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EDITORIALS
Nov 20, 2004

Keep the assistance flowing

Four weeks have passed since the Niigata-Chuetsu Earthquake struck. The good news is that reconstruction is making progress. Schools in the disaster zone have resumed classes, the Kan-etsu Expressway has reopened to traffic, and the region's well-known sake breweries have started shipping again. The...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 20, 2004

Hula dance teaches sexuality, spirituality, respect

"I was around 5 (years old) when my mother and grandmother taught me the basics of Hawaiian hula, steps called 'ka-holo.' I've loved it ever since," says Keisuke Yasuda.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Nov 18, 2004

Bush-Kerry presidential contest was one for the textbooks

WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush's re-election victory was a masterpiece of political strategy and execution by the Bush campaign team. There has been a feeling of relief throughout the nation that:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 17, 2004

A new world order in a school gym

British sculptor Antony Gormley (born in London in 1950) is one of the foremost sculptors of his generation. A winner of the Turner Prize in 1994, Gormley is a conceptual artist working in a physical medium: He revitalized the sculptural vocabulary of the human form to articulate the universal abstract...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Nov 15, 2004

The importance of questioning fearlessly and answering honestly

"Any damn fool can answer a question. The important thing is to ask one."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 13, 2004

How mum juggles racing, soccer, K1, Portugal

Last Tuesday, Sonia Ito is busy with household chores in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture. Early evening she leaves husband Yuta with 2-year old daughter Julia and catches the train for Tokyo. By 7:30 p.m. she's seated on a purple "zabuton" in Fuji TV's headquarters at O-Daiba, recording the soccer program...
EDITORIALS
Nov 10, 2004

Tension rises in southern Thailand

Unrest continues to grow in southern Thailand. Long-standing grievances are being compounded by government bungling, insensitivity and negligence. Now, even Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra concedes that violence is likely to increase. A failure to properly respond to Muslim complaints will guarantee...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 9, 2004

Peru cash crop quest bears fruit

It was more than 20 years ago that Takayuki Suzuki packed his bags and moved to Peru.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 7, 2004

Comedian Shinsuke looks to be at wits' end

Social distinctions related to class, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation that mean a lot in everyday life tend to mean less in the world of show business. Indeed, it's one of the few places where the normally dispossessed can expect an even break, especially in Japan.
JAPAN
Nov 6, 2004

Japan's prisons bursting at the seams

The nation saw 61,534 people incarcerated as of the end of 2003, topping the 60,000 mark for the first time since 1960.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Nov 1, 2004

Japan now must ponder extending SDF mission

The tragic end to the Shosei Koda hostage crisis may influence Japan's policy of deploying its ground troops in Iraq, especially as their one-year mission will soon expire, officials and analysts say.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 31, 2004

Sweeping view of socio-economic change and continuity in China for a half-century

HUMANISM IN CHINA: A Contemporary Record of Photography, edited by Wang Huangsheng and Hu Wugong. Guandong: Lingnan Meishu Chubanche, 2003, 488 pp., $40 (paper). China is a society in the midst of sweeping socio-economic convulsions that are rapidly and drastically altering the lives of its citizens....
EDITORIALS
Oct 31, 2004

Resounding victory for Afghanistan

Mr. Hamid Karzai, the interim leader of Afghanistan, has won that country's first presidential ballot. The election is a momentous accomplishment for Afghanistan, a country that has been torn by war for decades. Mr. Karzai's win is a victory for him personally, but it is also an incalculable victory...
BUSINESS
Oct 29, 2004

Deadly quakes unlikely to devastate insurers

The deadly earthquakes in Niigata Prefecture caused catastrophic landslides and destroyed buildings, but they will not cause much damage to nonlife insurance firms because their high reserves and the state's financial safety net will protect them, according to insurance specialists.
EDITORIALS
Oct 28, 2004

Dealing with a murderous past

The 1970s in Cambodia is described as one of the darkest periods in modern history. That was when the Communist Pol Pot regime, or the Khmer Rouge, exterminated nearly 2 million people during its rule from 1975 to 1979. Now, a quarter of a century since the regime collapsed, some of its former leaders...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2004

Bleak outlook for Myanmar democracy

After days of speculation over the fate of Myanmar Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt, the country's official media announced that he was permitted to retire for health reasons. The reasons given were usual for someone who had been removed from the inner circle.
JAPAN
Oct 23, 2004

Mushrooms kill four in October

At least four people died this month after eating "sugihiratake" mushrooms, health officials said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 23, 2004

Ministers visit regions bludgeoned by typhoon

Several government inspection teams led by ministers and vice ministers went on a day trip Friday to inspect areas hit hard by powerful Typhoon Tokage.
BUSINESS
Oct 20, 2004

Consumer sentiment seen at highest level in eight years

Sentiment among consumers continued to improve in September, hitting an all-time high since the data first was compiled in March 1996, the Bank of Japan said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Oct 19, 2004

108 active volcanoes keep agency shaking

A recent series of eruptions at Mount Asama that began last month is the latest reminder that Japan is a country of volcanoes.
EDITORIALS
Oct 18, 2004

Two years after the bombings

Last week marked the second anniversary of the terrorist bombings that killed hundreds of tourists and Indonesians in the vacation paradise of Bali. That tragedy was a wakeup call to Southeast Asia about the dangers lurking within the region, a call to which governments have only slowly responded.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2004

Top court holds state to account for Minamata

The Supreme Court on Friday held the state responsible for the spread of Minamata disease after January 1960.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Oct 16, 2004

Karen Sieg

"What I find most impressive about Tokyo International Players is that the organization has been active for 108 years, and is run completely by volunteers," said Karen Sieg. "When the international community is so transient, it is amazing to me that a small group of people with love of theater has continually...
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2004

10 million have missed pension payments, audit finds

Some 10 million people -- roughly 45 percent of those registered with the National Pension System -- failed to pay at least one month of premiums in fiscal 2002 or fiscal 2003, the Board of Audit said Sunday.
COMMENTARY
Oct 11, 2004

New mindset is the only salve

Japan-China relations are in trouble, again. The latest recriminations began with the fierce booing of a Japanese soccer team in Chongqing in July of this year. Few of Japan's many indignant commentators seemed to know that this large central China city had been the defenseless target of relentless Japanese...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 10, 2004

South African culture reclaimed in 'Umoja'

Born as a black person under apartheid, growing up in an extremely poor family with eight siblings, having a baby out of wedlock at age 16 -- this is surely a hard life to lead. But South African dancer and choreographer Todd Twala has lived it, and has proved that one can rise above hardship. The musical,...

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past