Search - about-us

 
 
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jan 16, 2001

The buy-or-die albums of 2000

In 2000 America rocked with Limp Bizkit, Slipknot and At The Drive In, while Britain got all soppy and introverted with Richard Ashcroft, Coldplay and Belle & Sebastian. As for Japan, I have mixed feelings. It was great that Melt-Banana, Audio Active and 54 Nude Honeys (my favorite Japanese bands) all...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 16, 2001

New looks at an enduring alliance

NEW PERSPECTIVES ON U.S.-JAPAN RELATIONS, edited by Gerald Curtis. Tokyo: Japan Center for International Exchange, 2000, 302 pp., paper. JAPAN-U.S. ALLIANCE: New Challenges for the 21st Century, edited by Nishihara Masashi. Tokyo: Japan Center for International Exchange, 2000, 191 pp., paper. It's...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 16, 2001

Three identities and one life

LIVES OF YOUNG KOREANS IN JAPAN, by Yasunori Fukuoka, translated by Tom Gill. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2000, 330 pp. It is estimated that there were 2.5 million Koreans living in Japan at the end of World War II. Although many returned home after the war, there are still approximately 600,000...
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2001

Key LDP figure resigns post over KSD scandal

Masakuni Murakami, a senior member of the Liberal Democratic Party, resigned Monday as chairman of the LDP members' general assembly in the Upper House to take the blame for a money scandal involving industrial insurance provider KSD and a former aide.
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2001

Ex-professor admits to exam malfeasance

A former Ohu University professor arrested on suspicion of leaking questions on a national dentistry examination to students last year has admitted acquiring some 10 questions prepared for the exam, police sources said Monday.
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 16, 2001

Time for Ide to stop looking back over his shoulder

The word furimukuto describes the action of looking over your shoulder, as if suspicious that somebody is watching you, or perhaps just to check what's going on around you from all visual angles. Choreographer Shigehiro Ide chose it as the title for his newest dance work at Theater Tram in Tokyo's Sangenjaya...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 16, 2001

Yoshimoto's mixed-up women

ASLEEP, by Banana Yoshimoto, translated by Michael Zimmermich. Faber & Faber, 2000, 477 pp., 9.99 British pounds (paper). In these three stories the principal female characters, all young, seem as interested in their own sex as they are in men. They are impulsive and impressionable.
BUSINESS
Jan 15, 2001

Next U.S. president should use surplus to pace savings rate

Amid growing signs of a slowdown in the U.S. economy, the whole world is closely awaiting the new policies of President-elect George W. Bush, who prevailed in one of the closest presidential races in U.S. history after more than a month of unprecedented legal wrangling.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 15, 2001

Overseas Indians: Use them or lose them

Delivering the keynote address at the inaugural convention of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin in New Delhi on Jan. 6, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee called for "a partnership among all children of Mother India so that our country can emerge as a major global player." Noting the...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 15, 2001

No wonder Seoul's politicos get no respect

SEOUL -- Some days ago I received a telephone call from the Office of the Chief Spokesman of the National Assembly. A friendly public-relations officer invited me to write an article for the National Assembly Review with personal observations regarding the challenges for parliamentary politics in South...
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2001

ASEM conference stresses teamwork

KOBE -- Finance ministers from the 25-nation Asia-Europe Meeting group wrapped up their two-day conference here Sunday by adopting a chairman's statement emphasizing the importance of enhanced cooperation to avoid financial crises.
COMMENTARY
Jan 15, 2001

Calling off all bets on Japan

Predictions can be dangerous when Japan is involved.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 15, 2001

Italian lessons for Japan

Japan's political landscape could change dramatically, depending on the outcome of July's Upper House elections. Mikio Aoki, a Liberal Democratic leader in the Upper House, says the three ruling coalition parties -- the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party -- must win...
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2001

Hijacking suspect arrested

OSAKA -- A 20-year-old cook was arrested Saturday night after hijacking a Kyoto city bus carrying only a driver and another passenger, police said Sunday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 15, 2001

The effect of hormones on fatherhood

It is usually thought that men share only symbolically, if at all, in the experience of pregnancy, but recent studies have shown that paternal males undergo changes in the same hormones as maternal females. The work promises to biologically verify the experiences of new fathers.
COMMUNITY
Jan 15, 2001

New miracles from the 'first miracle drug'

Aspirin for people in Western countries is something more than Seirogan, the most popular household digestive medicine in Japan.
BUSINESS
Jan 15, 2001

A paradigm for economic recovery

With no end in sight to her suffering, Japan is crying for a new economic paradigm. To define this new equation in as few words as possible, Japan needs lower prices and higher interest rates. Much, much lower domestic prices and significantly higher interest rates.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2001

Writer bucks corporate norm

Writer Hamao Yokota seems to enjoy portraying an eccentric image.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2001

Homelessness being tackled from new angle

Asked why he became homeless, he said he was a victim of the current economic trend.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2001

Making gardens accessible proving a slippery path

Legend has it that when the Koishikawa Korakuen Garden in Bunkyo Ward was built in the early Edo Period, it boasted gigantic rocks and majestic, ancient trees reminiscent of the steep mountains and dark valleys of China.
EDITORIALS
Jan 14, 2001

Hope for Myanmar's democrats

The announcement that Myanmar's military government and prodemocracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi had entered into direct talks is a welcome surprise from a country that has only managed to disappoint in recent years. Given the junta's stubborn refusal to negotiate with Ms. Suu Kyi, it is hard to be optimistic...
COMMENTARY
Jan 14, 2001

New Cabinet does little to boost Mori

Japan is enveloped in gloom at the dawn of the 21st century, as is much of the rest of the world. The administration of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori continues to suffer from dismally low public-approval ratings, despite the major Cabinet reshuffle he carried out last month. The reorganization of the central...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2001

China tightens grip on the Net

CAMBRIDGE, England -- The Chinese government has been issuing more regulations to control the use of the Internet. As with the earlier ones, there are no surprises. They simply tidy up what was already accepted practice and add nothing new. It is still the slow bureaucratic machine catching up with reality....

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