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Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / COUNTER CULTURE
Oct 8, 2004

Boldly going where no bookstore has gone before

Foreigner-run enterprises rarely make much of an impact in Japan, but American publisher Lucas Badtke-Berkow is the proud owner of a small business with a big profile. Paper Sky, his bilingual travel magazine, currently in its 10th issue, has a readership of more than 45,000 and this summer it made the...
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2004

Boeing lobbies Japan on proposed restart of arms sales

The head of Boeing Co.'s defense division on Wednesday welcomed recent indications that Japan is moving toward lifting its self-imposed arms export ban, saying it would help pave the way for the firm to use Japanese products worldwide.
EDITORIALS
Oct 4, 2004

Bigger issue than postal privatization

At a press conference following his Cabinet reshuffle last month, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dubbed his new Cabinet as one "to realize privatization of the postal service." He made it clear that the reshuffle had been his own work, indicating his determination to carry out the privatization. Mr....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 3, 2004

The writings of Mori Ogai, a multifaceted Meiji intellect

NOT A SONG LIKE ANY OTHER: An Anthology of Writings by Mori Ogai, edited by J. Thomas Rime. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004, $42 (cloth). Editor J. Thomas Rimer includes in this anthology an excellent introduction that clearly and succinctly outlines Mori Ogai's achievements and expands readers'...
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2004

Kids tutored on fear-, anger-management

Naoto Araki, a 15-year-old Yokohama high school student, persistently kicked the chair Bill Pozzobon was sitting on, just to make him mad.
EDITORIALS
Sep 26, 2004

Google: mirror or lamp?

Google, the world's most popular search engine, hasn't even been around for a decade -- it was founded in 1998 -- yet it is already hard to remember life without it. It has its rivals, notably Yahoo, Microsoft, Ask Jeeves, which launched a test version in Japan last month, and now Amazon, whose fancy...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 26, 2004

Howl of Los Lobos stronger than ever

For 30 years, East L.A.'s Los Lobos has made a habit of crossing borders. One look through their discography reveals the Latin rock quintet's frequent movement between Mexican folk and American R&B, with regular stops along the Mississippi for funk and blues. Recent albums have even showed a moody, experimental...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 25, 2004

New Center for Creative Arts up and running

Anyone passing the South Korean Embassy in Tokyo's Moto Azabu in recent months may well have wondered about the flag reading "RBR -- New Center for Creative Arts" flying from the building opposite. Also the steady flow of visitors -- every age, color, race and creed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 22, 2004

Getting under the skin of a serial killer

After "Hannibal" et al., seeing another serial killer flick was about as pleasant a prospect as being buried alive. It was a nice surprise, then, to find that director Patty Jenkins had made an intelligent, genre-defying film grounded in reality. Jenkins, who also wrote the screenplay, has been riding...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Sep 22, 2004

Project seeks new sites for sore eyes

I would estimate that for every artist sipping champagne at an opening reception -- clad in Gaultier and coiffed with contrived insouciance -- there are hundreds of other artists sitting alone in cheap apartments eating cold noodles. "Starving artist" may be a cliche, but the truth is that most people...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 21, 2004

When it happens, it happens

A whirlwind romance Shortly before I was to return to Australia, I went to a Christmas party in the small town where I was studying Japanese.
EDITORIALS
Sep 19, 2004

Please mute that sunflower

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American transcendentalist philosopher, once said that the rose speaks all languages. Little did he know it could sing, as well -- or at least that 168 years after he uttered his profoundly metaphoric remark a literal-minded Japanese corporation would invent a way for roses and...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 19, 2004

In search of an elusive identity

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN, by Don Lee. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004, 318 pp., $24.95 (cloth). THE PEARL DIVER, by Sujata Massey. New York: HarperCollins, 2004, 335 pp., $23.95 (cloth). One formula frequently applied to the mystery novel involves adoptees who reach adulthood and seek to track down their...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 19, 2004

Chechen-Arab connection goes far back

CHICAGO -- As gunmen seized a school full of hostages in southern Russia last week, President Vladimir Putin had held a meeting that might have seemed to some like a distraction.
EDITORIALS
Sep 15, 2004

Division casts shadow over DPJ

The Democratic Party of Japan has formed a new executive team and a new shadow Cabinet, but one man of great influence is conspicuously absent: Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, the former acting president. His refusal to take up any post, apparently reflecting an ongoing dispute with the party president, Mr. Katsuya...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 15, 2004

Here's to a classic 'comeback'

The Return Rating: * * * * 1/2(out of 5) Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev Running time: 111 minutes Language: Russian with Japanese subtitles Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Perhaps the most dispiriting aspect of the global corporate culture that's spread like mold over...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 15, 2004

Tale of a wrestler, his mother, stepbrother and also his wife

Audiences at the Tokyo National Theater are being treated to two full-length Bunraku masterpieces being staged in its smaller auditorium this month.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Sep 14, 2004

Who is the most interesting foreigner in Japan?

Chris Harritt Student, 23 Patrick something. He graduated from Harvard and came to Japan without being able to speak any Japanese. At first he performed on the street in Shibuya with a Japanese partner. His show is "Eigo deshaberanight." Now he's fluent.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 12, 2004

The cool aesthetics of Edo

KUKI SHUZO: A Philosopher's Poetry and Poetics, translated and edited by Michael F. Marra. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004, 358 pp., $56 (cloth). THE STRUCTURE OF DETACHMENT: The Aesthetic Vision of Kuki Shuzo (with a Translation of "Iki no Kozo"), by Hiroshi Nara, with essays by J. Thomas...
BUSINESS
Sep 10, 2004

Major steelmakers forecast record earnings for fiscal '04

The nation's major steelmakers on Thursday forecast record earnings for the current fiscal year.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 10, 2004

OPENING: Kanto

TOKYO Picasso: "La metamorphose de la forme" is a display of 120 oils, sculptures, watercolors and sketches from the Jacqueline Collection, most of which will be showing in Japan for the first time; Sept. 4-Oct. 24.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Sep 9, 2004

Return of the plant people

"Pikmin 2" may be old news around Japan, but it's fresh out in English.
EDITORIALS
Sep 8, 2004

North Korea's ticking time bomb

Many North Koreans continue to escape from their impoverished and repressive country. Last week, 29 escapees took refuge at a Japanese school in Beijing. Shortly afterward, they were taken to the Japanese Embassy for identification and questioning before being transferred to a third country. The South...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 8, 2004

Director follows kabuki offstage to find the essence of onnagata

Musume Dojoji Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Yukiko Takayama Running time: 110 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Kabuki plays were an important source of material for early Japanese filmmakers, conferring prestige and popularity on their...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 8, 2004

Catching up with the 24-hour filmmaker

I sat down with English director Michael Winterbottom at the tail end of what was obviously a long, hard day of back-to-back interviews. Rather than my trying to get him discuss the same points of "Code 46" one more time, we instead kicked back with some beers and had a wide-ranging discussion covering...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 7, 2004

Scammers, counseling, health costs

Counseling Is there such thing as counseling in Japan? I have been married for 7 years and am having problems, yet my wife refuses to even discuss it. Is there some place we or I could go for help?
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 5, 2004

NHK's documentary on Ashkenazy and more

If you don't think you're up to speed with the history of Japanese anime, check out NHK's BS2 channel this week at 11 p.m.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2004

Line being drawn in East Asia's waters

HONOLULU -- In East Asia today, a line is gradually being drawn in the water, starting in the sea between Japan and the Korean Peninsula, and running south through the East China Sea and the Taiwan Strait into the South China Sea.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 2, 2004

Dragons hoping Ochoa's lucky No. 4 can bring them success

The Chunichi Dragons have won the Central League pennant four times in the past 30 years, and each time the club had a strong foreign player who wore the uniform No. 4 and contributed greatly to the team's championship seasons.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 2, 2004

"A Gathering Light," "The Coldest Day in the Zoo"

"A Gathering Light," Jennifer Donnelly, Bloomsbury; 2004; 383 pp. "Tell the truth!" It's not just children who get that all the time: Writers do, too. The only difference is that writers don't have to treat the truth too literally, as Jennifer Donnelly shows us in "A Gathering Light."

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?