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Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 25, 2002

Sumitomo, Mitsui Chemicals unite to weather tough times

As a global wave of consolidation sweeps through the chemicals industry, Sumitomo Chemical Co., Japan's second-largest chemicals maker, is trying to get a jump on its domestic rivals by merging with industry No. 3 Mitsui Chemicals Inc.
EDITORIALS
Mar 24, 2002

One book, one city

Imagine a whole city reading the same book at the same time, then getting together at libraries and museums, in local community centers and suburban living rooms, to talk about it. In a civic experiment that has blossomed into a national trend in the past couple of years, Americans from Seattle to Washington,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 24, 2002

Shaping up nicely

There is something about landscaped Japanese gardens that suggests timelessness, a phenomenon apparently contrary to that Japanese tendency to locate beauty in what is fleeting in this world.
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Mar 24, 2002

Let your taste buds do the browsing

At some point, it happens to all of us. You stand in front of the wine shelves and stare at the labels. You struggle to remember the last great vintage in the Rhone Valley, Rioja or Tuscany. You see the name of a winery you've liked in the past, but can't recall if it was the Syrah or the Zinfandel (it...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 24, 2002

A greener shade of gray

Ever since Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden, people have been trying to climb back over the fence, because, whatever the attractions of city living, there is nothing like a garden to refresh both body and soul.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 24, 2002

Hotel turns over a new leaf

Big hotels are features of most big cities, and Tokyo is no exception. Rearing into the sky, often straddling whole blocks, they're the temporary homes and permanent workplaces for small armies of people -- which brings serious environmental consequences.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Mar 24, 2002

Music, an improvised definition

Improvised music poses a considerable critical challenge. It now takes in such a wide variety of styles -- from jazz to minimalist electronica, from contemporary classical music to rock -- there is no one absolute set of criteria by which to judge it.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 24, 2002

Some gaijin pitfalls into which few have not plunged

I heard once that art is 2 percent creativity and the rest "derivativity."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Mar 24, 2002

What squids shine in yonder bay

Squid, octopus and cuttlefish belong to a large group of marine invertebrates called cephalopods. The word means foot-headed, and it is an appropriate name for these creatures because their tentacle feet sprout from above their eyes and brain. They are found all over, and sometimes in the stomachs of...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 24, 2002

De Ferranti opens the door to a musical Other

JAPANESE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, by Hugh de Ferranti. Oxford University Press, 2000, 104 pp., $13.95 (cloth) It would be perfectly possible for a foreigner to live in Heisei Japan for quite some time without ever becoming aware that Japan has an original music of its own, so low is the profile of "hogaku"...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 24, 2002

And for your comic delight: The Suzuki Show

Contrary to popular belief, what's good for the goose is not always good for the gander. When Makiko Tanaka was ousted as foreign minister, tears helped crystallize a victim image that guarantees her political longevity. On the other hand, those of Muneo Suzuki, the main victim of Makiko's victimhood,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 24, 2002

Tune in for the final stretch

Next Sunday, Nippon TV's irreverent variety show "Denpa Shonen," the prototype of bizarre Japanese reality-TV programs, will once again end its long successful run with a pledge to be reincarnated in the near future. On Saturday at 9 p.m., however, there will be a special two-hour installment summing...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 24, 2002

Helmsdale: A spot of haggis and ale, lads?

Helmsdale is not so much a pub as a shrine to the "water of life," known to the ancient Gaelic peoples as uisge beatha and to their modern-day descendants as whisky. Almost every inch of space is devoted to it, from the groaning shelves of classic single malts arrayed behind the counter to the empty...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 24, 2002

Shimoda sounds a literary lament

SAN FRANCISCO -- A foreigner in Japan is an outsider by default, a fact foreign residents have lamented for centuries in what is now a ritualized barstool grievance: "I've lived here for so long, learned the language, love my natto, but still . . . "
EDITORIALS
Mar 23, 2002

Taiwan flexes its muscles

There appears to be a new confidence in Taiwan these days. The island government senses new diplomatic opportunities and is wasting no time in exploiting them. That is understandable, but Taipei must also be cautious. Over-reaching will only anger China, which is ever sensitive to the status of the island...
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2002

Daiwa announces tieup with Agricole

Daiwa Bank Holdings Inc., the nation's fifth-largest banking group, on Friday announced a business alliance with French bank Credit Agricole SA.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2002

Target nonperforming loans, not deflation

While there is good reason to be concerned about the state of Japan's economy, analysts wrongly target deflation as the main villain in this tale. Contrary to received wisdom, Japan's economic slump is not the result of price deflation. Nor are aggressive expansions of fiscal and monetary policies the...
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2002

Peru no longer a favored destination of Japanese ODA

Japanese official development assistance for Peru has plunged sharply amid a chill in diplomatic ties over the fate of Alberto Fujimori, the former Peruvian president of Japanese descent.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 23, 2002

Personal agenda with Taisho feminist literature

Woken earlier in the day, Anne Sokolsky was so sleepy she assumed me to be a Japanese woman speaking bad English rather than the other way around. A rocky start dispelled by the wide-awake vivacity with which she approached me at Tokyo's Yotsuya Station midafternoon.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 23, 2002

Erich A. Berendt

After several years' membership in The Asiatic Society of Japan, Erich A. Berendt was elected to the society's council. Since 2000 he has been serving conscientiously and actively as the society's president.
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2002

80% of companies hesitant to adopt group tax system

Some 80 percent of companies said they are hesitant about adopting a new group taxation system to be introduced in fiscal 2002, due to a 2 percent surtax on profits that could result in higher taxes overall, according to a recent poll conducted by Daiwa Institute of Research.
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2002

Snow Brand Foods to sell additives unit to Nissho Iwai

Snow Brand Foods Co., a meat processor and subsidiary of Snow Brand Milk Products Co., said Friday that it will sell its imported food additives operation to trading house Nissho Iwai Corp. on March 31.
SOCCER / World cup
Mar 22, 2002

Japan stifles Ukraine

OSAKA -- Japan's first match of this World Cup year ended in success on Thursday as it beat Ukraine 1-0 at Nagai Stadium in Osaka.
EDITORIALS
Mar 22, 2002

America's dangerous nuclear posture

The leak of a Pentagon report on the U.S. nuclear posture has unleashed a storm of controversy. Critics argue that it lowers the threshold at which the United States will use its nuclear weapons. That is not necessarily true. The cornerstone of the U.S. posture continues to be deterrence. The real concern...
BUSINESS
Mar 22, 2002

Culture clash arises out of FTA deliberations

Japan and Mexico have made it halfway through what for Japan remains an unexplored tunnel and are beginning to see a glimmer of light.
LIFE / Language
Mar 22, 2002

A brief history of the comic strip

Herge was not the first to create comic art. There were many artists who came before him. They all played a part in the evolution of the comic strip as we know it today. But, where did it all really begin?
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Mar 22, 2002

Students give seniors a rousing send-off

My first-grader sighed at the dinner table the other night. "Sakamoto-kun is graduating soon," he said sadly. Who? I had never heard of anyone by this name. "He's one of the sixth-graders," my son explained. "He showed me a magic trick and helps me at school."
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 22, 2002

Brand power key to profits, U.S. professor advises

Japanese manufacturers have long considered the quality of their products to be their greatest strength.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear