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COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Dec 31, 2002

Don't pay extra for shipping when you move to Japan

Belated greetings
EDITORIALS
Dec 27, 2002

Resuscitate local economies

Japan's economy for 2003 poses inevitable questions. Will deflation get worse or better? How far will banks go to shed their dud loans? If the United States goes to war with Iraq, how will it affect the economy? In these increasingly uncertain times, forecasting is a tricky business. Offering stock answers...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 27, 2002

Roberto Carlos was best player of 2002

LONDON -- As the year winds down we are seeing a plethora of honors being handed out to different soccer players around the globe. Here are my picks for some alternative awards for 2002:
EDITORIALS
Dec 26, 2002

Nuclear blackmail won't fly

Once again, North Korea is playing a game of nuclear brinkmanship. In an eerie throwback to 1994, when a nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula pushed the United States and North Korea to the brink of war, Pyongyang has removed seals and disabled monitoring cameras at nuclear facilities that had been...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Dec 26, 2002

Thirty years of environmental progress, but . . .

Yet another year is tugging impatiently at the sleeve of closure and within days will be history.
EDITORIALS
Dec 24, 2002

Afghan revival depends on security

Sunday marked the first anniversary of the establishment of an interim government in Afghanistan following the collapse of the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime. Earlier this month, Mr. Hamid Karzai, head of the transitional government that took over from an interim administration in June, noted...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Dec 23, 2002

Bleaker times may await the grandkids

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- In four weeks this series will have run for a year, and it will be time to bring it to an end. These last four articles, therefore, will constitute a combination of conclusions and parting thoughts.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Dec 23, 2002

"The World of Peter Rabbit"

A hundred years ago, a naughty little rabbit sneaked its way into a farmer's garden -- and into the imagination of generations of children across the world.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 22, 2002

Trial judge completes the vicious circle in curry-poisoning case

Exactly four years ago in this column, I wrote that, egged on by the media, which had already tried and convicted Masumi Hayashi for murder in the Wakayama Curry Poisoning Incident even before she was arrested, "the police . . . proudly announced that they have enough circumstantial evidence to convince...
EDITORIALS
Dec 20, 2002

A bigger Europe for what purpose?

At a summit last weekend in Copenhagen, the European Union reached a historic agreement to add 10 new members. Expansion will nearly double the size of the union, but it only underscores a long-standing question: What is the ultimate goal of the EU? There is, as yet, no convincing answer.
COMMENTARY
Dec 18, 2002

Pyongyang's dangerous game

HONOLULU -- In the past week, North Korea has attempted to create a crisis on the Korean Peninsula by threatening to restart its frozen nuclear reactor while demanding that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) remove monitoring devices aimed at ensuring that the reactor operates in accordance...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Dec 17, 2002

Getting cash reimbursed for medical costs

We lost one of the anchors of the international community with the sudden and unexpected death of Corky Alexander, longtime Tokyo resident, editor of The Tokyo Weekender and a dear friend.
COMMENTARY
Dec 16, 2002

Britain braces for dilemma

LONDON -- At the speed of an express train, a formidable new dilemma is hurtling toward the British government: how to respond to the prospect of a written constitution that the leaders of the European Union are determined to have. Drafts are already being circulated and will be finalized in the next...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 14, 2002

City of hope for Russian Muslims and Jews

KAZAN, Russia -- It was a time of turmoil in Russia's Tatar Autonomous Republic. In 1994, local officials were demanding independence for the historically Muslim region, and taxpayer dollars were rebuilding mosques that had been converted to warehouses during Soviet times.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Dec 14, 2002

Carol Iwanaga

Carol Iwanaga, an American woman married to a Japanese man, says the Association of Foreign Wives of Japanese is a helpful organization. "I think it is good for any woman engaged or married, or who has been married to a Japanese man, in order to get a better feeling of community while she is living here,"...
EDITORIALS
Dec 13, 2002

High stakes in reducing poverty

In the 2002 edition of its annual "State of World Population" report, the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, or UNFPA, emphasizes that eliminating poverty and reducing the birthrate by raising the educational level of women will curb the population explosion, shrink the gap between rich and...
EDITORIALS
Dec 11, 2002

Moving in the right direction

Never in recent memory has a government advisory group engaged in such a bruising battle of words and ideas. Last week, following a stormy debate that caused its chairman to resign, a commission on privatizing debt-ridden highway corporations adopted a final report calling for a drastic cut in toll-road...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Dec 11, 2002

In search of the real artist-potter Ogata Kenzan

"Sensational art finds are both desired and feared: desired because they become a form of pleasure and capital; feared because they displace something or somebody. Japan has had its share of such moments."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 11, 2002

International ideas take shape in Lebanon

Though the word "symposium" comes from Plato's ideal of a drinking party held to facilitate philosophical discussion, most of us are familiar with its modern usage, meaning a conference or meeting. Few people, however, know about the sculpture symposium movement, started by Karl Prantl in Austria in...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2002

Myanmar's generals allergic to dialogue

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and many world leaders have welcomed the recent release of 115 political prisoners from various prisons in Myanmar. At the same time, many leaders have voiced concerns about the more than 1,000 remaining political prisoners, human rights abuses and the lack...
COMMUNITY
Dec 8, 2002

Mothers under pressure

Recently much media attention has been paid to the rise in depression and suicide among middle-aged men threatened by layoffs. The Yomiuri Weekly, however, reports that stress-related illness is actually more prevalent among housewives (Nov. 24).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 8, 2002

On the night side of life

The last trains have long gone and the stations are shuttered.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 8, 2002

There's cows in them there hills

Even today, most of the "milk" in Japan is soymilk, eaten as tofu. The lactic sort, from cows, may be steadily growing in popularity, but consumption per person is still only around a liter a week, according to government data issued last year.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 8, 2002

Expat writers shoot from the lip

FACES IN THE CROWDS: A Tokyo International Anthology, edited by Hillel Wright. Printed Matter Press: Tokyo, 2002, 254 pp., 2 yen,500/$25 (cloth) "Faces in the Crowds" is a hyperkinetic grab bag that brings work by a cross section of Tokyo's expat writers, and Japanese writers working in English, together...
EDITORIALS
Dec 7, 2002

Controversial Aegis dispatch

Whether or not to send an Aegis destroyer to the Indian Ocean has been a touchy question ever since Japan indirectly joined in the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan about a year ago. The question was settled, officially at least, earlier this week when the government decided, after hemming and hawing,...
COMMENTARY
Dec 3, 2002

Japan must do its part in war

The Japanese government, acting under a special antiterrorism law, decided Nov. 19 to extend Japan's logistic support for U.S. forces for six months through next May. The decision calls for dispatching a transport ship and an escort destroyer to deliver heavy machinery from Thailand to Qatar for airfield...
COMMUNITY
Dec 3, 2002

Ex-pat rugby teams remember a friend

The two top ex-pat rugby sides in Tokyo, the Tokyo Crusaders and the Yokohama Country and Athletic Club, play one another on Dec. 7 for the MacFadyen Cup at the YCAC's ground in Yamate.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Dec 2, 2002

Women's creativity waiting to be tapped

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Several months ago, I mentioned I would be addressing the gender question in a future article. I received several letters urging me to do so. A couple of correspondents, however, argued that the question of women is a purely domestic affair and not relevant to the theme of "Japan...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 1, 2002

A look at the trials of the uprooted

Though so-called international marriages continue to become more commonplace in Japan, the authorities still treat them as glaring exceptions that call for special treatment. If you're not a Japanese national and you want to make sure you can stay in Japan in the event you divorce your Japanese spouse,...
EDITORIALS
Dec 1, 2002

Out of the garret

Here's what the late English poet Philip Larkin had to say 30-odd years ago on the subject of money: Clearly money has something to do with life/ -- In fact, they've a lot in common, if you enquire. . . .

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji