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COMMENTARY
Aug 23, 2003

U.S. a misunderstood giant

HONOLULU -- "Once the Bush administration is done attacking North Korea, will Vietnam be next?" This seemed to be the burning question in the back of many people's minds as I visited Vietnam for a series of lectures on U.S. foreign policy.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2003

Bandai's sword-brandishing robot begets yet another corporate acronym

CEO, COO, CFO and even CSO (chief strategy officer) are part of today's simmering pot of corporate alphabet soup as Japan Inc. increasingly adopts U.S.-style management regimens.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 23, 2003

Imagine! Project approach child care in Japan

"I visited Japan for the first time three years ago," says Tina Peterson, director of the Imagine Child Development Center on the 13th floor of Yokohama's Landmark Tower. "I came to Landmark then, because the building's the highest in Japan. If anyone had predicted, 'In 2003 you will be working here,'...
EDITORIALS
Aug 23, 2003

Falling savings rate is a warning

Until not long ago Japan was criticized -- or praised -- for its extraordinarily high savings rate, depending on how one looked at it. The United States, for one, pointed out that Japan was saving too much and investing too little, and called for steps to stimulate domestic demand and boost consumer...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 23, 2003

A sound bite of married life

On the morning of his son's wedding, Frank Gibbs, the neighborly physician in Thorton Wilder's "Our Town," confesses to his wife that his chief concern in the early days of their own marriage was how to make small talk with his bride.
EDITORIALS
Aug 22, 2003

The U.N. becomes a target

The suicide bomb attack on United Nations headquarters in Baghdad has laid plain the dilemmas the world faces in healing Iraq. The hatred and chaos that plagues the country threatens all who aim to help the shattered nation. Indiscriminate violence will continue until the international community musters...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Aug 22, 2003

Arsenal plays rough, but F.A. going too far with Campbell charge

LONDON -- Arsenal struggled for the opening 25 minutes against Everton last Saturday. Then Sol Campbell was sent off and Arsenal clicked into top gear, playing some outstanding attacking football that saw it win more comfortably than the 2-1 scoreline suggests.
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2003

Aggressive marketing for antidepressants giving drug companies a lift

With more and more people in Japan complaining of depression, drug companies are enjoying a bonanza in pushing antidepressants.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 22, 2003

Bobby Bonds: A lot more than Barry's dad

Too often in life we wait until someone is gone before expressing our admiration for them.
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2003

Don Quijote to dispense free drugs in emergency

Discount retailer Don Quijote Co. said Wednesday it will dole out free medicine to night-time shoppers in times of emergency when pharmacists are not available at any of 10 selected outlets in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2003

Digital cameras' prevalence a wake-up call for Fuji exec

Film executive Kazuo Nakamura realized how pervasive digital cameras had become when he attended a young colleague's wedding in March and found that roughly one out of the 10 people in attendance who were taking pictures were doing so with mobile phones, not with conventional cameras.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Aug 21, 2003

"Toad Heaven," "Ada Lovelace"

"Toad Heaven," Morris Gleitzman, Puffin Books; 2002; 192 pp. Humans are always complaining about how unfair life is. Limpy is a cane toad, but he thinks it's unfair, too. For starters, no one likes him (except his family). Female cane toads don't think he's much of a looker. (Cane toads are ugly enough,...
EDITORIALS
Aug 21, 2003

Yasukuni issue must be resolved

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine continue to cast a shadow over Japan's relations with its Asian neighbors. In particular, China and South Korea remain critical of a Japanese head of government paying an official visit to the shrine, which is dedicated to millions of Japan's...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Aug 21, 2003

Tracking down the old Tokaido

The old itinerant monk in "Oi," the 1830s woodblock print by Hasegawa Settan shown here, is admiring a gushing spring on a forested hillside. Apparently impressed by the joyous flow of water, he is speaking to a local temple apprentice who is pointing away to the right, possibly to another spring nearby....
Japan Times
SOCCER / World cup
Aug 21, 2003

Home sweet home for Japan

With the Japanese media and public on his back, Zico called up the majority of his overseas stars for this seemingly meaningless friendly against Nigeria. In short, Zico desperately needed a win to give him some breathing space.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2003

Lawson's bank outlet opens new frontier

Lawson Inc. on Wednesday became the first convenience store chain to open an outlet in a bank when it launched a store in a Tokyo branch of Hokuriku Bank, a Toyama-based regional.
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 21, 2003

Mars attacks

As the day draws near when Mars makes its closest encounter with Earth for 60,000 years, Japan's astronomical observatories are launching "Mars Week" on Aug. 22 in an effort to get "more than 100 million people" across the country to go outside and see for themselves Earth's planetary neighbor.
EDITORIALS
Aug 20, 2003

Libya accepts responsibility

Libya's decision to accept responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, which blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, is a victory for the families of the 270 victims who had demanded accountability from the government of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. It is a diplomatic triumph for the United...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2003

Seoul should join interdiction group

WASHINGTON -- This fall much attention will be focused on the start of six-party multilateral talks in Beijing to stop North Korea's nuclear-weapons program. These talks, should they take place as committed to by Pyongyang last week, are a welcome development. For the first time in more than a decade,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 20, 2003

Stars for a day: kabuki initiates in the limelight

For a glimpse of the future of kabuki, make your way this month not to the Kabukiza (where contemporary drama superstar Hideki Noda is reigning supreme, see article below) but to the National Theater, Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 20, 2003

Fat Cat Records Compilation: "Branches and Routes"

The high profile of Sigur Ros and Mum (playing in Tokyo next month) make the Fat Cat label look like a haven for atmospheric Icelandic bands. But the label has made its name not so much for a sound, but for intriguing sounds. That, more than anything, is why its new compilation, "Branches and Routes,"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 20, 2003

Noda gives Kabukiza a 'Mouse' that roars

A modern legend is back at the 114-year-old Kabukiza this summer in the diminutive form of Hideki Noda, one of the titans of Japanese contemporary theater.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 20, 2003

Pretty Girls Make Graves: "The New Romance,"

'I heard a record and it opened my eyes," goes the pivotal line in "Speakers Push the Air," the opening song on "Good Health," last year's debut album by the Seattle quintet Pretty Girls Make Graves. The record's passionate immediacy opened a lot of people's eyes to the possibility that punk still had...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 19, 2003

Online games offer users chance to communicate, slay dragons

In the medieval kingdom of Aden, thousands of princes, princesses, knights, elves and wizards hunt monsters and dragons and battle to take over each other's fortresses.
COMMENTARY
Aug 19, 2003

The borrowing can't go on

LONDON -- These are difficult and dangerous days for economic forecasters and financial experts. As usual they are deeply divided on the fate of the world economy. On the one hand, the giant American economy is showing faint signs of recovering its nerve as the last wreckage of the dotcom bubble is cleared...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FRONT-RUNNERS
Aug 19, 2003

Residents wake up to transparent need for security

Japanese used to say water and security are free, but with the rise in home burglaries, one of those commodities is no longer a given.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 19, 2003

Cometh the man, cometh the charisma

Adashing & suave lady-killer and a misfit loser?
EDITORIALS
Aug 18, 2003

Halting the rising suicide trend

The number of suicides in Japan last year exceeded 30,000 for the fifth consecutive year. That's more than three times the number of deaths from traffic accidents. The high incidence of suicide is attributed mainly to the prolonged economic slump. This situation demands efforts in various fields to implement...

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo