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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 26, 2002

Pro-whalers living on a harpoon and a prayer

The increasing media flurry over the upcoming World Cup must be frustrating to the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, which had been preparing for a year to make sure that this past week would be their moment in the spotlight. As the de facto hosts of the 54th annual plenary session of the...
COMMUNITY
May 26, 2002

Tea to soothe the soul

Outside, evening commuters splash through the Tokyo rain and a train conductor is shouting to be heard above the rush-hour din.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 25, 2002

Petunia diet: key to a long, slender body

Are you a city dweller living in a high-rise apartment block? Do you miss having trees as neighbors? Have the few plants you tried to grow on the veranda died of asthma? I offer all you smog dwellers my garden: a virtual garden where you too can grow tomatoes and even pick off the worms. Or just be glad...
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
May 21, 2002

Fans getting feisty at World Cup ticket no show

With the World Cup getting ever closer, soccer fans are getting increasingly worried about the whereabouts of their tickets.
SOCCER / World cup / COHOSTING
May 20, 2002

Coming to terms with cohosting

In the year 2000, Belgium and the Netherlands became the first countries to cohost a major, FIFA-sanctioned football tournament when they staged the 2000 European Championship finals. It was an all-around success and pointed the way forward for other cohosted tournaments.
ENVIRONMENT
May 19, 2002

Thar she blew!

TAIJI, Wakayama Pref. -- From the lead boat it was difficult to see the spray rising from the waters off Tomyo Point. The onshore breeze dispersed it before it could rise too high and the choppy waters forced the rowers to concentrate on their task. Nonetheless, the sign was there.
SOCCER / World cup / COHOSTING
May 18, 2002

Beyond the limits of normalcy

Can Japan and South Korea work together to put on the 2002 World Cup?
Japan Times
JAPAN / WHALE WATCHING
May 17, 2002

Ecotoxicologist warns of pollutants hurting whales, dolphins, humans

While whaling experts and negotiators debate the future of whaling, some specialists worry that whale health and the safety of whale meat are not getting enough attention.
ENVIRONMENT
May 16, 2002

Home sweet Nagoya Port home

It would probably come as a surprise to most Nagoya residents to learn that a sizable population of finless porpoises resides in the dark, extremely polluted waters of Nagoya Port -- even in its busy heart near Kinjofuto, the Meijo Bridge, the shipbuilding dock and among the enormous ships that carry...
SOCCER / World cup / EXCERPTS FROM PHILIPPE TROUSSIER'S BOOK
May 15, 2002

Japan team has bright future

"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.In this, the last of 10 exclusive...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 15, 2002

Offspring of poetry's artistic polygamy

Several events this month platform the spoken and written words in new combinations: An exhibition of Japanese and French "visual poetry" opens May 15; poetry marries improvisational live jazz and shakuhachi performance; and a book launch for an anthology of new writing offers readings, music and dance....
COMMENTARY
May 15, 2002

EU's costly quest for world leadership

LONDON -- Nowadays the European Union and the United States seem to be locked in almost permanent quarrels. One moment it's bananas, then it's steel, land mines, the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, European defense arrangements and NATO. Then it's the question of whether there should be a permanent...
SOCCER / World cup
May 13, 2002

A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity

"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. In this, the ninth of 10 exclusive...
EDITORIALS
May 12, 2002

Harry Potter and the no-show sequel

Where is Harry Potter when we need him? For the second year in a row, the nonappearance of Book 5 of the small bespectacled one's magical doings is throwing readers of all ages into a spring tizzy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 8, 2002

His fingers on the pulse

Bill Laswell stands in the lobby outside the Shinjuku Pit Inn, where on April 27 and 28 he played to packed houses with drummer Hideo Yamaki and saxophonist Yasuaki Shimizu. He's just set up his bass rig and is wondering where to sit for our interview.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 5, 2002

Memories are made of this

TOKYO CENTRAL: A Memoir, by Edward Seidensticker. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002, 256 pp. with b/w photographs, XXXVI. $30 (cloth) Translator extraordinaire, historian and beloved pedagogue, Edward Seidensticker has given us the definitive English versions of "The Tale of Genji" and the...
COMMUNITY
May 5, 2002

A plastic menagerie for kids of all ages

"Instead of only children, we started to think about what we could sell to people in their 30s, 40s or 50s."
SOCCER / World cup
May 4, 2002

Hondurans give Japan squad wakeup call with 3-3 draw

KOBE -- If Japan manager Philippe Troussier needed to be reminded of his side's defensive frailties, then he should be grateful to Honduras, which pushed the home side to a 3-3 draw in the Kirin Cup at Kobe Wing Stadium on Thursday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 4, 2002

Being a broad, living in Japan, pub crawling!

While most of the population sits back and takes a deep sigh over Golden Week, Caroline Pover will be working her socks off. True, next week she will be on the Izu Peninsula, within a stone's throw of a beach. But she'll be there also to work, not play.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 3, 2002

Kawasaki finds cultural assets among industrial blight

A year ago, a ward along Kawasaki's waterfront launched a campaign to rediscover the district's attraction and dispel its negative image as a pollution-plagued home to smokestack industries.
SOCCER / World cup
May 3, 2002

Hondurans hold Japan

KOBE -- If Japan manager Philippe Troussier needed to be reminded of his side's defensive frailties, then he should be grateful to Honduras, which pushed the home side to a 3-3 draw in the Kirin Cup at Kobe Wing Stadium on Thursday.
LIFE / Digital
May 2, 2002

IMAX 3-D puts outer space in your face

The astronauts are playing with their food.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Apr 28, 2002

A familiar story but with a sincerely new spin

Sometimes hard times can turn out to be the best of luck. There is nothing like a little parental abuse -- or substance abuse -- to burnish an artist's street credibility. Everyone from Eminem to Nine Inch Nail's Trent Reznor to, more locally, DJ Krush has a rough past.
EDITORIALS
Apr 28, 2002

Jostling in the blogosphere

Meanwhile, as the insects endure, humans keep blathering -- and finding new and ever more independent ways to broadcast their blather. By comparison with some of these, editorials -- the anonymously authored opinions of official media organizations -- are as old as Mantophasmatodea. No, to approach the...
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 27, 2002

Trey bien! Hanshin hurler Moore off to hot start

Don't be fooled by the menacing fu-manchu and the pitcher's glare. Hanshin Tigers left-hander Trey Moore is actually a friendly, down-to-earth family man from Texas, but don't tell opposing hitters that.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 24, 2002

Rage against the machine: anti-tech art

"The First Move," a showcase of finalists for the 2002 Philip Morris Art Award, opens this Saturday at Tokyo International Forum. On display until May 6, the exhibition includes paintings, photographs, 3-D pieces, videos, installations and computer-generated work by 57 young artists selected from more...
COMMUNITY
Apr 21, 2002

Fine fare from them there hills

In Japan, the woods traditionally have been imagined to be the epitome of all that is unknown and fearsome in nature -- dark, enchanted places inhabited by magical foxes and raccoon dogs that children are made to fear from an early age.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 21, 2002

Peak attraction

When the cherry trees in the highlands of Nagano Prefecture start blooming, Hajimu Miyamoto of the Azumi Village tourist association begins to feel excited -- and a little nervous.
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.

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