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BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 18, 2001

Lasorda not doggin' it in Osaka

Tommy Lasorda gets around. On Sunday, July 8, the 73-year-old former Los Angeles Dodgers manager was at the Osaka Dome, "producing" an American ballpark event for the Kintetsu Buffaloes, wolfing down some Dodger Dogs and doing a TV interview. Two days later, "Tumblin' Tommy" was coaching third base for...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 18, 2001

Spotlight thrown on a killing trade

At the United Nations headquarters in New York, a July 9-20 conference is examining "The Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects." Meanwhile, at the UN Gallery in Tokyo's trendy Omotesando, an exhibition reflecting the grim realities of that subject is running until Aug. 31....
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 18, 2001

Soaring spectacle crowns classic kabuki triple bill

He's known as the champion of Super Kabuki, but for his two-part summer program at the Kabukiza Theater in Tokyo this month, Ennosuke Ichikawa is staging regular-style productions of a new one-hour play, "Kaka Saiyuki," and "Shunkan," adapted from part of Chikamatsu Monzae- mon's 1719 bunraku play "Heike...
SOCCER / J. League
Jul 18, 2001

Lazaroni for Marinos

Yokohama F. Marinos have agreed on a deal with former Brazil national coach Sebastiao Lazaroni to become manager of the struggling J. League first division side, Yokohama officials said Monday.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 18, 2001

Edith Frost: 'Wonder Wonder'

As an artistic reference point, the music of Will Oldham -- he of the deathly pale complexion, tubercular Appalachian croak and sex-unto-death lyrics -- might teach you something valuable about mood and atmosphere, but you'd have to be crazy to copy his execution. Even Oldham himself has managed a few...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 18, 2001

Brushes with the divine

Karma works in mysterious ways.
CULTURE / Art
Jul 18, 2001

Painting all the layers of knowledge and color in the Buddhist universe

'There is no room for originality in thangka painting," says Yumyo Miyasaka. "The iconography, the colors, even the way you hold the brush -- everything must be done just so." Self-expression is not the goal here; the pictures are an aid, a tool for meditation. The self is what you are trying to lose....
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 18, 2001

Kei Akagi

Kei Akagi's newly released CD, "Palette," on the Videoarts Music label, uses the often overdone piano trio format for powerful explorations. While many pianists range across styles because they have no sound of their own, Akagi plays with a consistent voice that is strong enough to express itself in...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2001

Nation better off if Kawashima remains

I am probably the only person in Japan who will say this at the moment, and I suppose that what I am going to say will fall on deaf ears. But I will say it anyway: Administrative Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Yutaka Kawashima should not be removed from his post. If he is, the sacking is sure to be...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 18, 2001

Nature not nurture links Japan and Art Nouveau

Anyone writing about Art Nouveau here in Japan is expected to deferentially mention the strong Japanese influences on this late 19th-century art and design movement. Indeed, the exhibition now at Shibuya's Bunkamura of furniture and glassware from the important French Art Nouveau center of Nancy goes...
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Jul 18, 2001

Taking the F-beat pulse

A favorite expedient of music-writer types is to write about a given city's "sound," lumping all the music that comes out of the city under one neat, convenient heading. We then explain what constitutes that sound and why it is The Next Big Thing, in an effort to establish ourselves as arbiters of what's...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 18, 2001

A breakfast to blow your mind

I recall reviewing a group exhibition at an embassy gallery last year and referring to it as a "hodgepodge" of styles and media. So incensed were the amateur curators that they fired off a complaint to the paper protesting the use of the word. When the husband of one of them caught up with me in public,...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 18, 2001

The Beta Band: 'Hot Shots II'

The Beta Band is one of those cool artsy bands and if you like them then you must be pretty "cool" too. At gigs -- which are always attended by stacks of graphic designers, artists and French people -- home videos are played of band members doing really weird stuff like eating birthday cakes and falling...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 18, 2001

Top ceramic artists take a final bow

The 38th Asahi Ceramic Art Exhibition's grand prix-winning work looks as if the top is going to snap off at any moment and destroy the piece. Yet it defies gravity, frozen in time by fire.
EDITORIALS
Jul 17, 2001

An Olympic win for China

China exploded in celebrations last Friday night when the International Olympic Committee awarded Beijing the right to host the 2008 Games. The rest of the world's reaction was more reserved. While millions of Chinese rejoiced, human rights advocates voiced concern that the Games would be used to put...
COMMENTARY
Jul 17, 2001

Political parties prepare for judgment day

Political parties in Japan are in the midst of a campaign to lure voters in the July 29 Upper House contest. The election, officially called last Thursday, the first nationwide poll since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's goverment was formed in late April, will be the first chance for the nation to...
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Jul 17, 2001

Cohosting requires harmonious effort

"Cohosting is like a three-legged race," Lee Yun Taek, co-chairman of the South Korean World Cup Organizing Committee said last month at the Korea-Japan soccer journalists seminar in Seoul.
COMMENTARY
Jul 17, 2001

In search of a new slogan

"Are you an American?""Yes!""What did you think about last night's decision on the Olympics?"
LIFE / Travel
Jul 17, 2001

Peak experiences hiking the Japan Alps

KAMIKOCHI, Nagano Prefecture -- In his novel "The House of Nire," Morio Kita writes, "In the already fading light the linked peaks of the Alps were solid and harsh, all ranged there in the early dusk like a huge folding screen."
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2001

A bitter lesson awaits Bush in Genoa

WASHINGTON — The G8 summit beginning July 20 in Genoa, Italy — U.S. President George W. Bush's first such meeting with the leaders of the eight principal industrial nations — is shaping up as another galling reality lesson for the new American administration, a reminder of the frustrations of global...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2001

Can Japan's 'pied piper' pull it off?

In July 2001, two very different people offer hope to the people of Japan. One is baseball player Ichiro Suzuki, the star of the Seattle Mariners. His cool looks and great hits suggest the possibilities of the sporting dream across the sea. The other is Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, with his wavy...
COMMENTARY
Jul 16, 2001

Just concerns over jurisdiction

LONDON -- In the light of the recent rape case in Okinawa, I have some sympathy for the Japanese wish to extend further their rights to exercise full criminal jurisdiction in cases involving American forces in Japan. The American authorities need to understand the historical background to Japanese sensitivities...
EDITORIALS
Jul 16, 2001

Aid and ethics must go hand in hand

The man who was called Peru's Rasputin is back behind bars. Mr. Vladimiro Montesinos, who backstopped former President Alberto Fujimori during his decade in office, has been caught in Venezuela after 10 months on the run and whisked to Lima. His life in exile was much like his years as Mr. Fujimori's...
COMMENTARY
Jul 16, 2001

Avoid temptation of populism

The July 29 Upper House election is effectively a national referendum on the "reform without sacred cows" program of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration. The central question is whether "Koizumi reform" will jump-start Japan's stalled economy and put it back on the long-term recovery course....
SOCCER / J. League
Jul 16, 2001

Ono leaves home on a winning note

SAITAMA -- Shinji Ono, playing in his final home game before moving to Dutch club Feyenoord, struck the tie-breaking goal in the second half as the Urawa Reds beat JEF United Ichihara 3-1 on Saturday night.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 16, 2001

Nakamura's home run lifts Buffaloes over 'Wave

Norihiro Nakamura hit a solo home run in the fourth inning to break a 1-1 tie and give Kintetsu the lead for good as the Buffaloes romped over the Orix BlueWave 7-1 Sunday at the Osaka Dome.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic