Search - works

 
 
EDITORIALS
May 13, 2001

Short guide to a long career

An old man died in Nebraska last week. The event was noted briefly in newspapers across America, and people reading about it over their breakfasts probably experienced two sensations: a moment of surprise and then a rush of wry, affectionate memories. The old man's name was Clifton Keith Hillegass, not...
CULTURE / Stage
May 13, 2001

The makings of an omozukai

Tamao Yoshida is a dominating figure in the bunraku theater of today: A living national treasure, he has a 62-year history as a puppeteer. Onstage, he is elegantly composed, his countenance impassive as he manipulates his puppet with the aid of two assistants covered in black. Offstage, he is vigorous...
CULTURE / Stage
May 13, 2001

Bunraku: No strings attached

Bunraku is a dramatic performance staged with puppets, each of which is manipulated by a team of three men, with narration and dialogue provided by a separate singer accompanied by a shamisen.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 13, 2001

Just what the herbologist ordered

Have ever wondered why sashimi is always served with wasabi? It's not just because they go well together. Wasabi is a powerful sterilizer and reduces the risk of food poisoning.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
May 12, 2001

Hiromi Akatsuka

Tomorrow at 2 p.m. in the Ishibashi Memorial Hall, Ueno, Tokyo International Singers with the L'Esperance Singers will present a concert of French music. The two groups will perform Faure's "Requiem" and Gounod's "St. Cecilia Mass." They will spotlight three soloists, an organist and an electone player....
JAPAN
May 10, 2001

Koizumi rules out tax increases

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told the Lower House plenary session Wednesday that the government will not hike taxes to mend Japan's debt-ridden finances, but will instead try to curb spending and the issuance of state bonds.
BUSINESS
May 9, 2001

Shiokawa rules out leap to austerity

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Tuesday that he will strive to carry out the two-step approach to fiscal reform unveiled this week by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, although he ruled out an immediate shift to belt-tightening policies that could hurt the fragile economy.
CULTURE / Film
May 9, 2001

Crowd-pleasing in Udine

Given the media frenzy over "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," Western interest in Asian cinema may be news, but it's hardly new. Back in 1998, the organizers of Udine Incontri Cinema, a small film festival in a quiet Italian town near the Austrian and Slovenian border, shifted their focus to commercial...
CULTURE / Film
May 9, 2001

Am I the girl you're looking for?

Suzhou River Rating: * * * *Japanese title: Futari no Ningyo Director: Lou Ye Running time: 115 minutes Language:Cantonese, with Japanese subtitlesNow showing "If I leave you someday, would you look for me forever? Your whole life?"
CULTURE / Art
May 9, 2001

The shock of the Nouveau

Like a femme fatale, Art Nouveau has long guarded her secrets well. Were her sinuous lines symbolic or erotic? Did she bring fresh beauty into the modern world, or exploit a fin de siecle taste for the decadent? And why did she suddenly disappear, after a rapid rise to fame?
CULTURE / Film
May 9, 2001

Talent aside, some people were born to dance

Center Stage Rating: * * * Director: Nicholas Hytner Running time: 115 minutes Language: English, with Japanese subtitlesOpens May 12 Ballet lessons (along with violin and piano) are often forced upon us at a certain age and continue until we or our parents throw a major tantrum and we call it quits....
EDITORIALS
May 8, 2001

The real test lies ahead

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday declared that his administration is determined to initiate the hard-hitting structural reforms needed for Japan's "resurrection and development."
JAPAN
May 8, 2001

Prime minister's policy speech

The following is a provisional translation of the policy speech given Monday by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the 151st session of the Diet:
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
May 6, 2001

Zeni Geva, up from the earth's bowels

K.K. Null is a name that conjures up a wicked and cruel nihilistic super-villain that could kick Ultraman's butt before breakfast and polish off the X-Men before afternoon tea. It's the perfect name for a dark lord of the underground, which is exactly what he is.
JAPAN
May 5, 2001

Lack of care in infancy has little effect on kids: study

The popular belief in Japan that an infant's development is curtailed if the mother works is incorrect, according to results of a recent study by a state-run research institute.
CULTURE / Film
May 2, 2001

Generation X

While this month may mark artcore's high tide on Tokyo screens, the wave has been building over the past few years. Here's a quick review of some of the more controversial and boundary-pushing films to have opened here within the past six months alone:
CULTURE / Art
May 2, 2001

Art stripped bare: The Minimalist aesthetic

Minimalism emerged in the United States in the late 1950s, in a reaction to the emotiveness of Abstract Expressionism. Minimalist artists stressed bare geometric form, stripping away colors and textures, and leaving only shapes and lines to create an aesthetic that is still influential today, particularly...
MORE SPORTS / THE DUKE OF HAZARDS
May 1, 2001

Faldo designing plans for the future

Nick Faldo, a six-time major winner, shot 151 (75-76) in the first two rounds of the Masters last month and missed the cut. This means he earned nothing.
Events
May 1, 2001

Baseball fans clear air about stars 'Spaceman' Shinjo, 'boring' Ichiro

OSAKA -- While most of Japan has celebrated the American success of Ichiro Suzuki, baseball fans in the Kansai region are sharply divided in their enthusiasm for the Seattle Mariners newest superstar.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
May 1, 2001

Devolution from concrete to marshland

For years it was a concrete reservoir in Barnes, southwest London. The kind of concrete reservoir that accumulates stolen supermarket trolleys, rusting oil drums, glue sniffers and dead cats.
MULTIMEDIA / TALK OF THE TIMES
Apr 30, 2001

Top JAWOC official says FIFA should have studied local culture

Yasuhiko Endo assumed the post of general secretary of the Japan World Cup Organizing Committee (JAWOC) two years ago, a position that requires all the patience and diplomatic skills he acquired during his years serving in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2001

Technology obscuring Japan's culture, calligrapher believes

For many contemporary Japanese -- both children and adults alike -- everyday life is becoming unthinkable without personal computers and cellular phones.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 29, 2001

Japan's 'grand strategy' for the new millennium

JAPAN'S SECURITY POLICY FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, by Talukder Maniruzzaman. Dhaka: The University Press Limited, 2000, 78 pp., $4. Japan, the world's second-largest industrial economy, often finds itself labeled an "economic superpower" -- a fulsome category that differs from the traditional "superpower."...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 29, 2001

Revisit the glory and the pathos of the 47 ronin

KUNIYOSHI: The Faithful Samurai, by David R. Weinberg. Translations and essay by Alfred H. Marks. Foreword by B.W. Robinson. Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2000. 192 pp., map, pictures, color plates, 12,000 yen. In 1701, one of the feudal lords in attendance to the shogun in the Edo castle was called upon...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 28, 2001

Clothes from heart shaping up for Golden Week

As dusk falls on an unseasonally cold and rainy Saturday, Michiyo Masago is bent over her computer. We meet at her atelier now because she is just returned from Yokohama, and tomorrow she flies to Okinawa -- direct to Ishigakijima, from where she will take a boat to Iriemote.
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2001

Incoming economic ministers promise to work hard

Economic ministers in the newly formed Cabinet of Junichiro Koizumi said Thursday that they will try hard to pull the nation out of its long economic downturn and help accelerate the disposal of banks' bad loans.

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