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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Aug 11, 2004

National treasures of Bizen-ware pots

The city and pottery style of Bizen hold a special place in my heart; in a sense, Bizen was my "first love" in the ceramic world. When I was first given a Bizen yunomi (tea cup) twenty years ago I had never held something so earthy and "alive" -- a vessel for use in daily life, to enhance drinking pleasure,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Aug 9, 2004

Japan's tea pots made by an American potter

The stereotypical image of a chadogu (Way of Tea) potter is of an elderly gentleman with a wispy beard and sharp piercing eyes, clad in a samue (artist's working clothes). You would assume he had come from a family dating back generations and that his lineage was of supreme pride and importance in Japan's...
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...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 7, 2004

High expectations await Lee Hsien Loong

SINGAPORE -- After nearly 14 years at the country's helm, Goh Chok Tong has announced that he will step down as Singapore's prime minister on Aug. 12. Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will become the nation's third prime minister since it gained independence in 1965. It is believed that Goh will...
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 Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Aug 7, 2004

Eugenio Toussaint

In its straightforward Japanese transcription, "El Pez Dorado" uses the "kanji" characters for "fish" and "gold." "El Pez Dorado" is the name given to the most recently released CD of Eugenio Toussaint, a musician from Mexico. The CD includes piano pieces that have not been previously recorded, and which...
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2004

Youth exchange in fraud probe

Police on Wednesday searched the offices of a youth exchange association headed by former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on suspicions that it fraudulently received 250 million yen in government subsidies.
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2004

Youth exchange in fraud probe

Police on Wednesday searched the offices of a youth exchange association headed by former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on suspicions that it fraudulently received 250 million yen in government subsidies.
JAPAN
Aug 4, 2004

Libyan envoy says Tripoli seeks deeper ties with Tokyo

Libyan Ambassador to Japan Muftah Faitouri said Tuesday that his country has opened itself to the international community by abandoning its weapons of mass destruction.
JAPAN
Aug 4, 2004

Libyan envoy says Tripoli seeks deeper ties with Tokyo

Libyan Ambassador to Japan Muftah Faitouri said Tuesday that his country has opened itself to the international community by abandoning its weapons of mass destruction.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 4, 2004

Tiger's agent Steinberg says business better than ever

Mark Steinberg is the agent for the world's No. 1 golfer Tiger Woods.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 31, 2004

Fistful of troubles for Chirac

PARIS — Ever since French President Charles de Gaulle vetoed Britain's entry into the European Common Market and took his country out of the integrated military structure of the NATO alliance, France has had a reputation as a country that knows how to say "no" — a reputation greatly bolstered by...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2004

Teachers develop trilingual textbook

OSAKA -- English teachers from Japan and South Korea who are trying to deepen international exchanges in Asia through language education have together developed a unique textbook.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 30, 2004

How green is my Happy Valley

While Tokyo is unbearably hot and humid in the heat of the summer, in Karuizawa verdant grass and moss carpet the floors of forests and the mountain air is perfumed with the scent of larch leaves and wild flowers. The area is a little over a one-hour train ride from Tokyo, enabling visitors to quickly...
EDITORIALS
Jul 29, 2004

The sustainable whaling option

I t has been just 100 years since Norway began hunting whales in the Antarctic seas, but celebration seems hardly warranted. The International Whaling Commission is effectively paralyzed because its 57 members, split almost equally between prowhaling and antiwhaling nations, are unable to assemble a...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jul 29, 2004

The Morlocks are coming!

MOSCOW -- The most common word used by foreigners to describe Soviet Russia was "gray." Be it the cityscape, clothes or official culture, everything looked evenly unpleasant, unexciting, drab. Nowadays, the maddening communist evenness is gone, but Russia has become home to something equally disturbing...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 28, 2004

Giving thanks on a day of cinema

The Dreamers Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Bernardo Bertolucci Running time: 117 minutes Language: English/some French Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] As a child, I was raised as a Catholic, and went to church on Sunday, um, religiously. I can still remember...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 28, 2004

Director has whale of a time making experimental 'Mind Game'

Now an animation veteran, with 17 years in the business, Masaaki Yuasa still looks young enough, acts deferential enough and dresses down enough to be mistaken for a rank-and-filer. Instead, he is a rising industry star hailed for his work on the "Crayon Shinchan" franchise, the nearest Japanese animation...
EDITORIALS
Jul 26, 2004

Toward stronger Tokyo-Seoul ties

At the Japan-South Korea summit meeting last week, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun agreed that the two countries should work together more closely to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis. The agreement will help provide an impetus to the coming six-nation talks...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 25, 2004

Way to go keigo: a loaded language of politeness

KEIGO IN MODERN JAPAN: Polite Language From Meiji to the Present, by Patricia J. Wetzel. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 206 pp. with illustrations, 2004, $45 (cloth). Keigo is often thought of as a separate kind of Japanese (often called "polite speech," "honorifics," or the like) that is used...
EDITORIALS
Jul 25, 2004

The governor and the 'girlie men'

Say this much for California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger: He is never boring. The "Governator" proved that again recently when he said that opposition lawmakers campaigning against his budget proposals were "girlie men." The remark caused a furor among U.S. Democrats. It also reignited a more general...
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2004

State panel gives scientists green light to clone embryos for medical research

A government advisory panel on Friday gave scientists formal approval to produce cloned human embryos for basic research in the hopes that they will be useful in regenerative medicine.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 18, 2004

Hard-boiled and stuck to Thai ways

"When I finish a book I collapse and say, 'That's it. Never again,' " sighs Bangkok-based author Christopher G. Moore. "About three, four months later the demons pull me back, and the whole mad process starts over."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Jul 18, 2004

Candela rise above definitions of East and West

Japanese culture is famed for importing artistic forms and converting them to new patterns, but one local group of foreign musicians is trying to reverse that trend. Candela, a group of four American musicians with diverse musical backgrounds, creates jazz-based music with Japanese melodies; folk tunes...
Features
Jul 18, 2004

Universities put on a show

University museums have long been part of the cultural landscape in many western countries, serving not only academic communities but the general public too.
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
Jul 16, 2004

Young delegates at symposium stress value of peace

Young people across the globe need to better appreciate the value of peace, which they so often take for granted, foreign students who are studying Japanese said during a symposium in Tokyo earlier this week.
BUSINESS
Jul 16, 2004

Obituary: Michio Morishima

Renowned economist Michio Morishima, professor emeritus at the University of London and Osaka University, died at a hospital in Britain on Tuesday, Osaka University said Thursday. He was 80.

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