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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Oct 19, 2002

T.W. Sudhakar

"Namaste" is the Indian greeting, traditionally used with a prayerful undercurrent. "Namaste India 2002" is a daylong Tokyo program that, for the last 20 years, has been offering Indian greetings to the people of Japan. Sponsored and supported by several influential organizations of both countries, the...
EDITORIALS
Oct 14, 2002

Victory for the working man

A s Brazil heads into the second round of its presidential election, history looks to be in the making. For the first time since their country became a republic, the Brazilian people appear set to elect a working-class man as president. Although the front-runner, Mr. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has promised...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Oct 13, 2002

Fiery duo take jazz to task

Pianist Satoko Fujii and her husband, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, seem an unlikely couple to storm the citadel of jazz with challenging new sounds. Far from the typical black-clad, scowling and self-absorbed avant-garde artist, they are surprisingly casual -- the kind of people you immediately want to...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 13, 2002

You're never too old to read a good self-help book

The best-seller list currently features three volumes on living and aging well: "Oite Koso Jinsei" (Nothing Is More Human Than Aging), by novelist/politician Shintaro Ishihara; "Unmei no Ashioto" (The Footsteps of Approaching Fate), by novelist Hiroyuki Itsuki; and "Ikikata Jozu" (How to Live Well),...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 12, 2002

Personal fences and Hello Kitty killer

In the spirit of "benri de ii" (convenient and good) I would like to propose some ideas for making Japan a more convenient country.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 10, 2002

Women are the key to conserving Mother Earth

Danielle Nierenberg may work in the shadow of the White House, but she is clearly more enlightened than the man who lives there. At the end of April, the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute released a policy brief written by Nierenberg, a staff researcher. The title of her paper is a succinct statement...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 6, 2002

Takafumi Goda: the man at the helm

As director of the university division of the higher education bureau at the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, Takafumi Goda is at the helm of national policy on university education. Recently, one of his chief tasks has been to oversee long-awaited reforms to Japan's university...
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Oct 2, 2002

Glay strikes the right chord with Chinese leader Zemin

No word on whether Chinese President Jiang Zemin will embark on a new career as a rock star after the members of Japanese pop-rock band Glay presented him with an electric guitar at his official residence in Beijing on Sept. 10.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 2, 2002

Arto Lindsay: He bangs

Arto Lindsay steps onto the stage. In his late 40s, he still retains the gawkiness of an adolescent boy, all long arms and legs. The image of a geek is completed by large horn-rimmed glasses and a pale complexion.
COMMENTARY
Sep 30, 2002

A theory that doesn't work

For the market economy to function effectively, equal opportunity must be guaranteed in all sectors of society. In today's Japan, however, there is no such guarantee. For example, the opportunity for a Japanese person to become a Diet member is far from equal, because many retiring Diet members have...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 29, 2002

Exactly when does old age really begin?

"Put simply, we are having fewer children and living longer," says Michelle Gunn, an Australian journalist and social-affairs writer. Our time is undeniably the age of longevity.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Sep 28, 2002

Plague of smoke and scandal

MOSCOW -- The last few months have been tough on the people of Moscow. The exceptionally hot, dry summer resulted in peat fires in the capital's suburbs.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2002

Japan still key to Taiwan independence bid

In a speech transmitted over the Internet to a gathering of the World Federation of Taiwanese Associations in Tokyo on Aug. 3, Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian proclaimed the island an independent sovereign state whose future should be determined by a popular referendum.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2002

Center caters to Japanese seeking to study abroad

Planning to study abroad but don't know which country or school to pick? Dreaming of overseas study but hesitant about quitting a job to do so?
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 27, 2002

Plenty of reasons to enjoy the predictable pleasures of fall

The Japanese have long described themselves as people who value the solidity of sameness. Anyone who has ever seen "Mito Komon" on TV will know what this means: the same dialogue, the same roles and the same big sword fight exactly 45 minutes into the program, all going on for many decades to general...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2002

Indonesia's poor pay too high a price to receive Japan's ODA

Have you ever experienced a day without food? How about losing your land or losing your culture, or losing your income? The worst is losing your family, or having your sweet daughter forced into becoming as a prostitute because, lacking money and a decent education, she can't find a proper job.
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2002

North Korea may face grilling

Japan may bring up additional cases of possible abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korea if it finds sufficient evidence to back its claims, Foreign Ministry Press Secretary Hatsuhisa Takashima said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Sep 23, 2002

Deflation and the Bank of Japan

I am treating this as a separate topic because several Japanese business leaders indicated to me during my July 2002 visit that they are lobbied hard by the Bank of Japan to accept the BOJ's current position, and that they are very concerned about these issues.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2002

China to catch Japan by 2032: survey

Some 79 percent of Japanese and 59 percent of Chinese people believe China will catch up with Japan economically within 30 years, according to the results of a survey conducted in both countries and released Sunday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 22, 2002

Like it or not

You won't have learned it in English class, but if you have chatted with an English-speaking teenage girl lately, or, better yet, overheard her talking on the phone, you're sure to have encountered it. We're referring to that innocuous little word "like." Not the way the grammar books use it ("I like...
COMMUNITY
Sep 22, 2002

William Tyndale: A martyr's memory heals old wounds

ANTWERP, Belgium -- William Tyndale, the first translator of the Bible into English from its original Greek and Hebrew texts, is making a comeback that -- if not miraculous -- is considered by many to be at least long overdue.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2002

Media coverage of abductions criticized

OSAKA -- Korean residents of Japan expressed concern Friday over what they feel has been excessive coverage by the Japanese media of the North Korean abductions but comparatively scarce debate over Japan's legacy of its colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 21, 2002

Far-out news headlines from the Far East

Sometimes I yearn for lies. Like sensational news items that everybody knows aren't true:
Japan Times
JAPAN / BABY BUST
Sep 20, 2002

Education costs seen adding fuel to fall in birthrate

At age 4, Mari takes swimming, gymnastics, drawing and English-conversation classes. And that's after kindergarten.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 20, 2002

Life is good in Serena's world

Closing in on her 21st birthday, Serena Williams seems to have it all: No. 1 in the world in women's tennis, four Grand Slam singles titles to her credit, 17 victories on the WTA Tour, an Olympic gold medal (in doubles with sister Venus), over $9 million in prize money (plus who knows how much in lucrative...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Sep 20, 2002

Life lessons learned in a township dojo

In August this year, over 3,100 young people from 28 countries gathered at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Tokyo to participate in a Japan Exchange and Teaching orientation program. There to welcome the new JET recruits was Thabiso Kgosana, a South African working in his third year as an assistant language teacher...
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2002

Temp work seen striking happy medium

According to Shinya Sato, an executive director at Japan Staffing Services Association, the CIETT meeting held in Tokyo in April provided momentum to help spur the Japanese temp industry toward further deregulation.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2002

Kim admits abductions

PYONGYANG -- Four of the 11 Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and '80s are alive but six others are dead, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi during their landmark talks on Tuesday.

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