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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 25, 2003

'Gaijin' do just the strangest things

People often ask me what I find strange about being the only "gaijin" living on a Japanese island. I wonder if people also ask the residents what they think is strange about the gaijin living on their island. Indeed, we gaijin seem to have unlimited ways of causing consternation and raising eyebrows...
BUSINESS
Jan 23, 2003

Yahoo takes on fraudulent auctioneers

Yahoo Japan Corp. started posting on its Web site Wednesday the family names and bank account numbers of people who have repeatedly engaged in fraudulent and other illicit transactions on its auction sites.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2003

Review of moneylender interest rate caps triggers tug of war

A tug of war is under way over a government plan to review the upper limit on interest rates that consumer finance firms and other nonbank moneylenders can levy.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 21, 2003

Gadgets gnaw at polite society

A funny thing happened to me on the train home the other day. I had a conversation with a total stranger.
COMMUNITY
Jan 19, 2003

The danchi and postwar society

At the time, they were homes most Japanese could only dream about. Within their thick concrete walls, they were equipped with such mod cons as flush toilets and stainless-steel kitchen sinks, and they even had separate bedrooms -- for parents and children.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2003

Coping with a grayer world

Like globalization, population aging is a universal force with the power to shape the future. By 2050 the number of people aged 60 and over in the world will increase from 600 million today to almost 2 billion. In Japan, the proportion of the population aged 65 or over will climb from 17.2 percent in...
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2003

Group reveals additional 40 suspected abduction victims

An influential citizens' group investigating the abduction of Japanese citizens to North Korea released Friday a list of 40 more cases that it wants the government to look into.
JAPAN
Jan 8, 2003

Japanese escape woes in 'Boogie Wonderland'

Middle-aged disco lovers in Japan boogie to the sounds of a past era, when flares, platform shoes and gold medallions were cool and the economy was on the upswing.
COMMENTARY
Jan 5, 2003

No room for thoughtful patriot in China

HONG KONG -- China's release of prominent dissident Xu Wenli on Christmas Eve was a welcome gesture, but not much more than a gesture, unless the Communist Party fundamentally alters its policies and allows its citizens basic rights such as the peaceful expression of differing political views and the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 4, 2003

Banish bad habits with hypnotherapy and healing

Erik Bragg had said to look for a beard and a big blue coat. And here he is, though not quite as hirsute as imagined, and wearing an anorak rather than the more theatrical style somehow envisaged. He has traveled in from Kashiwa, in Chiba Prefecture, where he practices as a certified clinical hypnotherapist...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 18, 2002

'Red Demon' to claim British souls

Acclaimed in Japan for the last quarter of a century as a drama director, writer and actor, Hideki Noda is set to become a major player on the world stage from Jan. 31, when his "Red Demon" opens for a near-monthlong run at the famed Young Vic in London's West End.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 14, 2002

No surprise tourism suffers

LOS ANGELES -- The government plan to privatize Narita airport in 2004 is welcome news to international travelers who know what good travel service is. The plan, which also includes a halt to building new airports, upgrading existing airports and improving customer service, could go a long way toward...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 14, 2002

City of hope for Russian Muslims and Jews

KAZAN, Russia -- It was a time of turmoil in Russia's Tatar Autonomous Republic. In 1994, local officials were demanding independence for the historically Muslim region, and taxpayer dollars were rebuilding mosques that had been converted to warehouses during Soviet times.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 14, 2002

A nation that's set up for looking down

Only in Japan is it possible to ride a crowded train to work, stop to buy your "o-bento" lunch at the convenience store, and arrive at work -- all without ever having eye contact with anyone. That is because people spend a lot of time looking at the ground in Japan.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 12, 2002

A fresh approach

Ten years ago, at the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Severn Cullis-Suzuki got the chance to make the speech of her life.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 11, 2002

All I want for Christmas is the third of the tonic chord

As 2002 draws to a close, public halls are bracing themselves for the regular flood of yearend classical music concerts featuring Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 "Choral."
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2002

Meeting opens in Kobe to raise public awareness of AIDS

KOBE -- Africans with the human immunodeficiency virus stressed to participants of an international symposium here Friday the importance of considering the issue their own and listening to the voices of people living with HIV or AIDS.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Nov 22, 2002

"Noughts and Crosses," "Krazy Kow Saves the World -- Well, Almost"

"Noughts and Crosses," Malorie Blackman, Corgi Publishing; 2002; 445 pp. Children's writers often conjure up imaginary worlds in their fiction; and making those worlds convincing is no easy job. Perhaps there's one thing that's harder, though -- writing a compelling story that makes us think about our...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 17, 2002

Skeletons in the academic closet

"Those who have put out the people's eyes reproach them of their blindness'' -- John Milton (1608-74)
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 17, 2002

Conveying messages of unity

It is estimated that an average of 220 people "evaporate" every day in Japan. The reasons are many, but can mostly be reduced to debt, love affairs, personal tragedy and involvement in crimes. And with no end in sight for the recession, the number is increasing year by year. Last year, about 80,000 Japanese...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2002

Homeless hawkers fight turf war

Opening a shop in Tokyo's trendy Harajuku district may be every merchant's dream. But if one is destitute, desperate and hungry, there's always a market on the street.
COMMENTARY
Nov 15, 2002

Economic foolishness deepens

We knew that Japan's economic debate was fairly foolish when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told us that structural reforms such as privatizing highway corporations and the post office would somehow revitalize the Japanese economy. But even that looks sensible compared with the latest proposed "reform"...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 9, 2002

Hunching to keep from dying of cold poisoning

If I could bring one thing from my home country to Japan, it would be a fireplace. Of course, the hearth wouldn't make it through the security check these days. But still, to have an open fire blazing in the living room would be nice, not to mention warm.
JAPAN
Nov 8, 2002

Illegal immigrants held at Tokyo pier

Twelve people arrested early Thursday at Oi pier in Tokyo were among about 20 Chinese from Dalian suspected of entering Japan illegally, police said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2002

Scavengers' woes in Manila retold

More than two years after a tragedy at a garbage dump in Manila that took the lives of more than 230 Filipinos, many people living in and around the site still earn a living by scavenging there, a Japanese aid worker said Monday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Nov 3, 2002

A 'young blood' at Yokohama's helm

Hiroshi Nakada shocked the nation in March when, at the age of 37, he was elected as the mayor of Yokohama, beating 72-year-old Hidenobu Takahide. Takahide, who died in August, ran the city for 12 years and was backed in the election by the ruling coalition and the opposition Social Democratic Party....
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Nov 3, 2002

Joy and pain falling in love again

"We're girls too nasty/We're girls too hot/We're punky girls so you can't stop us.'' Complete lyrics to Anadorei's 40-second-long "Girls Anthem"
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 27, 2002

Osaka housewife refuses to be cowed in the face of city hall

The towering stone structure that is Osaka city hall sits like a fortress on Osaka's Nakanoshima island. It might intimidate some who walk into its dimly lit marbled lobby, but not Yoneko Matsuura.
COMMUNITY
Oct 27, 2002

Ultimate distrust

Few things seem more certain than death.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight