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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 9, 2003

Lunch as a measure of motherly love

Kazuyo Matsumoto remembers all too clearly how her son's kindergarten sports day used to prey on her mind weeks before the event. She'd worry, not about whether her son would stumble in last, but about the "bare all" contest she would be forced to participate in at lunchtime. The judges were not the...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Mar 9, 2003

Sordid offspring of Uncle Joe

MOSCOW -- Wednesday was the anniversary of Joseph Stalin's death. The sordid man who for 30 years held the Soviet Union in an iron grip expired 50 years ago, but still casts a long shadow.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 9, 2003

Hitting close to home

In Japan, a landlord really is a lord, and though laws exist to protect renters they are easily circumvented by property owners who don't like them. The three classic no-nos of rental properties -- no pets, no pianos, no employees of the "water trade" -- have recently been augmented with "no old people."...
COMMUNITY
Mar 9, 2003

You too can brew a business

So you've spent one year too many teaching English conversation and it's time for a serious career change. You want a job that's stimulating and creative. You want to be your own boss and perhaps even the boss of others. Maybe, just maybe, you want to run your own cafe, right here in Japan.
COMMENTARY
Mar 9, 2003

Bush will need a quick victory over Iraq

HONOLULU -- Last week U.S. President George W. Bush laid out his vision for the Middle East. For the most part, the text read like any other: It was a stump speech designed to drum up support for "regime change" in Iraq.
EDITORIALS
Mar 9, 2003

Written in stone and light

Poised on the edge of a war of their own seeking, Americans have not forgotten the event that, in their leaders' minds, at least, brought them to this point: the three-pronged attack of Sept. 11, 2001. While the plans to invade Iraq proceeded, so did the competitions to design fitting monuments to the...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 9, 2003

Yayori Matsui's legacy lives on -- as intended

Last weekend, a memorial gathering was held in Waseda for Yayori Matsui, the former Asahi Shimbun reporter and women's rights advocate, who died in December from liver cancer at the age of 68. A proper funeral service had been held two months earlier at the Shibuya church founded by Matsui's minister...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 9, 2003

Kissaten culture still on the boil

At 3 p.m. precisely, a staffer in meikyoku kissa Lion in Shibuya quietly announces the start of today's "concert." Silence descends as she places a record on the player. A gray-haired customer puffs on a cigarette at his corner table.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Mar 9, 2003

Women of all types get the golden touch

Gold Finger is a fantasy party for women -- and women only. The event remains faithful to the formula that the organizer, Chiga, first encountered 15 years ago at the Fridge in London.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 9, 2003

Get down with 'da beat

For the black slaves brought from Africa to America and Europe, the beat was a necessity -- it was in their blood. But the heart of their tribal rhythm, the drums, were forbidden in the aftermath of the Stono Rebellion in 1739. This revolt that occurred in South Carolina ended with more than 20 white...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Mar 9, 2003

All of it . . . why not hear all of it?

"You took the part/That once was my heart/So why not take/All of me?"
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2003

Demonstration against war in Tokyo attracts thousands

About 40,000 people gathered in Tokyo's Hibiya Park on Saturday to protest a possible war against Iraq, organizers said, claiming it was the largest demonstration in Japan since the 1980s.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 9, 2003

The total cafe lifestyle

Options for a place to sit down with a nice cup of coffee or tea have expanded in Japan in recent years, but the favored haunts of the young and trendy are neither cozy kissaten nor chain outlets such as Starbucks and Tully's. They're cafes.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 9, 2003

All eyes on Russia's Far East

RUSSIA'S FAR EAST: A Region at Risk, edited by Judith Thornton and Charles E. Ziegler. Seattle: National Bureau of Asian Research, University of Washington Press, 2002, 498 pp. (paper). The Russian Far East is a land of contradictions. It is a vast territory of 6.2 million sq. km., roughly one-third...
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2003

Millions suffering from sleep disorder: expert

About 2 million Japanese are believed to suffer sleep apnea, a disorder in which sleep is repeatedly interrupted due to obstructed breathing, an expert said Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2003

Study finds 4 million glaucoma sufferers; checkups urged

The Japan Glaucoma Society has said that an estimated 4 million people in this country suffer glaucoma, an eye disease that causes a decrease or complete loss of vision, and urged improved checkups.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2003

Trade minister sees stable oil prices

Oil prices in Japan will remain stable if a threatened U.S.-led war against Iraq ends swiftly, according to Takeo Hiranuma, minister of economy, trade and industry.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2003

Takenaka denies wrongdoing in banker meeting

Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka on Friday denied he violated Cabinet guidelines by meeting with the chiefs of U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., as reported by a magazine.
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2003

Ministry plans to cut public pension benefits

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry unveiled a plan Friday under which public pension benefits would be cut by an average 0.3 percentage point per year through fiscal 2025, in line with the shrinking labor force.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 8, 2003

Matsui's father confident son can play in majors

Some words of caution from Hideki Matsui's father: His son will adjust to the big leagues, but it may take a little time.
COMMENTARY
Mar 8, 2003

Japan's oil diplomacy is dead

LOS ANGELES -- Since September 2001, Tokyo has come a long way toward redefining its international security interests. One significant result of this is that should any American hostages be taken in the war with Iraq or anywhere else in the Middle East, the Japanese are not likely to be indifferent to...
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2003

Key gauge above 50% for first time in three months

The key gauge of the current state of the economy was above the boom-or-bust line of 50 percent in January for the first time in three months, the government said Friday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 8, 2003

Amazing character goods made of pulp

With the current state of Japan's economy, many of us are wondering: Is this the end of heated toilet seats in public restrooms? Will we be expected to live our futures without free household cleaning sponges from the bank and individual trash bags on the buses and trains? Maybe.
Japan Times
JAPAN / PREFECTURAL FARE
Mar 8, 2003

Miyazaki's Tokyo foothold a success story

Shuji Yoshida, joint owner of Miyazaki Konne, is all smiles when asked how things are at the Miyazaki Prefecture satellite shop.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 8, 2003

Making it big-time in the world of glamour, glitz

Forget baubles, bangles and beads. Hiroko Suzuki designs pieces of jewelry that take the craft to a new level of glamorous extravagance.

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