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COMMENTARY
Nov 2, 2002

The Asia-Pacific odd couple

Japan and Australia make a rather odd couple in Asia. Yet their officials spend a lot of time talking to each other. Thursday will see yet another talkfest in Tokyo -- this time to discuss their "creative partnership." One reason for the talkativeness is that neither nation quite has the Asian credentials...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 2, 2002

Marie Lorenz Okabe

The late Eloise Cunningham, a lifelong resident of Japan, founded Music for Youth, which is dedicated to presenting musical programs for young people. Her Tokyo house, a Frank Lloyd Wright design, embodies many of his distinctive, country-style characteristics: huge exposed beams, an open stairway, a...
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2002

Abductee support groups push to find other 'missing' Japanese

OSAKA -- North Korea may feel that the abduction issue has been resolved and that Japan should now proceed with normalization talks, but for relatives of the Japanese abductees and their supporters, the five survivors and the eight reported dead by Pyongyang represent just the tip of the iceberg.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Nov 1, 2002

Dialogue building as a social service

Patricia Wakida -- writer, editor, book producer and former JET teacher -- was back in Japan last October doing what she does best: networking.
EDITORIALS
Nov 1, 2002

Don't haggle over abduction issue

The latest round of Japan-North Korea talks on normalizing relations, held in Kuala Lumpur earlier this week for the first time in two years, was conspicuous by the lack of substantial progress. The two sides remained far apart on North Korea's nuclear-weapons program and the fate of Japanese citizens...
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2002

Talks on hold until Pyongyang affirms family reunions

The government on Thursday said it will not set a date for another round of normalization talks with North Korea unless the reclusive state indicates when the family members of five Japanese abducted decades ago and currently on their first homecoming can also come to Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 31, 2002

Okinawa election again boils down to two themes

With Okinawa's Nov. 17 gubernatorial election looming, voters are gauging the progress made during the first term of Gov. Keiichi Inamine in addressing local concerns over the concentration of U.S. military bases and efforts to boost the prefecture's economy.
COMMENTARY
Oct 29, 2002

Liberalize farm trade now

LONDON -- Reform of the European Common Agricultural Policy, or CAP, is essential if the European Union's expenditures are to be contained and remain acceptable to European voters as a whole. This summer the European Commission floated some proposals for changes designed not to reduce the overall burden...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 27, 2002

The lesser of many possible evils

THE UNITED STATES IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC SINCE 1945, by Roger Buckley. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2002. 258 pp., $65 (cloth) This is a wide-ranging, ambitious and informative work on an immense subject. Given the vast terrain and limited space, Roger Buckley has had to resist the temptations...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 24, 2002

Getting up close and personal with global issues

While studying and researching in England several years ago, Eno Nakamura was surprised to find that Japanese and English children had strikingly different views of the future. That contrast convinced her of a critical need for Japanese schools to put more emphasis on "the future," and to get their students...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 23, 2002

Series brings back memories

Episode 5 in the series of Japan Series between the Yomiuri Giants and Seibu Lions gets under way on Saturday at the Tokyo Dome, and it should be a dandy. My feeling is it will go the full seven games, and I'll predict Seibu will win that seventh game at the Big Egg on Sunday, Nov. 3.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Oct 23, 2002

Getting keyed in on musical talent

I don't like the phrase "child prodigy." It sounds vaguely condescending, and it brings to mind images of pushy parents forcing reluctant children to follow in the footsteps of Beethoven, Mozart and Michael Jackson.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Oct 18, 2002

Conducting a whole tradition of music

When symphony conductor Stefan Nedyalkov first visited Tokyo as a child in 1977, he had a premonition. He awoke in his hotel room one morning, convinced that he would return to Japan someday and live here. He was 11 years old at the time and a member of the children's choir of Bulgarian National Radio....
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Oct 14, 2002

Acute case of linguistic 'disconnectivity'

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- One of the best terms of the 21st century is "global connectivity." Composed of three elements -- (1) entrepreneurial and energetic individuals, (2) the Internet and (3) the English language -- global connectivity serves not only to exchange information and ideas but also to...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 6, 2002

Building bridges by degree

Life was tough for Yanan Shen at his undergraduate alma mater, located between Shanghai and Nanking in China's Chang Zhou area.
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 6, 2002

Yukio Ninagawa: visionary player on the world's stage

Internationally acclaimed theater director Yukio Ninagawa has staged countless plays in Japan, elsewhere in Asia, and in the United States and Europe.
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Oct 3, 2002

New J. League boss to build on World Cup

On July 23, former Kashima Antlers president Masaru Suzuki succeeded Saburo Kawabuchi as J. League chairman after Kawabuchi retired from the post and moved on to take office as president of the Japan Football Association.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 2002

Saving the banking system

The Bank of Japan announcement that it would purchase part of the stakes that banks hold in listed companies has raised question marks among investors.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2002

Give democracy a chance in postwar Iraq

LIMASSOL, Cyprus -- In recent months, the Iraqi debate has played in the news like a tennis match, with observers awarding points to U.S. President George W. Bush for his U.N. speech, then to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein for his shrewd move to admit inspectors "without conditions" -- subject, of course,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 29, 2002

30 years of China relations aired out

Thirty years ago, the late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka normalized relations with the People's Republic of China. Historically, the relationship between Japan and China has often been compared to that between Rome and Greece, since much of Japan's culture (writing system, Buddhism, handicrafts, etc.)...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 29, 2002

Modernism goes East

MODERNISM IN THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST AND JAPAN: 1918-1928, edited by Toshiharu Omuka, Kyoji Takizawa, Yoshiko Tachibana and Tsutomu Mizusawa. The Tokyo Shimbun, 2002, 254 pp., trilingual (Japanese/English/Russian), profusely illustrated, 2,500 yen (paper) In the autumn of 1920, two Russian artists arrived...
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2002

Music of the J-people

Japanese pop music is crap. So say many of my friends, especially the non-Japanese ones. They reach that conclusion after noticing that the charts are full of chipmunk-voiced idols who are long on looks and short on talent -- and whose shelf lives are only slightly longer than sushi.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 29, 2002

When mourning makes straight talk taboo

The shock that accompanied the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, quickly turned into a mood of national mourning that continues to hang over the United States a year later. As a form of social behavior, mourning comes with its own protocol, and in this particular case attempts to place the attacks...
COMMENTARY
Sep 25, 2002

Strengthen Sino-Japanese ties

Japan and China will soon observe the 30th anniversary of their normalization of relations, which took place Sept. 29, 1972. The bilateral relationship was placed on a solid foundation with the conclusion of a treaty of peace and friendship in 1978. Economic relations have since dramatically expanded....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2002

Infiltration dates of suspected abductor confirmed

A North Korean agent suspected of being involved in the 1983 abduction of Keiko Arimoto in Europe entered Japan between 1978 and 1979 when other Japanese vanished, according to sources.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2002

Reform delays discouraging

Junichiro Koizumi was Japan's first prime minister to receive a mandate to push structural reforms by convincing the public that there would be no economic growth without painful reforms. It remains to be seen, however, whether Koizumi will succeed in his reforms. More than a year after launching his...

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