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EDITORIALS
Jul 5, 2001

The danger of further monetary easing

The U.S. Federal Reserve Board's decision last week to cut interest rates for a sixth time is a sobering reminder that there is a wide gulf in freedom of monetary action between the world's two largest economies. While the Fed can make further cuts if necessary, the Bank of Japan has practically no elbowroom...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2001

Life improving for Russian residents of the disputed Northern Territories

KURILSK, Russia -- After a time of neglect, the federal and local government are investing more in the economy of the Southern Kurils -- a group of disputed islands governed by Russia but also claimed by Japan. As the life of the islanders is gradually improving, they are less likely to agree to transferring...
COMMENTARY
Jul 5, 2001

It's all too lonely at the top

LONDON -- As predicted, the Labour Party won the June general election, giving Tony Blair a second term as prime minister. This is bad news for the media monster which, as we all know, has a voracious appetite but nonetheless a fastidious and restricted diet: sleaze, scandal, violence, betrayal. A large...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2001

Lee remains in the limelight

Cornell University, standing like a fortress atop a verdant hilltop in upstate New York, is isolated and serene, far from war and the worries of the world.
MORE SPORTS
Jul 5, 2001

Tired Tajima to quit competitive swimming

Sydney Olympics 400-meter individual medley silver-medalist Yasuko Tajima will retire, swimming officials said Tuesday. Tajima has reportedly quit the Nippon Sport Science University swimming club and requested to be taken off the registered list in late June, the officials said.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 5, 2001

Humans, evolve you must

Us lot, contemporary humans in a postindustrial society, we've got a welfare system, social security and even, in some countries, free health care. Premature babies survive, the wounded get better, the hungry get fed. We're shielded from the blind hand of natural selection, aren't we?
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 5, 2001

Beauty versus the environment

Concerns over the introduction of alien species to environments that have no protective mechanisms against them are beginning to filter through the bureaucratic system in Japan to the point where action is being contemplated -- or even taken.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jul 5, 2001

A vote of confidence for MLB balloting

Kudos to Ichiro Suzuki. The Seattle Mariners right fielder was recently selected by fans to start the 50th All-Star Game in the Emerald City next week. Not only did he lead the majors with 3,373,035 votes, he becomes only the 13th position player in league history to start the mid-season classic as a...
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
Jul 5, 2001

Asagao (Morning glory)

"Leading Mother to our old-fashioned well, I told her the legend of the maiden who went to a well to draw water and, finding a morning glory tendril twined about the handle of the bucket, went away rather than break the tender vine. She planted the seeds around the well curb while I softly hummed, over...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2001

Love: The final frontier

In science fiction, technological progress is often portrayed as bringing humankind ever closer to God in terms of understanding and exploiting the universe. At the beginning of Steven Spielberg's "A.I.," a scientist with the interesting name of Dr. Hobby (William Hurt) expounds before a group of underlings...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2001

Aronofsky states his objectives

The last time Darren Aronofsky was in Tokyo in 1999, he was promoting his debut flick "Pi," which went on to become quite a cult hit. He also did a bit of shopping, picking up photo books by Araki and Hiromix that ended up influencing the look of his new film, "Requiem for a Dream."
EDITORIALS
Jul 4, 2001

Mr. Lee makes headlines again

Taiwan's former President Lee Teng-hui has a penchant for controversy. His tenure in office was marked by some of the highest tensions between China, Taiwan and the United States over the past four decades. Some watchers had hoped that he would escape the spotlight after retiring from office. However,...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2001

Intrigue made to measure

The Tailor of Panama Rating: * * * * Director: John Boorman Running time: 109 minutes Language: English Opens July 7 at Cine Saison in Shibuya "The Tailor of Panama" is a genuine spy movie, but just a shade away from being "Saturday Night Live." One gentle push and it'd be a slapsticky comedy with...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 4, 2001

Baseball & Beer Blast at Sapporo Dome

Japan's sixth all-weather stadium was the setting last week as the Yomiuri Giants and Chunichi Dragons played the first official pro baseball games at the Sapporo Dome. The June 26-28 series was won by the Giants, who took the first and third games. Chunichi won Game 2.
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 4, 2001

Brook's 'Hamlet' speaks straight to the soul

In his book "The Shifting Point," Peter Brook writes that when he begins work on a play, he starts with "a deep, formless hunch which is like a smell, a color, a shadow."
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 4, 2001

Latecomer on a 'momentous journey'

Working with Peter Brook, according to one of the actors in his latest production, is like setting out on a "momentous journey."
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2001

To shoot up, perchance to dream

Requiem for a Dream Rating: * * * * 1/2 Director: Darren Aronofsky Running time: 102 minutes Language: English Opens July 7 at Cine Saison in Shibuya An AP report the other day told of a Beijing teenager who jumped four stories to his death while attempting to sneak out to a local Internet cafe. His...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2001

Full-speed ahead into cinematic chaos

Rush Rating: * * Director: Takehisa Zeze Running time: 110 minutes Language: Japanese Now playing at Cine Amuse in Shibuya Takehisa Zeze's "Rush" is a reviewer's ultimate nightmare: a film whose plot is all but impossible to follow, let alone describe. Walking out of the theater, I laughed -- it was...
COMMENTARY
Jul 3, 2001

Focus on function, not form

LONDON -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair's new government involves a series of changes in the responsibilities of government departments, some of which have been given new names. This will mean reorganizations of offices involving a great deal of aggravation for those concerned. It seems inevitable...
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Jul 3, 2001

Time for Japan to take a lesson from Seoul

"Are you from Japan?"
EDITORIALS
Jul 3, 2001

A candid meeting at Camp David

There was something refreshing about the Japan-U.S. summit last weekend between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. President George W. Bush -- not only because of the way in which the U.S. managed the meeting at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, but also because, more importantly,...
COMMENTARY
Jul 2, 2001

A more active Japan would benefit Asia

LOS ANGELES -- Alarm bells will start sounding across Asia in August. That's when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi plans to visit Tokyo's most famous Shinto shrine, Yasukuni, which honors not only Japan's war dead since the 19th century but also, inconveniently, convicted war criminals, including wartime...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2001

French success has economists wondering

LONDON -- For Americans who work long hours, get only two weeks holiday a year, and live under a system that defines job security as a socialist vice, the apparent success of the French experiment is a puzzle and an affront.
COMMENTARY
Jul 2, 2001

Japan's roadblock to reform

Is there something wrong with the Japanese mentality? Is it, as some have suggested, unable to coordinate details with overall strategy, to realize that the contradictions between "tatemae" (guiding ideals) and "honne" (real intentions) or approving ideas in general while objecting to minutiae ("soron...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2001

The real backbone of Japan

Japan pays about 2,000 yen for each ton of iron ore it imports. Sheet iron made from the ore sells for 50,000 yen a ton and automobiles built with the sheet iron sell for 1 million yen a ton. The Japanese economy thrives by creating added value in the manufacturing of industrial products from raw materials....
EDITORIALS
Jul 2, 2001

Yugoslavia bends, justice prevails

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has been handed over to the international war-crimes tribunal in The Hague. He is the first head of state to be brought to the court, where he is accused of committing war crimes during the brutal offensive he launched against the province of Kosovo. The decision...
COMMENTARY
Jul 1, 2001

Tanaka should think twice before speaking

Calm does not seem to prevail in the words and deeds attributed to Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka. She caused a considerable controversy when she expressed the view that Japan should join hands with European countries to persuade the United States not to go ahead with the missile-defense initiative....
COMMUNITY
Jul 1, 2001

Hotfoot it to a temple of cool

KYOTO -- Summer here is especially hot. But a half-hour train ride from the city center takes you to the cool, mountainous town of Kibune. Centered around the Kibune Shrine along a 5-km stretch of the Kibune River (which flows into the Kamo River), restaurants, inns and shops set out their wares.
EDITORIALS
Jul 1, 2001

Drivers' rights on the line

Hello, New York! You listening? Welcome to another small corner of the convoluted world of unenforceable legislation.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 1, 2001

Pull me a cold one

When the mercury rises, nothing hits the spot like a cold beer, especially when chugg-a-lugged at a beer hall or an outdoor beer garden.

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