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COMMENTARY
Feb 24, 2002

Dirty business taking a toll

LONDON -- The Enron affair has made it impossible to justify boasts about the effectiveness of corporate governance in the United States and the reliability of independent accountancy firms.
COMMUNITY
Feb 24, 2002

So you think stress is all in the mind?

It's as inevitable and, in most cases, as unwelcome as that overcrowded rush-hour train. Stress: We're all its victims to some degree. But do we know what causes it, and what its long-term effects on the body can be?
COMMUNITY
Feb 24, 2002

No end to stress in modern Japan

Thirty-year-old Hiroko Sato was having her hair done, just as she had every month for the past several years, when suddenly she began to feel ill. First, she felt dizzy, then nauseous, then her hands started to go numb. She tried to shrug it off, but when she rose from her chair, she fainted.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 24, 2002

The suspense is just killing them

Director and screenwriter Yoji Yamada, who helmed all 48 installments of the record-setting "Otoko wa Tsurai-yo" movie series, and actor Toshiyuki Nishida, who has starred in Yamada's other two movie series, "Tsuri Baka Nisshi" and "Gakko," team up for a one-shot two-hour TV drama Monday night at 9 p.m....
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Feb 24, 2002

The method to the madness

Like Bauhaus architecture or a Charles Eames chair, Stereolab is retro yet refreshingly new. Beneath the surface of their shiny, polished pop, the lilting melodies of '60s lounge music, the drone of German progressive rock and the lightest hint of dance-floor beats coexist in a controlled upheaval.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 24, 2002

I want my DVD: The word is out on the small screen

Now that our shelves contain a lot more than books -- CD-ROMs, VHS tapes, DVDs -- it is worth reconsidering a question that occasionally interests the resident foreigner: How do you find Japanese films with English subtitles?
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Feb 24, 2002

Sansai-gayu : a porridge found further afield

There is perhaps nothing more rewarding for a chef than to get out into the field and secure the best ingredients possible: vegetables, dry goods, fish and seasonings. The early spring is especially exciting because the season for foraging wild plants officially begins.
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Feb 24, 2002

Voyagers on the new wine frontier

There was a time when food-and-wine pairing was governed by tried-and-true rules and traditions. French restaurants served French wines, Italian restaurants were loyal to Italian wines, and so on.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 24, 2002

Dubya's campaign to bring tourists to America

During this past Christmas season, it became something of a joke in the United States when Americans were asked by their government to go shopping as a means of pursuing the War on Terrorism at home. The idea was that the Forces of Evil wanted nothing less than the destruction of Our Way of Life, so...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 24, 2002

Moral absolutism on trial

ONE MAN'S JUSTICE, by Akira Yoshimura, translated by Mark Ealey. New York, San Diego and London: Harcourt, 2001, 276 pp., $23 (cloth) In every society, even the most apparently open-minded, there are times when some questions become taboo. In the United States right now, such questions include anything...
CULTURE / Music
Feb 24, 2002

The Strokes: Was that it?

The Strokes, ever heard of them? They're a bunch of rich kids from New York who like the street. Too drunk to skateboard, they stride round in their vintage clothes, take loads of drugs, chase chicks and make music. Last year, they released "Is This It," the greatest debut album since Oasis' "Definitely...
COMMUNITY
Feb 24, 2002

Overseas and under pressure

For people moving to a foreign country, the simplest daily activities can become a nightmare.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 24, 2002

Going places depends on where you're from

Two thirtyish Japanese junior execs both applied for an opening at "Worldbeater Tech," a subsidiary of an offshoot of a spinoff of a fat-cat blue-chip company.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 24, 2002

Images of a common brutality

HELL IN THE PACIFIC: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima and Beyond, by Jonathan Lewis and Ben Steele. London: Channel 4 Books, 2001, 288 pp. $30 (cloth) TALES BY JAPANESE SOLDIERS OF THE BURMA CAMPAIGN. Edited by Kazuo Tamayama and John Nunneley. London: Cassell, 2000, 252 pp., $24 (paper) If you've ever...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2002

English in U.S. doesn't need protection

Twenty-six American states have already passed laws declaring English their official language. Iowa wants to make it 27.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2002

Globalization is both a bonus and curse, Nobelist Sen says

Although globalization has produced remarkable opportunities and improvements in the lives of people around the world, there are a number of others who have suffered increased insecurity, according to an Indian scholar who, in 1998, became the first Asian economist to win a Nobel Prize.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2002

'Spy ship' sunk after fight set to be filmed for clues

The government will use an underwater camera next week to investigate an unidentified ship that sank in December in the East China Sea after exchanging fire with Japan Coast Guard vessels, transport minister Chikage Ogi said Friday.
BUSINESS
Feb 23, 2002

Analyst reckons Japan distributors' systems put consumers in driving seat

If you believe that Japan's distribution system is inefficient and does consumers no good, try telling that to Masahiro Matsuoka.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2002

Snow Brand Foods to disband

Snow Brand Foods Co. will lay off most of its 1,000 employees in March and disband in April, the scandal-tainted firm said Friday.
BUSINESS
Feb 23, 2002

Japan to listen as it decides on crucial WTO stance

Japan will begin work on formulating its negotiating position on an issue that is likely to sharply pit industrialized countries against developing economies in the recently launched round of global trade liberalization talks -- the environment.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2002

Tokyo mulls donation to WTO trust fund

Japan may contribute 1.5 million Swiss francs -- about 117 million yen -- to a new trust fund established within the World Trade Organization to increase trade-related technical assistance for developing countries, government sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
Feb 23, 2002

Foreigners snap up stocks

Foreign investors turned net buyers of Japanese stocks for the first time in five weeks last week.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2002

Siege of Arafat set to weaken Sharon, defeat peace hopes

BEIRUT -- It has been three months since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon laid siege to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah headquarters. Physically, his position remains dire. An Israeli tank is stationed a mere 70 meters away.
COMMUNITY
Feb 23, 2002

Beauty and brains behind company clear as glass

Company President Narumi Tanaka is alone Monday morning, holding the fort in her office in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward. Her staff -- three full-timers, one part-timer and her husband -- are out and about on what she calls "the client site." A good thing, we agree, because it means TRANSe Project is at full...
EDITORIALS
Feb 22, 2002

His own worst enemy

There are many reasons to object to U.S. President George W. Bush's "axis of evil" comment in his State of the Union address last month. Including Iran in this unholy triumvirate may be the most troubling, since it could undermine elements in that country that have been trying to move Tehran toward some...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2002

Southeast Asia scores its outside players

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Three outside players influence, to various degrees, the destiny of Southeast Asia: the United States, Japan and China. Their influences may intensify or wane over a specific period, depending on the prevailing over- all geopolitical and economic framework. How then can we evaluate...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2002

New strains of anti-Semitism

LONDON -- Sixty years after the Holocaust, is anti-Semitism spreading in Europe? The question is being asked increasingly in a number of countries, notably Britain, which fought the Nazis through World War II, and France, which lived for four years under a collaborationist regime that persecuted Jews...
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2002

Diplomats impress at Japanese speech contest

What most touched the hearts of the audience may not have been their fluency in Japanese and experiences of culture shock, but their insights into daily life summarized in a five-minute speech.
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2002

Libyan trade insurance about to be reinstated

In a move that will please domestic businesses struggling amid a deep recession but could rub the United States the wrong way, Japan is working behind the scenes to take a significant policy step toward closer economic ties with Libya.

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