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EDITORIALS
Jan 22, 2001

Mr. Bush gets down to business

Texas Gov. George W. Bush was sworn as the 43rd president of the United States at noon on Saturday in Washington. Mr. Bush leads a nation that is more politically divided than at any time in its history. He must bring the country together. The U.S. must be united if it is to assume its role as a leader...
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2001

Female Internet entrepreneur prefers company-making to money-making

Back in 1986, Tomoko Namba didn't really know what management consultancy firms did. She just wanted to join a company where she could "work and make money" at the same level as a man.
SOCCER / World cup
Jan 21, 2001

FIFA raps JAWOC over wording

Soccer's international governing body FIFA has ordered the Japanese organizing committee (JAWOC) to stick to the official English order of "Korea-Japan" on documents pertaining to the 2002 World Cup finals, informed sources confirmed Saturday.
BUSINESS
Jan 20, 2001

State still saying economy is on a mild recovery track

The economy remains on a mild recovery track despite a long-delayed upturn in consumer spending and the slowing of growth in industrial output, the government said Friday.
COMMENTARY
Jan 19, 2001

EU overlooking a vital ally in Turkey

LONDON -- The Turkish "problem" is looming ever larger in European affairs.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Jan 19, 2001

An 'islander' finds poetry in the soundtrack of life

Mention the word "art" to the average Japanese pop musician and the response is likely to be a roll of the eyes, a sharp intake of breath and a lot of mumbling.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2001

Kobe remembers '95 quake, but focus shifts to moving on

KOBE -- This city marked the sixth anniversary of the earthquake that resulted in the loss of 6,432 lives with prayers and remembrance services Wednesday, but also with a sense that the temblor is fading into history and that the recovery is almost complete.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2001

Seirai, Horie win Akutagawa Prize

Yuichi Seirai and Toshiyuki Horie were chosen Tuesday evening as winners of the 124th Akutagawa Prize, one of Japan's most prestigious literary prizes, while the Naoki Prize for popular fiction went to Kiyoshi Shigematsu and Fumio Yamamoto.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2001

Pub chain taps retiree workforce

After his tavern went bust, Tadakazu Kachi had nowhere to turn until he had a chance conversation with the elderly owner of a drinking establishment that was thriving.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Jan 17, 2001

Sound the alarm

Ahh, vindication is sweet. Especially when you don't have to toot your own horn. So take a bow, Mark Thompson: You got it in one last week when you identified security issues as anxiety numero uno for Internauti this year.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 16, 2001

A living, dancing tradition

Stories may be universal, but story-telling, as a performance art, just doesn't travel well. Kabuki is universally known among the educated in the West, at least by name, while rakugo remains obscure to all but scholars and a handful of devotees. This is an unfortunate, but seemingly intractable position....
EDITORIALS
Jan 16, 2001

Freedom worth fighting for

Ten years ago, the Soviet government mounted the last furious defense of its crumbling empire. As Lithuanian citizens set up a vigil outside the television tower of Vilnius, the nation's capital, Soviet forces moved to break up the protests with tanks and troops. Fourteen people died on the night of...
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 16, 2001

Time for Ide to stop looking back over his shoulder

The word furimukuto describes the action of looking over your shoulder, as if suspicious that somebody is watching you, or perhaps just to check what's going on around you from all visual angles. Choreographer Shigehiro Ide chose it as the title for his newest dance work at Theater Tram in Tokyo's Sangenjaya...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 14, 2001

Pursuing Japan's great love affair with Toulouse-Lautrec

The Japanese love Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). His art is lively and interesting, and strong Japanese influences can be detected in it. The current exhibition at the Tobu Museum of Art makes much of this mutual admiration, with the French artist's work revealing his love for Japan while the...
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Jan 13, 2001

Pottery with a Korean foundation

A simple fact to begin the Ceramic Scene 21st century: Many great Japanese ceramic traditions of western Japan began with Korean potters.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2001

Adults, kids split on merits of baseball

Shunzo Nagashima recalls his wonder at seeing the New York Yankees in newsreels at a Tokyo cinema soon after World War II.
EDITORIALS
Jan 9, 2001

Ministry shakeup just a beginning

The government reorganization that took effect last Saturday is designed to create an administrative system more responsive to the needs of the times, with politicians, not bureaucrats, taking the initiative in shaping public policy. In the most drastic bureaucratic reform in half a century, the number...
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2001

Primatologist fears for future of greedy, destructive mankind

Over the course of the coming year, The Japan Times will publish on the front page of Sunday editions interviews with people who have unique stories to tell, in the hope that their experiences will provide food for thought on the many facets of Japan.
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2001

'Anime' invade Akihabara's electronics monopoly

The Akihabara district of Tokyo appears to be changing in response to the increasing number of discount computer shops, previously a district mainstay, that have opened in other areas. Considering Electric Town's old reputation as a testing ground for new products, some say the future lies in "otaku."...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 6, 2001

Gentility of famed Wedgwood

Despite fears that England is increasingly becoming an unpleasant and vulgar country with an antisocial yob culture, internationally it is still blessed with an image of civilized gentility.
COMMUNITY
Jan 4, 2001

Pamper your mind and body with sensuous Shiseido magic

The festive season is over for another year, and now it's time to face the aftereffects of too much turkey, plum pudding and alcohol. While the only true way to whip a flabby body into shape is regular exercise, a little buffing and pampering will help boost your spirits and get your New Year's self-improvement...
BUSINESS
Jan 3, 2001

Net provides alternative for job-seekers

Print media and conventional job-placement agencies are still the main players in connecting jobs to seekers, but the Internet is slowly emerging as an alternative.
BUSINESS
Jan 1, 2001

Economy expected to limp toward recovery

The consensus among economists at private think tanks is that the economy will continue to grow, albeit slowly, for the remaining three months of fiscal 2000 and through the next fiscal year.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 1, 2001

Eye-openers for the new year

GREETINGS FROM EROS!: Hokusai and the Erotic Calendar-Print. Richard Lane, bilingual (Japanese/English) text. Tokyo: Kawade Shobo, 2000. Unpaginated, profusely illustrated -- color plates, b/w photos, 3,800 yen. Sending calendar prints as New Year salutations was one of the amenities of traditional...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2001

Wanted: a leadership strategy

Japan has stepped into the 21st century under not-so-comfortable political circumstances. Public approval ratings for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori remain extremely low, and half of the nation's voters say they have no political party to support. While the government has launched one stimulus...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2001

The true meaning of civilization

History shows that on the eve of the collapse of the Roman Empire, its denizens reveled as if they were crazy. Just before Paris fell to German forces during World War II, dressed-up people danced all night at nightclubs in the city. And when the Cuban government of President Fulgencio Batista fell,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2001

A possible Third Way for Japan

During the last decade of the 20th century, Japan's economy stagnated. The recession that followed the collapse of the asset-price bubble (1987-90) hit bottom in October 1993, but the economy remained flat through the end of 2000, with no visible signs of a lasting recovery.
COMMUNITY
Dec 31, 2000

Michinoku Ginko chief banks on Japanese-Russian relations

Talk about a profitable end to the year. Invited to meet a Taisho man -- that is, someone born in the last year of what many consider to be Japan's most liberal period of the 20th century -- I was met in one location to be maneuvered into a taxi and delivered outside another: a nondescript utility block...
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2000

Aum ranks' rights compromised by fear

NAGAREYAMA, Chiba Pref. -- As night falls, all the houses in this quiet bedroom community melt into darkness.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan