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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 3, 2002

Abductees watch fate unfold through TV

Fuji TV, the Asahi Shimbun and the Mainichi Shimbun received unanimous disapprobation for their Oct. 25 interview with Kim Hye Gyong, the 15-year-old daughter of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Korean agents in 1977 at the age of 13 and is presumed dead. The three media companies apologized,...
COMMUNITY
Nov 3, 2002

Japan's hometown of jazz

Yokohama's love affair with jazz first blossomed when the West was Roarin' in the 1920s. Back then, ocean liners were bringing passengers and ships' bands from all over the world, and Japan's maritime gateway was a major port of call for steamers plying between the famed entertainment hubs of Shanghai...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 3, 2002

A pier without peer

The Yokohama International Passenger Terminal on Osanbashi Pier is slotted into a line of redevelopments along the waterfront -- a smorgasbord of ambitious architecture ranging from renovated century-old warehouses to the Blade Runner-esque towers of the Minato Mirai 21 complex.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 2, 2002

Back to the future via broken promises

BRUSSELS -- Next year's crisis on the Korean Peninsula has come early. The year 2003 was to see an explosive conjuncture of events: a change of regime in South Korea, markedly less sympathetic to engagement with the North than that of current President Kim Dae Jung; the final failure of the United States...
COMMENTARY
Nov 2, 2002

The Asia-Pacific odd couple

Japan and Australia make a rather odd couple in Asia. Yet their officials spend a lot of time talking to each other. Thursday will see yet another talkfest in Tokyo -- this time to discuss their "creative partnership." One reason for the talkativeness is that neither nation quite has the Asian credentials...
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2002

Postal agency didn't collect taxes

Tax authorities have discovered that the Postal Services Agency failed to collect taxes on about 3.5 billion yen in interest in 2000, sources said Friday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 2, 2002

Marie Lorenz Okabe

The late Eloise Cunningham, a lifelong resident of Japan, founded Music for Youth, which is dedicated to presenting musical programs for young people. Her Tokyo house, a Frank Lloyd Wright design, embodies many of his distinctive, country-style characteristics: huge exposed beams, an open stairway, a...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 1, 2002

Japan goes from clunky typewriter to waapuro

I wonder how many readers have ever experienced typing on an old-style Japanese typewriter. I tried my hand at it, just once. It was around 1973, and afterwards I was relieved that my clumsy effort was merely done out of curiosity and not necessity.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 1, 2002

A six-party process to clear up the Korean air

T he crisis over North Korea's attempted acquisition by stealth of a nuclear capability through enriched uranium processing provides a golden opportunity for institutionalizing a process of concerted multilateral diplomacy.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 1, 2002

A good result with Japan's health insurance system

Traveling a lot you begin to be truly thankful for what we take for granted in Japan.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Oct 31, 2002

Farming out death

Man years ago, while doing research related to environmental assessments of the Shiraho coral reef on Ishigaki Island, I witnessed an extreme example of a destructive human impact on a pristine, unspoiled reef.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Oct 31, 2002

Birds' island havens failing whole species

Teuri-jima Island is a special place, being a legally protected breeding habitat of seabirds. It was also the main subject of a recent Japan-U.S. government-level symposium in the nearby mainland town of Haboro, Hokkaido. Shocking facts emerged from that meeting.
COMMENTARY
Oct 31, 2002

China gets handle on weapons exports

HONG KONG -- The summit meeting at Crawford between Chinese President Jiang Zemin and U.S. President George W. Bush should usher in a period of relative stability in Chinese-American relations. While unexpected developments -- such as the air collision last year off the Chinese coast -- cannot be ruled...
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Oct 31, 2002

The spy who tickled me

"No One Lives Forever 2," a stylish PC game from Fox Interactive, provides tense moments and lots of laughs. As a first person-perspective shooting game revolving around spies, it has loads of guns and enemies; but it also parodies both spy movies and its own game genre.
EDITORIALS
Oct 30, 2002

APEC hijacked again

For the second consecutive year, the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum was dominated by terrorism. The recent attacks against Indonesia and Russia hammered home the fact that no country is safe from this scourge. To their credit, the world leaders, assembling in Cabo San Lucas,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Oct 30, 2002

Salt Water Taffy

"We don't really have any band that we're influenced by, but I guess we all like to listen to any bands that you can tell were inspired by The Beatles ..." OK, stop that quote right there! Iris, singer and guitarist with new Tokyo band Salt Water Taffy, has name-dropped The Beatles and, um, that's boring....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 2002

The noble art of collecting

Artists trying to earn a living before these days of government grants, international art fairs and global cultural celebrity were at the mercy of the people holding the purse strings. Teaching was (and remains) a way of getting by, but for the premodern artist, real security depended largely on catching...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 2002

Louis XIV understood power, absolute power

Ovid's "Metamorphoses" (composed 8 A.D.) described the palace of the sun, tall-columned and fashioned from precious metals, inside which sat the radiant god Apollo on a throne studded with emeralds. The Roman poet's description was pure fantasy, but Louis XIV, King of France from 1643-1715, seemed set...
COMMENTARY
Oct 29, 2002

Liberalize farm trade now

LONDON -- Reform of the European Common Agricultural Policy, or CAP, is essential if the European Union's expenditures are to be contained and remain acceptable to European voters as a whole. This summer the European Commission floated some proposals for changes designed not to reduce the overall burden...
MORE SPORTS
Oct 28, 2002

Symboli Kris S. overcomes older foes

FUNABASHI, Chiba Pref. -- Youth and age paired off for a winning run in the Emperor's Cup on Sunday, with the field's youngest member, the 3-year-old colt Symboli Kris S. and Japan's most senior jockey, Yukio Okabe, 53, bringing home the money by 3/4 length in a course-record-tying time of 1:58.5.
COMMENTARY
Oct 28, 2002

Is it deja vu all over again?

SEOUL -- Is it deja vu all over again on the Korean Peninsula? The short answer is yes . . . and no.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Oct 28, 2002

Words of wisdom on U.S. interventionism

NEW YORK -- Searching the Internet for information on immigration in the United States, I came across President Grover Cleveland's message to Congress on Dec. 18, 1893. In it he detailed his opposition to the annexation of Hawaii. At the start of that year, a self-styled Committee of Safety, led by foreign...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 27, 2002

Finds 'rewrite history'

SIEM REAP, Cambodia -- The recent unearthing of hundreds of Buddha statues at a temple in Cambodia's famed Angkor region has forced scholars to reassess theories regarding the final years of the Angkor civilization.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 27, 2002

At last, a family cartoon playing it for real

Since virtually everyone has grown up in one, "family" is one of the few dramatic themes that can safely be called universal, even if no two families can ever be the same. Nevertheless, the popular arts, television in particular, are filled with families who are meant to represent all families.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 27, 2002

An unflinching look at the face of suffering

FEAR AND SANCTUARY: Burmese Refugees in Thailand, by Hazel J. Lang. Cornell Southeast Asia Publications: Ithaca, New York, 2002, 240 pp., $24 (paper) An army column enters a small farming village without warning. The soldiers have been taught that everyone there is a potential enemy. Should any villagers...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 27, 2002

Passionate Cortes back with live 'flashback'

Joaquin Cortes -- the "dancer of passion" -- has cast his spell on audiences around the world with his exotic moves and the passionate Latin personality he oozes while in the spotlight. In November, he is back on stage in Japan to perform his most recent creation, "Live."
COMMENTARY
Oct 26, 2002

Bali crisis energizes Indonesian democracy

HONG KONG -- The Bali bombing atrocity demonstrated, in a profoundly tragic fashion, how a politically weak, poorly organized, yet struggling democracy like Indonesia is intensely vulnerable to the forces of extremism and terrorism.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 26, 2002

Getting clubbed to keep up with the Satos

I have often thought I should "level up" my "life communication space" by joining one of the various clubs in my community, such as the pottery club or stained glass-making club. Although I would like to interact with my island community more, I hesitate because of the commitment. In Japan, people pursue...
Japan Times
Uncategorized
Oct 25, 2002

China's environmental problems pose opportunities

Smoke curls into the sky from power plants, home heaters, factories and cars, poisoning the air. Rain runs in sheets off slopes stripped of trees, eroding valuable topsoil, sedimenting rivers, causing raging floods downstream, and later, droughts as land loses its capacity to hold water.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Oct 25, 2002

"The Thief Lord," "The Witch Trade"

"The Thief Lord," Cornelia Funke, The Chicken House; 2002; 345 pp. "Who does this child belong to?"

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