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CULTURE / Film
Aug 21, 2002

The busiest bad guy around

Show Aikawa is the hardest-working man in Japanese movies, but one that Japanese cinemagoers have rarely, if ever, seen. Unless, that is, they happen to be fans of straight-to-video films. They would know Aikawa as the gangster glaring down from the boxes of dozens of action films with titles like "Shuraba...
BUSINESS
Aug 20, 2002

JAMA calls for development of low-pollution automobiles

The automobile industry should work to reduce environmental damage from vehicles by developing low-pollution cars such as fuel-cell automobiles, according to a Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association report released Monday.
COMMENTARY
Aug 20, 2002

New era brings new Japan-U.S.-China ties

I am writing from Honolulu, more than 60 years since the Japanese Imperial Navy's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 8, 1941, which started the Pacific War between Japan and the United States.
BUSINESS
Aug 20, 2002

Nasdaq withdrawal blamed on prolonged economic slump

The head of Nasdaq's international operations reiterated Monday that the prolonged domestic slump was behind Nasdaq Stock Market Inc.'s decision to pull out of Japan.
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2002

Memorial pitch expected by yearend

A government advisory panel is expected to propose the creation of a new memorial facility for Japan's war dead by year's end.
COMMUNITY
Aug 18, 2002

Something in the air: the charged debate over negative ions

Yes, there's definitely something in the air this year -- and it's not just the regular brew of pollutants and particulates.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 18, 2002

Aum documentary holds up a mirror to Japanese society

RELIGION AND SOCIAL CRISIS IN JAPAN: Understanding Japanese Society Through the Aum Affair, edited by Robert J. Kisala and Mark R. Mullins. Hampshire: Palgrave (St. Martin's Press/Macmillan), 2001, 228 pp., $68 (cloth) It is frequently observed that social change and resulting social crises often give...
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2002

Kawaguchi aims to boost ties on first visit to China

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi will visit China for the first time Sept. 8-10 in a bid to improve relations that have been soured by politicians' visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, government sources said Saturday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 18, 2002

What a pair they are

If you are a viewer of Japanese television, you have no doubt seen a pair of celebrities known as the Kano sisters. Single-handedly -- or perhaps double-handedly is more appropriate -- these two have lent new meaning to the term "boob tube."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Aug 18, 2002

Drinking without thinking

Although more than half the fun at sake pubs is being an active participant in choosing what you drink, there are times when you don't want to make that effort. There are times when what you want is simply to chat, or even -- heaven forbid -- to talk business. On days like this, Gin no Kura can take...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Aug 18, 2002

A good place to keep cool

It really is too hot to wander far from home -- unless, of course, you're heading for a beach. Even the government recognizes this fact, with the official four-day summer O-bon holiday being one of three officially sanctioned and nationally observed annual vacation periods (the other two being New Year...
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2002

Japan proceeds with spy satellite plan despite U.S. concerns

Japan's plan to deploy reconnaissance satellites to monitor military movements in East Asia will get off the ground in November, when the Cabinet Satellite Information Center starts up the system's nerve center in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Aug 17, 2002

Shipbuilding industry to get ministerial assistance

The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry will map out by the end of this fiscal year a set of plans to enhance the international competitiveness of Japan's shipbuilding industry, ministry officials said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
Aug 17, 2002

8,000 relics of Tibetan Buddhism might not all appeal to faint-hearted

The area around Tokyo's Meguro Fudoson Temple has traditionally been a site for the city's faithful.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Aug 17, 2002

Peter Grilli

Former longtime Tokyo residents Marcel and Elise Grilli left abiding imprints here. Over many years, Marcel wrote a column on music for The Japan Times. Elise, art critic for the newspaper, produced books of outstanding merit on the Japanese art scene. They came to Tokyo in the late 1940s with their...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Aug 17, 2002

Juno's 10-year odyssey; Arcadia pulls off a gem; Hotaka: the next way-out party

Perhaps some day in the distant future, at some far away campus, students of turn-of-the-century electronic music will listen as their professor waxes on about the effect that the seminal British trance entity Juno Reactor had on the world.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2002

Ethnic Chinese dilemma

SINGAPORE -- In a new twist to an ongoing controversy surrounding a proposal to change Malaysia's education policy, the two main Chinese components of the ruling National Front (NF) coalition government, have found themselves taking the same position as the opposition parties. This places the Malaysian...
Japan Times
JAPAN / THE OKINAWA FACTOR
Aug 16, 2002

The Okinawan dollar-yen juggling act

Tenth in an occasional series By MAYUMI NEGISHI Staff writer NAHA, Okinawa Pref. -- On Aug. 15, 1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard and introduced floating exchange rates, sending the greenback plummeting.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2002

WWII survivors fear return to warpath

As wartime memories have faded in the 57 years since Japan's surrender in World War II, many aging survivors are anxious that the nation might follow the same path to war again.
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Aug 16, 2002

Better off sleeping than working out?

Here's a fun exercise: Ask Japanese adults how they spent their childhood summers. They'll almost always mention rajio taiso, the morning exercises they did in neighborhood groups during the school holiday. Then ask if their own children participate. Chances are their kids sleep in rather than get up...
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2002

Wife of 'Japanese Schindler' sues

The wife of Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who helped thousands of Jews flee Nazi persecution, on Wednesday sued a Tokyo publisher over a book she claims libels her dead husband.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 15, 2002

1967: Summer of love -- and Bond in Japan

The summer of 1967 was not only the summer of love, but the summer of James Bond in Japan. "You Only Live Twice," the fifth James Bond movie, debuted in cinemas throughout the world 35 summers ago.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2002

Disaster victims unite, reach out

KOBE -- Survivors of the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, which destroyed much of Kobe and its adjacent areas, have exhibited a great sense of solidarity with disaster victims worldwide.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Aug 15, 2002

History still alive on the old Nakasendo

Of the five highways (gokaido) built in the early years of the Tokugawa Shogunate to radiate through the country from its capital at Edo (present-day Tokyo), the best-known nowadays is the Tokaido coastal route to Kyoto. Hardly less used during the Edo Period (1603-1867), however, was the mountain route...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Aug 15, 2002

Isolation spells survival in the Sea of Okhotsk

In penguinlike tuxedoed masses, the Tyuleni Island murres were standing in murmuring hordes, crowding the rock ledges of their remote breeding colony off the east coast of Sakhalin in the Sea of Okhotsk.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Aug 15, 2002

Don't mess with the Maori

You may not know it, but Sony Computer Entertainment has an American game arm -- aptly known as Sony Computer Entertainment America.
EDITORIALS
Aug 14, 2002

Vote of confidence for Brazil

Ever since the Argentine economy slid into crisis last year, there have been fears that the difficulties would ripple across the region. Uruguay's recent troubles are proof that Latin American markets are so deeply intertwined that any national emergency poses a threat to its neighbors. The chief concern...
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2002

Settler, 22, struggles in bid to come to grips with Japanese, Chinese roots

Guan Lingxiang first came to Japan nine years ago with his parents and sister after his maternal grandmother, a war-displaced Japanese left behind in China in the chaos after World War II, returned to her native country.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 14, 2002

Will 'Cro' fly to Sapporo with Fighters?

In response to my July 31 column regarding the speculation the Nippon Ham Fighters may be thinking about hiring an American manager, I received the following comment from Warren Cromarite, one of five potential candidates I listed as excellent choices to manage the Fighters or any Japanese team.

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