Word: boxes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...ones-never mind the old, which may cost more than a suburban house-bear price tags of $15,000. If one suggests that this is steep for a new teacup, however dense with sabi and wabi it may be, one is told that such objects are signed on the box by a noted living tea master. This imprimatur, a fabulously profitable extension of Marcel Duchamp's solitary act of declaring a urinal a work of art, gives the bowl its pedigree and value. Thus the tea implements are snapped up by the rich and fashion-tyrannized...
...makes about $67,000 a year, while a lawyer earns $31,000 and a university professor $29,000. In addition, although their income is taxed, doctors make thousands more on the side from tips that are discreetly passed on by patients. After her operation, the thyroid patient delivered a box of candy with five 10,000 yen bills ($215) hidden at the bottom. Says she: "I was told that's what everyone does...
...manipulates the system," says Columbia Law Professor Michael Young, an expert on the Japanese legal system. "They do not decide on social change." As for less weighty conflicts, family elders often still handle matters like inheritance. Local police stations actively work to resolve neighborhood and domestic disputes (see box). The system of chotei (mediation) handles serious confrontations like divorce by having litigants and their lawyers meet with court-appointed masters who hear both sides and recommend a settlement...
...Make it quick!]" For the two officers stationed at the Ochanomizu police box in the heart of Tokyo, the complaints were typical. Within 15 minutes they had soothed the be reft woman with a promise to be on the lookout for her pet (it was found), lent the penniless youth 560 yen ($2.33) from a special emergency fund in exchange for a signed IOU (four out of five such loans are repaid) and radioed for a patrol car to break up the marital battle. Said Sergeant Shigeo Takahashi, grinning with satisfaction: "You stand here for a quarter of an hour...
Indeed, the police box, or koban, is an integral feature of Japanese existence. It traces its origin to the network of bansho (checkpoints) set up by samurai who protected the populace in feudal times. Today, throughout Japan, there are 15,600 boxes (actually tiny one-room offices set up on street corners), each serving about 10,000 residents. Tokyo alone has 1,244 and considers them so crucial to the public welfare that they are staffed by 15,000 officers, one-third of the city's police force. In addition to their traditional duties of patrolling neighborhoods and apprehending...