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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 17, 2001

A global village round the corner

We are besieged by arms reaching around, between and over us, all simultaneously trying to flip the pages of the single menu to their own outlet's selection and telling us, in variously accented Japanese, just how good this or that particular dish is.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 17, 2001

China no threat to Asia just yet

CHINA AND THE PEOPLE'S LIBERATION ARMY: Great Power or Struggling Developing State? by Solomon M. Karmel. MacMillan, 2000, 229 pp., 35 UK pounds (cloth). China is a revisionist state. It wants to challenge the existing international order -- or at least the way things work in Asia. The country's history,...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 17, 2001

Sounds of a poet who writes to live, and lives to write

COLLECTED POEMS OF SHUNTARO TANIKAWA, CD-ROM. Iwanami Shoten Publishers, Tokyo, 2000, 19,000 yen. It's been a recent trend in the music industry to come out with boxed sets commemorating the work of some of our most celebrated musicians, from John Coltrane to the Beatles. That such a trend has spread...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 17, 2001

Take me out to the big league

As U.S. President George W. Bush makes the rounds in Europe, taking flak and talking trash, it seems like a good opportunity to address what his father would refer to as the "cultural hegemony thing." South Korea and France deal with it by subsidizing their movie industries. China screens everything...
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Jun 17, 2001

Jazz from the tap, running hot and cool

Great jazz, in styles ranging from traditional swing to eclectic free jazz, can be heard nightly in Tokyo. Two of the most popular and listenable acts are the cool-jazz guitarist Sadanori Nakamure and the hard-bop group Alto Nakayoshi Koyoshi. Though both play styles of jazz that originated in the '50s,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 17, 2001

The bright side of bamboo

BAMBOO IN JAPAN, by Nancy Moore Bess, with Bibi Wein. Tokyo and New York: Kodansha International, 2001, 224 pp., 160 color prints and duo-tone photographs, 5,800 yen. Bamboo, the ancient, ubiquitous grass, is everywhere in Japan. Of the over 1,500 species worldwide, nearly half are found here. It...
COMMUNITY
Jun 17, 2001

From rice to riches

A small light bulb lit up above the head of Susumu Takeuchi when he was barely 24. And last year, his modest little business idea brought in 400 million yen.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 17, 2001

Ms. Popularity unleashes charm while her poodle mows the grass

"Look at it this way," one of my mother's cornier friends blabbed to her when she learned of my engagement, "You're not losing a son, you're gaining a daughter."
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 17, 2001

When commuter hell takes on a whole new meaning

Several weeks ago, JR's Saikyo Line started to reserve at least one car on its nightly commuter runs for women. The move followed a precedent set last year by the Keio Line, whose new service, according to reports, is very popular.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 17, 2001

Flying postpunk first class

Time is the nemesis of originality. The greater the number of artists who explore a particular discipline over time, the less likely it is that one of them will come up with something fresh.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jun 17, 2001

Savoring rewards of slow food

In addition to just eating a plump one with a bowl of hot rice to improve digestion and settle your stomach, there are four basic condiment staples made with dried salt-preserved Japanese apricots (umeboshi). If you were ahead of the game and pickled your umeboshi this time last year, now is the time...
EDITORIALS
Jun 16, 2001

One year after Pyongyang

On Friday, the two Koreas marked a bittersweet anniversary: It has been one year since the historic summit between the leaders of the two countries. Koreans rejoiced as South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korea leader Kim Jong Il toasted each other in Pyongyang and promised to end a half century...
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2001

Daiwa unit downgrades growth in GDP for 2001

A think tank affiliated with Daiwa Bank has revised its estimate of the growth in Japan's gross domestic product in fiscal 2001, which began in April, to 0.2 percent from its March prediction of 0.9 percent. Daiwa Research Institute Inc. blamed the downward revision mainly on a slowdown in both exports...
COMMENTARY
Jun 16, 2001

Hawkish China policy serves U.S. ill

LOS ANGELES -- The foreign-policy portfolio of the Bush administration is obviously a work in progress, but its increasing sourness toward China is beginning to alarm many Americans. Last week's Defense Department decision to back away from meetings and contacts between the Chinese and American militaries...
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2001

Town touting mythical snake find; is 'rare' creature really a cash cow?

MIKATA, Hyogo Pref. — The recent discovery of an unusual reptile in this small skiing town is being touted by some as the first recorded capture of the mythical "tsuchinoko," a legendary snakelike creature first documented in the eighth century.
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2001

Diet passes laws to boost telecom sector

The Diet on Friday enacted a set of revised telecommunications laws that are intended to revitalize and promote fair competition in the telecom market.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2001

Japan won't sign U.S.-less Kyoto: Tanaka

Japan will not ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to curb global warming if the United States stays out of it, Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka said Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 16, 2001

Keen to breathe life into 'o-shodo' beyond Kyoto

Anyone who considers calligraphy a quietly restrained form of expression should see Michiko Isoda in action. She sits on a "zabuton" cushion, loads a brush with ink and, with a sure but delicate hand, raises it vertically above the paper on her desk. She stills her body, concentrates her breathing, then...
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2001

Missile plan, Okinawa top Tanaka trip agenda

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka heads for Washington today with the U.S. missile defense plan and issues related to the U.S. military presence in Okinawa topping the agenda for talks to be held on Monday.
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2001

FSA gives eBank preliminary OK

The Financial Services Agency on Friday granted a preliminary banking license to eBank Corp., making it the nation's third Internet-based bank, the agency said.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2001

Will Koizumi factor win Tokyo for LDP?

The apparently overwhelming popularity of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will be put to its first real test in less than 10 days, when the results of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election — campaigning for which began Friday — are announced June 24. And in spite of his popularity, those involved...
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2001

Youths having trouble with proverbs

The younger people are, the more likely they are to misinterpret proverbs, the Cultural Affairs Agency said in connection with a survey carried out on the Japanese language.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 16, 2001

No one can replace this man in my life

I admit it -- I forgot about Father's Day. But before all you fathers start wagging your fingers at me and threatening to send me to bed without dinner, I'd like to redeem myself by writing a Father's Day column.
COMMENTARY
Jun 16, 2001

Urgent tasks for Koizumi

Peace and stability in East Asia in the coming years will hinge on Japan's political and economic leadership, North-South rapprochement on the Korean Peninsula, China's policies as an emerging regional power and strategies of the United States, the sole superpower.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2001

Time for the suits to make way for dresses

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Japan is going through an interesting period of political change. Or is it? A Japanese colleague in Cambridge who was in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago came back to say that it was only an interlude and that the government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would only last a few months,...
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2001

Sakaguchi in favor of hibakusha law revision

Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Chikara Sakaguchi called Friday for a law on medical allowances for atomic bomb survivors to be revised so it covers survivors living outside Japan.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2001

Basics must still precede computer skills: teachers

While the government is actively promoting education on information technology starting in elementary school, some teachers question the wisdom of getting children started on computers at such an early age.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2001

Transplant chief 'subsidized' founders

The head of Japan Organ Transplant Network, the nation's sole coordinator of organ transplants, gave 70 million yen to a professor and a hospital director who helped establish the network in 1997, according to sources familiar with the case.

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