his inaugural visit, a collection of nongovernmental groups are planning a less warm welcome.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 17, 2002

Shonzui: Right at home with fruits of the vine

We finally made it to Shonzui the other day. Not that it's particularly hard to find, it's just that it has taken us far too long to get around to visiting this friendly little wine bar down in Roppongi.
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Feb 13, 2002

Nimaime wa so-so, baby

I hate to say it, but Love Psychedelico has succumbed to the dreaded "second-album syndrome" with "Love Psychedelico Orchestra," which was released Jan. 9. It's not a bad album -- in fact it has some great songs, like the opening track, "Standing Bird," which features a wonderfully infectious keyboard...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2002

Shonan merger plan races clock, though some balk

With its gently arching coastline overlooking Enoshima Island in Sagami Bay and a distant view of Mount Fuji and the Hakone mountain range, the Shonan area in Kanagawa Prefecture triggers memories of songs and movies about the picturesque area.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Feb 10, 2002

Home with the best

Being the youngest in a large family meant, in my case, becoming an auntie when I was still in my teens. And during my long self-exile in Japan, I patiently awaited the arrival of a new generation of travelers -- but then started feeling neglected as one nephew and niece after another circled the world...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 10, 2002

Love in a time of decline for homegrown literature

Is there a future for Japanese literature? That is the question posed by an article in the February issue of Bungakukai. Writer Akira Nagae visited various bookstores and publishers in search of an answer. The manager of a bookstore near an arts university in Tokyo feels authors and publishers are deceiving...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 10, 2002

Wine-lovers go loco for Coco

ASHIKAGA, Tochigi Pref. -- Five hectares of misty hillside in Tochigi Prefecture contain one of Japan's best-kept secrets -- a tiny vineyard that may one day become this country's first producer of world-class wines.
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2002

Koizumi urges steps to fight deflation ahead of G7 talks

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi instructed key economic ministers Friday to take measures to stop deflation and prevent further drops in the prices of Japanese stocks and government bonds.
LIFE / Travel / FLOWER WALK
Feb 7, 2002

Bloomin' good fortune in winter

A Greek myth tells of the beautiful youth Adonis, beloved of Aphrodite, who was killed by a wild boar while hunting. A flower growing on the spot where he fell was stained crimson by his blood and was named Adonis aestivalis.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Feb 7, 2002

Geek culture bashing

http://homepage.mac.com/jcarusone/iMovieTheater2.html The unveiling of the new iMac has reignited the Mac vs. Windows debate all over the Internet, with journalists, computer users, economists and other eccentrics predicting whether the latest Apple hardware/software combo will take a bite out of Microsoft's...
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Feb 6, 2002

Color her beautiful

"Mere colour, unspoiled by meaning and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways." So wrote Oscar Wilde in "The Critic as Artist." There are myriad theories on why and how different wavelengths in the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum affect us in the...

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