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COMMUNITY
Feb 3, 2002

Of nationhood and identity

Writer Ian Buruma was born in the Netherlands in 1951. He attended university in Japan and has spent a large part of his adult life in Asia. His nonfiction works include "The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and Japan," "Behind the Mask," "A Japanese Mirror" and "Voltaire's Coconuts." Buruma...
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2002

U.S. urged to strengthen intelligence

U.S. author and terrorism expert Martin Keating said Wednesday that the United States must build a stronger human intelligence network after the failure of intelligence-gathering networks in preventing the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 31, 2002

The virgin birth of stem cells

Parthenogenesis -- when eggs develop into embryos without being fertilized by sperm -- occurs in some insects and reptiles. There is a persistent report that a virgin birth once took place in humans, but this should be regarded as mythical.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2002

Police hand over case of gut-checking professor

Police on Tuesday turned over to prosecutors their case against a former university professor in Tokyo who in December allegedly stabbed a student from another university with a sword to find out if the victim was serious about studying Middle East affairs.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2002

Outsiders didn't dig the Argentine hole

WASHINGTON -- It is always politically incorrect to blame the victim. But Argentina is an exception. Argentines have no one to blame but themselves for their current economic mess. They have long lived beyond their means. And now the piper must be paid.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 27, 2002

In search of a new life and identity Down Under

FAREWELL TO NIPPON: Japanese Lifestyle Migrants in Australia, by Machiko Sato. Japanese Society Series, Trans Pacific Press, 2001, 161 pp., $29 (paper) At the turn of the millennium, the number of Japanese permanent residents in Australia surpassed 30,000, the highest figure since emigration Down Under...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / THE WRITERS' SPIN
Jan 23, 2002

Consultant wary of 'U.S.-style' info, mutual funds

Hajime Yamazaki must be an enemy of mutual fund companies.
Events
Jan 22, 2002

City said plagued by crime, bad cops

OSAKA -- With the release of statistics that show Osaka leads the nation in crime, police and community leaders have formed a panel to propose legal changes to deal with the problem, including the addition of more officers.
COMMUNITY
Jan 20, 2002

Kabukicho: where worlds collide

About 1 a.m. on the morning of Sept. 1, 2001, a fire of undetermined origin swept through the No. 56 Myojo Building in Shinjuku's Kabukicho district, resulting in the deaths of 44 people on the upper two floors. While investigators say they have ruled out arson, stories in the tabloid press continue...
COMMENTARY
Jan 7, 2002

Fine-tuning needed for globalization

In the new year, the world will have to grapple with daunting political and economic challenges that surfaced toward the end of the 20th century. The terror attacks in the United States on Sept. 11 -- which The Economist called the "the day the world changed" -- complicated the problems.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Dec 31, 2001

War recalls the savaging of Okinawa

NEW YORK -- Evidently prompted by the war in Afghanistan, John Gregory Dunne has discussed three books in The New York Review of Books (Dec. 20) to remind us of the savaging process that is war. For Dunne, whose sensitivity to anything false matches that of his wife, Joan Didion, who called "The Greatest...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 30, 2001

Tokugawa diplomacy: Foundering in the waters of distrust

PRISONERS FROM NAMBU: Reality and Make-Believe in 17th-Century Japanese Diplomacy, by Reinier H. Hesselink. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2001, 215 pp., $47.00 (cloth), $24.95 (paper) The Dutch presence in Japan during the Edo Period is one of the most intriguing episodes of Europe's global...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 23, 2001

On a slow boat to Bangkok

SLITHERING SOUTH: by Steve Van Beek. Hong Kong: Wind & Water, Inc., 2001. 430 pp. with map and glossary, $11.95. Sliding (or bumping) down the shallow Ping River, the long tributary that joins the Chao Phya and flows through Bangkok, Steve Van Beek pondered his odyssey. Having begun in the river's headwaters...
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Dec 21, 2001

Seeking the broader picture

On a flight to Japan, the British writer Lesley Downer was surprised when her seat companion started berating her, mid-conversation. He was upset when he heard that she was writing a book on geisha. Better she write about the real Japan, rather than promote foreign stereotypes, the Japanese businessman...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2001

The real aim behind the Sept. 11 attacks

LONDON -- Osama bin Laden is Timothy McVeigh with a beard, and no more representative of the Arab world than McVeigh was of America. It's important to hang onto that thought, because otherwise the storm of emotion that followed the broadcast of the tape in which the author of the atrocities of Sept....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 16, 2001

Young Japanese struggle to find their way

As another year comes to an end, the Japanese media continue to wonder at the new generation at school and at work. The term "shinjinrui" (new species) seems to have fallen out of use but the prevailing attitude is still one of bemusement and even dismay.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 12, 2001

The school of hard knocks

Mabudachi Rating: * * * * Director: Tomoyuki Furumaya Running time: 99 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
ENVIRONMENT
Dec 9, 2001

The climes they are a-changin'

Smokers probably have something to teach us about why it's so hard to believe in global warming.
LIFE / Lifestyle / LEARNING BY HEART
Dec 7, 2001

New b-boys and b-girls on the block

The hippest of hip-hop dancers perform pure magic. They do somersaults, cartwheels and flips. They're dramatic, eccentric, funny and highly creative. They slide in any direction, send electric shock waves through their limbs, glide across the ground like moonwalkers and twirl into body-punishing spins....
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Dec 5, 2001

Handcrafted art to turn your head

There are more than a few Japanese artists these days who use what might be termed "obsessional" techniques to realize their work. Among the better known are Yayoi Kusama, who once glued thousands of postal airmail stickers to a canvas and who is best known for the ceaseless repetition in her "Infinity...
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2001

'Harry Potter' flies into theaters across Japan

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" opened Saturday in about 340 theaters across Japan to large crowds eager to watch the wildly popular movie about the adventures of the young wizard.
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
LIFE / Travel
Nov 27, 2001

A divided isle's dramatic past

KYRENIA, Cyprus -- The wail of the muezzin drones from the high balcony of the minaret, down through the cobbled streets to the harbor and out across the water to the massive ramparts of the castle.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Nov 26, 2001

Looking back on life in Stalinist Russia

NEW YORK -- My friend Lenore Parker threw a party for Mary M. Leder, who has just published her first book, at age 86. The book is an autobiography, "My Life in Stalinist Russia: An American Woman Looks Back" (Indiana University Press).
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2001

South Korean author protests mayor's 'sangokujin' remark

When Shinjuku Ward Mayor Takashi Onoda referred to "sangokujin" in a speech on Nov. 13, Shin Sugok could not believe it.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 2001

Criticism of Pakistan is off the mark

The Nov. 10 article by Brahma Chellaney, "Pakistan's uncertain future," gives a bleak picture of Pakistan that I am afraid does not exist in reality. Allow me to rectify this false image so that The Japan Times readers have a clear and balanced view of my country, which is so much in the news these days....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Nov 20, 2001

Mysteries of the Matopos

The Matopos Hills near Bulaweyo have always had the reputation of being a little special, a little uncanny.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 18, 2001

Revealing the soul of an ancient land

MOTHER'S BELOVED: Stories from Laos, by Outhine Bounyavong. Hong Kong University Press, 1999, 163 pp., $14.95 (paper) It's unlikely that even the most generous evaluation of Lao literature would rank it among the world's great cultural legacies. Part of the problem has been a lack of visibility: Buddhist...

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami