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Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 22, 2002

Nutritional company targets a 'priceless' market

Nature's Sunshine Products, the Utah-based company that revolutionized the nutritional supplement industry, this month celebrated its 30th anniversary with a convention in Fukuoka that brought together top executives and its Japanese "family."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 21, 2002

Veteran lensman sets his sights high

After 30 years, Takashi Iwahashi hasn't lost any enthusiasm for his work. Even at age 57, he spends an average of 120 days a year on the world's mountain peaks and ridges, capturing their beauty on film.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2002

Dwellers bought off; ball to fall on Aoyama flats

The ivy-covered Dojyunkai Apartments in Tokyo's Aoyama district have long been a popular landmark along Omote-sando boulevard. Although the antiquated buildings add a serene touch to the fashionable, bustling district, efforts to protect the site from redevelopment into a shopping complex have so far...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2002

Israeli offensive shakes Jordanian society

GAZA REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan -- Gloom hung over the house where Amin's adult daughter had died of an unknown disease. Rain was leaking through the tarpaulin that served as a roof in half of the two-room structure of mud brick and cinder blocks where 15 people live.
SOCCER / World cup / EXCERPTS FROM PHILIPPE TROUSSIER'S BOOK
Apr 14, 2002

We mustn't forget our humanity

"Passion" is the story of Japan soccer team coach Philippe Troussier, his struggle to make it as a player and manager and his travels around France, Africa and Japan. In the book, Troussier also details his philosophy and thinking as he prepares for the World Cup in June.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 14, 2002

Pop stars set an example for us all

The permanent five-day school week that goes into effect this month has given rise to a great deal of discussion in the government and the media as to whether or not Japan can afford to cut back on classroom time. This discussion, however, has not addressed the question of what education is supposed...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Apr 12, 2002

The man who gave the JET program liftoff

The JET program marks its 15th anniversary this year. Today the country's largest teacher-exchange program, it all started from the simple dream of a young British banker called Nicolas Maclean.
COMMENTARY
Apr 2, 2002

Ending myths about lifestyle

LONDON -- Japan 2001, a major manifestation of Japanese culture in Britain, ends this spring. Consisting of more than 2,000 events large and small, it has had a significant impact and has helped to spread understanding of Japan among people throughout Britain.
COMMUNITY
Mar 31, 2002

Keigo: A lexicon of control

Whether you're Japanese or not, chances are you have conflicting feelings about Japan's formal respect-language, keigo. On the one hand, it is one of the most difficult aspects of the language to truly master. On the other, many feel that it somehow contains and expresses a truly Japanese essence. Then...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 28, 2002

Insights from alumni are just one perk of the job

As a university professor, March ought to be a pleasure. There are no classes and few meetings. It is, though, a bittersweet month. Students who have become an integral part of the fabric and rhythm of my life are graduating. Most of the names and faces will fade, but many will be remembered, and a few...
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Mar 26, 2002

JAWOC puts fans on hold

A commercial running on Japanese TV at the moment shows an astronaut being told to go on a space trip by his boss. He complains, saying that he has tickets for some World Cup games. But his boss insists he has to go. The astronaut reluctantly goes leaving his tickets on the floor. The boss picks them...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 17, 2002

The tower and the story

On Christmas Eve, 1958, thousands of people poured through Hamamatsucho Station in Tokyo's Minato Ward to take in Japan's first postwar shot at a "public attraction." There was nothing particularly cute about it; no fearsome rides, or cuddly characters to have your photo taken with. What's more, visitors...
EDITORIALS
Mar 10, 2002

Filling the void in Manhattan

While he was in Washington last weekend to pick up this year's gold medal from the American Institute of Architects, Mr. Tadao Ando jumped into the debate about what should replace New York's World Trade Center towers. According to the celebrated Japanese architect, this is not a moment for celebrity...
COMMUNITY
Mar 10, 2002

The state of trance

Trance: It has seeped deep into this city's ambience. Aside from the clubs, where you'll likely find four or five trance events every weekend, and the massive summertime outdoor festivals, it's always in the air, and unmistakable. Wander into any Roppongi watering hole or strip club; pop into any funky...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 3, 2002

Ken Noguchi: Climb (and clean) every mountain

When Ken Noguchi reached the summit of Mount Everest in 1999, at the age of 25 he became the youngest person to have scaled the highest peaks on all seven continents. Born to a Japanese father and Egyptian mother, he grew up moving around the globe. His love affair with the dizzy heights of high-altitude...
COMMENTARY
Feb 27, 2002

Australia: a 'lucky' country no longer

The debate over Canberra's handling of several thousand Afghan and other boat people from Indonesia claiming to be political refugees says a lot about Australia. Holding the refugees in barbed-wire desert camps or dumping them on remote Pacific Islands may have upset the rest of the world, but in Australia...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 24, 2002

Going places depends on where you're from

Two thirtyish Japanese junior execs both applied for an opening at "Worldbeater Tech," a subsidiary of an offshoot of a spinoff of a fat-cat blue-chip company.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2002

Taiwan, mainland jockey for influence

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- What is going on across the Taiwan Strait and within Taiwan becomes more of a puzzle with each passing day.
COMMUNITY
Feb 17, 2002

Vive la Kansai-Kanto difference

OSAKA -- Despite corruption scandal after corruption scandal, there is still evidence that not all bureaucrats are bad. Driven by public interest, an army of elite government bureaucrats (and their corporate counterparts) are diligently investigating the really important issues that divide Kansai and...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 14, 2002

North Korea: signs of trouble but no evil

CAMBRIDGE, England -- I have just returned from a week visit to North Korea, one of the countries on U.S. President George W. Bush's "axis of evil." I was one of three British academics running a workshop under a new technical assistance program inaugurated when the two countries opened diplomatic relations...
EDITORIALS
Feb 10, 2002

The lion king of Kabul

He was the most famous lion in the world," says the hand-painted metal sign hanging on an empty cage amid the ruins of Kabul's Zoo. His name was Marjan, and though the sign makes a bold claim on his behalf, it doesn't exaggerate.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2002

Canberra sticks to its policy on illegal immigrants despite growing protests

SYDNEY -- Just as Australian Prime Minister John Howard was addressing world economic leaders in New York on the profits to be made from investing here, Afghan asylum seekers held in detention camps in the Australian desert were trying to die in hunger strikes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 6, 2002

Diary of a not-so-mad man

"I'm not the Antichrist, I'm not the Iron Man, I'm not the kind of person you really think I am . . . I try to entertain you the best I can, I wish I'd walked before I ran," Ozzy Osbourne sings in "Gets Me Through," the opening track on his new album, "Down to Earth." It is at once a touching thank-you...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2002

French imitations of a banana republic

LONDON -- Is corruption a Third World disorder? Not if the French are any guide.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2002

Forget peace if the rules differ for Israel

NEW YORK -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's decision to keep Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat under siege in the West Bank city of Ra- mallah shows an utter disrespect for the Palestinian leader and for the Palestinians. While Sharon insists that Arafat will not leave the city until...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2002

Beijing's political reflexes still at war with modernity

HONG KONG -- In the 23 years since Deng Xiaoping opened China to the outside world, it has become one of the world's great trading nations. Now the further onrush of foreign trade is to be used as a forcible stimulant to hasten China's economic reform and to enhance modernization. So Dec. 11, the day...
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Jan 15, 2002

Base camp bidding battle oversteps mark

After the World Cup final draw was made last month, the mood in Japan for the quadrennial soccer tournament is gradually being accelerating around the country. But one thing has gone too far -- the bidding battle over World Cup base camps.
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2002

Filmmaker records life and death in Manila's garbage dumps

"Someone get a saw!" yells a rescue worker frantically digging in a heap of garbage for a buried body. A blackened corpse slowly emerges, but rescuers are unsure if it is a man or woman. "I know her," someone finally says. "It's Mrs. Garret."
SUMO
Jan 11, 2002

Konishiki making impact after sumo

Hollywood, home to some of the biggest stars on earth, soon may have to make room for the biggest star of all. Former sumo wrestler Konishiki on Thursday revealed his plans to make it big in Tinseltown.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear