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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 21, 2002

Reality bytes across the Digital Divide

The latest fad in worldwide rifts is not East/West, North/South, Rich/Poor -- nor even Love Britney/Hate Britney. Rather it is the "Digital Divide" -- the gap between those who are prepared to live in our brave new world of information technology and those who are not.
BUSINESS
Apr 20, 2002

Posts deregulation bills may shatter LDP, Aso warns

The Liberal Democratic Party may be torn apart if Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi goes ahead with his controversial plan to have four bills related to postal deregulation approved by the Cabinet on April 26, a top LDP policymaker warned Friday.
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Apr 14, 2002

The story of the global village; concise but unabridged

If such complex problems as globalization and the war in Afghanistan seem difficult to grasp, simplified figures could come in handy.
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2002

Nogami advising staff on Mideast despite demotion

Former Vice Foreign Minister Yoshiji Nogami is advising employees at the ministry on Middle East affairs, despite his demotion to the ministry's secretariat, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Friday.
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Mar 29, 2002

Seize the reins and blaze your own kanji-learning trail

Dear Dario Simunovic,
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Mar 20, 2002

JT readers like Giants, Hawks in Japan Series

The Yomiuri Giants will edge the Yakult Swallows in the Central League, and the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks will slip by the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes in the Pacific League, creating a Giants-Hawks matchup in the 2002 Japan Series come October. So says the consensus of predictions of nine readers and yours truly...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Mar 17, 2002

Favorites that come widely recommended

The information in this column usually covers the gamut of sake nomenclature, types and brewing methods, as well as culture, history and the occasional oddities. But beyond the single recommendation in each column, rarely does it address the question, "So, uh, what are the good sake? What should I be...
BUSINESS
Mar 15, 2002

Anyone can be a manager at Ito-Yokado

In a radical move for a Japanese company, Ito-Yokado Co. has scrapped its traditional promotions track and introduced an open practice that allows all employees, including part-timers, to apply for management posts, company officials said Thursday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 14, 2002

Evolution of intelligence

Woody Allen once famously said that the brain was his second favorite organ. And it is well-established that having a big one, as with Allen's "first favorite" organ (I'm guessing he wasn't referring to his liver), confers high status on its owner.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 14, 2002

You win some and you lose some . . .

Ten years ago, on March 12, 1992, this column began its life on these pages. Though it's still "green," when compared with colleagues who have graced The Japan Times for several decades, Our Planet Earth has now appeared more than 245 times.
SOCCER / THE BALD TRUTH
Mar 5, 2002

2002 on hold as JAWOC ponders making a decision

My Korean girlfriend has come to the conclusion that the Japanese couldn't organize a bun fight in a bakery, let alone a World Cup.
Events / KANSAI: WHO & WHAT
Feb 24, 2002

European centers unite for an open door day

Five European nations' cultural exchange centers are jointly hosting a European Open Door Day from 12:30 p.m. on March 24 at their offices in Osaka's Chuo, Kita, Minato and Tennoji wards.
COMMUNITY
Feb 24, 2002

'Technostress': Rage against the machine

Satoru Kobayashi, a 25-year-old computer programmer, had made smooth progress through life, with good grades from good schools. He had always been an introvert, though, with few friends, so his job as a programmer at a foreign-affiliated software manufacturing company suited him well.
JAPAN
Feb 15, 2002

Worker spies on NASDA secrets

An employee of a satellite maker illegally accessed a National Space Development Agency computer system and spied on classified data about a rival firm's technology, NASDA officials said Thursday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 10, 2002

Beans of wisdom from a hospital waiting room

The week before Christmas 1989, I sat in an outpatient ward in Kumamoto University Hospital waiting for the doctor to take a look at a head cold that threatened to ruin my holidays.
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Feb 10, 2002

Uncork a bottle of pure passion

This Valentine's Day, ignore the boxes of waxy, stale chocolate at the supermarket. Give up on forcing rhymes into a bad love poem. Never mind the refrigerated roses from the florist, their heads already on the verge of drooping.
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Feb 6, 2002

Color her beautiful

"Mere colour, unspoiled by meaning and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways." So wrote Oscar Wilde in "The Critic as Artist." There are myriad theories on why and how different wavelengths in the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum affect us in the...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 3, 2002

Japan makes a profitable connection

THE MOBILE INTERNET: How Japan Dialed Up and the West Disconnected, by Jeffrey Lee Funk. ISI Publications, 2001, 200 pp. $32 (cloth) In the 1970s and '80s, Japanese carmakers flooded world markets with products fresh from factories where workers wore uniforms, sorted parts into brightly colored bins,...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Feb 3, 2002

Clearly making the grade isn't such an easy task

One of the biggest barriers to learning about sake is the terminology used to define the various grades. It is not a simple linguistic matter, as even the average Japanese person, more often than not, does not know specifically to what the terminology refers. These terms were not coined at once, nor...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 3, 2002

It's not just who's cast but how they're cast out

A nother milestone in Japan-Korea cultural relations is achieved with the two-part drama special "Friends" (TBS, Monday and Tuesday, 9 p.m.). Japanese idol Kyoko Fukada and Korean heartthrob Wonbin portray a couple who meet in Hong Kong and then strike up a cross-Japan Sea e-mail exchange that turns...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Jan 20, 2002

A heavenly match made in Tsukishima

Ajisen strikes you as special before you even walk in the door. Great care has been taken in creating the entrance itself -- a good sign of the good things to come.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2002

Man held for threatening to bomb official residence

A 25-year-old unemployed man has been arrested on suspicion of threatening to blow up the Prime Minister's Official Residence, the Metropolitan Police Department said Wednesday.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Dec 9, 2001

It used be the case for all kinds of sake

You don't hear much about the tanks used for brewing or storing sake. In many other beverages, the type, age and source of the wood used for the tanks often contributes a major component to the flavor. Although sake is now independent of these factors, this was not always the case.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2001

'Yakiniku' promotion aims to lure back diners

An online promotion to boost falling sales of "yakiniku," or barbecued meat, will be launched Saturday amid consumer concerns over mad cow disease, organizers said.
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2001

Kansai Who & What

Osaka movie festival to screen Europe films A five-day European film festival will be held from Tuesday through Nov. 25 at Kaiyukan aquarium hall in Minato Ward, Osaka.
COMMUNITY
Nov 18, 2001

Charting a route through the obstacle course

Whoever said "It's a jungle out there" must have been talking about Tokyo. Or perhaps it's more of a gigantic maze, with buildings squashed together, and stations with stairs and escalators going in every direction -- all filled with crowds of irritated people.
JAPAN
Nov 6, 2001

U.S. Embassy warns of delays for visas

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said Monday that applicants for visas unrelated to immigration may expect the processing of their applications to be delayed as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 20, 2001

Food from home, direct to your door in Japan

Chuck Grafft spends much of his life surrounded by the stronger sex. Not that he is complaining. As president and CEO of the Foreign Buyers Club (FBC) in Kobe, most of his staff are women -- women representing nine cultures, including Japanese. Also, wife Kelly, now back to work, with four daughters,...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji