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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 10, 2002

Better living through cosmetic enhancement

Several months ago, this column discussed how plastic surgery had transcended its basic meaning as a technique of improving on nature to become a means toward self-actualization. People who once tried to hide their face-lifts and nose jobs now trumpet them proudly, because they believe that feeling better...
CULTURE / Music
Feb 10, 2002

The name of the man is David Byrne

It says something about David Byrne's current position in popular music that two of the records released in 2001 on his Luaka Bop label -- Shuggie Otis' "Inspiration Information" and Jim White's "No Such Place" -- received more press than Byrne's own solo album, "Look Into the Eyeball."
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 / BEST BAR NONE
Feb 10, 2002

Home with the best

Being the youngest in a large family meant, in my case, becoming an auntie when I was still in my teens. And during my long self-exile in Japan, I patiently awaited the arrival of a new generation of travelers -- but then started feeling neglected as one nephew and niece after another circled the world...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 10, 2002

Love in a time of decline for homegrown literature

Is there a future for Japanese literature? That is the question posed by an article in the February issue of Bungakukai. Writer Akira Nagae visited various bookstores and publishers in search of an answer. The manager of a bookstore near an arts university in Tokyo feels authors and publishers are deceiving...
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.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Feb 10, 2002

Battle begins for security, 'other stuff'

WASHINGTON -- In his first formal State of the Union address, President George W. Bush portrayed the terrorism threat in stark detail, disclosing that American forces in Afghanistan have found diagrams of U.S. nuclear power plants and suggested that "tens of thousands of trained terrorists are still...
EDITORIALS
Feb 9, 2002

Lackluster debate hinders reform

Japan faces an urgent need to make a sweeping transition comparable in magnitude to the periods that followed the Meiji Restoration and the end of World War II. But judging from the plenary debates conducted in both Houses of the Diet this week, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's program of national...
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2002

Farm ministry begins beef testing

The farm ministry, responding to the revelation that Snow Brand Foods Co. abused a government beef-buyback program implemented after the discovery of mad cow disease in Japan, began random inspections Friday of beef it bought from across the nation.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2002

Hire women, aged before foreigners, expert says

While Japan's unemployment rate is hovering at its worst level in the postwar era and manufacturers are shifting production abroad for cheaper labor, foreign workers seem to be enjoying their share of demand.
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2002

Foreign firms draw both keen, reluctant Japanese

Strictly businesslike.
COMMENTARY
Feb 9, 2002

Can U.S. find the right voice?

LONDON -- The United States is the predominant force in the world -- more so than ever. Its military reach is awesome (as Afghanistan has proved), its technology at the forefront, its universities the most advanced, its Nobel laureates the most numerous, its production now back to almost 30 percent of...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 9, 2002

Ueda-san: busy staying home no more

On our island, the passage of time is measured in lives. With the passing away of my neighbor Ueda-san, I feel like a part of Japan has gone with her.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2002

Diplomats: more than traveling salesmen

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Recently, the order of a prominent European political leader to his country's ambassadors to begin acting as salesmen made waves all the way to Asia. This is not an isolated case: To various degrees, politicians from Europe to Asia and Oceania are now calling for a new diplomacy...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2002

Indian director blasts the bomb

While many Indian people greeted the nuclear tests conducted by New Delhi in 1998 with enthusiasm, one Indian film director claims that nationalist fervor has blinded the Indian public toward the hideous potential of nuclear weapons.
EDITORIALS
Feb 8, 2002

Enron's third strike

A fter being pilloried in the press and made the new poster child for capitalist excess, Enron is being handed the final indignity: The Houston Astros baseball team has gone to court to take the company's name off its stadium. The humiliation is now complete: The former energy giant is being stripped...
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2002

Government may slash child-care allowances

The government plans to slash child-rearing allowances for single mothers in a bid to reduce rising social security outlays caused by increasing divorce rates in families with young children, government sources said Thursday.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 8, 2002

Arimori strides for success in life after marathon

Winning an Olympic medal, you would think, would be the greatest honor an athlete can achieve.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2002

Are cell phones becoming too disruptive?

Masahito Tagami spent some 900,000 yen on a relay antenna system when he opened an "izakaya" restaurant in the basement of a building in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, last April, so that customers could use their mobile phones.
JAPAN / WORKING IT OUT
Feb 8, 2002

Calls mount for work-sharing as jobless ranks soar

KOBE -- Hatsue Okada, a 33-year-old nurse, works between 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. three days a week at a day-care center for elderly people in Kakogawa, Hyogo Prefecture.
SOCCER / World cup
Feb 8, 2002

Officials unhappy with Saitama pitch

Japanese officials are concerned about the playing surface at the Saitama World Cup stadium and may order it relaid in time for this year's finals, local media said Wednesday.
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Feb 8, 2002

Making a big difference in little places

Rachel Rawlings was surprised when she ran into two famous Japanese comedians in the parking lot outside her local village office. The popular television stars, Shofukutei Tsurube and Kazuki Enari, were astonished, too. Why was a young Australian woman living in a fishing village in Kochi Prefecture?...
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2002

German envoy emphasizes links with Japan

Henrik Schmiegelow, the new German ambassador to Japan, said Thursday it was no coincidence that Germany and Japan were asked to host recent conferences on Afghan peace and reconstruction.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2002

Investors shaky as critical phase looms

Tokyo stocks tumbled across the board again this week, mirroring a wholesale collapse in investor confidence.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2002

BOJ Policy Board seeking to enhance its credit-easing tools

The Bank of Japan convened a two-day meeting of its Policy Board on Thursday to discuss ways of refining its credit-easing tools in a bid to ensure that its current quantitative-easing policy will not be undermined.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’