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COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jul 26, 2004

Separate but equal acts of reconciliation

NEW YORK -- In "My Life" (Knopf, 2004), former U.S. President Bill Clinton writes: "Elizabeth Eckford, who at 15 was deeply seared emotionally by vicious harassment as she walked alone through an angry mob, was reconciled with Hazel Massery, one of the girls who had taunted her 40 years earlier."
Japan Times
Features
Jul 25, 2004

Inspiration drawn from inconvenience

Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say. But for grandmother Yoko Sukekawa, it's the inconveniences she encounters in her daily life that get her inventor's juices flowing.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2004

Stigma, lack of funds hamper AIDS fight

MADRAS, India -- With still no vaccine or cure two decades after the first cases of the disease were reported/detected, AIDS is undoubtedly a terrible threat facing mankind.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 18, 2004

The literary perfect crime

SAYONARA, GANGSTERS, by Genichiro Takahashi, translated by Michael Emmerich. New York: Vertical, Inc., 2004, 311 pp., $19.95 (cloth). A poet is talking to a refrigerator. The refrigerator with whom he is conversing is Virgil -- yes, that Virgil, author of "The Aeneid" and later Dante's guide through...
EDITORIALS
Jul 17, 2004

Look who's turned 64

Ringo Starr, the oldest and quaintest Beatle, turned 64 earlier this month. For baby boomers everywhere, his July 7 birthday was as sobering in its way as New Year's Day 1984, when reality finally overtook George Orwell's grim fable about a dystopian future. The British novelist finished writing "Nineteen...
COMMUNITY
Jul 17, 2004

Designing and touring Japanese gardens in U.K.

Robert Ketchell, a designer of Japanese gardens and a guide to gardens in Japan, is at full stretch when we first talk. He is off to meet Princess Anne in Spalding, on Lincolnshire's east coast, where she is due to visit a garden he and his business partner, Jacquie Blakeley, have created.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 14, 2004

Epic drama of love, reincarnation and revenge

Although Ichikawa Ennosuke, 64, the founder of "Super Kabuki," may be absent from the stage due to illness, his company of 25 are delighting audiences with their production of Tsuruya Namboku's classic masterpiece, "Sakurahime Azuma Bunsho (The Story of Sakurahime)" at the Kabukiza Theater this month....
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 11, 2004

Believe it ... or not

Japan's vast hoard of war booty known as Yamashita's Gold was long thought to be buried in caves in the Philippines. But in their book 'Gold Warriors,' Sterling and Peggy Seagrave sensationally claim that the treasure trove was secretly recovered -- and continues to oil the wheels of politics in Japan...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 7, 2004

Director sends his love to Huppert

La Vie promise Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Olivier Dahan Running time: 93 minutes Language: French Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] "La Vie promise (The Promised Life)" is not really a movie, but a love letter from director Olivier Dahan to actress Isabelle Huppert...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 7, 2004

Our man on the street

Disclosure: I've been following Harvey Pekar's work for 24 years, ever since a mutual friend and former editor of the Cleveland Edition, a long-defunct alternative paper, sent me his fifth American Splendor comic to review in 1980. I compared Pekar's autobiographical stories of ordinary life in the city...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 7, 2004

A classic -- by the numbers

Tange Sazen: Hyakuman Ryo no Tsubo Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Toshio Tsuda Running time: 119 minutes Language: Japanese Opens July 17 [See Japan Times movie listings] Tange Sazen -- the one-eyed, one-armed ex-samurai swordsman -- is one of those literary characters with a mythic...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 3, 2004

Tanimichi Sugita

His father gave Tanimichi Sugita more than his religion and his name. He gave him his life's theme. The devout father was the first to translate into Japanese the works of Cardinal Newman. For the family, the meaning of the name Tanimichi combined East and West. His mother, who painted holy pictures,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 30, 2004

Shootin' up the box office

Open Range Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Japanese title: Wild Range Director: Kevin Costner Running time: 140 minutes Language: English Opens July 3 [See Japan Times movie listings] There was a point -- probably somewhere between "Bad Girls" and "The Quick And The Dead" -- where I felt...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 30, 2004

Heaven knows she looks miserable now

Adolphe Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Benoit Jacquot Running time: 103 minutes Language: French Opens July 3 [See Japan Times movie listings] Wordiness is a problem with many literary adaptations. In the effort to remain loyal to the original work, some cram in more dialogue than...
EDITORIALS
Jun 25, 2004

Bringing science and society closer

The connection between science and technology, on the one hand, and our daily life, on the other, is growing closer and increasingly wide-ranging. To see that relationship, we have only to think of the example of advanced medicine, in which information and images obtained via cell phones or the Internet...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jun 25, 2004

Trying to pacify Kobe has caused chaos

NEW YORK -- In my concocted dictionary an enabler is someone who waters the weeds.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 23, 2004

A Korean marriage of high and low art

In Asia, June is traditionally the most popular month for weddings -- as is evident from the ceremonies you'll see happening around you every weekend. It's timely, then, that the current exhibition at the Mingeikan (Japan Folk Crafts Museum) offers a glimpse of the practices and iconography of Korean...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 19, 2004

Kohei Yamada

For 27 years Kohei Yamada has worked professionally in different capacities for the Young Men's Christian Association. As a gerontologist deeply committed to community care, he says he looks for quality in the life of the elderly. "In Japan, very often people with good will take care of the elderly,...
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 17, 2004

Some pictures worth 1,000 words

I take my hat off to those folk who can draw and paint. What a wonderfully inspiring skill. And when they can illustrate living creatures in lifelike form then I am in awe. What has prompted this outpouring is the fact that I am currently at work on a new field guide, so I am heavily involved in both...
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Jun 17, 2004

When the summer vacation is just too long

Just try to find something for foreign kids to do in Japan in the summer. There aren't many options, even if your children speak Japanese, as mine do. The most difficult period of all is the five or six weeks after international schools close down but Japanese schools are still in session.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 16, 2004

A sea monkey and a gentleman

Umizaru Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Eiichiro Hazumi Running time: 120 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Japanese studios used to grind out contemporary action movies by the dozen, with one company, Nikkatsu, specializing in them from...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jun 16, 2004

A 'Brazil-ness' beyond soccer and samba

I suppose that without some sort of unifying theme, every exhibition of artworks would be titled, simply and dully: "Art Exhibition." And so museums base their shows on a period, genre or, more recently, an intriguing turn of phrase. This I welcome, but exhibitions curated on the basis of the artists'...
COMMENTARY
Jun 13, 2004

Personality could crown Gordon Brown

LONDON -- Britain is governed by an unhappy couple -- a pair of men whose relationship excites more attention than any other aspect of British politics.
COMMUNITY
Jun 12, 2004

Natural Healing Center valuable online resource

There is a misleading blonde blue-eyed softness about Sascha Hewitt. Actually she is as strong as on ox, which she ably demonstrates by lugging three heavy bags from her home in Tokyo's Shimo-Meguro to where we meet in Shibuya.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 9, 2004

A camp experience to remember

The summer Todd Graff turned 14, his parents saw an ad in The New York Times about a summer camp called Stage Door Manor. Unlike other camps, this one taught the kids to act and perform in musicals, and since Graff had always loved to sing, his parents (both musicians) encouraged him with enthusiasm....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Jun 9, 2004

In the footsteps of a genius grandfather

The perks and pressures of being the child of someone famous can be enormous -- doubly so if following in the family footsteps. In Japan, with its grand artistic traditions, this is not an uncommon phenomenon. The results, though, range across a broad spectrum, from glory (not always deserved -- think...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / A GAIJIN'S TALE
Jun 8, 2004

I know rain

I know rain. I'm from Seattle. Japan knows rain, too. They cope with it well.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Jun 6, 2004

A voice like none other

Though many postmodern jazz musicians are tireless experimentalists, they often end up producing interesting concepts more than good music. Pianist, composer and band leader Hiroshi Minami, however, is that rare jazz musician who sets up intriguing musical challenges that feel natural. He plays an engaging...

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