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JAPAN
Aug 14, 2003

Teachers have misgivings about new student evaluations

More than 70 percent of elementary and junior high school teachers are unhappy with a new system for evaluating student academic achievements, according to an education ministry survey released Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 13, 2003

Justice under siege in Rwanda

Justice is supposed to be blind. Taking that idea literally, though, may cost the chief United Nations war-crimes prosecutor, Ms. Carla Del Ponte, her job. Ms. Del Ponte is under attack by the Rwandan government for believing that her mandate is to prosecute all perpetrators of war crimes in that horrendous...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2003

Mideast violence is forecast

DOHA, Qatar -- Despite the positive spin that optimistic politicians put on current developments in the Arab-Israeli conflict, a crashing storm threatens the shores of the Mediterranean. Such a prediction can easily be read over the events surrounding the Middle East peace process in the last month alone....
COMMENTARY
Aug 13, 2003

U.S. can return to the moral high road

KUALA LUMPUR -- On Aug. 6, peace activists from around the world flocked to Hiroshima to pray for peace and remember those who died when the first nuclear bomb was dropped on that city 58 years ago. More subdued ceremonies marked the anniversary of the second, and we all hope last, use of nuclear weapons...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 13, 2003

Gonna Vamp

A "vamp" is a woman who seduces or beguiles by using feminine charms, according to my dictionary. It's also the name of a new magazine that promotes underground Japanese bands, preferably if the band members are equipped with guitars, boobs and cute pouts rather than guitars, biceps and bad chat-up lines....
BUSINESS
Aug 13, 2003

Marui plans big workforce reshuffle

Department store operator Marui Co. said Tuesday it has agreed with its labor union to cut 95 percent of its parent company workforce via transfers to subsidiaries, effective Oct. 1.
BUSINESS
Aug 13, 2003

Pentax, Seiko to merge sales units

Optical products maker Pentax Corp. said Tuesday it will merge its eyeglass sales unit with a similar Seiko Corp. subsidiary to boost its presence in the high-end optical market.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 13, 2003

Hotshot terrorist comedy just misses target

Though only in his early 30s, Martin McDonagh already has a 1998 Tony Award under his belt for his worldwide hit, "The Beauty Queen of Leenane." What's more, his works have been staged in 38 countries -- Japan among them.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Aug 13, 2003

The pot is mightier than the sword

As brutal as they may have been, many feudal Japanese warlords were passionate about the Way of Tea. In the midst of battle they would pause for a "tea break," appreciating the fleeting moment and simple joys of tea -- with bits of strategy tossed in.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 12, 2003

Champion Kaburaya O dead at 31

Champion racehorse Kaburaya O, who captured the first two legs of Japan's Triple Crown series in 1975, died Saturday at the age of 31 (about 90 years in human terms) at the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders Association Stallion Station in Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture. His death was attributed to old age.
EDITORIALS
Aug 12, 2003

Time to rethink Japan-China ties

A quarter century ago, on Aug. 12, 1978, Japan and China signed a treaty of peace and friendship in Beijing, putting a legal end to the technical state of war between the two nations. With the United States and the Soviet Union locked in the Cold War, however, the treaty talks reflected the hard realities...
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Aug 12, 2003

Yanagisawa, Kubo recalled for friendly with Nigerians

Japan coach Zico on Monday recalled strikers Atsushi Yanagisawa and Tatsuhiko Kubo and picked defender Yuji Nakazawa for the first time since taking over the national team as he named a 23-man squad for the Aug. 20 friendly against Nigeria.
COMMENTARY
Aug 12, 2003

Test for Japanese diplomacy

The standoff over North Korea's nuclear-arms development is entering a new stage as officials of six nations -- the United States, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China -- prepare to meet soon in Beijing to discuss the threat. At Pyongyang's insistence, the U.S. will hold direct talks with...
BUSINESS
Aug 12, 2003

Insurer, bank eye bad-loan gambit

Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. said Monday they will set up a fund in September with an investment firm affiliated with Daiwa Securities SMBC Co. to purchase bad loans from financial institutions.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 12, 2003

Biculturalism, accessories and recession

Biculturalism, accessories and recession
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 12, 2003

Words of advice for the power-hungry

While we've had a few close shaves over the years, Tokyo's power grid has fortunately been spared a major, city-wide blackout. This year, the closure of 17 nuclear power generators for safety inspection led many to fret that there might not be sufficient power over the summer; fortunately demand has...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FRONT-RUNNERS
Aug 12, 2003

Ajinomoto's amino acid products draw athletes, health-conscious consumers

Don't be surprised if you see Seattle Mariners sensation Ichiro Suzuki downing an Ajinomoto Co. amino acid drink in the dugout at Safeco Field during a baseball game.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 12, 2003

Housing suppliers cash in on demand for homes that reflect seasonal change

More and more housing suppliers are pitching eco-friendly "symbiotic housing" that incorporates traditional Japanese aesthetic values such as the texture of wood and the ability to reflect seasonal changes.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2003

Chaotic images of Indonesia

HONOLULU -- Turmoil in Indonesia was underscored Tuesday when a terrorist bomb exploded in a hotel in Jakarta killing at least 14 people and wounding about 150 more. It has added to the already surging concern of American officials in Washington and at the U.S. Pacific Command's headquarters in Hawaii,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 10, 2003

Pulling away the curtains from the 'Princes of the Yen'

PRINCES OF YEN: Central Bankers and the Transformation of the Economy, by Richard A. Werner. London: M.E. Sharpe, 2003, 362 pp., $27.95, (paper). Richard A. Werner has written a rare book. "The Princes of the Yen" is a scholarly, thoroughly researched treatise on economics that reads like a detective...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Aug 10, 2003

Akagi nurtures organic lifeform

Jazz pianist Kei Akagi clearly relishes the dual nature of the human mind. This is no surprise coming from someone who has divided his time between the United States and Japan, his college studies between philosophy and music, his musical training between classical and jazz, his jazz playing between...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 10, 2003

Waterways of Edo life

For centuries, the boastful citizens of Edo lorded it over country bumpkins by saying, "I'm an Edokko [native of Edo] 'cause I was cleaned with pipe water when I was born and I've grown up drinking pipe water ever since."
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 10, 2003

Arias enjoying life

Four years in Japan and George Arias says he is finally where he had always longed to be as a player -- at the very top.
COMMENTARY
Aug 10, 2003

U.S. hardly stoking fear of China threat

HONG KONG -- The Pentagon's latest report on the military power of the People's Republic of China has, predictably, angered Beijing. But a careful reading shows that the language used is by no means provocative.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Aug 10, 2003

Making tracks across moor and marsh

In the autumn of 1865, two Victorian gentlemen set off on foot from the Yorkshire town of Settle. They walked north through moorland haunted by the lonely cry of rooks, struggled through marshes, scaled mountains, skirted lethal potholes, were lashed by shrieking winds and stinging rain and, for most...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 10, 2003

The ones who got there first

Four centuries before Tokugawa Ieyasu arrived at Edo, a fierce band of mounted warriors had already fortified the hill where Ieyasu would build his magnificent Edo Castle, and on which the Imperial Palace now stands.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 10, 2003

History of homegrown Japanese science finally adds up

Think Edo Period, and you think ukiyo-e, bonsai, yakimono and kabuki. Few think of science, or of the technological skill and spirit, which would later hatch Sony, Toyota and a core part of the country's national identity.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2003

Japanese nuclear arsenal looks unlikely

WASHINGTON -- Speculation is rife about whether North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons could drive Japan to develop a nuclear arsenal. Some opinion leaders have even suggested that America should exploit this prospect to scare China into resolving the North Korea nuclear crisis. However, the reality...

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