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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 2, 2003

Dispatches from the past

TREATISE ON EPISTOLARY STYLE: Joa~o Rodriguez on the Noble Art of Writing Japanese Letters, by Jeroen Pieter Lamers. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Center for Japanese Studies, 2002, 104 pp., $49.95 (cloth) In Japan, it was once thought that letters showed the writer's personal character. The way...
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2003

Public pension benefits to be cut by 0.9%

The government will cut public pension benefits by 0.9 percent in fiscal 2003 to reflect the same rate of decline in consumer prices in 2002, officials said Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2003

U.S. Navy inks deal with kin of Ehime Maru dead

The families of two of the nine people who died in the sinking of the high school fisheries training ship Ehime Maru by a U.S. submarine in a collision off Hawaii two years ago signed a settlement with the U.S. Navy in Tokyo on Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 1, 2003

Need a guide to Japan's flea markets? Here it is

Rather, here he is: Theodore Manning, whose book "Flea Markets of Japan: A Pocket Guide for Antique Buyers" was published last month. He no longer lives here, having returned last year to America after a 10-year stretch, so I call him in his new home base of Chicago and we talk by phone.
COMMENTARY
Feb 1, 2003

Changing Pyongyang's ways

The response to my Jan. 10 article "Pyongyang is the real victim," which blames the United States for its mishandling of the North Korean nuclear problem, tells me two things: First, Japan Times articles are followed abroad much more widely than I realized; second, many believe firmly in the incorrigibly...
Japan Times
JAPAN / PREFECTURAL FARE
Feb 1, 2003

Hiroshima's long-neglected cuisine brought to the fore at Shinjuku store

Hiroshima Prefecture's natural beauty and abundance of marine life are almost always upstaged by the tragedy that befell its capital in 1945.
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2003

Economy top priority: Koizumi

Admitting that the Japanese economy is struggling to find a way out of the recession, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made clear Friday that reviving the economy will be his top priority for this year, declaring he will take "all available policy measures" to fight deflation.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 1, 2003

Sakae Ishikawa

"Since my work is theoretical, I like to think I am part of the academic world," Sakae Ishikawa said. "Whether I can call myself a scholar or not is a delicate question."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 31, 2003

Coca Restaurant: Fun food in funky retro style

There is precious little architecture left in central Tokyo these days that has any history attached to it. So when restaurants want to imbue their premises with a period feel, mostly they just have to fake it. The results can range from ersatz Edo-style castles to flimsy, film-set backdrops glorifying...
COMMENTARY
Jan 31, 2003

War drums making al-Qaeda restless

ISLAMABAD -- Across the Mideast, the fact of life remains that violence breeds more violence. Thus the warning by Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah that al-Qaeda terrorists may stage retaliatory attacks if the United States leads a war against Iraq cannot be ignored. Speaking on the sidelines...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jan 31, 2003

Rice works well as a finale or as the main event

When dining at a fine Japanese restaurant, after the raw, fried, vinegared, steamed and simmered courses, if you still have room, the final savory course of rice — gohanmono — appears. It might also be called o-shokuji, or simply meshi, the colloquial word for rice.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2003

Shinsei experience: lattes in the lobby, free ATM transactions

A typical Japanese bank looks a bit like the dowdy, paper-shuffling office of a shoddily run company. There are plenty of bowing clerks. But don't count on conveniences like 24-hour ATMs.
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2003

Newly unemployed may get break

The national government will instruct local governments to reduce or eliminate public health premiums of people who have lost their jobs, labor minister Chikara Sakaguchi said Wednesday.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jan 30, 2003

Warriors marching merrily toward mediocrity

NEW YORK -- If you toss aside the triviality that accompanies the Superbowl -- and the Raiders participation in it -- only one thing should be on the minds of Oaktown: What in the name of Jack London is going on with the Warriors? Basketball's bottom feeders for the better part of the past 10 years,...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2003

Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka brace as pollen blitz looms

As the hay fever season approaches, doctors, weather forecasters and local authorities are predicting that Tokyo and two other metropolitan areas will suffer above-average pollen counts.
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2003

More of the same in Israel

The Likud Party of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon won a crushing victory in Israel's general election held earlier this week. Although the scale of the win raised some eyebrows, Likud's strong showing was expected: The chief opposition, the left-leaning Labor Party, has been unable to generate much enthusiasm...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2003

Remarks on Okinawa base cause more fallout

Hiromu Nonaka, former secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, resigned Wednesday as chairman of the party's Okinawa Promotion Committee in protest over remarks made by a senior party executive on the relocation of a major U.S. base.
EDITORIALS
Jan 29, 2003

An improved privacy bill

The new privacy legislation prepared by the government -- a replacement for a similar measure that died in last year's Diet session -- represents a step forward. The improved version leaves out, among other things, rules that would unreasonably restrict the media handling of personal information. It...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 29, 2003

Kocani Orkestar: "Alone at My Wedding"

The Kocani Orkestar is a brass band from Macedonia with a formidable rhythm section of four tuba players and a lone percussionist. Their songs are alternately led by male or female singers, a clarinet, several trumpets or a banjo that's played like an oud. On their new album, "Alone at My Wedding," the...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2003

Fate of asylum seeker nearly settled

Japan and China have begun final negotiations for the handover of a 64-year-old Japanese woman who was taken into custody by Chinese authorities after fleeing North Korea in November, government sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2003

Justice council looks to smooth tenant evictions

A Justice Ministry panel on Tuesday introduced a draft plan to help evict tenants occupying properties up for sale with the intent of preventing them from being sold.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 29, 2003

"Synkretizm: A Mountain Thinking the River Fire."

Voodoo, with its mix of West African mysticism and French Catholicism, plays a vital role in the lives of Haiti's rural poor, but it gets a bad rap elsewhere. For the faithful, the communion of saints and shamans offers even the most piteous peasant his own sliver of paradise. But to outsiders, voodoo...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jan 29, 2003

A true master of the art of making photographs

I remember once playing a little mind game with Tokyo-based photographer Torin Boyd. We were sitting in a Kabukicho bar, looking through his portfolio. Every time I said something about "taking pictures," in his response he substituted the verb "make" for the verb "take," as in "I made this picture last...

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