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JAPAN
Jul 18, 2003

Gene sampling study canceled in wake of protest by JMA

The education ministry canceled a gene sampling project Wednesday following a protest from the Japan Medical Association over ethical issues.
JAPAN
Jul 17, 2003

JMA hits government cancer study for violating rights of test subjects

The Japan Medical Association has blasted a government cancer study on people in Hiroshima Prefecture, saying important information is being withheld and the subjects' rights are being violated.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 17, 2003

Safe hydrogen power needs nuclear energy

Herbert Hoover, the 31st President of the United States, said in 1928 that "the slogan of progress is changing from the full dinner plate to the full garage." Soundbite culture had taken hold even then, and Hoover's words were quickly paraphrased as "a car in every garage and a chicken in every pot."...
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 16, 2003

Matsui on a roll into All-Star game

TORONTO -- What a difference six weeks can make. On June 4, Hideki Matsui was scuffling along with a .250 batting average, a paltry three homers and 33 RBIs. Since that low point in the season, the New York Yankees rookie outfielder has hit at a torrid .387 clip, while adding six homers and 33 RBIs in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 16, 2003

Fuji's hipper hop

Despite its immense popularity in Japan, hip-hop has until recently suffered from poor representation at summer music events. The Fuji Rock Festival seems keen to make up for lost time this year, augmenting the usual legion of club-oriented DJs with a veritable roll call of some of today's most innovative...
EDITORIALS
Jul 15, 2003

Referendum risks in Taiwan

Taiwan has won respect the world over for its democracy. The island's political development has proven the naysayers wrong: Chinese culture and democracy are not incompatible. It is ironic then that one of the key issues today is the possibility that Taiwan is becoming "too democratic." The call for...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 13, 2003

Join the club: Today's Japanese fads

THE IMAGE FACTORY: Fads & Fashions in Japan, by Donald Richie, photographs by Roy Garner. London: Reaktion Books, 2003, 176 pp., £14.95 (cloth). Fads and fashions are not, of course, exclusively Japanese. Still, the unself-conscious abandon with which fads and fashions are adopted in Japan assures that...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 12, 2003

'Luxury Travel Show' hits town, aiming for TV

Varun Sharma is tall, handsome, immaculately dressed, and can talk the hind leg off a donkey. He is also a truly gentle man in displaying genuine concern for the bell "boy" at the new Marunouchi Four Seasons, who turned out to be a young woman of such tiny, fragile proportions that he feared for her...
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2003

University reform bills clear Diet

A set of bills to turn national universities into independent administrative institutions next April made it out of the Diet on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2003

Consensus culture hinders missile defense

HONOLULU -- If the Japanese are to build a defense against ballistic missiles, as increasingly seems likely, their main difficulty in making it work will be cultural -- not technical or political -- and will require a revolution in the way they make decisions.
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2003

City's bid to abolish education body stuns ministry

The drastic idea of abolishing a key administrative body put forward recently by a city in Saitama Prefecture has sent shock-waves through those involved in Japan's education system.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 6, 2003

The linden city turns over a new leaf

LEIPZIG, Germany -- German cities, even the larger ones, are associated with -- among other things German -- linden trees. In addition to the memory of Frankfurt's linden-lined streets, I remember a joyous summer evening in the city a few years ago when I had supper out in the courtyard of a local restaurant,...
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2003

Firms send science experts to schools to spur kids' interest

Although concerns are mounting about children's lack of interest in the physical sciences, classes in which companies send employees to conduct experiments at elementary and junior high schools are proving popular.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2003

Computer use up in schools, but over year tardy

Nearly all public schools in Japan are connected to the Internet, and 58 percent of these have their own Web site, it was learned Friday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Jul 3, 2003

Learning firsthand about rice cultivation

I have new respect for the rainy season. I used to hate tsuyu, these dreary weeks of drizzle. But now that I'm a farmer, I see the value of so much rain. I'm farming a bucket of rice on my balcony and can't keep up with the watering.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 2, 2003

On a director's storyboard far, far away

Is there a person in the Western world -- or even globally, given Hollywood's cultural reach -- who is unaware of "Star Wars"? In a society increasingly described as amnesiac, in which pop culture seems to come with an expiry date, George Lucas' movie trilogy (now with two -- soon to be three -- "prequels")...
BUSINESS
Jul 1, 2003

Insurance chief says no progress on terror fund

No progress has been made in talks to obtain government assistance to set up a pool of funds to help insure businesses against potential terrorist attacks, the newly appointed chairman of the Marine and Fire Insurance Association of Japan said Monday during his first news conference as the industry head....
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jun 30, 2003

Devolution trinity needs more than a moniker to succeed

Fewer subsidies, less transfers, more taxing power. Thus goes Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's "trinity" of local government reforms.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 29, 2003

The poetry and power of rock 'n' roll

For an artist as personal as Patti Smith, who once told an interviewer that it wasn't difficult to leave "the limelight and the applause" at the height of her popularity as a rock singer to become a full-time wife and mother, she certainly seems to derive a great deal of spiritual sustenance from direct...
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2003

Deep-sea germs useful in drugs

Bacteria that are effective in treating atopic dermatitis and other skin conditions have been discovered more than 10,000 meters under the sea.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2003

Japan-Europe venture aims to land humanity's first probe on Mercury

Japan and the European Space Agency are planning a joint mission that would be the first to land a probe on Mercury, a government official said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2003

Japan-Europe venture aims to land humanity's first probe on Mercury

Japan and the European Space Agency are planning a joint mission that would be the first to land a probe on Mercury, a government official said Wednesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 26, 2003

Shrimp farms: pawns in ecosystem destruction

Look just about anywhere in Japan and you'll find prawns. Fried, boiled, baked, frozen and fresh, they fill acres of shelves in department stores and supermarkets and are staples in sushi and tempura shops -- as well as being found in even the most unlikely bowl of noodles.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2003

Japan-Europe venture aims to land humanity's first probe on Mercury

Japan and the European Space Agency are planning a joint mission that would be the first to land a probe on Mercury, a government official said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2003

Decontrols seen leading to tuition hike

Roughly half of 92 national university presidents predict some form of tuition hike after their schools become independent administrative institutions in fiscal 2004 and are allowed to determine how much they will charge students, according to a Kyodo News survey.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2003

Nissan tries to hone the right environment

Just like corporate employees, young people need to be given a proper environment so they can realize their potential, Nissan Motor Co. President Carlos Ghosn said Monday at a ceremony for scholarship recipients.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 22, 2003

Evil war crims had it cushy

From behind a wooden lectern in Princeton University's Department of East Asian Studies last month, 85-year-old Tokio Tobita, a Japanese World War II veteran and convicted war criminal who served 10 years in Sugamo Prison, surveyed the intently focused faces of scholars, artists, students, American war...

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