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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 24, 2002

How does your balcony garden grow?

If you're chafing about the city's dearth of green spaces, but you're blessed with a balcony, you could make your own garden. It could be your little contribution toward greening the city. If you haven't tried it before, you might be pleasantly surprised by how much joy a tiny space brimming with leaves...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 24, 2002

Some gaijin pitfalls into which few have not plunged

I heard once that art is 2 percent creativity and the rest "derivativity."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Mar 24, 2002

What squids shine in yonder bay

Squid, octopus and cuttlefish belong to a large group of marine invertebrates called cephalopods. The word means foot-headed, and it is an appropriate name for these creatures because their tentacle feet sprout from above their eyes and brain. They are found all over, and sometimes in the stomachs of...
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2002

BOJ is almost positive in latest economic assessment

The Bank of Japan on Friday upgraded its economic assessment for the first time in 20 months, citing improvements in exports and inventories.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Mar 22, 2002

Students give seniors a rousing send-off

My first-grader sighed at the dinner table the other night. "Sakamoto-kun is graduating soon," he said sadly. Who? I had never heard of anyone by this name. "He's one of the sixth-graders," my son explained. "He showed me a magic trick and helps me at school."
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 22, 2002

Brand power key to profits, U.S. professor advises

Japanese manufacturers have long considered the quality of their products to be their greatest strength.
SOCCER / World cup
Mar 21, 2002

Troussier to test new players in friendly

OSAKA -- Taking advantage of the absence of injured and European-based players, Japan coach Philippe Troussier plans to test out new players in Thursday's friendly against Ukraine, the first of eight warmups ahead of the World Cup.
BUSINESS
Mar 21, 2002

FSA scolds firms over short selling

The Financial Services Agency on Wednesday ordered five securities houses to improve their business practices regarding short selling.
BUSINESS
Mar 21, 2002

Pay-scale freeze may extend to '03

The chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association on Wednesday said if deflationary pressure continues in Japan, no pay-scale increases will be possible, even after 2003.
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2002

Daiei seeks government handout

As part of its rebuilding efforts, debt-saddled supermarket chain Daiei Inc. filed with the government Tuesday for tax breaks and other preferential treatment under the industrial rehabilitation law, government officials said.
EDITORIALS
Mar 17, 2002

Strategies for saving precious lives

The United Nations is not loved by everyone, nor does it always do everything right. Even when it is not being controversial, it often appears ineffectual or, worse yet, boring. There are only so many conferences, forums, summits, accords, agreements, understandings, commitments, resolutions and declarations...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 17, 2002

The Imperial family: celebrities or deities?

At a press conference to mark his 68th birthday last December, Emperor Akihito surprised reporters by saying that he felt a strong "kinship" with Korea.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Mar 17, 2002

Favorites that come widely recommended

The information in this column usually covers the gamut of sake nomenclature, types and brewing methods, as well as culture, history and the occasional oddities. But beyond the single recommendation in each column, rarely does it address the question, "So, uh, what are the good sake? What should I be...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Mar 17, 2002

In search of the hidden children of bamboo

While I was growing up, bamboo shoots were an exotic vegetable that came from a can bearing foreign characters — foreign to my American eyes, that is. Despite the slight preservative and tin-can flavor, the tender shoots remained one of the delicacies that deepened my interest in the cuisine of countries...
COMMUNITY
Mar 17, 2002

Yokohoma vs. Kobe: bright lights, big beacons

Yokohama and Kobe have much in common. Busy ports, both have swanky shopping streets named Motomachi, Chinatowns, Western-style houses on the hill and monument-dotted former foreign settlements. Tweedledum and Tweedledee? Some think so.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 17, 2002

Last wills and testaments to peace

One of the more interesting economic realities of Japan is that, despite having one of the largest per capita savings rates in the world and the fact that more than 60 percent of the nation's assets are in the hands of people over the age of 60, almost no one writes wills.
EDITORIALS
Mar 16, 2002

How to cooperate with Pakistan

In his meeting with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Thursday, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pledged continued economic assistance to that country. That promise carries greater significance than ever before, given Pakistan's strategic position as a forward base in the war on terrorism....
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2002

Roles of the main Asia-Pacific groups

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- It may be presumptuous to review Asia-Pacific regional organizations in a single column, but there seems to be so much confusion about them that certain points need to be clarified and properly addressed. The main groups are the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC),...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 16, 2002

Conspiracy behind itty-bitty kitty tails

There is one question about Japan that even the Japanese cannot answer: What has happened to all the cats' tails? I have never seen a kitten without a tail, but adult stray cats in Japan seldom have tails. Although many Japanese have offered theories, no one seems to really know the answer.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 16, 2002

Researching business ops for African-Americans

They are packed and at the ready at the Westin Hotel in Tokyo's Yebisu Garden Place. Ready to return home to America. Ready to give me the remaining few minutes of their precious time before boarding the bus for the airport. Talk about a rush.
SOCCER / World cup
Mar 16, 2002

JAWOC announces final round of ticket sales

The Japanese World Cup Organizing Committee on Friday announced it will launch the third and final round of ticket sales for residents in Japan by phone on March 22.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Mar 14, 2002

Garden jewels in the Tofukuji Temple crown

Tofukuji Temple is one of Kyoto's most magnificent jewels and is one of the city's 17 UNESCO-designated World Heritage sites.
EDITORIALS
Mar 13, 2002

An inconclusive testimony

Diet testimony given Monday by Liberal Democratic Party legislator Muneo Suzuki proved to be inconclusive. It failed to lift the heavy cloud of doubt hanging over his alleged abuse of power. The central question -- how he used his political clout to favor his friends in government and business -- was...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 13, 2002

An adopted son of the circus

It was a small advertisement in the paper that led Koichi Yano to one of Canada's leading circus companies, Montreal-based Cirque Eloize. It was 1996, he was in Canada helping his sister settle in and was still under the spell of a recent performance by renowned circus company Cirque du Soleil, also...
BUSINESS
Mar 13, 2002

Tapping of methane hydrate gas raises energy hopes

An intergovernmental research team has succeeded in tapping methane hydrate in an economically viable gas form for the first time, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said.
BUSINESS
Mar 13, 2002

Banks told not to lower efforts

Banks should not become lax in their efforts to dispose of nonperforming loans, despite speculation that the risk of a financial crisis occurring this month has receded, Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 13, 2002

In the nihongo words of the Bard . . .

Kazuko Matsuoka is the Shakespeare translator whose work directors and actors in Japan most like to use. A 59-year-old Tokyo resident, she is the translator appointed for the Saitama Arts Theater's project of staging Shakespeare's complete works. To date, she has translated 11 of the plays, and is now...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Mar 13, 2002

I take it back, gladly

When writing recently about Seiji Ozawa's very successful "New Year's Concert 2002" album, I made a passing reference to his "nasally voiced" nephew, Kenji Ozawa.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person