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Nov 22, 2003

Akebono facing challenge in K-1

Former sumo wrestler Akebono admits he's worried about his upcoming K-1 debut against former NFL lineman Bob Sapp but knows there's no turning back now.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 19, 2003

Old man, take a look at yourself

If you thought that Neil Young was turning into a cranky old coot, his new album, "Greendale," is proof that he already is one. There are many who think he was cranky as far back as 1969, when he shot his baby down by the river. And in one of his two (count 'em!) hit singles, he identifies fully with...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 15, 2003

Mackenzie Thorpe

The Japan Dyslexia Society, known as NPO EDGE, exists to promote understanding of dyslexia and to raise funds to help support patients. Recently EDGE organized in Tokyo a charity exhibition of the drawings, sculptures and silk-screen works of Mackenzie Thorpe, an English artist. The recognition of his...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2003

East Tokyo welcomes artists in bid to revitalize historic district

When woodblock print master Ando Hiroshige created his famed "One Hundred Views of Edo," the eastern part of the capital was a bustling commercial and cultural hub.
COMMENTARY
Nov 8, 2003

Pressure won't bring peace

Visit Shanghai and while you may not see the future -- contrary to what Sydney and Beatrice Webb once foolishly claimed when they visited the Soviet Union in the 1920s -- you will certainly see very little of the past.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Nov 2, 2003

Food for thought

Yukio Hattori, 'one of Japan's busiest men,' takes time to chew over the issue of food and other meaty social matters with staff writer Masami Ito.
EDITORIALS
Nov 2, 2003

Long words for a short bear

'I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words Bother me," Winnie-the-Pooh once famously said. Words like "merchandising" would certainly have Bothered him, or "licensing rights" or even "royalties." Those were all buzzing around the Pooh legacy like bees around a honey pot last week, after a U.S....
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Oct 30, 2003

N-Gage fails to engage

It's no use beating around the bush, N-Gage, the new hand-held cellular telephone/video game system hybrid from Nokia, is quite probably the worst game system in video game history -- and that's counting such notable disasters as the Nintendo Virtual Boy and the Bandai Pipin.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 23, 2003

No rush to judgment

In a meeting in Heidelberg earlier this month, science historians concluded that German science between 1933 and 1945 was exploitative and unethical. The organizer of the meeting, Wolfgang Eckhart, head of history of medicine at the University of Heidelberg, said in Nature last week: "We have proven...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Oct 18, 2003

David Elliott

The Mori Art Museum, an integral part of the Mori Arts Center, occupies space on the top five floors of the 53-story Roppongi Hills Tower, Tokyo. The Mori aim is to have the new Mori Art Museum "become a major feature in the cultural landscapes of Tokyo, Japan, Asia and the world." Over the last 18 months,...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Oct 12, 2003

Keeping score on first ladies

MOSCOW -- Throughout the past 60 years or so, the problem-ridden relations between the White House and the Kremlin have been burdened with one more factor: the rivalry of the first ladies.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 12, 2003

Young Japanese silently reject salaryman lifestyle

Government facilities are depressing places, but none are as depressing as your neighborhood unemployment office. That's why, in Japan, unemployment offices have been given the cheery, infantilized name "Hello Work," a term that conjures up visions of company presidents waiting at the entrance with job...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 12, 2003

His finger on the pulse of life on Earth

The Philip Glass Ensemble has been performing the music to the film "Koyaanisqatsi," live with screenings of the film, since the year after the film's release in 1982. This was later complemented by the performance of music from the film's 1987 followup "Powaqqatsi." So far, these cinema concerts have...
COMMENTARY
Oct 9, 2003

Small states seek bigger say

LONDON -- The meeting of European Union member states in Rome to begin discussing a possible new constitution has opened on a discordant note. The smaller countries of Europe do not like the way things are going. The worries are not just those of "the usual suspects" -- the British, Danes and Swedes....
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 9, 2003

The roots of national security grow under our very feet

For many policymakers, the concept of national security now simply means possessing the capacity for overwhelming destruction. Armchair warriors find such thinking reassuringly straightforward and comforting, a neat and tidy corollary of "Might makes right." It is also pure fantasy.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2003

Taiwan trying to shake off the old labels

HONOLULU -- In ancient China, a rational sage named Hsun Tzu fashioned what came to be a principle of Chinese thought, the rectification of names. It was vital to clear thinking, Hsun Tzu said, that things be called by the right name.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Oct 6, 2003

Why short-circuit ourselves in a battery-operated world?

We live today in a world of information and communications technology. For all the wonders it can work, it is actually quite fragile, dependent on a whole host of things to ensure it operates smoothly.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 2003

Few know but many fear where the U.S. 'road map' leads

BEIRUT -- By the summer of 2002, U.S. President George Bush had firmly set his new course: "regime change" and reform in the Muslim and Arab worlds, and, where necessary, American military intervention to achieve it.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Oct 2, 2003

"The House of Windjammer," "Boolar's Big Day Out"

"The House of Windjammer," V.A. Richardson, Bloomsbury; 2003; 349 pp. No matter where you grow up, whether it's in 21st-century Japan or in 17th-century Europe, some things never change. People everywhere, at every time, are at the mercy of larger forces -- political upheavals, market fluctuations,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 28, 2003

Journals of Joseph Campbell

SAKE & SATORI: Asian Journals -- Japan, by Joseph Campbell. California: Joseph Campbell Foundation/New World Library, 2002, 350 pp., b/w photographs, $22.95 (cloth). In 1955, the eminent mythologist Joseph Campbell came to Japan and stayed for five months. Author of "The Hero With a Thousand Faces,"...
EDITORIALS
Sep 27, 2003

DPJ's uphill road to power

The birth of the new Democratic Party of Japan -- the largest opposition party to debut since 1994 -- promises to create more constructive tension in Japanese politics. The DPJ, which has absorbed the smaller Liberal Party, is looking to the coming general election as an opportunity to snatch power from...
BUSINESS
Sep 23, 2003

Takenaka to keep pushing banks on loans

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's controversial reappointment Monday of Heizo Takenaka as financial services minister means banks will still be under pressure to clean up their bad loans.
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2003

Economic policies confused

In his campaign for re-election as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, has made much of the current mild economic revival. He sees it as vindicating his economic policies.
EDITORIALS
Sep 18, 2003

One year after the Pyongyang summit

Wednesday marked the first anniversary of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's historic visit to North Korea, during which he met face to face with General Secretary Kim Jong Il. The meeting produced a joint declaration calling for, among other things, an early normalization of relations between the two...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Sep 18, 2003

"Ruby Holler," "The Robodog Superhero"

"Ruby Holler," Sharon Creech, Bloomsbury; 2002, 310 pp. How do you reform a pair of 13-year-old twins who spend every spare moment breaking, spilling, throwing or dropping things -- and cursing loudly when they're caught?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 14, 2003

The money hole

Kumiko Morita looked down at her cell phone as it began to ring. With reluctance she picked it up and answered it. After listening to the caller, she began to speak -- not in her usual soft-spoken way, but in a loud, forceful voice.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Aug 30, 2003

Howard hoping to end revolving door in goal for Man United

LONDON -- Tim Howard, an American goalkeeper who has a tattoo on his right bicep and suffers from Tourette's Syndrome, never thought he would have the chance to play for a big Premiership club, let alone the biggest club in the world.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 17, 2003

Combining the best of two worlds

DRAGON BONES, by Lisa See. New York: Random House, 2003, 368 pages, $24.95 (cloth). THE SAMURAI'S DAUGHTER, by Sujata Massey. New York: HarperCollins, 2003, 304 pages, $24.95 (cloth). It is no coincidence that, besides having Eurasian female authors, both of these books feature female detectives with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Aug 10, 2003

Akagi nurtures organic lifeform

Jazz pianist Kei Akagi clearly relishes the dual nature of the human mind. This is no surprise coming from someone who has divided his time between the United States and Japan, his college studies between philosophy and music, his musical training between classical and jazz, his jazz playing between...

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb