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CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2001

Lost and found in a dream

Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) Rating: * * * * * Director: Hayao Miyazaki Running time: 125 minutes Language: JapaneseNow showing Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli animators had their biggest-ever triumph with "Mononoke Hime (The Princess Mononoke)," an eco-fable set in premodern...
COMMENTARY
Jul 25, 2001

A nasty taste of things to come

LONDON — Conventional wisdom has it that the future is impossible to predict, or at least to predict with any accuracy.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 22, 2001

Reaching higher than the sun

The determined individualism and unique artistic vision of Taro Okamoto (1911-1996), a leader in Japan's 1960s-'70s avant-garde art scene, continues to be a source of inspiration to many people today.
MORE SPORTS
Jul 21, 2001

Heritage Resort offers foreign golfers a chance to break par, not the bank

The Heritage Resort in Saitama Prefecture has recently announced a membership scheme for foreign residents in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2001

Washington's 'satellites' scupper Kyoto

LONDON -- "If nothing moves forward in Bonn then we will lose momentum and the process will sink," said Olivier Deleuze, the energy minister of Belgium, which holds the European Union's rotating presidency at the moment.
EDITORIALS
Jul 19, 2001

Kashmir claims two more victims

Hopes for a breakthrough in South Asia were dashed this week, when the summit between Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf broke off without an agreement. A peace accord was always beyond reach. But there were signs during the three-day meeting that the...
EDITORIALS
Jul 17, 2001

An Olympic win for China

China exploded in celebrations last Friday night when the International Olympic Committee awarded Beijing the right to host the 2008 Games. The rest of the world's reaction was more reserved. While millions of Chinese rejoiced, human rights advocates voiced concern that the Games would be used to put...
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Jul 15, 2001

In praise of the honest approach

Huddled over a back table at the Roppongi jazz club Alfie, out of earshot of her manager and new record company reps, Akiko confessed.
COMMUNITY
Jul 15, 2001

For the sake of sake

Every winter and spring for the last 10 years, Philip Harper reckons he has had no more than a few nights of uninterrupted sleep, but he's more than willing to sacrifice some shut-eye in pursuit of the perfect glass of sake.
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Jul 15, 2001

Wine comes alive through expert guidance

The next time you shop for wine, consider turning it into a leisurely expedition to Le Vin Vivant. Start in the store's cool, gold-painted cafe with a tasting of five recommended wines. The selection changes every other week and costs 1,800 yen (single glasses are 300 yen). If you are feeling peckish,...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 15, 2001

Hunting for justice in the Tokyo war tribunal

JUDGMENT AT TOKYO: The Japanese War Crimes Trials, by Tim Maga. University Press of Kentucky, 2001, 200 pp., $25 (cloth). Fifty-six years since Japan's surrender, World War II's legacy continues to make headlines: Compensation sought by sex slaves; Controversy rages over history textbooks; Prime minister's...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2001

Heading off the MD disaster

BRUSSELS -- The argument for missile defense is based on a series of misunderstandings and exaggerations. The claimed threat is neither real nor credible. Yet U.S. President George W. Bush is using it to underpin the United States' deployment of MD in the interests of the arms industry and to the detriment...
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Jul 12, 2001

Foreign plants are right at home in Japan

I have always been interested in the natural origins of plants. Where does a particular plant come from? How and when did it come to this country? Geographic botany investigates the distribution of plants around the world.
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2001

The family that bathes together . . .

Shower Japanese title: Kokoro no Yu Rating: * * * * Director: Zhang Yang Running time: 92 minutes Language: MandarinNow showing When you're born Japanese, certain notions are drummed into you at a very early age. Among them is the deep-seated conviction that a long soak in a hot bath is pretty much...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2001

Screenwriting by remote control

Stereo Future Rating: * * Director: Hiroyuki Nakano Running time: 111 minutes Language: JapaneseNow showing Filmmaking is about putting images on the screen. It is also, if not always, about telling a story. Hollywood has long subordinated images to story, the classic ideal being the "seamless" style...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2001

U.S. isn't isolationist, it's just isolated

LONDON -- There are a few countries that line up with the United States in opposing the creation of an international criminal court -- Cuba, China, Iraq, and Libya -- but no other respectable, democratic countries oppose it.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 5, 2001

Humans, evolve you must

Us lot, contemporary humans in a postindustrial society, we've got a welfare system, social security and even, in some countries, free health care. Premature babies survive, the wounded get better, the hungry get fed. We're shielded from the blind hand of natural selection, aren't we?
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.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 1, 2001

Innovative strategies that get the message across

The pointlessness of election campaigns in Japan is dramatically exemplified by the sound trucks screaming the names of their respective candidates over and over. The stupidity of election campaigns in Japan is audaciously exemplified by something that happened in my own neighborhood last week prior...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 1, 2001

Eat right to beat the heat

Japan's long, hot, humid summer can certainly put a damper on both mind and body. So what kind of food, if any, will help you cope with the intense heat and make you feel cool?
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...
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2001

Illegal dumping of appliances rises

Unlawful dumping of home appliances targeted by a recent recycling law marked a year-on-year rise during April and May in about 53 percent of the 272 municipalities who had comparable figures from the previous year, according to an Environment Ministry survey released Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2001

Young need NPO experience, Ghosn says

Nissan Motor Co. President Carlos Ghosn stressed the importance of young people experiencing work at nonprofit organizations, as he greeted participants to this year's NPO scholarship program sponsored by the automaker.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2001

28 Upper House members to retire ahead of election

Twenty-eight members of the House of Councilors are expected to retire from politics ahead of the Upper House poll slated for July 29, political sources said.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2001

Circuit glitch suspected in accidental strafing

An Air Self-Defense Force chief inspector said Wednesday his team found a glitch in an electric circuit that might have inadvertently caused an ASDF F-4 fighter jet's 20mm cannon to fire into a civilian area in Hokkaido during an air-to-ground firing drill Monday. During testing, the jet's 20mm cannon...
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2001

Foreign firms have hard time finding help

Foreign companies operating in Japan face greater difficulties recruiting people, procuring funds and resolving civil disputes outside court than in the United States and three European countries, according to a report released Wednesday by the Japan External Trade Organization.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2001

Insurance-yield cuts put forward in plan

A government panel presented a plan Tuesday that would enable life insurers to reduce yields promised to policyholders as a way to help weak insurers restructure.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2001

Green drive may boost economy

More efficient use of resources and better waste policies could boost the economy as well as reaping manifold environmental benefits, according to an inaugural white paper on waste-reduction approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2001

State aims to spur telecom joust

The government will set up a study panel next month to ponder steps to enhance competition in the telecom market, Toranosuke Katayama, minister for public management, home affairs, posts and telecommunications, said Tuesday.

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