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JAPAN
May 13, 2002

Prosecutors likely to question Togo over travel costs

Prosecutors will question fired Japanese diplomat Kazuhiko Togo over an allegation that he broke rules regarding travel expenses.
SUMO
May 13, 2002

Maru dodges early bullet

Yokozuna Musashimaru turned away upset-minded komusubi Wakanosato and all four ozeki notched easy wins Sunday as the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament got off to an uneventful start.
JAPAN
May 13, 2002

Health ministry confirms fourth case of mad cow

A test conducted Saturday on a slaughtered cow has revealed that it was infected with mad cow disease, the health ministry said.
BUSINESS / ON MANAGEMENT
May 13, 2002

Training for success -- crash and learn

Car wrecks always draw a crowd, as every driver knows, and that's true for the equivalent in business, too. Rubber-necking at someone else's trouble, many executives thank their stars that they're not caught in the pileup; most take the opportunity to remind themselves to be extra careful to stay out...
COMMENTARY / World
May 12, 2002

Voter alienation feeds Le Pen's success

NEW YORK -- On May 5, I voted for a rightwinger. It was my first time, and with any luck it will be my last. I really didn't have much choice. Born in the United States of a French parent, I enjoy dual nationality -- a status that Jean-Marie Le Pen had promised to eliminate had his National Front seized...
JAPAN
May 12, 2002

Aioi faces more reinsurance obligations

Aioi Insurance Co., which lost hundreds of billions of yen in reinsurance contracts as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, faces new reinsurance obligations due to three aircraft crashes earlier this month, industry sources said Saturday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
May 12, 2002

Former top executive attempts to save Japan Inc. with ethics

What is the root cause of corporate failure?
EDITORIALS
May 12, 2002

Harry Potter and the no-show sequel

Where is Harry Potter when we need him? For the second year in a row, the nonappearance of Book 5 of the small bespectacled one's magical doings is throwing readers of all ages into a spring tizzy.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 12, 2002

All right, now here's the skinny . . .

People with list fetishes can get off on the new TV Asahi variety show, "Japan's Best 100" (Sunday, 6:56 p.m.), which each week runs down the Top 100 products, services or ideas related to a given topic. The premiere show covered "all you can eat" restaurants throughout Japan. Perhaps as a kind of rebuttal...
COMMENTARY
May 12, 2002

The ICC's war crimes fantasy

WASHINGTON -- Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger recently visited Europe and almost ended up in the dock for alleged war crimes committed three decades ago. This preview of the operation of the International Criminal Court, or ICC, a U.N. body ready to go into effect after receiving the necessary...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
May 12, 2002

High fives for the best kind of Japanese food

There are five sets of five rules one must consider when attempting to make traditional Japanese food: the five colors (goshiki); the five methods (goho); the five flavors (gomi); the five senses (gokan); and finally the five viewpoints/considerations (gokan no mon), a Buddhist treatise on the proper...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 12, 2002

Chewing the cud with cheap shots at soccer

Here's a confession for you -- a self-insight I discovered just the other night:
JAPAN
May 12, 2002

Man seized in Chinese Embassy in 1998

Japanese police seized a Chinese intruder inside the grounds of the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo in May 1998 and released him after questioning, police confirmed Saturday.
COMMUNITY
May 12, 2002

Straight from the trainer's mouth

Japan's racing world is steeped in tradition. Many trainers are former jockeys or come from long-established racing families. Nobuhiro Suzuki, 42, is one of a new breed of trainer: outsiders, usually highly educated. Suzuki gained his training license in 1997 after working as a veterinarian, groom and...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
May 12, 2002

The song remains the same

Finding Endorphin for the first time was like unraveling a mystery. Word of mouth is an excellent source of leads, but sometimes the modern-myth syndrome kicks in as the word is passed along. The stories I accumulated for what I thought was one little rock bar in Jiyugaoka turned out to be for two bars...
JAPAN
May 12, 2002

DVD firms want 4% patent royalty on Chinese versions

Six Japanese and U.S. companies with DVD-related patents are negotiating with Chinese makers to charge about 4 percent of the price of a DVD player as royalties, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 12, 2002

The free press exercise their muscles

In addition to being Japan's Constitution Day and the United Nations' Press Freedom Day, May 3 marked the 15th anniversary of the unsolved murder of Asahi Shimbun reporter Tomohiro Kojiri in Kobe.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 12, 2002

The complete picture

The late Hiroshi Teshigahara was not only the "iemoto" (head) of the Sogetsu school of ikebana and a noted traditional potter, he was also a film director of international fame, best known for his 1964 picture "Woman in the Dunes." The sumptuously designed DVD collection "Teshigara Hiroshi no Sekai"...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 12, 2002

Are local tracks up against the odds?

There is little glamor at Kawasaki Racetrack. Under grubby baseball caps, cigarettes and pencil stubs are jammed behind the ears of tense punters. The odor of ramen wafts along the betting slip-littered corridors and stairways under the stands.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 12, 2002

Where the finest get on the fast track

Imagine, just for a moment, that you are a horse.
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
May 12, 2002

Brewing it naturally isn't so easy

In recent years, there has been increased interest in organic sake. To legally specify something as organic or organically produced is difficult, at least in countries that have begun enforcing the standards that are needed to ensure safety and quality, as well as the protection of the environment.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 12, 2002

Making each note dance on the wind

In 1968, at the age of 13, Akikazu Nakamura began playing electric guitar. A few years later, he discovered that one of his favorite bands, King Crimson, counted contemporary classical music among their influences. Intrigued, Nakamura pursued this thread and soon discovered "November Steps" by the composer...
COMMUNITY
May 12, 2002

Born to ride -- and to win

Veteran jockey Yukio Okabe is a legend in Japanese racing, perhaps best-known for his partnership with Triple Crown winner Symboli Rudolf. At 53, he is Japan's most senior rider, and has won awards in 27 of his 34 years as a jockey. As national racing's record-holder for number of rides, with more than...
SUMO
May 12, 2002

Takanohana is still star of the no-show

Much of the focus in the runup to the Natsu Basho has been on a rikishi who will not even compete: yokozuna Takanohana.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
May 12, 2002

The smallest jazz club in the world -- or close

At the Hot House jazz club in Takadanobaba, you not only rub elbows with great jazz musicians and intense fans, you also rub shoulders, knees, ankles and hips. To get to the toilet, someone has to stand up (me as it turned out); to get in the door, the pianist has to move his bench; and to get a drink...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 12, 2002

When in doubt, just say 'wakarimasen'

Violent antisocial crimes by teenagers have sent shockwaves through Japan in recent years, hinting ominously at cracks in the very foundations of modern Japanese society. On a more mundane level, older Japanese often find themselves puzzled and annoyed by the everyday behavior of young people, who often...

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan