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Japan Times
JAPAN / CUP COUNTDOWN
May 29, 2002

Hotels vie for World Cup windfall

As the Friday opening of the 2002 FIFA World Cup approaches, hoteliers in and around Tokyo are making last-minute efforts to get their slice of the hoopla that will carry on through the next month.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 26, 2002

Victor Segalen: searching out the strange to find a way home

VICTOR SEGALEN AND THE AESTHETICS OF DIVERSITY: Journeys Between Cultures, by Charles Forsdick. Oxford University Press, 2000, 242 pp., 40 pounds (cloth) In 1919, 41-year-old Victor Segalen was found dead in a Breton forest, a copy of Shakespeare beside him, the pages opened to "Hamlet." Thus ended the...
SOCCER / World cup
May 25, 2002

Guidelines for changes on tickets given

The Japanese World Cup Organizing Committee on Friday announced the details for changing the name of World Cup ticket holders following an agreement reached with FIFA to broaden the reasons for the change in Thursday's FIFA ticketing sub-committee meeting.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 22, 2002

The beautiful game becomes art

Soccer commentators, in their hyperbolic struggle to convey the excitement of the sport, sometimes refer to it as an art. This analogy isn't totally offside, as there's no denying the aesthetic element of a sport requiring so much strength, speed and coordination. But what happens when the kinetic art...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 21, 2002

The hermit opens up to visitors

PYONGYANG -- It's not difficult to find your way around Pyongyang. The city has few tall buildings and wherever you go, the imposing monolith of the Tower of the Juche Idea -- topped by a red "flame" that glows at night -- enables visitors to get their bearings.
COMMENTARY
May 21, 2002

Overhaul the foreign service

The police intrusion into the Japanese Consulate General in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang on May 8 has revealed, both here and abroad, the sorry state of Japanese diplomacy.
COMMENTARY
May 20, 2002

Too early to fete a new day for Myanmar

HONG KONG -- On May 7, Vietnam inadvertently hindered 50 million Myanmarese from learning that "at last Aung Sang Suu Kyi is no longer under house arrest." The Myanmar government's authoritarian habits prevailed at the very moment when hopes of future democracy were reborn.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
May 19, 2002

Whaling: A live issue over death

Whales dolphins and porpoises, the aquatic mammals collectively called cetaceans, number less than 80 species, or fewer than 2 percent of all mammals. They are, however, probably the most talked about and written about of all wild animals -- despite being some of the most poorly understood creatures...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 19, 2002

The inns and outs in the life of okami

O ne of the subsections of TV Tokyo's large selection of food-travel programs is the "Bijin Okami" special. Bijin okami, which translates as "beautiful mistress of the house," are women who run inns and hotels in resort and hot-spring areas. They are usually married to the owners of the establishments...
ENVIRONMENT
May 19, 2002

How deep does our knowledge go?

The group of animals we call cetaceans represent but two-thirds of the orders of "whales" that have ever existed.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
May 16, 2002

Lifelines

Hello there! My name's Ken Joseph Jr.
JAPAN
May 15, 2002

Prince to go to Cup opener in Seoul

The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal for Prince Takamado, a cousin of Emperor Akihito, and his wife, Princess Hisako, to attend the opening ceremony of the World Cup soccer finals on May 31 in South Korea.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
May 15, 2002

Misora's ship has come in

Die-hard fans of the late Hibari Misora -- the greatest enka diva ever -- may want to book passage on the "Queen Hibari Misora cruise," a unique, if somewhat morbid, maritime event being held June 12 and 13 to mark the 14th anniversary of Misora's death at the age of 52 after a prolonged illness.
JAPAN
May 15, 2002

Tourists heading abroad fall 9%

The number of Japanese tourists traveling abroad dropped a record 9 percent in 2001 from the previous year to 16.22 million, while tourists visiting Japan rose a marginal 0.3 percent to a record 4.77 million, the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry said in a report Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2002

Time for U.S. to scrap Cuba embargo

FREDERICKSBURG, Virginia -- In his travels around Cuba this week former U.S. President Jimmy Carter will meet a friendly, resilient people who have bravely withstood the stupidity and cruelty that have emanated from both sides of the Straits of Florida.
EDITORIALS
May 12, 2002

Harry Potter and the no-show sequel

Where is Harry Potter when we need him? For the second year in a row, the nonappearance of Book 5 of the small bespectacled one's magical doings is throwing readers of all ages into a spring tizzy.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 11, 2002

Coffee machines, bread, teas . . . whatever next?

Marcel Niederhauser is one happy businessman. In the lobby of Tokyo's Hilton Hotel in Shinjuku, visiting the small shop he opened with a Japanese partner just two weeks ago, he learns that the first day of Golden Week has been a bonanza. "We moved some 120 packs of tea. We're very, very happy with the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
May 10, 2002

Father and sons make JET a family affair

Last summer, Chris Buckland, 50, bicycled 2,100 km on a journey from Tokyo to Himeji, in Hyogo Prefecture. For Buckland, a collector of ukiyo-e prints, it was the fulfillment of a dream to travel the old Tokaido route from Tokyo to Kyoto, immortalized in the classic ukiyo-e illustrations of the Edo Period...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 9, 2002

Crafting public opinion to fit fisheries policy

Kind and gentle reader, I have a confession to make that may shock you. It is necessary to tell you this because, unlike many politicians and bureaucrats, I believe truth and transparency are essential. So here it is: I have eaten whale.
COMMUNITY
May 5, 2002

Raising model children

From a fairly early age, my two children have done modeling work. They've posed for clothing catalogs, appeared on magazine covers and in J-pop videos, rubbed elbows with TV celebrities. They aren't mini-supermodels or chaidoru (child idols) -- thank God -- just your garden-variety kid models.
COMMUNITY
May 5, 2002

What is terrorism?

Two weeks after the attacks on New York and Washington, an article by Susan Sontag, novelist, essayist, director, playwright and easily America's most provocative public intellectual, appeared in the now-famous black-cover issue of the New Yorker magazine. In it, Sontag excoriated Americans for their...
LIFE / Language
May 3, 2002

Never too young to start making a difference

You don't have to wait until you're grown up to be counted. In fact, if you're between 10 and 12 years old, you're the perfect age to take part in the International Children's Conference on the Environment. And to start thinking of how to preserve and improve the world that you are living in.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Apr 23, 2002

Thrills (but no spills) canoeing the Zambezi

"This isn't a car document," the customs official says, his forehead creased in suspicion.
SOCCER / World cup
Apr 23, 2002

Inamoto, Kawaguchi to play in Kirin Cup

Yokohama F. Marinos midfielder Daisuke Oku and two of the four Europe-based players -- Portsmouth goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi and Arsenal midfielder Junichi Inamoto -- have been added to Japan's Kirin Cup squad, national team coach Philippe Troussier announced Monday in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Apr 22, 2002

Over 30% of firms to reduce recruitment due to IT slump

More than 30 percent of 150 major companies are planning to cut new recruitment next spring, mainly due to the slump in the information technology industry, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 19, 2002

Top Tiger shifts position barely an inch

NEW DELHI -- When Velupillai Prabhakaran, the rebel leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), held his first press conference after a gap of 12 years, he generated some optimism that was no sooner overshadowed by pessimism.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Apr 19, 2002

Drawing on their experiences

Orange flames shoot out from two black-and-white skyscrapers. Airplanes outlined in black head for the buildings from opposing directions. The street below is filled with red cars, sirens on top. Stick figures fall from windows high up; others on the ground wave their arms desperately. A text balloon...

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami