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JAPAN
Mar 14, 2004

NHK's cancellation of 'Sesame Street' leaves fans in dismay

When word spread late last month that public broadcaster NHK would pull the plug on "Sesame Street" after more than 30 years, loyal fans were shocked.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 14, 2004

Hagimoto set to take over Japan team

Kobe Steel head coach Mitsutake Hagimoto is to take over as coach of the Japan national team, rugby sources said Friday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 14, 2004

Dance magic in the air

Famed at home in Taiwan, and increasingly hailed in Western and other Asian countries, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre wafted ethereally through Tokyo at the end of last month for just four breathtakingly beautiful stagings at Shinjuku Culture Center.
Japan Times
Features
Mar 14, 2004

Key clues pointing back through time

Experts say it is possible for a Japanese person to trace his or her ancestors back about 300 years. Of course, it does require a long paper chase, but the government, which likes to keep tabs on its citizens, has done much of the work.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 14, 2004

The Siamese revolution through the eyes of an 'impartial' Jesuit

HISTORY OF SIAM IN 1688, by S.J. Marcel Le Blanc, translated and edited by Michael Smithies. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2004, 212 pp., 625 baht (paper). This volume is the most recent in the "Treasures from the Past" series published by Silkworm Books Co., a series that deserves credit for bringing...
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2004

Buddha statue probably work of Unkei: museum

A golden Buddha statue on loan to the Tokyo National Museum is believed to be the work of Unkei, a leading sculptor of the Kamakura Period (1192-1333), museum officials said Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 14, 2004

Japanese erotica exposed

FORBIDDEN IMAGES: Erotic Art from Japan's Edo Period, by Monta Kayakawa, (Trilingual: Finnish, Swedish, English). Helsinki: City Art Museum, 2003, 112 pp., 82 color plates, 3,800 yen (cloth). Japanese shunga -- erotic paintings and prints, some of the world's most beautiful -- remain indigenously unknown....
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 14, 2004

India's nukes pose paradox for nonproliferation regime

NEW DELHI -- At the conclusion of their midlevel official talks in Islamabad on Feb. 16-18, India and Pakistan outlined an aggressive timetable for wide-ranging peace talks on Kashmir, nuclear safeguards, terrorism and other topics leading up to talks between the two foreign secretaries in May or June...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 14, 2004

Tomasz Stanko: "Suspended Night"

Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko's newest release, "Suspended Night," is a masterpiece of minimalist beauty. A suite of interconnected compositions, "Suspended Night" simply numbers its "Variations" I to X. The unaffected simplicity and flexible modal structures strip down chords and melody lines to allow...
MORE SPORTS
Mar 14, 2004

Toshiba, Kobe Steel to meet in title game

Toshiba Brave Lupus will be hoping to get rid of an unwanted tag when it takes part in the final of the 41st Japan Championship at Tokyo's National Stadium on March 21.
COMMENTARY
Mar 14, 2004

Elections are not enough for democracy

MANILA -- In most countries, elections attract enormous public attention. This is not surprising as these political exercises constitute the heart of democratic order. Translated into English, the originally Greek word "democracy" means "rule of the people."
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 14, 2004

NHK airs series of national-pension system programs and more

Japanese and non-Japanese train buffs believe that the most pleasurable rail experience in Japan is the Tsubame Super Express, which runs from Hakata Station to Nishi Kagoshima Station along the coast of Kyushu. On March 13, the new Tsubame Shinkansen opened, which runs between Kagoshima Chuo Station...
Japan Times
Features
Mar 14, 2004

Roots

Have you ever considered making your family tree?
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2004

Citizens find Bush guilty of Afghan war crimes

A citizens' tribunal Saturday in Tokyo found U.S. President George W. Bush guilty of war crimes for attacking civilians with indiscriminate weapons and other arms during the U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in Afghanistan in 2001.
EDITORIALS
Mar 14, 2004

Imagining a world without birds

Take a walk in a Tokyo garden -- particularly an undisturbed, crow-haunted one such as the Institute for Nature Study's park in Meguro -- and you might find this hard to believe, but the world's bird population is shrinking. According to a report released to coincide with BirdLife International's quadrennial...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 14, 2004

The evening still young for Rickie Lee

In the CD booklet of her new album, Ani DiFranco says that "art is activism" and therefore it's pointless to try and distinguish them in terms of their effect on each other. But political engagement can often have a stultifying effect on an artist's work. It's easy to fall back on platitudes when trying...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 14, 2004

The twisted terminology in Japan's marriage system

The so-called culture wars that have reignited in the United States over the legitimacy of gay marriage may influence this year's presidential election despite a general feeling that there are more important issues. The problem with gay marriage as a social issue is that both sides work against their...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 14, 2004

Acid Mothers Gong

Daevid Allen's '60s psychedelic group Gong spent a good many of its albums relating the adventures of Pothead Pixies and Radio Gnomes on the peaceful Planet Gong. Makoto Kawabata channels music from outer space into his band, Acid Mothers Temple. Fuse the two together and you get Acid Mothers Gong, a...
COMMENTARY
Mar 14, 2004

Getting Beijing to mind its own business

WASHINGTON -- China routinely vilifies any comment on its political practices as unwarranted outside "interference." Yet Beijing is always ready to lecture America on its policies.
Features
Mar 14, 2004

Worlds of meaning in the naming game

"What's in a name?" Juliet famously asked Romeo in Shakespeare's tragedy of young love doomed because of their families' rivalry.
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2004

Kin of abductees spooked by specter of Kerry in White House

OSAKA -- November's U.S. presidential election will be watched with great interest and concern by relatives and other supporters of Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea, who wonder what implications a Democratic victory might have for their cause.
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2004

More visas proposed for Chinese tour groups

A Liberal Democratic Party panel came up with a proposal Friday to expand the number of visas it gives to Chinese tour groups.
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2004

Record 19% of Japan population aged 65 or older

Japan's population was an estimated 127.619 million as of Oct. 1, up 184,000 from a year earlier, with a record 19 percent aged 65 or older.

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