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Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2006

Abe tries to establish economic credentials

SAITAMA -- Yukinori Takahashi, 51, waited nervously with five other entrepreneurs in a spacious room at the business startup support center in Saitama Prefecture.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 7, 2006

Abortions up in China as taboos weaken

NEW YORK -- Parallel to the economic revolution in China is a sexual revolution, particularly among youth, which is having far-reaching consequences on their health and quality of life. Since feu- dal times, sex has been a taboo subject in China. Even today, despite progress in many areas, many Chinese,...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 6, 2006

Many happy returns to my Tokyo village past and present

As readers of this column last week may recall, I wrote there about a period in the early 1980s when my wife and I lived in the western Tokyo suburb of Soshigaya in Setagaya Ward. Three of our four children were born in the local hospital, and we have only the fondest memories of the old neighborhood....
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 1, 2006

Staffing companies find market in helping retired athletes

When international midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata recently announced his retirement from soccer, people wondered what he would do in the next stage of his life -- business, sports, or a combination of both?
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 1, 2006

Island travel and Mac help

Airport on Ogasawara? J and partner have heard that there is an air service to Ogasawara (the Bonin Islands) -- described in my book Insider's Tokyo (2001) as "Tokyo furthest flung outpost."
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2006

Another hospital halted care in last moments

A hospital affiliated with the Kinki University School of Medicine discontinued care for six severely ill newborn babies in 1996 and 1997 after they were judged to be incurable, a doctor who used to work at the university said Sunday.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 30, 2006

No mountain too high for oldest man ever to scale Everest

This story is part of a package on "Growing old healthily." The introduction is here
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 30, 2006

TBS rejoins the fighting family in "Triple Kitchen" and more

One of the enduring conflicts in Japanese TV dramas is the one that exists between a bride and her mother-in-law. This theme hit its peak 13 years ago in the series "Double Kitchen," which followed the daily boxing match between Kiriko and her husband's mother, who, as played by Yoko Nogiwa, was the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 30, 2006

New horizons beckon legendary sailor

This story is part of a package on "Growing old healthily." The introduction is here
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 30, 2006

Gran, 71, leaves world in her wake

This story is part of a package on "Growing old healthily." The introduction is here
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 25, 2006

Lesbian mothers' twin tasks

Motherhood can be daunting under even the best of circumstances, but, as a lesbian, considering starting a family brings with it a whole new set of difficulties.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jul 25, 2006

Mariko Sakaida

Mariko Sakaida, 33, is a supermarket cashier in Tokyo and the 2003 Best Checker Concours champion, a title she competed for with about 2,000 of the Kanto region's other checkout aces. She won hands-down with polished greetings, flawless scanning, speedy and accurate cashing, and artful packing. She also...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 22, 2006

Robert Erickson

Robert Erickson was born in New Jersey in 1943. The following year, his father was fighting in the Pacific War. "He came into Japan with Gen. Douglas MacArthur, and was stationed at the U.S. Army Air Force Base in Atsugi," Erickson said. "He used to send me small Japanese gifts, wrapped in rice paper,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 18, 2006

Preventing suicide and axing overtime pay is a risky mix

More than 30,000 people kill themselves each year in Japan, bestowing the country with the shameful honor of the highest suicide rate in the developed world. To deal with this reality, a group of lawmakers from across the political spectrum pushed an antisuicide bill through the Diet last month to force...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 16, 2006

Up close . . . and virtually personal

When the Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan characters fell in love via the virtual world of Web chat in the 1998 movie "You've Got Mail," it seemed a classic case of something that could only happen in the movies, not in the real world.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 16, 2006

And now for some good news -- on tap for everyone

We have become so used to environmental portents that whenever we hear good news we blink in disbelief, so blink away: It appears that the various concerted efforts to get people in Japan to save water has paid off.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 16, 2006

Vietvets come in from the cold war

THE LAST ASSASSIN by Barry Eisler. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2006, 334 pp., $24.95 (cloth). WHITE TIGER by Michael Allen Dymmoch. St. Martin's Minotaur, 2005, 308 pp., $24.95 (cloth). THE TUNNEL RATS by Stephen Leather. Hodder and Stoughton, 2005, 501 pp., £6.99 (paper). John Rain, Barry Eisler's American-Japanese...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 16, 2006

The difference gaman can make

THE ART OF GAMAN: Arts and Crafts From the Japanese American Internment Camps 1942-1946, by Delphine Hirasuna. Berkeley/Toronto: Ten Speed Press, 125 pp., 2005, $35 (cloth). In Japanese, the word "gaman" means the display of calm forbearance and poise in the face of adverse circumstances beyond one's...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 16, 2006

For Fumiko Hayashi, not every cloud has a silver lining

FLOATING CLOUDS by Fumiko Hayashi, translated by Lane Dunlop. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006, 328 pp., $27.50 (cloth). Toward the end of her life Fumiko Hayashi (1903-1951) said that she did not think her work would outlive her. Happily, she was quite wrong: She remains one of Japan's most...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 15, 2006

Grandmother inspires German cake cookbook

There are a lot of changes in Tania Kadokura's life right now. But that's OK, she says. "I'm used to change."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 13, 2006

A stroll among the masterpieces

The Price exhibition at the Tokyo National Museum is divided into five sections, each devoted to a specific area of painting. The first sets the stage with examples of "mainline" painters -- members of the Kano school (which, from the late 16th century to the late 19th century, combined Chinese academic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 13, 2006

The accidental art collector: Unearthing the pure essence of Nature

The painters in your collection are commonly described simply as "Individualist." Can you elaborate on what is meant by that?
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Jul 7, 2006

Reach for the sky

Sumida Ward spans an area that has endured ruinous fires, floods, plagues, and seismic as well as economic jostlings. Residents of this battered part of the city nonetheless have always kept their pride buoyant and their spirits aloft. Even when the chips are down, residents of Sumida Ward insist that...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jul 4, 2006

What's your favorite holiday read?

Geoffrey Rothwell Professor, 52 I love Japanese literature. Read "The Wild Sheep Chase" by Murakami. It's a combination of reality and fantasy that gets you out of the everyday reality of life. There are talking cats, sheep and magic and much more.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 2, 2006

Hedge your bets: Conform, but don't act like you belong

'The barriers of racial feeling [between Japanese and foreigners], of emotional differentiation, or language, of manners and beliefs, are likely to remain insurmountable for centuries."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 1, 2006

Palestinians need a book as good as 'The Israelis'

Donna Rosenthal heads the pack across Shibuya's famed pedestrian crossing, grinning from ear to ear and arms waving hello. In Tokyo to meet with her agent about a possible Japanese edition of her book "The Israelis," she's more than happy to meet up in old territory.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2006

European ruling upholds school racism

PRAGUE -- I am what many people call a "Gypsy." I prefer the term "Roma." There are more than 10 million of us across Europe. The vast majority of us live in Third World conditions -- denied access to adequate housing, health care, and education.
BUSINESS
Jun 29, 2006

Average household income rises first time since 1998

Average annual household income rose 0.1 percent from a year earlier to 5,804,000 yen in 2004 for the first rise in eight years, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry's national livelihood survey released Wednesday.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo