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COMMENTARY / World
Jul 27, 2001

Jihad-inspired bloodletting in Kashmir stifles all peace moves

NEW DELHI -- Recent massacres in Kashmir share one feature: they are massacres of innocents, of men, women and children who have no political affiliations or aspirations. Their only crime was that they chose to live in Kashmir or happen to be passing through the state.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 22, 2001

Cheers and tears for souvenirs

Akihisa Shirota, 36, clearly remembers the evening of Oct. 14, 1974.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 21, 2001

Life through the lens in Seoul, Paris and Tokyo

It is hard to imagine Mi-Yeon producing art prints of such emotion and refinement amid the familial clutter of her apartment, but maybe this is the mark of the true artist: beauty can be created against all odds. "My daughter's at kindergarten," she offers as explanation.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jul 19, 2001

Campaign finance reform bill continues to dominate a divided U.S. Congress

This was "the week that was" for campaign finance reform. The stakes were high. The votes were close. You could cut the tension around the Capital with a knife. And when it was over, just like all the years in the recent past, there was no result. The only winner may well have been U.S. President George...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 15, 2001

Inking the moment

A sheet of white washi paper, a brush, an ink stone, a black ink stick and a good mood -- these are the ingredients for a work of shodo (calligraphy).
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 15, 2001

A spoonful of Koizumi helps the medicine go down

The continuance of Junichiro Koizumi's administration beyond the summer seems like a sure bet: Support for his Cabinet is over 80 percent, his e-mail magazine is being read by hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and every time the opposition questions one of his pronouncements, they are deluged with...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 14, 2001

Red Army daughter seeks to set record straight

"My parents named me after the month of a certain political action," explains May Shigenobu. "But in Japanese I am known as Mei, which means 'life.' " The specific political operation to which she is referring? The bombing by Japanese leftwing radicals of Lod Airport in Tel Aviv on May 30, 1972.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2001

Survey offers solid treatment of history

THE MAKING OF MODERN JAPAN, by Marius B. Jansen. Harvard University Press, 2000, 896 pp., $35 (hardback). "The Making of Modern Japan," Marius Jansen's last work, is a reliable, solid and authoritative interpretation of Japan's recent past. It is a fitting testament to a learned man whose scholarly...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2001

Slaying the 'monsters' of Meiji Era modernity

CIVILIZATION AND MONSTERS: Spirits of Modernity in Meiji Japan, by Gerald Figal. Duke University Press, 1999, 290 pp., $49.95 (hardback); $17.95 (paperback). In his prologue to "Civilization and Monsters," Gerald Figal defines Meiji modernization within the context of the fantastic and supernatural...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2001

The Japanese Constitution gets a provocative look

FIVE DECADES OF CONSTITUTIONALISM IN JAPANESE SOCIETY, edited by Yoshio Higuchi. University of Tokyo Press, 2001, 368 pp., 8,000 yen. A major stumbling block for Japan on its road to becoming a more influential member of the global community has been a profound absence of voice. Japanese politicians,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 6, 2001

Mahathir digs deep into old roots

KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad took two hours to deliver a 21-page address at the opening ceremony of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) assembly on June 21. During the assembly's closing session two days later, he took another two hours to elaborate on the key...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2001

Love: The final frontier

In science fiction, technological progress is often portrayed as bringing humankind ever closer to God in terms of understanding and exploiting the universe. At the beginning of Steven Spielberg's "A.I.," a scientist with the interesting name of Dr. Hobby (William Hurt) expounds before a group of underlings...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2001

India and Pakistan both stand to gain

The sudden invitation extended by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to attend a summit talk in New Delhi might have taken some observers by surprise but in reality it is a calculated move based on South Asian geopolitics.
COMMUNITY
Jun 30, 2001

The Three Sisters Inn: owned by three sisters

It is not as if Kikue, Sadako and Terumi Yamada have not been interviewed before. Not so long ago it was for The New York Times, which really put them on the map.
COMMENTARY
Jun 29, 2001

Bush's Korea policy: old wine, new bottle

SEOUL -- "Things have begun moving slowly," South Korea's President Kim Dae Jung recently said in reaction to the Bush administration's announcement it will open negotiations with Pyongyang. No doubt, the government in Seoul is trying hard to sound upbeat. Foreign Minister Han Seung Soo added, "Bush's...
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2001

Jury still out on child-killer's mental state

The Tokyo High Court's decision Thursday to uphold Tsutomu Miyazaki's death sentence was not surprising to many experts who have followed the case.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2001

Female 'rakugo' narrator packs bags to spread mirth on Korean Peninsula

"Rakugo" comic storyteller Kikuchiyo Kokontei hopes to spend this summer breaking down cultural barriers on both sides of the Korean Peninsula.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 24, 2001

That's declassified innovation

There are several reasons to admire the Kronos Quartet, and, unquestionably, the primary reason is their extraordinary talent. But I'd like to add two more: their musical and professional integrity, and their belief in music as a spiritual quest.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 21, 2001

The early frog gets the reproductive success

Travel out of almost any of the major cities of Honshu on an overcast, rain-threatening evening, and head toward rice country.
BUSINESS
Jun 20, 2001

Credit-easing, devaluation of yen vex BOJ

Since the start of June, there have been several comments by government officials that could be construed as calls on the Bank of Japan to relax its monetary policy.
BUSINESS
Jun 18, 2001

State can be valuable captain in privatized firms

Despite Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's claims that privatization is a concept undergoing a rethink and should be considered carefully before implementation, the truth is privatization has been thriving for some time abroad.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 17, 2001

The bright side of bamboo

BAMBOO IN JAPAN, by Nancy Moore Bess, with Bibi Wein. Tokyo and New York: Kodansha International, 2001, 224 pp., 160 color prints and duo-tone photographs, 5,800 yen. Bamboo, the ancient, ubiquitous grass, is everywhere in Japan. Of the over 1,500 species worldwide, nearly half are found here. It...
CULTURE / Music
Jun 17, 2001

Flying postpunk first class

Time is the nemesis of originality. The greater the number of artists who explore a particular discipline over time, the less likely it is that one of them will come up with something fresh.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 14, 2001

Pyongyang's Chinese connection to the global economy

DANDONG, China -- When managers at a North Korean metal works began dreaming that foreigners' suits and blouses might one day be draped on the company's aluminum coat-hangers, there was no way to pursue international markets directly.
EDITORIALS
Jun 13, 2001

Envisioning a reformed Iran

Iran's President Mohammad Khatami has won a second term in office. While his margin of victory was larger than in 1997, Iran's hardliners are probably not too worried. They still control the power ministries in the revolutionary government and command the loyal support of religious conservatives nationwide....
COMMENTARY
Jun 13, 2001

A windfall for Nepal's Maoists

KATMANDU -- The picturesque Himalayan nation of Nepal, wedged between India and China-occupied Tibet, was once an idyllic hideaway for Western trekkers and hippies. Although still a popular tourist destination, Nepal has been wracked in recent years by an expanding Maoist insurrection in the countryside....
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 10, 2001

Can Japan leave Les Bleus feeling blue after Confederations Cup final?

If you take the negative aspects of the Confederations Cup (the League Cup of international football) away from the equation, then FIFA couldn't have asked for a more intriguing final today at International Stadium Yokohama.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2001

Koizumi's reform foes entrenched

With Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi firing off a barrage of reform proposals aimed at turning the ailing economy around, his foes, including fellow Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers and bureaucrats keen to protect vested interests, are drawing battle lines.
COMMUNITY / THE PARENT TRIP
Jun 8, 2001

Trips, tripwires of expat parenthood

Life with Corey started long before we even knew what his name was to be. On a summer day in 1999, we were shown the first confirmatory ultrasound after pregnancy was suspected -- he was the size of a pea, if that. From there, we watched him progress through the months in a series of ever-more pronounced...

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.