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Japan Times
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
Jul 13, 2002

19th century face of Edo resurrected in Koto Ward commoners' ghetto

Devastated by the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and then flattened again by U.S. air raids during the war, little of the old face of Tokyo remains.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 13, 2002

Nisei woodworker follows grain of ancestral roots

His mailbox in Kikoba, where the town of Hayama meets Yokosuka City in Kanagawa Prefecture, reads "toco," the Portuguese word for log. Lengths of bamboo lean against an outside wall.
BUSINESS
Jul 12, 2002

Improved conditions needed to draw ASEAN brains: panel

An informal government panel basically agreed Thursday to seek improvements to Japan's immigration and social environments to attract more experts and engineers from Southeast Asia, the panel's chairman said.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CLOSE NEIGHBORS
Jul 11, 2002

Japan's carmakers tooling up for China

BEIJING -- Zhao Xue Bo, an international relations researcher at Beijing Broadcasting Institute, a national university, has been saving money for some time to buy a new car.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 11, 2002

Sperm commit hara-kiri

Aldous Huxley is most famous for "Brave New World" (1932), but among scientists working on sperm competition and reproductive biology his "Fifth Philosopher's Song" (1920) is also well-known:
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2002

Legacy-building in Beijing

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Chinese President Jiang Zemin has made another speech -- another important speech -- adding gloss to the landmark speech he made July 1 last year at the Communist Party of China's 80th birthday party.
COMMENTARY
Jul 8, 2002

Erosion of respect for sweat

Few doubt that the scholastic abilities of young Japanese, from grade school children to university students, have declined markedly. Some critics blame the problem on the system of "yutori kyoiku" ("relaxed education") introduced in Japanese public schools; others blame the nation's declining birthrate....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 7, 2002

You don't know us, but . . .

The new live album from psychedelic folk duo Damon and Naomi recalls a bygone era. One can almost imagine them sharing a double bill with the Baez sisters in a smoky Greenwich Village coffee house: he hunched over his guitar, she dwarfed by her bass, her dark hair and white complexion looking naturally...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 7, 2002

Japan's diplomatic balancing act

JAPANESE FOREIGN POLICY IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC: Domestic Interests, American Pressure and Regional Integration, edited by Akitoshi Miyashita and Yoichiro Sato. Palgrave, 2001, 208 pp., $40 (cloth) Japan is frequently criticized for "punching below its weight" in international affairs. That is another...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jul 7, 2002

Rooting for the nutritious fruits of the earth

Fall is the season for the tubers in the taro family, but the stalks of several taro are just coming to their midsummer peak. In Japan, these taro stalks are referred to as zuiki in general, and they feature prominently on the classic summer washoku menu.
COMMENTARY
Jul 5, 2002

No reason to bury 'sunshine'

LOS ANGELES -- Last Saturday's fierce 21-minute naval gun battle between the two Koreas was unfortunate and tragic for several reasons -- not just for the loss of lives on both sides. The deadly duel splashed cold water on South Korea's sudden place in the sun. Its soccer team had just completed its...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 2002

Reserved but hardly remote

The June 8 article "A right royal celebration," by former British Ambassador to Japan Sir Hugh Cortazzi, described the Golden Jubilee celebration for Queen Elizabeth II. I was happy to read that the celebration was a great success, that the respect and affection of the British people for the queen were...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 4, 2002

Solving the nation's waste problem and raising bilingual kids

Everyone is aware of the problem of garbage. With Tokyo alone throwing away 6,000 tons of food a day, kitchen waste in particular is a practical as well as a moral concern.
LIFE / Digital
Jul 4, 2002

The Simpsons on DVD -- hi-fi Americana

Fox Home Video has just released "The Simpsons Season Two DVD Collection." If you have not heard of the Simpsons, you have a little catching up to do.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2002

Program empowers disabled Asians

Lokesh Khadka, a 23-year-old deaf Nepalese, is determined to change the society of his home country so that it will accept people with hearing disabilities.
EDITORIALS
Jun 30, 2002

'An honorable man'

There is a professor at New York's Vassar College who clearly knows his Shakespeare, perhaps not as well as he thought he did until a week or so ago, but at least well enough to recall Touchstone's advice in "As You Like It": "Let us make an honorable retreat, though not with bag and baggage, yet with...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 30, 2002

Some beer to call your own

When my Japanese friends hear that I make my own beer at home, they invariably ask me, "Does it taste good?" When I pour them a glass in response, their next comment is usually, "Wow, it has foam!"
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2002

World Cup home-stay program hailed as success

The 2002 FIFA World Cup, which comes to a close Sunday, offered local municipalities throughout Japan an opportunity to hold various exchange programs with visitors from in and out of the country during the one-month event.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 30, 2002

Even a sultan would approve

No matter their relative prowess on the soccer field, there can be no disputing which of the nations that reached the semifinal of the World Cup would deserve to be champions, were the title decided on culinary merit alone. With all respect to the gastronomy of Germany, Brazil and South Korea, none can...
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2002

Tsuruhashi, home of 'exotic' Korea in Osaka

OSAKA — You can always tell when your train reaches Tsuruhashi Station. Unlike the other, mostly nondescript, stops on the JR Osaka Loop Line, the district has an atmosphere, flavor and aroma that makes it one of the city's most interesting neighborhoods.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2002

Colleges sued over tuition fees scam

OSAKA — Fifty-six individuals who took entrance exams for institutes of higher learning filed lawsuits Friday with three district courts in the Kansai region against 22 private universities and 6 vocational colleges.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
Jun 28, 2002

Who'd have thought that Shinagawa was once a coastal gateway town?

Take a trip back in time and sample a taste of the ebb and flow of life in premodern southern Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Jun 27, 2002

Teetering on the edge of real democracy

ANKARA -- "The main obstacle to democracy is not Islam, but Kemalism," says Atilla Yayla, the unassuming head of Turkey's Association for Liberal Thinking. Turkey is a critically important country, but also an amazingly complicated and frustrating one. And while it has done better than most other Muslim...
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2002

Experts sought to halt loan words

Education chief Atsuko Toyama said Tuesday her ministry will set up a committee of experts in July to propose ways to prevent too many imported words from entering the Japanese language.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2002

Critics question results of child behavior study

Children who suddenly run amok or act violently without reason are reacting against bad home environments and not their teachers, according to a report on a survey released recently by an affiliate of the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry.
COMMENTARY
Jun 24, 2002

There's a spoiler in China's dynamo economy

It is becoming a fad among the Japanese media to praise China as a new economic giant. Some reports say the fast-growing neighbor poses a serious threat to Japan's economy; others say China is emerging as "the factory of the world."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 23, 2002

All and nothing

"Just so, Subhuti, I obtained not the least thing from unexcelled, complete awakening, and for this very reason it is called 'unexcelled, complete awakening.' "
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 23, 2002

The nature of the Zen mind

Zen gardens, those wonderful treasures of Japan, can be enjoyed in several ways: as pure abstract works of art; as representations of Zen principles; or as tools to transport one's mind from the cares of everyday life to a higher state of consciousness.

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