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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 3, 2004

Hard to the theater, landlubbers

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Peter Weir Running time: 135 minutes Language: English Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] In these days of cinematic sensitivity, men just aren't afforded the opportunity to run the...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2004

DPJ lawmaker denies taking aide's pay

A senior lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Japan denied Tuesday he registered as his publicly paid secretary a woman who did not work for his office.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 3, 2004

Once upon a time he made a good film

Once upon a time in Mexico Rating: * * (out of 5) Director: Robert Rodriguez Running time: 101 minutes Language: English Opens March 6 [See Japan Times movie listings] Robert Rodriguez is one of those directors who shot to fame in the early '90s, a fabled time when the words "independent...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2004

Cabinet OKs reform package boasting lay judges

The Cabinet approved a package of bills Tuesday designed to revamp the judicial system, including a bill that would introduce a quasi-jury system under which randomly selected citizens would sit on the bench for criminal trials.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2004

Discriminatory registry of child upheld

The Tokyo District Court said Tuesday that the way the daughter of an unmarried couple has been registered in their family registry infringed on their privacy because it clearly shows she was born out of wedlock.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2004

22% say foreigners' rights secondary to locals'

Foreigners in Japan should not expect to have the same human rights protections here as Japanese, 21.8 percent of respondents in a fiscal 2002 survey said.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2004

Tokyo venture plans to market humanoid robots

A venture business in Tokyo said Tuesday it will market at the end of 2004 a doll-size humanoid robot for roughly 500,000 yen as one of the first humanoid robots to be offered to general consumers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 3, 2004

Edo craftsmanship in full flower

Located in Kitanomaru Park, a famous cherry blossom viewing spot in Kudanshita, central Tokyo, is the National Museum of Modern Art's Crafts Gallery. It seems appropriate that during the flowering seasons of ume (plum) and cherry the gallery should be hosting a show titled "Flower Design." The exhibition,...
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2004

DBJ creates infrastructure fund

The governmental Development Bank of Japan said Tuesday it has established an infrastructure investment fund with Australia's Macquarie Bank that is the first of its kind in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 3, 2004

Realist master on the prowl

Photographs capture the moment -- a second in time frozen on film. And yet, unless you're a Magnum hotshot, this most "real" of media can produce images that seem lifeless, flat and unmoving. As all visual artists know, portraying three-dimensional figures in a two-dimensional medium is extremely difficult....
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2004

FTC raids 40 firms over bid-rigging

The Fair Trade Commission raided more than 40 companies Tuesday in connection with alleged bid-rigging practices tied to public works projects in Niigata Prefecture.
EDITORIALS
Mar 3, 2004

Lapses in halting avian flu

The latest outbreak of avian flu in Japan, at a large chicken farm in Kyoto Prefecture, has come as a shock -- not only because of its magnitude but also because it has exposed glaring lapses in epidemic prevention. In both respects, it is far more serious than the previous two cases that hit earlier...
SOCCER / World cup
Mar 3, 2004

Japan players to receive reprimands for conduct

Seven players from the Japanese national team are set to be reprimanded for violating team regulations by indulging in a drinking binge and acting improperly during a training camp in Kashima last month.
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2004

Secret operations rock Blair's boat

LONDON -- From the moment Tony Blair let it be known that he had decided to send troops to Iraq, his days of smooth government were over. The decision unleashed all the dark forces of suspicion and a sense of illegality that are usually contained by democratic institutions. As the prime minister battles...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2004

Former Toshiba inventor latest to sue

A former Toshiba Corp. engineer who says he invented two types of flash memory sued the electronics giant Tuesday for 1 billion yen over the transfer of patent rights.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2004

Former abductee saw 20 Japanese in North Korea

A South Korean man who had been abducted to North Korea said Tuesday in Tokyo he saw at least 20 suspected Japanese abductees there in the early 1970s.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2004

Three stamps and a can of Coke, please

Soft drink makers will take the unprecedented step of selling their products via uniform vending machines in post offices across the country, industry officials said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 3, 2004

And never the twain shall meet, on canvas

Modernism, which was born in Paris and came of age in New York after World War II, was one of Europe's most successful cultural exports of the 20th century, making it to South Africa, Vietnam, Brazil . . . and Japan.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Mar 3, 2004

Giants' Latham aiming for big season after 'nice camp'

Every baseball fan knows the term "nice catch." But in Japanese sports, the use of the word "nice" to praise just about any fine play has become common.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2004

Japanese troops might be of more benefit elsewhere

WASHINGTON -- After much difficult deliberation and debate, the Koizumi government has decided to send several hundred Japanese troops to the U.S.-led stabilization operation in Iraq. They will be working alongside roughly another 25,000 foreign troops, including just over 10,000 Brits and 3,000 South...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2004

Northrop Grumman chief doesn't expect Japan competition

A U.S. defense industry leader said Tuesday in Tokyo that Japanese weapons manufacturers are unlikely to emerge as major competitors to their American rivals, even if Tokyo lifts its decades-old embargo on arms exports.
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2004

Kumamoto Family Bank threatened with fresh rebuke from government

The government may issue a second business improvement order to the ailing Kumamoto Family Bank, Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka indicated 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