People | CLOSE-UP Oct 4, 2009

Mamoru Mohri: A spaceman speaks

by Edan Corkill

When future historians document the story of Japanese space exploration, 2009 will likely figure as the year when the nation put two high-profile rocket launch failures, in 1999 and 2003, firmly behind it and, quite literally, took off. In June, the nation's first blueprint for ...

Donald Keene: A life lived true to the words

People | CLOSE-UP Sep 6, 2009

Donald Keene: A life lived true to the words

by Eriko Arita

Donald Keene is one of the greatest scholars of Japanese literature and has been highly influential in the establishment of Japanese studies in the West. Now aged 87, the Professor Emeritus of Columbia University in New York has published around 25 books in English, comprising ...