Search - events

 
 
EDITORIALS
Aug 30, 2004

An example for the real world

Peace is the central message of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. The Olympic flame -- the symbol of that message -- will be extinguished late Sunday night (early Monday in Japan), about five months after it was lit in Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympics. In a world riven with hatred and violence,...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Aug 30, 2004

Fear of cultural decline: the next chapter

NEW YORK -- Every August my wife Nancy and I leave New York to go south to spend two weeks at a friend's summer house at Sunset Beach, North Carolina. Driving leisurely, mainly so we can ride ferries on Delaware Bay and on Pamlico Sound, we stop for two nights on the way, usually lodging in Onley, Virginia,...
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2004

Workers' health getting worse

A record 47.3 percent of salaried workers showed abnormal readings in their health checkups last year, according to a government survey released Saturday.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIGHT SPY NEWS
Aug 27, 2004

Pure's first anniversary

Club Pure in Shibuya will be celebrating its first anniversary Aug. 28. Partners Matt Naiman, Steven Saxanoff and Blake Showalter began their Pure party plan in Yokohama six years ago with their trademark policy of charging an affordable flat fee for all-you-can-drink on the weekends.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2004

Entertainers face visa crackdown as ministry targets prostitution

The Justice Ministry plans to tighten its visa screening of foreign women entering Japan as dancers and singers in an effort to prevent crime syndicates from forcing them into prostitution, ministry officials said Thursday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 22, 2004

Looking for an idyllic tribe, finding cultural revelation

DREAM JUNGLE, by Jessica Hagedorn. New York: Viking, 2003, 325 pp., $23.95 (cloth). In 1971 a wealthy Filipino, Manuel Elizalde, discovered a lost tribe in a jungle on Mindanao living in a manner apparently unchanged since the Paleolithic period. This group of hunters and gatherers, called the Tasaday,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 21, 2004

Reinventing world through eyes of young people

More summer madness. I come down from where I work last Monday to make a cup of tea, and there is a Kazak sitting at my table.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 20, 2004

On the path of poets

Utter silence, Piercing the stone walls, The cicada's cry
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Aug 20, 2004

The Gathering 2004 preview

After dozens of hours of copious, nail-biting research, I have deduced that there is absolutely no connection whatsoever between Respect for the Aged Day and the ending date for Gathering 2004, except that vigorous dancing has been medically proven to reverse the aging process.
COMMENTARY
Aug 18, 2004

Democracy depends on modernization

MANILA -- For all practical purposes, the internal affairs in most countries have ceased to be purely domestic affairs. Whether we like it or not, one of the consequences of globalization has been the erosion of national sovereignty. In economic matters, national boundaries have long ceased to exist....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 14, 2004

Bon brings more than family back home

"Attention Shiraishi Island residents. This is an announcement from the Kasaoka city Environment Committee. This month's toilet cleaning will take place on Friday, Aug. 3 and Thursday, Aug. 26. Please register for toilet cleaning at least one day beforehand. And don't forget to buy your toilet tickets."...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 14, 2004

Optimists head out to sea, next Olympics in view

You must forgive the fact I am not straying far from the ocean side this summer, but interesting people just keeping falling into my lap within kilometers of my home. Take this week, for example. . . .
OLYMPICS
Aug 13, 2004

Marathon expert Masuda says Noguchi has shot at gold

Former Japan Olympian and top marathon media analyst Akemi Masuda is not the kind of person to mince words when it comes to forecasting on her favorite sport.
OLYMPICS
Aug 13, 2004

Japan aims for 100th gold of Summer

Having come a long way since taking part in its first Olympics more than 90 years ago, Japan will set out to claim its 100th gold medal at the summer Games in Athens this month. After the Sydney Games in 2000, Japan had won 98 gold, 97 silver and 103 bronze medals for a total of 298 summer Olympic medals....
EDITORIALS
Aug 11, 2004

Time for diplomacy to step in

The recent Asian Cup soccer tournament, which Japan's national team won, witnessed an eruption of anti-Japanese sentiment among Chinese fans, including booing during the playing of the Japanese national anthem. The Chinese government tightened security for Saturday's final in Beijing, but anti-Japanese...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 11, 2004

Clever plot of "Dumb Animal" play

It was two years ago, that the three main actors in "Donju (Dumb Animal)," currently running at the Parco Theater, met up over a drink or three. Arata Furuta, Katsuhisa Namase and Narushi Ikeda, are all now in their late 30s and early 40s, but were very prominent in the energetic 1980s Shogekijo (small...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2004

Asian currency zone beckons

There is no doubt that the stable renminbi (RMB) exchange rate, pegged at about 8.25 yuan to the U.S. dollar, has helped China's economic development. It has brought about enormous production capacity in the export industries. Meanwhile, the sharp increase in exports to the United States has prompted...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 8, 2004

Which way for Japanese capitalism?

THE END OF DIVERSITY?: Prospects for German and Japanese Capitalism, edited by Kozo Yamamura and Wolfgang Streeck. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2003, 401 pp., $24.95 (paper), $49.95 (cloth). This book is about the future of capitalism and its national varieties. "Free market capitalism...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 8, 2004

All of Japan between two covers

JAPAN ENCYCLOPEDIA, by Louis Frederic, translated by Kathe Roth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002, 1102 pp., 48 illus., 14 maps, $59.95 (cloth). This large, beautiful and indispensable volume is a translation of "Le Japan: Dictionnaire et Civilisation," published in 1996, the year of the author's...
EDITORIALS
Aug 7, 2004

Rationale for denuclearization

Fifty-nine years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there is a disturbing sense that the world could be headed for more, not less, nuclear weapons. As the world's first and only atom-bombed nation, Japan is destined to do everything in its power to strive for the nonproliferation and...
COMMUNITY
Aug 7, 2004

Hanging out at Jellyfish for the holiday season

It is midmorning on Zushi beach in Kanagawa Prefecture, and all is well with Jellyfish, scented with new-cut wood and offering more than a hint of the elusive.
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2004

Princess afflicted by adjustment disorder

Crown Princess Masako is suffering an adjustment disorder, the Imperial Household Agency said Friday.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji