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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 7, 2001

It ain't easy being green: Irish or just full of blarney?

Each time I grin into the mirror to find a hunk of seaweed wrapped around my teeth, I am reminded of my family background.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2001

Controversial history text under revision

The authors and publisher of a controversial junior high school history textbook being screened by the government are ready to comply with all of the revision requests made by an education ministry panel, sources close to the group said Monday.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 6, 2001

Two perspectives on a gray tomorrow

CARING FOR THE ELDERLY IN JAPAN AND THE U.S.: Practices and Policies, edited by Susan Orpett Long. Routledge: London, 2000. 358 pp., $100. By the year 2025, some 26 percent of Japan's population will be over 65 years old, meaning that society and families will need to cope with the various needs of...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 6, 2001

Carefully controlled exoticism

THE ORIENT STRIKES BACK: A Global View of Cultural Display, by Joy Hendry. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2000, 256 pp., 40 illustrations (16 color). 42.99 British pounds (cloth), 14.99 British pounds (paper). A century ago, the West used to entertain and educate itself with random views of the East. World's...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2001

South Korea's media and transparency

SEOUL -- As so often, one opinion stands against another: South Korea's opposition party has leveled an accusation against the government that by launching a tax investigation of the media it is in effect waging a war against the press. The government retorts that the tax investigation is a routine matter,...
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2001

No quick fixes for Japan's ills

TOKYO and LONDON -- The 17th annual meeting of the U.K.-Japan 21st Century Group -- the bilateral think tank set up by Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher way back in the '80s -- took place this year on Awaji Island in Kobe Bay, island of gods and puppets and,...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Mar 3, 2001

New frontiers for hogaku

Music in Japan tends to be highly categorized. Ongaku is the Japanese generic term for music, but most Japanese understand it to refer to Western music (the word yogaku is more specific). Hogaku (Japanese music) indicates both Japanese music in general or, more specifically, the music of the Edo Period....
COMMENTARY
Mar 2, 2001

Mori's time is running out

There is an increasing likelihood that Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, lambasted at home and abroad as a symbol of political incompetence, will announce a decision sometime this month to step down to end the leadership crisis. This is hardly surprising, given Mori's abysmal performance since he was appointed...
JAPAN
Mar 2, 2001

Researcher publishes third study on toilets

OSAKA -- A 53-year-old civil servant in Osaka Prefecture who has been researching the history of toilets in Japan for more than 30 years has published his latest findings in what he calls "The Journal of Toilet Culture."
JAPAN
Mar 2, 2001

Deep-sea water targeted for next big health fad

Salt water deep in the sea and beyond the reach of sunlight is attracting the attention of local government officials, fishermen and businesspeople who see seawater products as a promising new business.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2001

Admiral gives apologies to families of missing

A special envoy dispatched by U.S. President George W. Bush apologized Wednesday in Tokyo to representatives of relatives of nine people still missing after the sinking of a high school fisheries training ship by a U.S. submarine.
EDITORIALS
Feb 28, 2001

The legal drug menace

We like to think of drug abusers as "them," people other than us. That is wrong, says the International Narcotics Control Board in its annual report released last week. It highlights the over-consumption of controlled drugs in developed countries. And it underlines the culture that makes drug use so...
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2001

Residents fear Olympic bid will be mired in politics

OSAKA -- Osaka residents are voicing hope that their city will be viewed favorably by a group of International Olympic Committee officials visiting this week.
OLYMPICS
Feb 27, 2001

Committee starts inspection of island site

OSAKA -- The International Olympic Committee's evaluation committee began their four-day visit to Osaka on Monday by discussing the city's bid for the 2008 Games with Osaka government and business leaders, and by visiting Maishima island in Osaka Bay.
COMMUNITY
Feb 25, 2001

Top industrial designer to lecture on lunchboxes

The ninth-floor room in Tokyo's Mejiro where Kenji Ekuan receives guests is a perfect reflection of his personality. One wall is stacked with diplomas, photos and portraits, all neatly framed but in no particular order. Opposite, floor-to-ceiling glass shelving is crammed with memorabilia and knickknacks...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2001

'Learned societies' still have a key role

CHIANG MAI, Thailand-- The complex cultures of Asia have always attracted the interest of Western scholars. This is the origin of what came to be later known as "Learned Societies," institutions based on intellectual curiosity and a deep-rooted volunteer spirit.
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2001

Students turn tables on job recruiters

Fed up with the difficulties of securing employment during the continued economic slump, a group of college students have launched an initiative to radically alter the nation's recruitment practices.
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2001

Students turn tables on job recruiters

Fed up with the difficulties of securing employment during the continued economic slump, a group of college students have launched an initiative to radically alter the nation's recruitment practices.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2001

India's barbaric idea of school discipline

Corporal punishment has no place in a civilized society. Yet a recent High Court judgment in the southern Indian state of Kerala recently upheld the legitimacy of this method of punishing a child.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 21, 2001

The other little woman

"Tom-san," she called.
CULTURE / Art
Feb 21, 2001

CWAJ lecture series draws a line

"What characterizes Japanese art is its obsession with lines," says Sumie Jones.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2001

Japan to build supersonic jet

Japanese aerospace scientists will begin full-scale development in March 2002 of a next-generation supersonic transport aircraft, it was learned Monday.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 20, 2001

Charting the landscape of Japan's foreign affairs

JAPANESE FOREIGN POLICY TODAY, edited by Inoguchi Takashi and Purnendra Jain. New York: Palgrave, 2000, 316 pp. $59.95 (cloth). This collection of studies on Japan's foreign policy is edited by Takashi Inoguchi, professor of political science at the Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo,...
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2001

Japan to build supersonic jet

Japanese aerospace scientists will begin full-scale development in March 2002 of a next-generation supersonic transport aircraft, it was learned Monday.

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