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Sep 14, 2003

Sungoliath kicks off Top League with 54-31 victory

The new Top League may have been established to ensure the next generation of Japanese rugby players can compete on the world stage and Hirotoki Onozawa certainly made his mark with four tries -- but the party that marked the launch of the new league was for a time gate-crashed by some of the veterans...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 14, 2003

Television stands test of time

It seems every band that broke up in the decade prior to, say, 1985 has reunited in the past few years to take advantage of whatever shred of nostalgia still dangles from its reputation. Television, the guitar band that emerged from the underground New York scene centered on the Bowery dive CBGB's in...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 14, 2003

That obscure object of trivial pursuits

Last week, I read a review of the new Sofia Coppola movie, "Lost in Translation," on the Web. The movie, which was received enthusiastically at the Venice Film Festival, is about two Americans who strike up a friendship in Tokyo, and the writer referred in passing to the "unfathomable craziness of [Japanese]...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 14, 2003

Standing up to the loan sharks

On the morning of Aug. 13, a 70-year-old Yokohama man hanged himself in his home -- driven over the edge by debt. In total, he owed 17 million yen to banks, consumer-loan companies and even his children and relatives. In addition, 1,120,000 yen of his debt was to eight yamikinyu (loan sharks).
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Sep 14, 2003

Nets want to get rid of Mutombo

NEW YORK -- Alonzo Mourning, the newest member of the New Jersey Nets, hopes he will get the opportunity to play defense alongside Dikembe Mutombo this season on a regular basis like they did as collegians at Georgetown, but it isn't likely to happen.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 14, 2003

The money hole

Kumiko Morita looked down at her cell phone as it began to ring. With reluctance she picked it up and answered it. After listening to the caller, she began to speak -- not in her usual soft-spoken way, but in a loud, forceful voice.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2003

Slumping business hits execs' bonuses

Just over half of the companies responding to a survey did not give executives bonuses for fiscal 2002 as a result of poor business results, according to Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Sep 14, 2003

An evening like any other at the Bolshoi

MOSCOW -- Already the environs of Bolshoi are very telling. Downtown Moscow recently got a cheap face lift, and all its one-time numerous kiosks that supplied the Russian capital with the mercurial atmosphere of a grand bazaar are gone or, rather, have been displaced into dark alleyways and underground...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2003

Counting down to victory, Hanshin fans warned Dotombori River is full of toxic sludge

As ardent Hanshin fans count down to the roaring Tigers' much-awaited baseball title, environmentalists wary of the revelers' ultimate expression of rapture -- a dive into Osaka's Dotombori River -- warn that the waterway is full of toxic sludge.
COMMENTARY
Sep 14, 2003

Shy man performs historic balancing act

HONG KONG -- Because Hong Kong's leader tends to view the news media (local or otherwise) with the enthusiasm of a swimmer greeting a school of sharks, Tung Chee-hwa has scant hope of receiving his due as the historically pivotal man he is. His public image is generally terrible, and he is often portrayed...
COMMUNITY
Sep 14, 2003

Plenty of ways to escape debtors' hell

Lenders loathe him, and Hiroyuki Yagi, Buddhist monk-in-training and president of consultancy Central Research Institute, Inc., loves this reputation.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 14, 2003

Uncovering lost worlds of Japanese film

RECALLING THE TREASURES OF JAPANESE CINEMA: Japanese Film History Studies, edited by Friends of Silent Film Association, supervised by Matsuda Film Productions, preface by Tadao Sato. Tokyo: Urban Connections, 2003, 200 pp., with photos, 1,800 yen (cloth). With movies so ubiquitous it is easy to forget...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 14, 2003

From West to East: Ian Buruma casts his light on the making of modern Japan

INVENTING JAPAN: 1853-1964, by Ian Buruma. New York: The Modern Library, 2003, 194 pp., $19.95, (cloth). This is a satisfying hors d'oeuvre that awakens readers' intellects while whetting their appetite for more substantial fare. It is a quirky, opinionated and selective narrative redolent of what is...
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2003

Japan mulls billions in Iraq aid

Japan is considering pledging several billion dollars in reconstruction aid for projects in Iraq that are running behind schedule due in part to the worsening security situation there, government sources said Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 14, 2003

Poetry: a language without borders

KIYOKO'S SKY: The Haiku of Kiyoko Tokutomi, translations by Patricia J. Machmiller & Fay Aoyagi. Illinois: Brookes Books, Decatur, 2002, 128 pp., $16 (paper). SELECTED HAIKU, by Takaha Shugyo, translations by Hoshino Tsunehiko & Adrian Pinnington. Tokyo: Furansudo, 2003, 108 pp., $16 (paper). These two...
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2003

Brain-damaged patients bounced, shaken to live music

The high-pitched sound of an alto saxophone accompanied by an electronic piano resonated in the examination room, replicating the tunes often heard in pachinko parlors, while a semiconscious patient lay in bed.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2003

Panel eyes crackdown on young delinquents

A government panel on juvenile delinquency met Friday to sum up a report suggesting that police be given more powers to investigate crimes by children under 14 and that the minimum age for sending juveniles to reformatories be lowered from 14.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2003

598 Japanese abandoned in China after war to sue government this month

Another 598 Japanese who were abandoned in China at the end of World War II will sue the government later this month, bringing the total number of plaintiffs seeking compensation to more than 1,200 -- about half of the roughly 2,400 war-displaced orphans who have returned.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2003

Alleged train molester dies on tracks

A man being taken away Friday by railway officials at Tokyo's Ueno Station after a woman commuter accused him of molesting her was killed after he jumped onto the tracks in an attempt to escape, the police said.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2003

Survey sees Koizumi winning LDP race without a runoff

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is likely to be re-elected president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on the first vote, a Kyodo News poll showed Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2003

African nations hold fair

The Tokyo embassies of nine countries in southern Africa on Friday launched a 10-day promotional fair at a Tokyo hotel aimed at showcasing their region's industry and culture.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2003

Japan opposes latest Israeli decision

Japan on Friday came out against Israel's decision to oust Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, saying the move will only escalate the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2003

Justice Ministry reports first death row hanging of 2003

The Justice Ministry on Friday reported the execution of a death-row inmate, a scenario that may provoke criticism both domestically and abroad.

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