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COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Dec 23, 2003

Train trips, veggies and stitch-ups

Moonsky star trip Further to last week's information on where to buy tickets for the Trans-Siberian railway, Colette in Yokohama describes the trip she took in 1993 as, "one of the most amazing experiences of my life." She organized her journey through Moonsky Star, a travel agent based in Beijing that...
BUSINESS
Dec 18, 2003

Firms team up on Net-linked appliances

Four major electronics firms announced Wednesday they have agreed to jointly develop standard specifications for connecting fridges, microwave ovens and laundry machines to the Internet.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Dec 16, 2003

Computers trains and sewing tips

Driving and computers I seem to remember that some time ago you gave information about driving lessons in English. I wonder if you could let me have the details as I neglected to note them down at the time.
BUSINESS
Dec 11, 2003

Ashikaga FG shares do brisk trade despite core unit's nationalization

It ain't over till the fat lady sings. Investors are buying up Ashikaga Financial Group Inc. shares, never mind that regulators nationalized the group's core unit, Ashikaga Bank, after declaring it insolvent.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Dec 2, 2003

Green cards, tenant rights and sewing

Immigration worry Dear Lifelines; My wife and I are returning in January from the U.S.; I am a U.S. citizen and she is Japanese. We had lived in Japan together for 7 years prior to my 2 year U.S. assignment. (I am a regular employee of the Japan branch office.)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Nov 26, 2003

Pottery to get on a plane for

Two unprecedented Japanese ceramic exhibitions now taking place far from Japan's shores show just how influential are the artistic ripples from this grand potting paradise. Distanced by centuries, but just a dozen New York City blocks, are two of the greatest Japanese definers of clay: eclectic Furuta...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2003

Young environmental campaigner has message for Japan

Since delivering a speech during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 at age 12, Severn Cullis-Suzuki has actively campaigned worldwide to raise people's awareness about environmental issues.
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Nov 20, 2003

What's the point in learning how to write kanji?

Joe Lauer, a long-term American resident of Hiroshima, sent the following feedback on a workshop I conducted to promote the Kanji Proficiency Examination (Kanken), a standardized test that measures both kanji reading and writing ability:
EDITORIALS
Nov 16, 2003

A word for everything

"McJob" is just one of 10,000 new words, or new meanings for old words, listed in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition. Browse the company's online sampler of the latest additions for a fascinating glimpse of what the English language -- as eclectic a scavenger as the crow -- has picked...
BUSINESS
Nov 8, 2003

Japan, U.S. and EU agree to share patent information

Japan, the United States and the European Union agreed Friday to cooperate on sharing patent information in a bid to speed up the examination process amid an increase of applications, officials at the Japan Patent Office said.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Nov 6, 2003

"The Goose Girl," "The Tiger Bone Thief"

"The Goose Girl," Shannon Hale, Bloomsbury; 2003; 383 pp. Once upon a time, two German brothers published a collection of children's stories inspired by popular European folk tales. The stories of the Brothers Grimm became fairytale classics, and many of them -- Cinderella, Snow White, Little Red Riding...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 31, 2003

The humble Pacific-Rim fruit that roared

When ripe, the tropical fruit noni turns the kind of yellow-green most people associate with nasal congestion -- and gives off an odor pungent enough to clear that congestion away. Accordingly, noni's profile has long been low compared with that of more popular Pacific Rim fruits.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Oct 29, 2003

250 reasons to be happy, then some

I'm happy! The reason I'm happy is I love art, and this month a total of four -- yes four -- new contemporary art spaces opened in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2003

New tests challenging TOEIC stronghold

Scoring 500 points on the TOEIC English proficiency test is a prerequisite for promotion to section chief or a higher managerial position at construction machinery maker Komatsu Ltd.
JAPAN
Oct 23, 2003

Database eyed to counter rising tide of drug mixups

In an effort to curb the growing number of hazardous drug mixups, the health ministry plans to compile an online database in which medicines will be classified according to their names and packaging, ministry sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Oct 23, 2003

Matsui Securities sees its first-half profit surge 327%

Matsui Securities Co. said Wednesday it chalked up a consolidated net profit of 2.51 billion yen in the first half of fiscal 2003, up 326.6 percent from the 588 million yen earned in the first half of fiscal 2002.
BUSINESS
Oct 22, 2003

Kabu.com reports record earnings

Online brokerage house kabu.com Securities Co. said Tuesday it chalked up record profits and revenues in the fiscal first half, reflecting a recent surge in trade on the Tokyo stock market.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 21, 2003

Internet bill nightmare, pension payouts, and singing groups

Internet connection I have a problem that concerns with my Internet Service Provider. I was billed for over 100,000 yen for Internet connection and international calls. Most of the bill came from international phone calls, which I thought were free.
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2003

Juki Net passes U.S. hacker test

Experts at a U.S. computer security firm were unable to hack into Japan's online resident registry system in an experiment conducted to test the system's vulnerability to cyber attacks, the home affairs ministry said Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 9, 2003

Pesky spammers sneer at the law

The arrest of a man accused of sending millions of ads for an Internet site is raising questions about the legal boundaries of spam e-mail, which Japan's bombarded public has dubbed "nuisance mail."
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2003

Industry sounds out of key in its campaign against P2P

WASHINGTON -- The recording industry seems to believe that there is no greater enemy of all that is good and wonderful than peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing technologies. Thus the Recording Industry Association of America's campaign to sue grandkids and grandparents who violate copyrights by swapping...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Oct 2, 2003

"The House of Windjammer," "Boolar's Big Day Out"

"The House of Windjammer," V.A. Richardson, Bloomsbury; 2003; 349 pp. No matter where you grow up, whether it's in 21st-century Japan or in 17th-century Europe, some things never change. People everywhere, at every time, are at the mercy of larger forces -- political upheavals, market fluctuations,...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2003

So little done with so many

GENEVA — The outcome of the World Trade Organization ministerial midterm review in Cancun, Mexico (Sept. 12-14), was an unmitigated disaster. The United States, European Union and Japan share equal responsibility for failing to stand by the commitments they had made in the Doha Declaration of November...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FRONT-RUNNERS
Sep 23, 2003

Retailers look to make a bundle on use of electronic money

More and more retailers are providing consumers with the option of using electronic money, essentially in the form of prepaid cards, instead of cash when purchasing goods.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Sep 19, 2003

Secret treasures of southern Sonoma

The sensual impact of a vacation in the wine country is hard to beat. Hot days, cold nights, good food and meandering drives under blue skies between vineyards and wineries that range from the manicured to the seemingly long-ago abandoned.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Sep 18, 2003

"Ruby Holler," "The Robodog Superhero"

"Ruby Holler," Sharon Creech, Bloomsbury; 2002, 310 pp. How do you reform a pair of 13-year-old twins who spend every spare moment breaking, spilling, throwing or dropping things -- and cursing loudly when they're caught?

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan