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COMMENTARY
Nov 4, 2001

'Rights' resulting in wrongs

WASHINGTON -- Concern for human rights has become the universal preoccupation. Whole armies have been mobilized by the international community against their abuse -- most recently in Kosovo and Afghanistan. Complex charters and networks of international law have been constructed to enshrine them and...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 4, 2001

Author draws strength from illness to warn of market crisis

A life-threatening illness often focuses a person's mind on the meaning of life. For writer Main Kohda, the fear she may have developed cancer changed her life.
EDITORIALS
Nov 4, 2001

A new benchmark for terrorism

Peace of mind is not the only thing to have been shaken by the events of Sept. 11. Language has been, too -- or at least our casual assumption that we know what we mean by the words we use.
COMMUNITY
Nov 4, 2001

It's a paradise for bikers in Japan

Maybe I'm losing it. With temperatures dropping and the first frost just around the corner, thoughts of winter sports and steaming cups of hot chocolate are starting to dance through most people's minds. But I've still got motorcycles wheelying through mine.
JAPAN
Nov 4, 2001

Strict discipline blamed for crimes by children

Children subjected to strict discipline, which is sometimes seen as child abuse by the minors themselves, tend to repeat crimes such as extorting money and assaulting others, according to a survey conducted by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations.
COMMUNITY
Nov 4, 2001

Getting geared up for the open road

Getting a license If you already have a motorbike license from another country, you can be issued with an equivalent Japanese one. If you have a Japanese car license, you can ride a scooter or a motorbike up to 50cc. If you have an international bike license, you can ride a bike of any size.
COMMUNITY
Nov 4, 2001

Life in the fastest lane of all

On the afternoon of Oct. 21, Daijiro Kato screeched across the finish line on his 250cc Honda to win the Malaysian Grand Prix -- and with it his first World Motorcycle Road Racing Champion's crown.
BUSINESS
Nov 4, 2001

Sogo's Mizushima to plead not guilty to hiding cash

Former Sogo Co. Chairman Hiroo Mizushima will plead not guilty to accusations that he attempted to hide some 150 million yen in assets from creditors as the major department store operator appeared destined for failure, sources close to the case said Saturday.
COMMENTARY
Nov 4, 2001

Attacks now an excuse to barbecue pork

WASHINGTON -- Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, it has been said, and never was it more obvious in the United States than in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Rescuers were still searching for bodies from the smoldering rubble when lobbyists descended upon Washington, D.C....
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 4, 2001

And that's all she wrote, folks

In addition to being the author of the oldest novel in the world, Murasaki Shikibu has the distinction of being the first woman whose image has ever graced Japanese currency. You can be forgiven if you've never noticed her, since she's on the back of the relatively new 2,000 yen note, which seems to...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 4, 2001

Just cloning around

I am sitting in a pub with two other foreign husbands of Japanese women. We are about the same age and build, with the same twitchy faces of men who have lived too long as outsiders in a nation full of insiders.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 4, 2001

Charlie Watts Tentet: Nothing but a jazz thing

In the 1960s, The Rolling Stones led the way in forging a rougher, rootsier style of rock out of R&B, '50s rock 'n' roll and Chicago blues. As the band's drummer, Charlie Watts helped set a new standard of rhythmic structure for rock, and his tight, anchoring beat was widely imitated. After that, what's...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Nov 4, 2001

The quiet return of Riesling

Wine and hemlines are both susceptible to the whims of fashion. In recent years, the Riesling grape suffered from a dowdy reputation. During the big red wine boom of the '90s, it was shunned as a pale wallflower.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Nov 4, 2001

Straight from the monkey's mouth

The Stone Roses are the most influential British rock band of the last 15 years, but since their long-drawn-out and frankly ludicrous demise five years ago, vocalist Ian Brown has taken a lot of playground flak.
JAPAN
Nov 4, 2001

Three politicians among recipients of top decorations

The government on Saturday announced this fall's 4,521 recipients of decorations and awards for their contributions to the state and society, with top orders going to three present and former lawmakers.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 4, 2001

Shaking preconceptions in the land of tourists

A few weeks ago, a friend visited from Europe. It was her first time in Japan and she wanted to see as much of the country as she could. She had purchased the discount JR rail pass that only foreigners can buy in their home countries, but besides that, all she came with was the Lonely Planet guide to...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 4, 2001

In love with the Harley legend

It's Sunday afternoon in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, and the local Harley-Davidson shop, American Street, is playing host to a stream of visitors in black leather jackets.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 4, 2001

Isabella Bird's letters from Japan

UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN: An Account of Travels in the Interior Including Visits to the Aborigines of Yezo and the Shrines of Nikko, by Isabella L. Bird. New York: ICG Muse, 2000, 1,700 yen, 342 pp. (paper) "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan" documents the journeys of Isabella Bird, an extraordinary woman for...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Nov 4, 2001

When everyone gets in on the act

The father of a good friend told me a story about coming to Japan for the first time in the mid-'80s to attend a large conference. On their last day in Tokyo, he and several colleagues decided to splurge at a traditional fine-dining restaurant and experience true Japanese fare.
JAPAN / JOB JITTERS
Nov 3, 2001

Retirement not always time to relax

The red, blue and green flags of labor unions fluttered in front of the towering headquarters of a major bank in Tokyo's Marunouchi business district in early September as about 200 workers shouted, "The bank ought to carry out its social responsibility" and "We don't forgive the bank for dismissing...
BUSINESS
Nov 3, 2001

Takebe hits back at criticism from Washington over WTO

Farm minister Tsutomu Takebe rebuked U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick on Friday for criticizing Japan's "narrow minded" attitude toward the launch of a new round of trade liberalization negotiations under the World Trade Organization.
BUSINESS
Nov 3, 2001

Reform of public entities wins little ministry support

Government ministries and agencies are showing little enthusiasm for abolishing or reducing the amount of subsidies to public corporations under their jurisdiction, according to their individual reform plans released Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2001

Health ministry to start rubella vaccination drive

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has decided to take steps to assist people who were not vaccinated against German measles, a dangerous illness for pregnant women, due to an amendment of the Preventive Vaccination Law, ministry sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2001

Palau banks on environment to bring in the tourist dollars

The president of the Republic of Palau said Thursday that his island nation will protect its environment through education and the selective admission of foreign capital, while promoting tourism as its major industry.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2001

U.S. policy crucial to stability

U.S. President George W. Bush has injected potentially destabilizing dynamics into the domestic political arenas of many nations by pressuring all countries essentially to swear loyalty oaths to the United States and to work with him in going "after terrorism wherever we find it in the world . . . getting...
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2001

Japan offers judge for Khmer Rouge trial

Japan plans to nominate Kuniji Shibahara, a professor of law at Gakushuin University, to serve as a judge at a United Nations-assisted tribunal to be set up in Cambodia to bring leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime to justice, government sources said Friday.

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’