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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 24, 2002

A drink is only as good as the pub that serves it

We are sitting in Enjoy! House, a small pub cum club in Ebisu. There is hardly room to swing a cat, yet somehow a bar, tables and a minuscule dance floor are all squeezed in. The decor is ethnic meets neo-hippie; the service foreigner-friendly; the food good.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2002

Kobe activists hope to repay Tanaka by rallying behind his Nagano race

KOBE -- Kobe-based activists who had worked with former Nagano Gov. Yasuo Tanaka as volunteers helping this city following the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake are lending support to his re-election bid in the Sept. 1 gubernatorial race.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2002

Japan to push satellite use at Johannesburg meeting

During the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development, the National Space Development Agency of Japan will try to convince other countries to use more of its satellite data to monitor natural disasters, NASDA officials said Wednesday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 22, 2002

Major league tour of Japan in doubt

It appears that bad news is in the offing for Japanese and foreign fans of Major League Baseball.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 22, 2002

Cyclists ride the wave of local crackdown

Japan's authorities never set out to make their communities bicycle friendly. Rather, history, climate and population density have contributed to making much of Japan a cyclist's dream.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Aug 22, 2002

When violence isn't enough

You know how moths like to fly into lights and fires, or how whales beach themselves. How about lemmings . . . those adorable creatures that follow each other off cliffs? You wouldn't think the American video game industry would fall into that category, but it's looking that way.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Aug 22, 2002

Blooms to brighten summer's days -- and nights

Japan's floral symbol of summer, the asagao (morning glory; Ipomoea purpurea) is an interesting climber with beautiful blooms that has been cultivated on these islands for more than 1,000 years since being brought from China during the Nara Period (710-784). Before that, its origins are a matter of some...
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2002

UNICEF envoy discusses Somalia with Kawaguchi

Actress Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, told Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi on Tuesday about her recent visit to Somalia and asked for Japan's continued support for UNICEF, Foreign Ministry officials said.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 21, 2002

Beyond trance: Juno's sonic odyssey

The passing fancies and capricious changes in taste that mark electronic dance music make it very hard for most musicians to sustain a career. Buck the trends, and you'll never get noticed; settle into the style du jour, and you may as well put a "sell-by" date on your albums.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 21, 2002

Trance music: Taking it to the next level

When deep into the music at a trance party, most people dance a sort of mechanized primal stomp, working their arms like pistons and clomping their feet. Although these maneuvers may look awkward, they are a natural reaction to the music's rigidly 4/4 industrial-sounding beats, which, though sublime...
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 21, 2002

Major League tour in doubt

It appears that bad news is in the offing for Japanese and foreign fans of Major League Baseball.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 21, 2002

Revenge is a dish served to chill at Kabukiza

In the heat of summer, Japanese people turn to noryo (activities to enjoy the evening cool) -- and kabuki is among the enjoyments on offer. Noryo programs were started at the Kabukiza Theater in August 1990, and have been in the charge of Nakamura Kankuro, 47, ever since. For this year's program he has...
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...

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes