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CULTURE / Stage
Nov 10, 2004

Shakespeare's lovers seduce audiences

"The most wooden performances ever," wrote one London critic of the latest Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production. "Superb!"
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 30, 2004

SRC and Edwin Cayce seek to relieve stress

Chris Earnshaw speaks with so much passion -- such an enthusiasm for life -- that it is hard to believe that 12 years ago he was a quivering wreck. "I fell apart, losing my job (as general manager of a bank), my family and home, in rapid succession."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Oct 20, 2004

Stuff of nightmares

Dear Reader,
COMMENTARY
Oct 18, 2004

Japan will pay if ODA slides

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the start of Japan's official development assistance. Since October 1954, when Japan joined the Colombo Plan and provided technical assistance, ODA has been an important element of Japan's diplomacy. According to the Foreign Ministry's white paper on ODA, Japan...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 14, 2004

Human chain draws attention to plight of detained foreigners

Hundreds of people formed a human chain in front of the Justice Ministry on Wednesday, seeking to draw attention to the plight of more than 1,000 foreigners held at detention centers across the country in connection with immigration procedures.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2004

Afghanistan three years on

WASHINGTON -- Three years after the Bush administration led a remarkably quick and bold military operation to overthrow the Taliban regime, how are things going in Afghanistan? The short answer is that there has been considerable progress. But that is largely because things were so bad under the Taliban,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2004

Boys be ambitious

Journalists approach Shutoku Mukai warily. As the leading personality of cult group Number Girl, Mukai cultivated an aura of negative charisma. Onstage, he was all contorted painful energy, round geeky glasses slipping down his nose as he spat out lyrics and drew harsh, ranting chords from his guitar....
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2004

The little indie labels that could

In the old days, a band might self-release a record or two. Their hope, however, was to catch the ear of some major-label A&R director and land a coveted contract with Sony, Toshiba EMI or one of Japan's other music behemoths.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 26, 2004

Who knows if it is teaching or torture?

I WOULDN'T WANT ANYBODY TO KNOW: Native English Teaching in Japan, edited by Eva P. Bueno & Terry Caesar. JPGS Press, 2004, 252 pp., 2,500 yen, $25.00 (paper). Tall stories are clearly better than short ones, at least in the world of publishing. A whole industry has grown out of the perceived, often...
Japan Times
Features
Sep 19, 2004

Just picture that!

The overthrow of the feudal Tokugawa Shogunate in 1867 and the restoration of imperial rule in 1868 was preceded by 15 years of intense change in news reporting.
COMMENTARY
Sep 19, 2004

Indo-Pakistani relations: the next phase

ISLAMABAD -- The upcoming meeting between Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh marks another important phase in the nine-month-old peace process between South Asia's two nuclear-armed neighbors.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 7, 2004

Scammers, counseling, health costs

Counseling Is there such thing as counseling in Japan? I have been married for 7 years and am having problems, yet my wife refuses to even discuss it. Is there some place we or I could go for help?
COMMENTARY
Sep 4, 2004

Afghanistan's volatile politics

ISLAMABAD -- A spate of attacks by Taliban forces on U.S. troops and Afghan government soldiers has intensified worries over the country's first presidential elections, which are scheduled to take place next month.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 3, 2004

Signing of Rooney a big gamble for Manchester United

LONDON -- Incredible.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Sep 2, 2004

Ravens, shamans and 'shrooms

In 1988 I made a documentary with the Hokkaido Broadcasting Co. We filmed on the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeast Siberia, in Alaska and in Japan. Our main theme was the raven and the many raven legends that link the peoples of the Pacific Rim.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 1, 2004

Kaleidoscope of colorful fashion

Viktor & Rolf are internationally renowned as the Gilbert and George of the fashion world for presenting conceptual work as sophisticated art performances in haute couture and pret-a-porter shows. Take their installation of their Spring/Summer 1996 collection in a contemporary art gallery in Paris October...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2004

'Underground money' termed a necessary evil

Many who make their living in the political epicenter of Nagata-cho have expressed sympathy for a former treasurer of the Liberal Democratic Party's largest faction who was arrested Sunday for allegedly violating the political donation law.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2004

Workers' health getting worse

A record 47.3 percent of salaried workers showed abnormal readings in their health checkups last year, according to a government survey released Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 29, 2004

Another 'Americanization'

A merican consumers have been described as "quick to spend" while Japanese consumers have been "slow to spend." In fact, Americans tend to spend the extra money they get rather than save it. So a tax cut quickly boosts spending, often leading to an overheating of the economy. A culture of overconsumption...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 29, 2004

Keeping up to speed with a tabla master

New York-based bassist and producer Bill Laswell has always been a man with his ear to the ground, quick to sense any coming seismic shifts in the musical landscape. In the late 1990s, he had been noting the proliferation of Indian tabla-infused drum 'n' bass music from people such as Talvin...
EDITORIALS
Aug 22, 2004

Soul-searching in South Korea

South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun announced Aug. 15, the day his country celebrates liberation from Japanese occupation, that the legislature would form a special commission to investigate who benefited under Japanese rule. The call for such an inquiry is understandable: The occupation was a dark and...
CULTURE / Music
Aug 22, 2004

Sim Redmond Band

Alot of bands form during their players' university years, but the Sim Redmond Band could be said to have congealed in the leafy college town of Ithaca, New York, back in the '90s. Starting from the kernel of brothers Sim (guitar, vocals) and Asa (drums) Redmond, the band grew into a truly organic outfit....
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2004

Singapore's new foreign policy troika

SINGAPORE -- On Aug. 12, Lee Hsien Loong became Singapore's third prime minister since its independence in 1965. However, his predecessors, Goh Chok Tong and Lee Kuan Yew, remain in the Cabinet: Goh as senior minister and Lee as minister mentor.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Aug 20, 2004

The Gathering 2004 preview

After dozens of hours of copious, nail-biting research, I have deduced that there is absolutely no connection whatsoever between Respect for the Aged Day and the ending date for Gathering 2004, except that vigorous dancing has been medically proven to reverse the aging process.
EDITORIALS
Aug 13, 2004

Ready for the Olympics?

The Summer Olympics are back! With the 28th Games opened in Athens on Friday night, people everywhere -- Japan included -- are experiencing that familiar little buzz of ambivalence. Enthusiasm on the one hand, ennui on the other: Yes, it is possible to feel these conflicting emotions at once. The Olympics,...
COMMENTARY
Aug 13, 2004

An uphill battle for women

LONDON -- Morgan Stanley last month agreed to a $54 million out-of-court settlement to ensure that serious allegations of sexual discrimination against it did not come to trial in the United States. The bank proclaimed its innocence, but if it really had nothing to hide, why didn't it let the evidence...
OLYMPICS
Aug 13, 2004

Kitajima no lock for gold

Japanese breaststroke specialist Kosuke Kitajima saw a huge block appear between him and his goal of winning the gold medal at the Athens Olympics when Brendan Hansen of the United States broke his two world records.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 12, 2004

Camper industry wants seniors to take homes on the road

Western culture has spread far and wide in Japan, but one element of it has yet to take root here: the camper.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 8, 2004

All of Japan between two covers

JAPAN ENCYCLOPEDIA, by Louis Frederic, translated by Kathe Roth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002, 1102 pp., 48 illus., 14 maps, $59.95 (cloth). This large, beautiful and indispensable volume is a translation of "Le Japan: Dictionnaire et Civilisation," published in 1996, the year of the author's...
EDITORIALS
Aug 6, 2004

Expectations of impartiality

There are rising expectations that Ms. Chikage Ogi, the first female president of the House of Councilors, will do a good job. She has impressive credentials, having been elected to the Upper House for a fifth 6-year term -- a record number for an incumbent Upper House member. Ms. Ogi once headed the...

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.