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COMMUNITY
Dec 16, 2001

Photo-news loses its focus

Last August's demise of Shinchosha's weekly photo newsmagazine Focus marked a major publishing milestone in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2001

Defending the Khmer cultural heritage

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- When discussion involves Cambodia, a natural reaction is to recall horrendous images of ruthless genocide. While this is true, one should nonetheless not exclusively equate this small country with immense suffering and torment. Cambodia is also home to a precious cultural heritage...
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2001

The empire strikes back

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Rating: * * * * Director: Chris Columbus Running time: 152 minutes Language: English Now showing
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2001

Delegates shape Kyoto Protocol's future

Conventional wisdom has it that the devil is in the details. It is exactly devilish details that are waiting for climate-change negotiators trying to put the finishing touches on the Kyoto climate accord at negotiations in Marrakesh, Morocco that will run until Nov. 9.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 2, 2001

More than words can say

WORDS IN CONTENT: A Japanese Perspective on Language and Culture, by Takao Suzuki, translated by Akira Miura Our eyes, says Takao Suzuki, author of this sociolinguistic text, "do not see things objectively and impartially like cameras. Our perceptions are always subject to cultural selection." Indeed,...
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2001

Japan, U.S. to discuss environmental project

Japan and the United States will begin expert-level environmental talks in September aimed primarily at boosting cooperation in the development of technologies needed to better forecast and prevent global warming, government sources said Friday.
COMMENTARY
Aug 21, 2001

Koizumi's unfinished business

HONOLULU -- Last week was rough for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. The last thing he wants to do now is revisit the Yasukuni Shrine question, but there is unfinished business that he must attend to.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 18, 2001

Painting all the layers of knowledge and color in the Buddhist universe

'There is no room for originality in thangka painting," says Yumyo Miyasaka. "The iconography, the colors, even the way you hold the brush -- everything must be done just so." Self-expression is not the goal here; the pictures are an aid, a tool for meditation. The self is what you are trying to lose....
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2001

NTT launches L-mode Internet service

In a bid to halt the ongoing demise of fixed phone services, the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone group on Friday launched L-mode, a text-based Internet browsing service that does not require a computer.
COMMENTARY
Jun 25, 2001

Textbook criticism on target

China and South Korea are demanding revisions in Japanese history textbooks approved by the government for use at middle schools, arguing that they contain distortions of facts. In making the demands, China singled out a textbook compiled by the Society for History Textbook Reform; South Korea directed...
Events
Jun 12, 2001

Kobe friendship center to help local Brazilians learn Japanese

KOBE — Kobe Foreigners Friendship Center, a nonprofit organization assisting foreign residents, has compiled textbooks and CDs for Brazilians wanting to learn conversational Japanese.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 2, 2001

Wizard of Oz shares magic printing technique

Next Saturday, Australian print artist Dianne Longley provides the opportunity to hear about and see the demonstration of a new technique: photopolymer printing. The event will be held in Tokyo's Azabu-juban, and everyone is welcome, whether experienced or novice.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 27, 2001

Farewell to the rabbit hutch

THE JAPANESE DREAM HOUSE: How Technology and Tradition are Shaping New Home Design, by Azby Brown and Joseph Cali. Tokyo/New York: Kodansha International, 2001, pp. 132, profusely illustrated with Japanese-language translation insert, 6,000 yen. This big, beautiful, well-designed book tells and shows...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 20, 2001

Drop in on Kanemura's Tokyo

SPIDER'S STRATEGY: Photographs by Osamu Kanemura, with a text by Arata Isozaki. Tokyo: Osiris Co. Ltd., 102 pp., 80 b/w plates, 3,780 yen. In his text accompanying this portfolio of photographs of Tokyo, architect Arata Isozaki writes of the difficulty of deciphering this city. Paris was finally properly...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 26, 2000

A sliver of Thai history brought to life

LANNA STYLE: Photography: Ping Amranand: Text: William Warren. Asia Books, Bangkok, 1995, 235 pp., 46 baht. Lanna is a name that tourists in the north of Thailand come across, accept and do not bother to discover its origin. It means "a million rice fields," and was the name given to the kingdom founded...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 26, 2000

Music for the eyes and ears

TRADITIONAL JAPANESE MUSIC AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, by William P. Malm. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2000, 354 pp., with 89 b/w photos and CD of musical examples, 5,000 yen. This is the new, revised and updated edition of the book that has been the standard text on traditional Japanese music and...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2000

Lack of leadership doomed climate talks

"We almost had it, we were close but there is no deal," said British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott as he left a last-ditch effort among European Union countries to agree on a deal with the United States that would salvage the Kyoto Protocol climate-change negotiations. The U.S. proposal had major...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 21, 2000

Glimpses of long-lost Tokyo

MY ASAKUSA: Coming of Age in Prewar Tokyo. A Memoir, by Sadako Sawamura, translated by Norman E. Stafford and Yasuhiro Kawamura, with an author's note and a foreword by Taichi Yamada. Boston/Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing, 2000, 270 pp., $16.95 Sadako Sawamura was one of Japan's leading character actresses....
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 12, 2000

On taking the eightfold path to environmental awareness

Environmentalists are a hard breed to pin down, much less to classify. They come in all shapes and sizes, and some even reject the name.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 29, 2000

Two chamber orchestras go for Baroque

Johann Sebastian Bach, who died in 1750, 250 years ago this year, has been lovingly remembered with significant performances of his great masterworks throughout the year. Recently eminent ensembles from Europe presented performances of the monumental "Saint Matthew Passion" almost simultaneously here....
COMMUNITY
Aug 10, 2000

Japan's favorite schlemiel goes international

The great manga artist Fujio Akatsuka sits casually, a glass of Chivas Regal in one hand, for all the world as if he were drinking at an izakaya with friends rather than sitting in his hospital room in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Jul 30, 2000

Summit's worth questionable

LONDON — The Japanese government spent huge amounts of money in an attempt to ensure that the Okinawa summit and related events in Fukuoka and Miyazaki was a success, but was the money well spent and did the summit increase Japan's prestige in the world? The answer to both questions that I as a generally...
CULTURE / Music
May 14, 2000

Yomiuri Nippon Symphony

Yomiuri Nippon Kokyo Gakudan
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 22, 2000

Won't be fooled again

When asked about the dot-com economy, Tim Dyson was succinct and acid -- almost contemptuous. "There's only one metric," he said. "Stock price."
CULTURE / Books
Feb 16, 2000

The essence of Japanese film

FROM BOOK TO SCREEN: Modern Japanese Literature in Film. By Keiko I. McDonald. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000, 326 pp., with b/w photos. $62.95 (cloth); $25.95 (paper) Keiko McDonald's 1994 "Japanese Classical Theater in Films" (Associated University Presses) has become an indispensable text. Anyone...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 10, 2000

Asia's forgotten civilization

THE MONS: A Civilization of Southeast Asia, by Emmanuel Guillon, translated and edited by James V. Di Crocco. Bangkok: Siam Society, 1999, 900 baht. Every student of Southeast Asian culture is bound to become aware of a kind of empty chapter that is nevertheless pregnant with meaning and substance....
CULTURE / Books
Nov 2, 1999

This poetic chameleon wore khaki

SHREDDING THE TAPESTRY OF MEANING: The Poetry and Poetics of Kitasono Katsue (1902-1978), by John Solt. Harvard University Asia Center, 1999, 395 pp., $49.50. On Jan. 4, 1942, less than a month after Japan's assault on Pearl Harbor, Katsue Kitazono -- the spelling that John Solt gives the name in "Shredding...
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 30, 1999

Kee Company travels down 'Narrow Road' of discovery

Matsuo Basho (1644-94) regarded as the father of modern haiku poetry, spent the latter years of his life hiking across Japan and recording his journeys in various travel sketches. The most famous of these travel journals titled "Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North)," is a work of linked...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 1999

U.S. trade policy all at sea

When Pat Buchanan launched his third campaign for the presidency of the United States, the protectionist candidate visited the archetypal steel town of Weirton, West Virginia. Buffeted by a surge in imported steel, Weirton offered a natural backdrop for Buchanan's xenophobic fulminations.

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