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COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2003

Style trumps substance in Bangkok

BANGKOK -- The appearance of the 21 leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in their handmade shiny silk shirts said a lot about this year's summit in Bangkok -- style over substance.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 2, 2003

When American values get a woman's mind cooking

My brother has plunged into this deep gloom. It's his girlfriend, naturally. He's taken to calling me three times a week, genuinely perplexed and begging me to tell him why the romance is gone. He's my brother and I love him, but honestly, like most Japanese men the guy does not have a clue. I can tell...
CULTURE / Music
Aug 3, 2003

Joe Strummer: here for eternity

Joe Strummer headlined Fuji Rock Festival this year. On all three days. He was everywhere. Since his tragic death at age 50 in December, the former Clash frontman has been deified by his army of Japanese fans: A shrine was built at the festival where you could place flowers or a can of beer. Before the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 17, 2003

Lost in translation

A few summers ago, while on an obligatory trip back to my homeland, I found myself at the center of the attention of a small crowd of curious Canadians.
COMMENTARY
Mar 27, 2003

Warfare that stymies protest

LONDON -- This, we were promised, would be the most politically correct war in history. Harlan Ullman, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, says the strategy of conquering Iraq by "shock and awe" bombing, was devised simply because this is the most unpopular...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 26, 2002

Getting clubbed to keep up with the Satos

I have often thought I should "level up" my "life communication space" by joining one of the various clubs in my community, such as the pottery club or stained glass-making club. Although I would like to interact with my island community more, I hesitate because of the commitment. In Japan, people pursue...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 4, 2002

Finding a place in history

SENTO AT SIXTH AND MAIN: Preserving Landmarks of Japanese American Heritage, by Gail Dubrow with Donna Graves. Seattle: Seattle Arts Commission, 2002, 220 pp., $19.95 (paper) A lumber camp in Selleck, Washington; a sento at 302 Sixth Avenue in downtown Seattle; a bowling alley in Los Angeles's Crenshaw...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 30, 2002

A race against cultural oblivion

Like minority groups the world over, the hill tribes of Laos are facing unaccustomed pressures on their traditional way of life. The depletion of protective, life-giving forest and wilderness, the upward migration of more lowland Laotians, growing pressure on the hill tribes to settle closer to accessible...
LIFE / Travel
Jul 30, 2002

A race against cultural oblivion

Like minority groups the world over, the hill tribes of Laos are facing unaccustomed pressures on their traditional way of life. The depletion of protective, life-giving forest and wilderness, the upward migration of more lowland Laotians, growing pressure on the hill tribes to settle closer to accessible...
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.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Mar 24, 2002

Like a rolling stone but harder

Enter the words "rock" plus "Shinjuku" into the search engine of Tokyo's communal consciousness, and the result, "Rolling Stone" -- a rock 'n' grot dive of more than 20 years' standing in that neighborhood -- will always come back at the top of the list. Even Eggey, the owner of two hardcore Shinjuku...
EDITORIALS
Mar 13, 2002

An inconclusive testimony

Diet testimony given Monday by Liberal Democratic Party legislator Muneo Suzuki proved to be inconclusive. It failed to lift the heavy cloud of doubt hanging over his alleged abuse of power. The central question -- how he used his political clout to favor his friends in government and business -- was...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2002

Bush suffers economic jet lag

What is it about a trip to East Asia that turns the minds of shrewd politicians like President George W. Bush and his national security advisers into mush? Once again, an American president and his entourage have traveled to Asia. And once again, jet lag, inadequate oxygen in Air Force One or something...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 3, 2002

Who's killing the great athletes of Japan?

Japanese television coverage of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics amounted to 820 hours of total airtime on all the various terrestrial and satellite stations. This compares to about 500 hours for the Nagano Games. The main reason for the sizable increase is the growth of digital satellite channels...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Jan 10, 2002

Plants for all seasons bring us midwinter cheer

Little by little the days are starting to get longer, though with spring still a long way off this is a good time to do some armchair gardening. Whether you browse through gardening books or magazines, or search the Internet for your reading material, without stirring from your armchair there's plenty...
EDITORIALS
Nov 19, 2001

Argentina's last chance

Argentina is once again faced with the prospect of default. A series of quick fixes has only postponed the day of reckoning for Latin America's third-largest economy. Now, domestic political spats between the central government and the provinces look set to torpedo the "zero-deficit plan" that President...
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2001

Evacuated Miyake islanders get to grips with urban jungle

Motome Miyazawa's voice booms across rows of taro plants at a farm in Hachioji, western Tokyo.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 24, 2001

Even a single drop of beauty can ripple the soul

It was about the middle of September, and I was far from home.
COMMENTARY
Jun 8, 2001

Reform easier said than done

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi replaced former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on the grounds that he was a reformist and Mori was not. Yet Koizumi's first move was to cancel one of Mori's sensible reforms -- the bid to settle Japan's Northern Territories dispute with Moscow by first accepting the two...
COMMUNITY
Apr 15, 2001

A yen for thrift

There was a time when Japan prided itself on its thriftiness. Hard times after World War II produced the need to save money and cut every corner. Children were taught that each grain of rice was sacred and not to be wasted. Sardines and mackerel were standard fare, beef reserved only for special occasions....
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Mar 5, 2001

Bush works on tax cuts while Clinton dodges more controversy

WASHINGTON -- "Beauty and the Beast" was on television Monday night -- the movie, not the continuing news saga of our current president and the most recent former one. That show seems to be a never-ending saga.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 24, 2001

Space . . . the funny frontier

Think of it as a "Seven Samurai" in outer space. OK, well there are only six warriors in "Galaxy Quest" but the comparison kinda works. They are a group of has-been actors whose sole claim to fame is a TV series called "Galaxy Quest" that went off the air 18 years ago. But American human beings weren't...
COMMENTARY
Feb 6, 2001

Civil servants are not serfs

The "shunju" (spring and autumn) column on the first page of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun often contains comments that are right on target. The Jan. 27 column commented on the sometimes arrogant and unwarranted demands made by Japanese politicians on Japanese diplomats in missions abroad.
COMMENTARY
Dec 24, 2000

English-education reform gets watered down

Imagine the fuss if Japan's car industry was producing a million defective cars a year. But for some reason no one bothers much if Japan's English-education industry produces roughly that number of defective English speakers each year.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Aug 15, 2000

Knife-wielding nutters, karate chop cocktails and ueberbabes

"There's nothing for kids to do in Nagoya except sit around all day drinking and taking drugs," says pal Hiroshi, who spent three years there at college.
COMMUNITY
Jul 14, 2000

Get up, get busy: It's summertime

Much as I hate to admit it, summertime in Tokyo is less than joyous. The season just doesn't have that celebratory, liberating mood, it doesn't slow down, grow languid or lean back with an iced tea. Summertime in Tokyo means sweating businessmen carrying suit jackets with their forefingers to cut fabric...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 9, 2000

The bright dwelling-place of dreams

French philosopher Gaston Bachelard (1884-1962) wrote, "The house is one of the greatest powers of integration for the thoughts, memories and dreams of mankind. Through dreams, the various dwelling-places in our lives copenetrate and retain the treasures of former days."
EDITORIALS
May 15, 2000

Mr. Putin takes command

Russia made history last week. With the inauguration of President Vladimir Putin, that country marked its first truly democratic transition of leaders in over a millennium. It was a remarkable moment for the nation, as well as for the once-obscure former KGB functionary who took the oath of office as...
LIFE / Travel
Apr 12, 2000

Taking it to the skies of Bangkok

On the anniversary of the King's 72nd birthday in December 1999, the revolutionary concept of electricallypowered mass transit finally hit Bangkok, a city long dependent on the noisy, noxious, internal combustion engine. Two short elevated lines, totaling 23.7 km of track, were built at a cost of 54.9...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2000

Inflation scare won't loosen purse strings

Most of Japan's modern economic history consists of a long series of achievements pronounced impossible by the outside world. Japan was building the foundations of world-beating steel and electronics industries while Occupation officials urged that scarce resources be devoted to "suitable" exports such...

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan