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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 29, 2003

The end of art history and the last laugh

Since 1984, the National Museum of Art, Osaka, and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, have been examining trends in contemporary art in a series of exhibitions titled "A Perspective on Contemporary Art." Pay a visit to the latest in the series, though, and you might be forgiven for wondering exactly...
COMMENTARY
Jan 28, 2003

Court sends LDP a message

Two recent moves by judiciary and law-enforcement authorities are a grave warning against the Liberal Democratic Party's pork-barrel politics. One is the Supreme Court rejection of an appeal by former Construction Minister Kishiro Nakamura against a Tokyo High Court ruling that found him guilty of taking...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Jan 27, 2003

The god of small things

Nanotechnology researcher Istvan Varga is unique among the more than 6,400 participants in this year's JET program. While the majority work as assistant English teachers in Japanese public schools, the 34-year-old Hungarian-born electrical engineer spends his days exploring the secrets of magnetism....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 26, 2003

Stories about the storytellers

FIVE MODERN JAPANESE NOVELISTS, by Donald Keene. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003, 144 pp., $24.50 (cloth) In this new book, the doyen of Western scholars of Japanese literature introduces the writing of five novelists with whom he has worked and reminisces about his relationships with them....
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2003

Agency drills for terrorist attack

The Defense Agency has conducted a drill involving geographic scenarios to prepare for the possibility of terrorist attacks involving biochemical weapons, Defense Agency sources said Saturday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2003

Koizumi shrugs off failures

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi caused a stir in the House of Representatives Budget Committee on Thursday by claiming his breaches of three key policy pledges were "no big deal."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2003

Kansai casinos a dicey proposition

OSAKA -- It's way past dinner time in the back streets of Osaka's Shinsaibashi district. But one establishment advertising itself as an all-you-can-eat Italian restaurant is doing a booming business.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2003

New privacy bill unshackles media

A new version of a privacy-protection bill features an exemption clause for news media and professional writers and may thus ease concerns about restrictions on press freedom, according to a draft obtained Wednesday by Kyodo News.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 23, 2003

Casting light on the aurora

"The sight filled the northern sky; the immensity of it was scarcely conceivable. As if from Heaven itself, great curtains of delicate light hung and trembled. Pale green and rose-pink, and as transparent as the most fragile fabric, and at the bottom edge a profound and fiery crimson like the fires of...
BUSINESS
Jan 22, 2003

Koizumi cautious on inflation target

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi expressed caution Tuesday about the Bank of Japan adopting an inflation target to fight deflation at a two-day policy meeting that began the same day.
EDITORIALS
Jan 20, 2003

Shenzhen's promise for China

Twenty-two years ago, the sleepy southern Chinese city of Shenzhen became the test case for China's future. It was designated a "special economic zone," a laboratory for economic reforms that would transform the nation. Today, Shenzhen is again in the forefront of change in China. This time, the city...
EDITORIALS
Jan 19, 2003

ed 20030119a1.xml EDITORIAL What's in a loanword?

The complaint is a familiar one: English is putting the squeeze on other languages and those who are getting squeezed don't like it. Up till now, this has been most noticeably a grievance of the French and the Germans. Three years ago, the French Finance Ministry even went so far as to issue government...
COMMUNITY
Jan 19, 2003

The danchi and postwar society

At the time, they were homes most Japanese could only dream about. Within their thick concrete walls, they were equipped with such mod cons as flush toilets and stainless-steel kitchen sinks, and they even had separate bedrooms -- for parents and children.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2003

Police panel considers crackdown on equipment used for lock-picking

A National Police Agency study panel is planning a law against possessing equipment used for lock-picking, its members said Thursday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 16, 2003

When two hemispheres of the brain work as one

The French surgeon Paul Broca had a patient in his care in 1861 who had fallen and broken his hip. Eighteen months earlier the man, called Lelong, had collapsed with a stroke that left him unable to speak. When Lelong died on Broca's ward, a hip fracture being a fatal condition in those days, an autopsy...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2003

DDT our best weapon in war on malaria

NEW YORK -- A serious debate is raging over the use of DDT to combat malaria. As one of the world's most serious tropical diseases, malaria kills more than a million people a year -- most of them young children. To a great extent, success in controlling malaria is owed to the use of DDT in spraying houses...
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2003

State eyes cutting tax breaks for richer pensioners

The Finance Ministry might reduce tax breaks for pensioners in response to public criticism that the upper-class elderly are unduly benefiting, ministry sources said Sunday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 11, 2003

Get ready for Japanese inside and out

People often ask me what they should expect before coming to Japan. It's hard to say, but if you don't speak Japanese, at first you'll be limited to communicating with Japanese people who can speak English. Be ready to meet these people:
EDITORIALS
Jan 10, 2003

A shot in the arm or in the foot?

The economic package unveiled by U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday, coming on top of a huge tax cut announced last summer, is proof that the Bush administration is determined to revive the U.S. economy, which is still ailing from the collapse of a stock-market bubble. The stimulus plan is also...
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2003

DPJ, Liberal Party eye game plan

The Democratic Party of Japan and the Liberal Party will soon discuss electoral cooperation in a bid to avoid fielding overlapping candidates in some single-seat constituencies in the House of Representatives, DPJ leader Naoto Kan said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2003

'Dear Leader' no madman

CAMBRIDGE, England -- When I was in Beijing the week before Christmas, the topic of North Korea came up several times in conversations with friends and colleagues. Several of them referred to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as a madman. Kim's state of mind is quite an important question at a time when...
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2003

New university to join bioscience race

KYOTO -- Although the government is aware that bio-related businesses are important for revitalizing the economy, this field has yet to develop in Japan at the level seen in other countries.
COMMUNITY
Dec 31, 2002

Bringing AIDS awareness to the EFL classroom

Burning the candle at both ends has a different meaning for Louise Haynes, director of Japan AIDS Prevention Awareness Network (JAPANetwork).

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami