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LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 1, 2001

Squid tentacles draw the crowds

OSAKA -- If asked to name Osaka's local specialties, most outsiders would say okonomiyaki (meat and vegetable pancakes) and takoyaki (octopus dumplings, or, as former Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama once introduced them to visiting world leaders, "samurai balls"). While it's true that these dishes originated in...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 1, 2001

Depachika build a boom from the bottom up

Misako Kaneko, a Tokyo office worker, likes to have dinner at home while watching her favorite TV dramas. But as a single woman who works full-time, it's not easy for her to find time to prepare a healthy meal every night after work.
EDITORIALS
Apr 1, 2001

Not-so-brilliant green tea

Green-tea drinkers have been a little blue this past month in the wake of bad news from a group of Tohoku University researchers: Green tea, according to the Japanese scientists' recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine, may not be such a panacea after all. But consumers should not feel either...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 1, 2001

Ohkura brings kabuki to life

KABUKI TODAY: The Art and Tradition. Photographs by Shunji Ohkura, text by Iwao Kamimura, translated by Kirsten McIvor. Introduction by Donald Keene. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2001, 194 pp., profusely illustrated. 5,800 yen. This lavish volume, as extravagant as the kabuki itself, is devoted to...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 1, 2001

The courage to air dirty laundry

Problems can't be solved until they're acknowledged, and it is considered the job of the media to bring hidden social problems into the open. The media, however, can't be counted on to provide perspective, which means that what are often perceived as new problems are actually old ones.
LIFE / Food & Drink / KISSA KULTUR
Apr 1, 2001

Tea fit for royalty glows at L'Epicier

For the last three months, I have been inexplicably drawn to tea shops with yellow color schemes. Is there a magical connection? Maybe only in a subliminal desire for the very best.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2001

Animal shelter caring for Miyake Islanders' pets

An animal shelter run by volunteers opened this week in Hino, western Tokyo, to shelter for free pets evacuated last year with their owners from volcanic Miyake Island, south of Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Mar 31, 2001

Lack of leaders is destroying the LDP

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori announced that the date for electing the next president of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party would be moved up. This was tantamount to him expressing his intention to resign.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 31, 2001

You really don't want to go there

There must be an organization in Hollywood called Bad Sequels Inc. (not to mention Happy Endings.com and Dial-a-Corpse). The people over at Bad Sequels are dressed in gray, carry briefcases and have the furtive look of a nervous salesman. They go up to some successful producer at some 7-ish cocktail...
COMMENTARY
Mar 31, 2001

The power of the camera

NEW DELHI -- For three years as Indian prime minister, the aging Atal Bihari Vajpayee was treated deferentially by the national media and intelligentsia. They portrayed him as a great leader, to whom there was no credible alternative. Even when his physical condition began to slip visibly, no questions...
EDITORIALS
Mar 31, 2001

'Not guilty' is not innocent

Earlier this week, the Tokyo District Court acquitted Dr. Takeshi Abe, the former Teikyo University vice president charged with professional negligence resulting in the death of a hemophiliac. The decision reveals the difficulty in passing legal judgment on medical acts by a doctor, in which effects...
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2001

Revised social security may sting rich

The government and the ruling coalition adopted a proposal Friday for reforming the social security system, covering pension and medical insurance and centering on having well-off elderly people shoulder a greater burden of social security costs.
LIFE / Travel
Mar 31, 2001

Graffiti blasts Beijing demolition

Under the cover of darkness and armed with a can of spray paint, Zhang Dali pedals his bicycle around the quiet Beijing streets with the intention of giving the city a new face -- sometimes two or three.
BUSINESS
Mar 31, 2001

Nikkei ends fiscal 2000 at 12,999

The Nikkei stock average closed a fraction below 13,000 Friday, the last trading day of the fiscal year, as sharp morning advances prompted profit-taking in the afternoon.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 31, 2001

Giants start with a bang!

The Yomiuri Giants, 18-9 against Hanshin last season, continued their mastery over the Tigers as the defending Japan Series champions powered their way to a 17-3 victory over the Tigers at the Tokyo Dome on Friday night in the opening day of regular-season action for the Central League clubs.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2001

New school promotes global exchange through lecture program

A private school of intercultural communication targeted at Japanese businesspeople and the staff of nongovernmental organizations will open Monday in Tokyo's Ginza business district.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 31, 2001

Regina Doi

Twenty-five years ago, Regina Doi opened a combined nursery school, preschool and kindergarten at Aoba, Tokyo. "There were 16 children, and I was not quite sure whether it would work," she said. "Within a very short period of time, we had 80 children. When we had about 150, I was sure."
CULTURE / Film
Mar 30, 2001

Howls of poets and poodles

Old beatniks may die, but it doesn't look like they'll fade away anytime soon. Nearly half a century since the Beat Generation's heyday, the artistic and philosophical legacy of the Beats remains a massive mother lode of countercultural inspiration. Chuck Workman's documentary "The Source" traces the...
BUSINESS
Mar 30, 2001

Bridgestone president apologizes for tire recall

Bridgestone Corp. President Yoichiro Kaizaki apologized Thursday at the company's shareholders' meeting for last year's voluntary recall of millions of defective tires produced by its U.S. subsidiary.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2001

Obituary: Noboru Kojima

Noboru Kojima, an award-winning author of books on World War II, died of a stroke Tuesday at a hospital in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, his family said. He was 74.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2001

Eye in the sky to help mutual green policies

Japan and China are about embark on an innovative new program using satellite-generated information updated daily to more closely integrate environment policies in Asia, according to the Environment Ministry.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Mar 30, 2001

Nighttime is the right time for the music of Tomovsky

Tomoyuki Ohki's pseudonym, Tomovsky, may have been inspired by the Russian masters of classical music, but his musical lineage is pure -- albeit twisted -- pop: equal parts John Lennon and Syd Barrett.
BUSINESS
Mar 30, 2001

Matsushita Electric eyes labor shift to IT section

OSAKA -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Thursday it will transfer 1,000 surplus workers from its marketing division to a new information technology service section that will report directly to its president.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2001

FSA punishes institutions for abetting KSD scandal

The Financial Services Agency on Thursday imposed administrative penalties on about 400 financial institutions for helping KSD, a scandal-tainted industrial mutual-aid foundation, increase its membership.
EDITORIALS
Mar 29, 2001

Success in Stockholm

European Union leaders held a peaceful two-day summit in Stockholm last weekend. After the bitter row in Nice last year, a show of unity was as important as any concrete results. The EU leaders got that, and a little more. But the bar must be raised if Europe is to play a larger role in global affairs....

Longform

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