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COMMENTARY
Feb 3, 2003

Is the press fulfilling its role?

LONDON -- "In a democracy as stagnant as Japan's, you might expect the national newspapers to stir things up. But much of the Japanese press is adverse to change with reporters from some of the top newspapers sharing the clubby life of politicians and bureaucrats."
COMMENTARY
Feb 3, 2003

Pendulum swings on China vs. Japan

DAVOS, Switzerland -- How wildly the pendulum swings whenever "the experts" start talking about Japan vs. China. One can do no wrong, and the other can do no right.
EDITORIALS
Feb 3, 2003

Slogans without sanctuary

After nearly two years in office, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is increasingly beleaguered in his bid to retool Japan's dysfunctional economic systems. He is sticking to his banner slogans -- "Structural reform without sanctuaries" and "No reform, no growth," but the gap between words and deeds continues...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Feb 3, 2003

"The Wish List," "Winnie's Magic Wand"

"The Wish List," Eoin Colfer, Puffin Books; 2002; 200 pp. If you couldn't get enough of Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series, put this book on your wish list.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2003

Japan weighs disaster's impact on Tokyo's own space program

Japan expressed shock Sunday at the loss of the U.S. space shuttle Columbia as officials scrambled to assess the impact on Tokyo's own space program, jointly conducted with the United States.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2003

Asian bridges via Okinawa

SINGAPORE -- Earlier this month a closed-door workshop and open public symposium focused on bridging the divisions within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and those between Japan and Okinawa as well as on strengthening the ASEAN-Japan partnership through governance, human security and community-building....
COMMENTARY
Feb 2, 2003

German vs. Korean 'anti-Americanism'

MANILA -- I can think of several common points between Germany and Korea, and even more between South Korea and West Germany. But a closer than superficial look will reveal more differences than similarities -- also pertaining to the respective relations with and attitudes toward the United States.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2003

Koizumi's revenge has cost Japan dearl

Special to The Japan Times CAMBRIDGE, England -- A lot has been written about Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's third visit to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. Much of it had a high emotional content. Now that the initial furor has died down we can step back and give it a bit more thought.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2003

Professor mishandled 22 million yen in grants

A renowned medical professor at the University of Tokyo and his team mishandled more than 22 million yen of state subsidies, it was learned Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 2, 2003

Analyst urges Russia to look West

THE END OF EURASIA: Russia on the Border Between Geopolitics and Globalization, by Dmitri Trenin. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2002, 351 pp., $24.95 (paper) If nations were people, then Russia would have post-traumatic stress syndrome. Over the past decade, the former...
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2003

A crazed genius shining in the light of new learning

Sugita Genpaku was well-known for his broad social network, which owed much to his easygoing nature. One of his more unusual friends, however, was Hiraga Gen'nai -- dubbed Japan's answer to Leonardo da Vinci.
EDITORIALS
Feb 2, 2003

Onward and upward

Just last month, in this space, we noted the 20th anniversary of the birth of the Internet. Twenty is still young, we observed, but for something barely out of its teens, the Internet has wrought an impressive transformation in the way tens of millions of people live and work. Last week a minor news...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2003

How the 'modern' code was cracked

The headless body of a woman in her 50s was laid on a straw mat inside a hut at Kotsukahara in Edo's Senju area. Born in Kyoto and nicknamed "Aochababa," sketchy court records indicate the woman had been convicted of killing her adopted children. She had been executed by beheading that very morning,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 2, 2003

Effects of aging on TV, film and romance

February marks the 50th anniversary of the first public television broadcast in Japan, and NHK will celebrate the anniversary with an extensive historical survey of its archives.
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2003

New furrows in the field of medicine

It is often said that medicine in Japan is still far behind the West. This is true, unfortunately, in terms of patients' rights advocacy, malpractice-prevention measures, the medical education system, and hospital amenities and working conditions.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 2, 2003

Can 007 fire up the Japanese on N. Korea?

As North Korea's threatening bluster continues to make international headlines, it seems almost bizarre that Japan, which would be in direct physical peril if a conflict erupted on the Korean Peninsula, has its mind on something else, namely Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents. Though important,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Feb 2, 2003

Getting a word in edgewise with Howling Guitar

"This is my 1958 Gibson LP-Jr. You know that Johnny Thunders played the same model. This guitar is my life and if it dies I would like to give it an honorable burial. But . . . I hope we get buried together."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Feb 2, 2003

Sexuality takes a suggestive form in Eden

First of two parts The Vallee de Mai, on Praslin Island, the second-largest island in the Seychelles archipelago, is a heavenly spot. But for some, it is also a glimpse of hell or, as Milton put it, "Paradise Lost."
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 2, 2003

Dispatches from the past

TREATISE ON EPISTOLARY STYLE: Joa~o Rodriguez on the Noble Art of Writing Japanese Letters, by Jeroen Pieter Lamers. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Center for Japanese Studies, 2002, 104 pp., $49.95 (cloth) In Japan, it was once thought that letters showed the writer's personal character. The way...
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2003

No law to aid North Korea escapees: Abe

The government is not likely to enact a law to provide support for Japanese women who flee North Korea, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Saturday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2003

Parties to a revolution

An odd Edo Period drawing is kept at Waseda University Library in Tokyo. A designated important cultural asset, it shows 29 Japanese men wining and dining around three tables as they celebrate New Year's in 1795. Some hold wine glasses, others chat over what appear to be Western dishes. On the wall is...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2003

One-man media airs his views

It's 10 a.m. Sunday, and TBS TV's "Sunday Japon" show is getting under way. American entertainer Dave Spector, a regular panelist, shares the stage with a former porn actress, a Korean journalist and a member of the Diet. After an hour of exchanging ripostes with the others on major international and...
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2003

All crew feared dead as Columbia explodes

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA declared an emergency and feared the worst after losing communication with space shuttle Columbia as the ship and its seven astronauts soared over Texas several minutes before its expected landing Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 1, 2003

Mr. Bush pushes guns and butter

U.S. President George W. Bush has promised both guns and butter in his State of the Union address. This year's speech was a rally for his domestic agenda and an opportunity to steel the nation for the possibility of war against Iraq. Mr. Bush also issued a warning that his patience is reaching its limit....
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2003

How long must the guilty wait to hang?

Sentenced to death for killing a farmer to claim an insurance payout in 1963, Tsuneki Tomiyama played his last card in early December when he and his support group filed a clemency plea.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person