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LIFE / Digital / NETWISE
May 15, 2003

Is your wireless network airtight?

I'm sitting with my ThinkPad in a Starbucks near Akasaka. The cafe isn't advertised as a WLAN hot spot, so I'm pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying high-speed Internet access courtesy of some nearby wireless network.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 13, 2003

Off-the-wall fiction feeds weird ideas about Japan

If you review novels set in Asia, as this writer does, it follows that you read a lot of books. To call some of them "terrible" may be putting it kindly.
EDITORIALS
May 10, 2003

Keeping a lid on SARS

Japan's health authorities are beginning to make a concerted effort to prevent the spread of the SARS epidemic. No case of severe acute respiratory syndrome has been reported in Japan so far, but health officials leave open the possibility that the deadly virus might be brought into the country by people...
COMMENTARY
May 10, 2003

The purpose of U.S. power

HONOLULU -- President George W. Bush declared victory in the war against Iraq last week. Anyone expecting the president to bask in success would have been surprised by the speech: Bush made clear that Iraq is merely one campaign in the ongoing war against terrorism. A perfunctory reading of the administration's...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
May 10, 2003

Matt Lagan

People say that the show must go on. They also say that what may happen behind the scenes only the actors know.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
May 8, 2003

More breathing space in the classroom

Last month, just before the new school year started in Japan, I ran into a neighbor at the supermarket. She's a bit high-strung and gets worked up over school matters, so I try to avoid her. But she collared me by the cabbages and dropped her voice to a dramatic whisper. "Have you heard? The Suzukis...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 8, 2003

O-soji: the way of the Japanese housewife

A lot of things baffled when I attended a Japanese school for the first time at the age of 14. Lot's of things baffled me, but the custom of soji -- or cleaning -- of the classroom and school buildings everyday after the last bell, seemed outrageous.
ENVIRONMENT
May 8, 2003

Emerging specialty puts focus on the 'green' way cities could be

Cities appeared relatively late in human history, and have gradually evolved over five millennia to support complex economic, political, religious, academic and military organizations and hierarchies. However, their concentration of wealth, talent and creativity that breeds cultural and scientific innovation...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 7, 2003

Japan Post to create model offices in bid to reform

Japan Post will try to improve its operations by creating 12 model post offices around the country so employees at its 24,000 outlets can learn about cost-cutting measures and improving productivity, Japan Post President Masaharu Ikuta said in a recent interview.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
May 7, 2003

One door opens, another one closes

"The closing of a door can bring blessed privacy and comfort -- the opening, terror. Conversely, the closing of a door can be a sad and final thing -- the opening a wonderfully joyous moment."
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 4, 2003

The Great Sasuke faces up to political reality

Two recent news items prompted an interesting digression in Asahi Shimbun's unattributed "Tensei Jingo" column April 23. Making initially veiled references to Lower House lawmaker Kenshiro Matsunami's alleged links with underworld figures and the election last month of professional wrestler the Great...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 4, 2003

Still howling with emotion

HOWLING AT THE MOON: Poems and Prose of Hagiwara Sakutaro, translation and introduction by Hiroaki Sato. Kobenhavn & Los Angeles, Green Integer, 2002, 316 pp., $11.95, (paper) Hagiwara Sakutaro is one of Japan's most important, and most cherished poets. His first volume of poetry, "Howling at the Moon"...
BUSINESS
May 3, 2003

Debt-saddled Daiwa seeks protection

Daiwa Construction Co. said Friday it has filed with the Tokyo District Court for protection from creditors under the fast-track corporate rehabilitation law.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 30, 2003

Dave Douglas: "Freak In"

Many jazz artists try to force sampling, computer loops and synthesized textures into a relationship with acoustic instruments that just doesn't work. On his new release, "Freak In," Dave Douglas, though, lets both sides work things out on their own terms. The result is a musical friction that produces...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 30, 2003

Now (and forever) a girl's best friend

Once the home of a prince, the Teien Art Museum is now playing host to a king's ransom in jewelry comprising a truly sparkling survey of the bijoutier's art in the four centuries spanning 1540-1940.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Apr 27, 2003

The wandering laptop minstrel

With his long black hair pulled back in a tight, neat ponytail and his pale complexion, electronica musician Nobukazu Takemura has an otherworldly quality somewhere between a computer geek and a monk.
COMMUNITY
Apr 27, 2003

Dolphin 'treatment' defies science

Michael Williams was born severely autistic. Even when he was in his teens, he was unable to communicate, other than through screeching, and his parents had to be constantly on the alert for violent behavior. Without warning, he would bang his head against objects, bite into his own fingers or lash out...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 27, 2003

Animal 'doctors' deliver health and well-being

At the Helsinki Olympics in 1952, Danish rider Liz Hartel became the first woman to ever win a medal in dressage. What was also historic about her achievement, though, was that her legs had been paralyzed since she was stricken with polio as a teenager.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2003

Is Koizumi's political star waning?

Last weekend, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was on the campaign trail alongside Liberal Democratic Party candidates fighting Diet by-elections in Tokyo and Ibaraki Prefecture.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2003

Marathon trial could have gone on longer

The trial of Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara is unprecedented both in the nature of the crimes involved and the way the court proceedings have progressed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 23, 2003

A builder of dreams

Chuta Ito was born in 1867, the same year as the great novelist Soseki Natsume -- whom he outlived by four decades. Like Natsume, too, Ito -- who pioneered the historical and theoretical study of architecture in Japan -- had a wry sense of humor, and from 1914 until his death in 1954 he produced no fewer...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Apr 23, 2003

Could it be you, baby?

My mind is weary, and this is because since last weekend I have been thinking hard about how different the world would be if men could get pregnant.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 22, 2003

Media hounds muzzle selves

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to be sent on a media junket to Sri Lanka.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 22, 2003

Rockets could ride microwaves: scientist

When Kimiya Komurasaki was a boy, he loved science-fiction stories about humankind being forced by a swelling sun to flee the planet.
MORE SPORTS
Apr 21, 2003

Sky's the limit for broadcaster in search of sporting excellence

A recent survey of 1,000 Japanese sports viewers who subscribe to JSky Sports showed that 25-30 percent enjoyed watching or wanted to watch baseball, sumo and soccer, 19 percent favored domestic rugby, 13 percent enjoyed cycling and 12 percent preferred international rugby, NBA and NHL.
COMMENTARY
Apr 21, 2003

Why war in Korea is less probable now

LOS ANGELES -- Many fretful observers, on both sides of the Pacific, are convinced that U.S. military action against North Korea is inevitable. But this gloomy doomsday scenario, it seems to me, becomes increasingly improbable as time goes on.
Events
Apr 20, 2003

KANSAI: Who & What

Spring herb festival under way in Kobe: A spring herb festival is being held at Nunobiki Herb Park in Kobe's Chuo Ward until May 25.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Apr 20, 2003

Look what the tide brought in

Venice Beach, Fla., and the sun is hot and strong. Most tourists are simply lounging on the sand turning various shades of furious red or "Baywatch" bronze. A few are chucking Frisbees or checking out the babes.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan