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LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Aug 5, 2001

The king of mushrooms rules in fall

During these soggiest dog days of high summer it seems as if fall is a dream that might never come. But as the fresh foods that appear on the market shelves remind us, the seasons roll on, and soon we will enjoy the crisp fall air and colorful maple and ginkgo trees. The first sign of impending autumn,...
JAPAN
Aug 4, 2001

Palau leader pushes for summit

Palau President Thomas Remengesau Jr. urged Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday to host a second summit of Japan and Pacific island nations, a Japanese government official said.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2001

Trade, security top agenda

SYDNEY -- A new regional security mechanism involving the United States, Japan and Australia that risks offending China is high on the agenda of Australian Prime Minister John Howard for his Tokyo visit.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 2, 2001

Blame misplaced in Okinawa rape case

I am deeply disturbed, although not surprised, by the news that Japanese weeklies are harassing the young woman who claims to have been publicly raped in late June in Okinawa. Even Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka evidently blames her for having been out so late, drinking, in a bar frequented by American...
COMMENTARY
Jul 29, 2001

U.S. Asian policy takes shape

HONOLULU -- Slowly but surely, the Bush administration's Asia policy is taking shape. And, some changes in emphasis and approach notwithstanding, it shows a great deal of continuity with Clinton administration policy objectives. The U.S.-Japan relationship remains the "linchpin" of U.S. security strategy...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 29, 2001

A lively, authentic Edo view

JAPAN THROUGH AMERICAN EYES: The Journal of Francis Hall -- 1859-1866. Edited, annotated and abridged by F.G. Notehelfer. Boulder: Westview Press, 2001, 466 pp., 33 plates. $30. When Francis Hall arrived in Yokohama in 1859 he found that the place had "all of the newness of a Western town" and that...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 29, 2001

Shochu appeal goes supersonic

FUKUOKA -- Kyushu folk are feeling quite tickled about something at the moment: a shochu boom in bars around Japan. The surging popularity of this once-lowbrow spirit, which originated in Kyushu, suggests that its old-fogy image may be disappearing for good and that lucrative times lie ahead for the...
COMMUNITY
Jul 27, 2001

Tips on how to make your kanji garden grow

TO: Diane Grace Shimizu RE: Your Kanji Dream
EDITORIALS
Jul 26, 2001

No more compromises on Kyoto

The Kyoto Protocol, which was once pushed to the edge of collapse, has barely survived. On Monday delegates to the U.N. climate talks in Bonn — the sixth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP6) to the Framework Convention on Climate Change — reached a last-minute agreement on rules for implementing...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 24, 2001

Visiting educators find confidence lacking

Japan should make greater efforts to instill a sense of self-confidence in its children and help them to develop the ability to express themselves, according to foreign educators invited to speak at a recent discussion session in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Jul 23, 2001

'Fair' easier said than done

LONDON -- The term "fair competition" is a word like "motherhood." We all regard it as desirable and a good thing. But it is an economic proposition that is not easily attainable, and if it is achieved can only be maintained by constant vigilance. Some of those who pay lip service to the concept show...
COMMENTARY
Jul 22, 2001

Yet another example of victor's justice

Victor's justice is a two-edged sword. The attempt to bring former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic before a war-crimes tribunal in The Hague may satisfy the West's urge to find a bogeyman to justify its own irresponsible behavior toward the former Yugoslavia. But it is unlikely to impress those...
SOCCER / World cup
Jul 21, 2001

Oita gearing up to play World Cup host

Oita, one of the 10 World Cup hosts in Japan, expects two things from hosting the World Cup next year -- to promote the southern city around the world and to make Oita Stadium recognized as a major sporting and cultural destination.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 19, 2001

Cracking the Coleridge conundrum

Snorting salt through the nostrils may seem a strange habit, but it must surely be healthy and can even be a crucial adaptation. After all, albatrosses do it and they can live for 50-70 years, an exceptional age among birds.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 18, 2001

Lasorda not doggin' it in Osaka

Tommy Lasorda gets around. On Sunday, July 8, the 73-year-old former Los Angeles Dodgers manager was at the Osaka Dome, "producing" an American ballpark event for the Kintetsu Buffaloes, wolfing down some Dodger Dogs and doing a TV interview. Two days later, "Tumblin' Tommy" was coaching third base for...
EDITORIALS
Jul 16, 2001

Aid and ethics must go hand in hand

The man who was called Peru's Rasputin is back behind bars. Mr. Vladimiro Montesinos, who backstopped former President Alberto Fujimori during his decade in office, has been caught in Venezuela after 10 months on the run and whisked to Lima. His life in exile was much like his years as Mr. Fujimori's...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 15, 2001

It takes two to tangle

Hong Kong pop idol Faye Wong already has quite a few fans in Japan, but she's sure to add more on a weekly basis thanks to her costarring role in the summer comedy series "Usokoi (False Love)" (Fuji TV, Tuesday, 10 p.m.). Wong plays a young Chinese woman appropriately named Faye, who is studying to be...
SOCCER / J. League
Jul 13, 2001

Arsenal, Gamba reach deal on Inamoto

OSAKA -- Gamba Osaka midfielder Junichi Inamoto is set to join Arsenal after his club said Thursday that a basic agreement on a multi-year contract has been reached with the English Premier League giant.
SPORTS / TALK OF THE TIMES
Jul 13, 2001

Wakanohana takes a run at his NFL dream

Masaru Hanada, better known as former yokozuna Wakanohana, surprised many when he declared his challenge to play for a National Football League team during a TV program in May.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 12, 2001

Tokai nuke incident still shows afterglow

Hisashi Ouchi died Dec. 21, 1999, less than three months after he and two colleagues set off a criticality accident at JCO Co. in the village of Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture. Masato Shinohara died seven months later, also a victim of lethal radiation exposure. The third employee, Yutaka Yokokawa, was hospitalized...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 8, 2001

In the pink

When Yokohama hosts the final and three other games in the soccer World Cup next June, foreign visitors will be spared a full-frontal view of the city's sleazier side by the waterfront, where a campaign to lessen any shock to their systems has been under way since last year.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2001

Slaying the 'monsters' of Meiji Era modernity

CIVILIZATION AND MONSTERS: Spirits of Modernity in Meiji Japan, by Gerald Figal. Duke University Press, 1999, 290 pp., $49.95 (hardback); $17.95 (paperback). In his prologue to "Civilization and Monsters," Gerald Figal defines Meiji modernization within the context of the fantastic and supernatural...
EDITORIALS
Jul 7, 2001

The world cannot afford to wait

The prospects for the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol remain cloudy as the United States continues to reject the world climate agreement. In his talks this week with British and French leaders following a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told them Japan...
EDITORIALS
Jul 5, 2001

The danger of further monetary easing

The U.S. Federal Reserve Board's decision last week to cut interest rates for a sixth time is a sobering reminder that there is a wide gulf in freedom of monetary action between the world's two largest economies. While the Fed can make further cuts if necessary, the Bank of Japan has practically no elbowroom...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2001

Lee remains in the limelight

Cornell University, standing like a fortress atop a verdant hilltop in upstate New York, is isolated and serene, far from war and the worries of the world.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 5, 2001

Beauty versus the environment

Concerns over the introduction of alien species to environments that have no protective mechanisms against them are beginning to filter through the bureaucratic system in Japan to the point where action is being contemplated -- or even taken.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 1, 2001

1910 Exhibition remembered

THE BRITISH PRESS AND THE JAPAN-BRITISH EXHIBITION OF 1910. Edited by Hirokichi Mutsu. With a preface by Yonosuke Ian Mutsu and an introduction by William H. Coaldrake. Production: The University of Melbourne: Curzon Press, London. 212 pp., with b/w illustration. Unpriced. This is an enlarged and...
COMMENTARY
Jun 30, 2001

Koizumi: a new type of leader

Two months have passed since the inauguration of the popular administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Thanks to the prime minister's enormous popularity, the Liberal Democratic Party easily triumphed in this week's election for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, which was the first test for...

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb