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CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2001

To shoot up, perchance to dream

Requiem for a Dream Rating: * * * * 1/2 Director: Darren Aronofsky Running time: 102 minutes Language: English Opens July 7 at Cine Saison in Shibuya An AP report the other day told of a Beijing teenager who jumped four stories to his death while attempting to sneak out to a local Internet cafe. His...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2001

Full-speed ahead into cinematic chaos

Rush Rating: * * Director: Takehisa Zeze Running time: 110 minutes Language: Japanese Now playing at Cine Amuse in Shibuya Takehisa Zeze's "Rush" is a reviewer's ultimate nightmare: a film whose plot is all but impossible to follow, let alone describe. Walking out of the theater, I laughed -- it was...
CULTURE / Art
Jul 4, 2001

Korean imports offer glimpse of a subtle aesthetic

It is not often that such a rare and wonderfully varied collection is put on public view as that currently at the Seikado Bunko Art Museum. This special exhibition, from the permanent collection of the museum, is on display for the first time since 1994.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 4, 2001

The Sherbets

Concert Preview by SIMON BARTZ The day I almost joined The Sherbets was three years back when I stumbled upon my pal Kenichi Nakata in an Ebisu bar. His group was hunched around a table in serious conversation, but he pulled up a chair for me and said, "Meet Benzie, the singer of Blankey Jet City. He's...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 4, 2001

'Brotherly Love': Jack McDuff

Concord has just released "Brotherly Love," the last recording of the great soul jazz organist Jack McDuff who died in January this year.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 4, 2001

The Bordeoms

Concert Preview by SUZANNAH TARTAN Eye Yamataka is a rock god. Not the blow-dried, mincing pop star kind, and not the "significant album every three years" kind, but a Dionysian force of nature -- a latter-day shaman of rhythm and noise.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 4, 2001

'High Seas': Trailer Bride

Album Review by PHILIP BRASOR At first listen, Melissa Swingle's voice sounds like a joke: a fragile, sing-songy bleat that conjures up visions of anorexic country girls who write bad poetry between shifts at the local Krispy Kreme. She encourages this image on stage by wearing bright-colored shifts...
COMMENTARY
Jul 3, 2001

Focus on function, not form

LONDON -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair's new government involves a series of changes in the responsibilities of government departments, some of which have been given new names. This will mean reorganizations of offices involving a great deal of aggravation for those concerned. It seems inevitable...
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Jul 3, 2001

Time for Japan to take a lesson from Seoul

"Are you from Japan?"
EDITORIALS
Jul 3, 2001

A candid meeting at Camp David

There was something refreshing about the Japan-U.S. summit last weekend between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. President George W. Bush -- not only because of the way in which the U.S. managed the meeting at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, but also because, more importantly,...
LIFE / Travel
Jul 3, 2001

Sitting for 750 years in Fukui's mountains

Eiheiji, the "Temple of Eternal Peace," is one of the largest and most visited temples in Japan. Located 19 km northeast of Fukui, the elaborate complex of more than 70 buildings nestles on a hilltop amid a forest of towering cedar trees, many more than 750 years old.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 3, 2001

Swallows consider major move for Ishii

The Yakult Swallows are likely to allow left-hander Kazuhisa Ishii to play in the major leagues next season, one year before he becomes a free agent, club president Yoshikazu Tagiku said Monday.
COMMENTARY
Jul 2, 2001

A more active Japan would benefit Asia

LOS ANGELES -- Alarm bells will start sounding across Asia in August. That's when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi plans to visit Tokyo's most famous Shinto shrine, Yasukuni, which honors not only Japan's war dead since the 19th century but also, inconveniently, convicted war criminals, including wartime...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2001

French success has economists wondering

LONDON -- For Americans who work long hours, get only two weeks holiday a year, and live under a system that defines job security as a socialist vice, the apparent success of the French experiment is a puzzle and an affront.
COMMENTARY
Jul 2, 2001

Japan's roadblock to reform

Is there something wrong with the Japanese mentality? Is it, as some have suggested, unable to coordinate details with overall strategy, to realize that the contradictions between "tatemae" (guiding ideals) and "honne" (real intentions) or approving ideas in general while objecting to minutiae ("soron...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2001

The real backbone of Japan

Japan pays about 2,000 yen for each ton of iron ore it imports. Sheet iron made from the ore sells for 50,000 yen a ton and automobiles built with the sheet iron sell for 1 million yen a ton. The Japanese economy thrives by creating added value in the manufacturing of industrial products from raw materials....
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 2, 2001

Seibu Lions munch on Nippon Ham 10-0

Seibu's Hisashi Takayama and Kazuo Matsui belted two homers each and five hurlers blanked the Fighters as the Lions beat Nippon Ham 10-0 at the Seibu Dome on Sunday.
EDITORIALS
Jul 2, 2001

Yugoslavia bends, justice prevails

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has been handed over to the international war-crimes tribunal in The Hague. He is the first head of state to be brought to the court, where he is accused of committing war crimes during the brutal offensive he launched against the province of Kosovo. The decision...
SOCCER / World cup
Jul 2, 2001

Yanagisawa fires Japan past Paraguay

SAPPORO -- Atsushi Yanagisawa banged in a couple of fine goals to steer a confident Japan team to a 2-0 win over Paraguay in the Kirin Cup at the newly opened Sapporo Dome on Sunday.
COMMENTARY
Jul 1, 2001

U.S. confronts high hurdles in Kashmir

NEW DELHI -- The United States has tried hard over the past five decades to mediate an end to the conflict between India and Pakistan. Lack of success has prompted it more recently to switch from an overt to a quiet, behind-the-scenes role as a peace broker.
SOCCER / J. League
Jul 1, 2001

Hiroyama has a point to prove with Japan

After a disappointing 2000, both with Japan's Olympic team and in the J. League with JEF United, midfielder Nozomi Hiroyama, now with Cerro Porteno of the Paraguayan League, is aiming to prove himself when Japan plays Paraguay in the Kirin Cup. "After being dropped from the Olympic squad, many people...
COMMENTARY
Jul 1, 2001

Tanaka should think twice before speaking

Calm does not seem to prevail in the words and deeds attributed to Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka. She caused a considerable controversy when she expressed the view that Japan should join hands with European countries to persuade the United States not to go ahead with the missile-defense initiative....
COMMUNITY
Jul 1, 2001

Hotfoot it to a temple of cool

KYOTO -- Summer here is especially hot. But a half-hour train ride from the city center takes you to the cool, mountainous town of Kibune. Centered around the Kibune Shrine along a 5-km stretch of the Kibune River (which flows into the Kamo River), restaurants, inns and shops set out their wares.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 1, 2001

Summertime -- and the swimming is easy

In the summertime, when the living's easy but the coast seems just that bit too far away, there's no shortage of pools for a cooling plunge or freshening frolic.
EDITORIALS
Jul 1, 2001

Drivers' rights on the line

Hello, New York! You listening? Welcome to another small corner of the convoluted world of unenforceable legislation.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 1, 2001

Pull me a cold one

When the mercury rises, nothing hits the spot like a cold beer, especially when chugg-a-lugged at a beer hall or an outdoor beer garden.

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