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COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2005

Too soon to let computers replace university libraries

at Houston has announced that it is removing almost all the books from its undergraduate library to provide space for a digital learning center, where students can use computers to access a wide variety of information. University officials are proud to be leading a trend. It is good to see academia catching...
EDITORIALS
May 24, 2005

Breaking the legislative logjam

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's campaign to privatize the postal-services system has entered a crucial stage now that the Lower House has set up an ad hoc committee on government-sponsored privatization bills. The establishment of the panel attests to the prime minister's resolve to get the package...
COMMENTARY
May 24, 2005

Power politics ensnare reform

NEW DELHI — Sixty years after its establishment, the United Nations is at a crossroads, its future direction and authority uncertain, even as it struggles with the diminution of its role in world affairs. Reforms are essential to revitalize the U.N.'s role, shore up its legitimacy and make it politically...
BUSINESS
May 24, 2005

Insurers pay the price for last year's typhoons

Due to record natural disaster-related claims caused by the unprecedented number of typhoons last year, Japan's three largest nonlife insurers on Monday reported sharp drops in fiscal 2004 profits.
COMMENTARY
May 23, 2005

Getting doctors off the habit

In February, the framework convention on tobacco control came into force, marking another milestone in the international antismoking movement. Japan has ratified the convention but is making only halfhearted efforts at tobacco control, frustrating antismoking activists ahead of No Tobacco Day on May...
COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 2005

Chinese protests stiffen Japanese resolve

The Law of Unintended Consequences has been at work again, this time in the intense Japanese reaction to the Chinese demonstrations last month against Japan, some of them violent. In a word, the eruption in China has backfired in Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 22, 2005

Seeds of employment

There, in the heart of the concrete jungle that is Tokyo's Otemachi financial district, in the second-floor basement abyss of a 27-story building, is nothing less than . . . a farm.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 22, 2005

Rambo comes marching home

"I broke down on the flight back from Vietnam, went crazy, shouting, screaming. It took several men to restrain me. . . . For years it was all I could think about, going home. Then when it finally happened, I snapped."
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 22, 2005

Clifton Karhu's years in print

KARHU @ 77: A Personal Tribute, by Mary and Norman Tolman, bilingual text: English & Japanese. Tokyo: Abe Publishing, Ltd., 2004, 124 pp., 77 full-page color prints, 6,500 yen (cloth). Last November Clifton Karhu, Japan's most famous foreign resident artist, turned 77 years of age, and his dealer, Norman...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
May 15, 2005

Long overdue interleague action playing to good reviews

The concept of the koryu-sen (interleague play) in Japanese baseball is getting great reviews so far from players, fans and media members. Typical comments from participants are, "We should have been doing this 10 years ago" and "It's great to see some different ballparks and towns for a change."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 15, 2005

Little Barrie

The importance of the less-is-more principle waxes and wanes in popular music, but Little Barrie, a new power trio from England, seems to understand it better than most rock minimalists do these days. Though the group refers to its sound as "stripped-down," they're only talking about the instrumentation...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
May 15, 2005

No laughing matter

O n the stage, Charlie Chaplin was known as the tramp who made millions laugh without saying a word. But in his heart of hearts, it seems the great comic wanted to be a statesman whose words could change history.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 15, 2005

Composing with an eye on the big picture

The Aichi Expo, with its theme on "Nature's Wisdom" and its pavilions packed with technological wonders, obviously sees no irony in its situation. This contradiction may be highlighted, however, when composer Philip Glass brings his ensemble to perform the music of "Koyaanisqatsi." Directed by Godfrey...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 15, 2005

The great corporate escape: Blame it on the factotums and avoid responsibility

The news media's breathless coverage of the train derailment in Amagasaki that claimed 107 lives last month operated on several levels. On one level was an investigation into the details of the accident itself. On another was the coverage of victims and their families. And on a third was the gradual...
BUSINESS
May 14, 2005

'Indoor dogs' on rise as small pets become part of the family

"Beware of Dog" signs are becoming increasingly rare as a growing number of people choose to keep their pets inside with them and not outside to guard the house.
EDITORIALS
May 13, 2005

Revitalizing the startup spirit

Small businesses play an important role in creating jobs and invigorating markets. Since the mid-1990s, however, the number of small-business startups has declined, according to this year's white paper on small and medium-size enterprises. The question is how to reverse the trend. The report calls for...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 13, 2005

A Tokyo hotline to Bangkok

Hyakunincho, Tokyo's most polyglot district, is only a two-minute train ride from the heart of Shinjuku, but it almost feels like leaving the country. In the 1980s, when Southeast Asian food was still a novelty in other parts of town, this was where we came to forage, lured by the exotic perfume of lemongrass,...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 12, 2005

Fetuses found to inherit mother's trauma

Stress can motivate us, but it can also get us down. And though it might just make us feel blue, it can also kill us. It depresses levels of sex hormones and people stressed by deadlines are more likely to suffer heart attacks.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 12, 2005

Brown-eared bulbul

* Japanese name: Hiyodori * Scientific name: Ixos amaurotis * Description: These are medium-size songbirds that grow to about 28 cm long. They are mainly olive brown with a white face and eyebrow, throat and belly; they have a small crest. The bill, feet and eyes are black. Males and females look...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 11, 2005

The eternal flamenco

The fiery folk art of flamenco is more than just a dance -- it's an entire culture. And that culture -- the dances, songs, guitar-playing and rhythms -- are all fueled by the mysterious spirit of duende.
BUSINESS
May 11, 2005

BOJ to retain 5.5 billion yen to cover Yamaichi loan loss

The Bank of Japan on Tuesday asked the finance minister's approval to place 24.9 billion yen in legal reserve for fiscal 2004, including 5.5 billion yen in connection with special loans to the now-defunct Yamaichi Securities Co., to maintain the central bank's financial soundness, the BOJ said.
BUSINESS
May 10, 2005

Chairman quits but JAL is back in black

Japan Airlines Corp. said Monday that Isao Kaneko will resign as both chairman and board member at the end of this month and become an adviser to the company.
BUSINESS
May 10, 2005

McDonald's profit rockets 79%

McDonald's Holdings Co. Japan said Monday its operating profit for the first quarter jumped 79 percent to 3.01 billion yen, as it lured back customers by opening many outlets earlier and making operational improvements.
COMMENTARY
May 9, 2005

Relax, war unlikely in Asia through 2008

LOS ANGELES -- We here in the West -- despite our ritualistic (and sometimes loud-mouthed) advocacy of democracy -- do appreciate the decision of the people in charge in Beijing to clamp down on those anti-Japanese protests, clear out the streets, order people to get out of those incendiary anti-Tokyo...
EDITORIALS
May 8, 2005

Mr. Blair's historic victory

The Labour Party of British Prime Minister Tony Blair won a third consecutive parliamentary election on Thursday. The victory is vindication for Mr. Blair, although he has been wounded by the results: His parliamentary majority is much reduced. The key question is how much time the prime minister has...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 8, 2005

TV show scrapes bottom of barrel in bringing Asia to Japan

One of the hoariest cliches of international politics is the idea that governments only have beefs with other governments, not with their citizens. The tragic irony is that the citizens suffer anyway. Maybe the majority of Iraqi people didn't like their tyrant, but one has to wonder how much they accept...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
May 7, 2005

Adrienne Westmore

Audiences at the dramas presented by Tokyo International Players exclaim at the costumes the actors and actresses wear on stage. Period costumes invite special praise and wonder. How is it possible for a volunteer organization to put on shows with people so authentically and richly dressed? The answers...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
May 5, 2005

Swallow tales to silence those who speak with forked tongues

It was 1969, and I was driving our open-topped Mercedes Unimog to Asmara to get some building supplies and other gear not available in Gondar, the nearest town to the Simien Mountain National Park in Ethiopia where I was then a game warden.

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