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LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Mar 10, 2002

A few blooming good wines

The month of March moves us toward spring and the brilliant profusion of cherry trees in bloom. During the gray, damp days on the late edge of winter, we daydream of hanami parties. In Tokyo, we'll play a guitar on a blanket in Inokashira Park, eat sushi rolls under the tunnel of blossoms in Aoyama Cemetery,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 10, 2002

All you can eat and then some

L ately, there has been a lot of news about a certain Japanese politician who profited personally from his interest in Russia. Tonight, on Nippon TV's newsmagazine "Document '02" (12:25 a.m.), we get to see the opposite: Russians who profit from their interest in Japan.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 10, 2002

Can common sense penetrate the food market?

You don't have to be paranoid to conclude that the recent series of food-labeling scandals represents the tip of the iceberg. With the Japanese market continually opening itself wider to food imports, and the government still unable or unwilling to untangle the tight, complicated interrelationships that...
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Mar 10, 2002

Say it loud, big band and proud

On any given night, one full 16-piece jazz orchestra is sure to be playing somewhere in Tokyo. Considering the generally small stages, lack of practice rooms, band members' tight schedules and competition from small combos, it is amazing that big bands regularly pack Tokyo's jazz clubs. But they do....
COMMUNITY
Mar 10, 2002

Swing your (same sex) partner round and round

The shouts of the caller are heard continuously over the country and western music on the sound system. His words, like magic, control the movements of the dancers on the floor. The dancers are arranged in groups of four couples -- leads and their partners, just as in all square-dancing groups. But in...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 10, 2002

Hey, thank you for the delicious feast, baby

"If I should meet thee, After long years, How should I greet thee?"
COMMUNITY
Mar 10, 2002

Shall we sizzle?

At first glance, Koji Kanazawa looks like any other desk-beagle: neatly pressed gray pants, white shirt and bland tie topped off with a bashful, almost apologetic bow.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 10, 2002

Il Pentito: Anyway you slice, it's real Roma

The first thing you see when you walk through the door of Il Pentito is the oven. It's a monolithic, red-brick structure, like a relic from some Industrial Revolution foundry. A massive, dominating presence, it seems to take up half the premises, an impression reinforced by the way the tables are crammed...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 10, 2002

They're simply the bomb

When Ozomatli played on the closing night of Fuji Rock Festival 2000, they emptied out the Red Marquee. The hundreds of safety-pin punks, rag-head ragamuffins, permanent-press mods and glow-stick ravers had disappeared -- last seen following the band. Like a soccer team of drum-toting Pied Pipers, Ozomatli...
EDITORIALS
Mar 9, 2002

The outsider joins the club

Switzerland turned its back on centuries of "splendid isolation" this week and voted to join the United Nations. The decision acknowledges the evolution within the international community since the end of the Cold War and within Switzerland itself. With its historic vote, the country can now play a more...
SUMO
Mar 9, 2002

Takanohana out of Osaka basho

OSAKA -- Yokozuna Takanohana will sit out an unprecedented fifth straight tournament as a grand champion of sumo with the daunting prospect that a prolonged knee injury could signal the end to his illustrious career.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Mar 9, 2002

Democrats challenging Bush on defense

WASHINGTON -- As the month began, Democrats were beginning to question President George W. Bush's handling of the war against terrorism.
SOCCER / World cup
Mar 9, 2002

Manager Eriksson thrives on World Cup pressure

Among the 32 teams competing in the coming World Cup, England will be one of the centers of attention, and manager Sven-Goran Eriksson holds the key to the team's success.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2002

Foreigners turn net buyers

Nonresident investors bought 113.87 billion yen more than they sold last week on the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya stock exchanges, against net sales of 37.93 billion yen the previous week, according to industry figures.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2002

Toyo Shutter to ask banks for financial fresh air

OSAKA -- Toyo Shutter Co. said Friday it will ask six of its main banks for 12.6 billion yen in financial assistance as part of its new restructuring plan.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2002

S&P sees little impact from U.S. tariffs

Standard & Poor's Corp. said Friday the U.S. government's decision to place tariffs on steel imports will not immediately affect the agency's ratings on Japanese steelmakers.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2002

Bank lending falls for 50th consecutive month

Lending by Japanese banks fell 4.6 percent in February from a year earlier, down for the 50th month in a row, the Bank of Japan said Friday.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2002

Takebe to meet Seoul counterparts

Tsutomu Takebe, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, will visit South Korea today and Sunday for talks with his South Korean counterpart, Kim Tong Tae, and Yu Sam Nam, maritime affairs and fisheries minister, the ministry said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2002

Poverty and disease: our deadliest enemies

Consider this: More people died of AIDS on Sept. 11 (and every day since) than died during the terrorist attacks in New York, and over 8,000 people die from diseases every day that are easily preventable by vaccinations.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2002

Sato Kogyo asks creditors for assistance

Failed construction firm Sato Kogyo Co. held on Friday the first meeting of its creditors, asking for help with its rehabilitation.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2002

Fund to fight AIDS set to debut

In an effort to bring the spread of infectious diseases under control, the multibillion-dollar Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will make its official debut at a ceremony in New York next month.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2002

Japan may give up on towel curbs

Japan may not impose emergency curbs on towel products from China and Vietnam, due to a slowdown in imports, government officials said Friday.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2002

Sluggish spending hits service sector

Billing by credit card companies edged up 0.6 percent in January from a year earlier for the second-smallest gain on record, the trade ministry said Friday in a preliminary service industry report.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2002

Fisheries' co-ops to adopt stricter rules on capital

Norinchukin Bank and the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations have agreed to adopt voluntary rules intended to prevent the collapse of fisheries financial institutions by imposing capital-adequacy requirements that are tougher than those applicable to domestic banks, sources close...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 9, 2002

Finding stories behind the headlines for translation

As the founding managing editors of Kotan Publishing, Gavin Allwright and Atsushi Kanamaru are a match made in the heaven and hell of small independent book making. Certainly they could not be more physically different, one so tall, well-meaning and -- dare I say -- well padded; the other small, neat...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 9, 2002

Kasit Piromya

It is still early days for the public to note the Thai Food Festival on May 11 and 12. For organizers Team Thailand, however, time is getting short, especially as this year's festival will be double the size of those of the last two years. The festival aims to strengthen the ties between the peoples...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 9, 2002

Burial, cremation and getting flushed

I have always thought the worst way to die is to get flushed down the toilet. My father used to flush everything: large roaches that might revive themselves even after you had stepped on them, flies buzzing their last break dances on the sink, and goldfish. The first sight of a goldfish listing to one...
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2002

Can stock market continue its rebound?

Tokyo stocks have rebounded strongly in recent days, reflecting an increase in optimism among investors.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2002

Panel urges NTT units to cut access charges

A telecom ministry panel on Friday finalized a report that calls on NTT's regional carriers to cut access charges by more than 10 percent.

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