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CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 9, 2003

In search of lost worlds

Most Westerners have heard about the legend of Atlantis, but how many have heard about the lost kingdom of Nan Mador? Like Atlantis, Nan Mador was supposedly as big as a continent, and stretched from Micronesia in the South Pacific all the way to Easter Island off the coast of Chile.
COMMUNITY
Feb 9, 2003

Academy aims to bring out the best

Golfer Shigeki Murayama is just one of many Japanese sportsmen and sportswomen to have flown the coop and set up base overseas in recent years. Like his counterparts in baseball, soccer and rugby, the "Smiling Assassin" realized he could only do so much on the professional golf circuit in Japan, and...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 9, 2003

Yasukuni issue going to the dogs in Japan

When Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was in Moscow last month to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he found he had a little time on his hands. According to reports in several weeklies, Koizumi originally planned to spend one day in the Siberian city of Khabarovsk talking to North Korean leader...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 9, 2003

Life was but a stage for Japan's troubled genius

MY FRIEND HITLER And Other Plays of Yukio Mishima, translated by Hiroaki Sato. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002, 316 pp., $49.40 (cloth), $18.95 (paper). Though he is most famous as a novelist, Yukio Mishima was also a prolific dramatist. From 1949, when his first play was published, to 1969,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 9, 2003

Role models for a changing nation

One welcome exception to the gloomy news in Japan last year was the unexpected awarding of a Nobel Prize in chemistry to an apparently ordinary company worker. Koichi Tanaka's steadfastness, lack of personal ambition and open, nice-guy persona were a refreshing throwback to a less cynical age, and his...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 9, 2003

Caddie rises to big game

Caddies are part of playing golf in Japan. So it is often with relief that Japanese golfers find they are allowed to negotiate a course without strangers in their midst when they play abroad.
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2003

DPJ loses politicians to local races

Several Democratic Party of Japan politicians have either announced plans to run in gubernatorial or mayoral elections or are contemplating doing so ahead of nationwide unified local elections scheduled for April.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Feb 9, 2003

Turning the heat waaaay up in Roppongi

If you've had enough chilling this winter and you could use a little heat, why not get down to La Rumba, Roppongi's latest Latin hangout? And you don't have to wait for the weekend. La Rumba offers dance classes most evenings till 9 p.m. -- an excellent way to warm up.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 9, 2003

Golf: a sport that mirrors the nation

Forget indicators such as unemployment levels and interest rates; there's no simpler way to chart Japan's economic well-being than by tracing the ebb and flow of the popularity of golf.
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2003

Drug-makers look to scrub athlete's foot

Drug makers in Japan are racing to put out new and increasingly powerful over-the-counter medications for a growth market: athlete's foot.
COMMUNITY
Feb 9, 2003

How green is your green?

What a difference a decade makes.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 8, 2003

Injured Onda to miss Four Continents

Yoshie Onda, the first Japanese woman to win a Grand Prix figure skating title, will skip the upcoming Four Continents Championships to nurse her injured right leg, officials of the Japan Skating Federation said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Feb 8, 2003

Wanted: hosts for U.S. troops

MOSCOW -- Foreign-policy alignments have gone mad worldwide. A bizarre diplomatic coalition consisting of Russia, China, France and Germany now confronts the United States, Britain, Italy and Poland. Who could have imagined such a combination just 10 years ago besides readers of political thrillers?...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2003

'Bereavement industry' in flux

Most of the businesses providing funeral and other services pertaining to the dead are mom-and-pop operations catering to local needs.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2003

Karzai to attend Feb. 22 conference

Afghan President Hamid Karzai will make a four-day visit to Japan beginning Feb. 20 to attend an international conference to help establish peace in Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Friday.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2003

Buybacks lift prices of bond futures

Buybacks drove the prices of 10-year government bond futures up on Friday, amid mounting concern over the Iraq situation.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2003

Stricter restrictions demanded for NPO tax breaks

Stricter restrictions should be imposed on the current tax exemption criteria for nonprofit organizations, as many NPOs take advantage of the system and retain enormous profits, a working group of the government Tax Commission said Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2003

Aegis' lack of data separation may turn into legal problem

Data collected by a Japanese Aegis-equipped destroyer in the Indian Ocean cannot be divided into information relevant to the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan and information relating to a possible attack on Iraq, Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba said Friday.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2003

Place your money where your mouth is: Takenaka

Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka called on other Cabinet ministers Friday to buy investment trust products linked to stock market indexes to encourage people to shift their money from savings to investments.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2003

Japan says goodbye to last land mine

By disposing of its last 25 antipersonnel mines Saturday, Japan becomes the 38th country to rid itself of the deadly devices.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2003

Tax, welfare burden to ease: ministry

The burden of taxes and social welfare costs on individuals will probably fall slightly in fiscal 2003, mainly due to tax cuts designed to boost the economy, the Finance Ministry said Friday.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2003

Business service sector suffered in '02

The stagnant economy continued to deal severe blows to Japan's business service industries in 2002, as exemplified by a 6.5 percent decline in billing at advertising agencies, the first decline in three years.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2003

Death and despair await Iraqi civilians

NEW YORK -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's forceful presentation to the U.N. Security Council failed to convince key council members of the need for an immediate war against Iraq. Concern for the consequences of another conflict in the region could possibly explain France, China and Russia's...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 8, 2003

Here's a tip: You don't deserve one, pal

The only woman who has ever chased me was a willowy Japanese waitress who trailed me half a block from her restaurant door.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2003

Justice minister comes out for casinos

Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama proposed Friday the creation of a special law to legalize casinos.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years