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SOCCER / World cup
Dec 22, 2001

Huge financial windfall predicted from World Cup

Next year's World Cup soccer finals, to be cohosted by South Korea and Japan, could generate economic benefits of up to 3.6 trillion yen if Japan wins the tournament, two private research institutes said Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2001

How do you say Glay in Chinese?

Charismatic rock group Glay is embarking on a mission that even the gray generation of Japanese leaders think very difficult, if not impossible: to fine-tune the country's often rocky ties with China and keep them humming along.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 21, 2001

Kataoka to join Tigers

Free-agent and veteran infielder Atsushi Kataoka said Thursday he has agreed to join the Hanshin Tigers for next season after completing four rounds of talks with the Osaka club, although details of the deal were not disclosed.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 2001

War 'back home' divides Jordan's Chechen community

ZARQA, Jordan -- When the wounded Chechen fighters arrived in Jordan in 1994, everything changed for Younis Ashab.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 20, 2001

Extra-terrestrial squid seen in the abyss

The world's largest ecosystem? Not the Amazon rain forest, nor the Great Barrier Reef. It is the abyss.
ENVIRONMENT
Dec 20, 2001

Concern over threat to rare blue corals

Ancient and complex, the rare blue coral reef of Shiraho, Ishigaki Island -- part of the Ryukyu island chain, Japan's southernmost -- is one of the world's biggest and perhaps oldest blue coral reefs. Though only 3 km long, it contains at least two-thirds the number of species of Australia's 2,000-km...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2001

The real aim behind the Sept. 11 attacks

LONDON -- Osama bin Laden is Timothy McVeigh with a beard, and no more representative of the Arab world than McVeigh was of America. It's important to hang onto that thought, because otherwise the storm of emotion that followed the broadcast of the tape in which the author of the atrocities of Sept....
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2001

Breaking an uneasy silence

Kippur Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Amos Gitai Running time: 118 minutes Language: Hebrew Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2001

The revolution will be cinematized

Hikari no Ame Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Banmei Takahashi Running time: 130 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
CULTURE / Art
Dec 19, 2001

How-to secrets of Japan's greatest artistic export

First of two parts There can be few readers of The Japan Times who have not browsed a secondhand bookshop in Japan, hoping to discover an unrecognized gem of a woodblock print. Although the subjects they depict are far removed from the reality of contemporary Japan, ukiyo-e still charm us today. Western...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 18, 2001

Japan, India forging a counterbalance

India's explosion of a nuclear device in 1998 marred a fledgling relationship that New Delhi had had with Tokyo. Japan took the lead in condemning India at just about every world forum. This hit India hard diplomatically, and Tokyo's clamping severe economic sanctions against India had still greater...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2001

Scholars note '99 find of rare sutra copy

Japanese researchers said they have discovered an ancient copy of a legendary Buddhist sutra, written in Sanskrit, in the city of Lhasa.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 18, 2001

Sowing the seeds of revolution

Does the end of Taliban rule mean that the people of Afghanistan can now look forward to a new era of peace and freedom? Not according to the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, who believe that unless all fundamentalist groups in the country are disarmed, a repeat of the brutality...
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2001

Museum weaves tale of Tokyo's role in history of dyed-goods

Even for Tokyoites, it may come as a surprise that the dyeing industry once flourished in the capital -- just as it did in the ancient cities of Kyoto and Kanazawa.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 17, 2001

Fighters tame Tomahawks to capture 56th Koshien Bowl

NISHINOMIYA, Hyogo Pref. -- Quarterback Yosuke Ozaki scored two rushing touchdowns and the defense showed great resolve at the 1-yard line as the Kwansei Gakuin University Fighters defeated the Hosei University Tomahawks 24-6 Sunday in the 56th Koshien Bowl, collegiate national championship game.
EDITORIALS
Dec 16, 2001

Would you believe? e-mail@30

When Alexander Graham Bell sent the first telephone message on March 10, 1876, he was not only well aware of the date, he had someone on hand to record his words ("Mr. Watson, come here. I want you.") The man knew he was making history.
COMMENTARY
Dec 16, 2001

Film focuses again on Japan's war guilt

Japan's war guilt gets yet another airing in the Japanese-made film "Riben Guizi (Japanese Devils)" (reviewed on Dec. 5). The film provides on-camera interviews with 14 former Japanese soldiers who committed atrocities during the 1937-45 war with China. Its two hours of horror have an honesty that, like...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2001

Heading off hooligans at 2002 World Cup

The 2002 soccer World Cup draw was a confusing and nerve-racking affair for the national team coaches and officials attending the ceremony in Pusan, South Korea, and for the many fans watching on television all over the world. For Japanese soccer officials, the collective sigh of relief never happened....
SOCCER / World cup
Dec 16, 2001

Troussier remains quiet on Scotland's approach

Japan manager Philippe Troussier has left the door open regarding a possible move to manage Scotland after the 2002 World Cup, describing it as "a great challenge."
COMMUNITY
Dec 16, 2001

Wright's modern masterpiece comes back to life

All too often in this country, modern buildings of architectural and historical value are bulldozed to make way for new commercial development. The "lucky" ones may be granted a stay of execution, if only to survive as unused and lifeless monuments.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 16, 2001

Japan's maverick monk

LETTING GO: The Story of Zen Master Tosui, translated and with an introduction by Peter Haskel. Honolulu: Hawaii University Press, 2001, 168 pp. with woodcuts, $45 (cloth), $19.95 (paper) Tosui Unkei, the beloved and eccentric 17th-century Zen master, was, like Ikkyu Sojin 200 years before him, a decided...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Dec 16, 2001

A voice echoing years of history

Imagine yourself in Edo (old Tokyo) during the mid-18th century. The streets bustle with activity -- almost all of which is accompanied by song: carpenters sing while working wood; mothers lull their babies to slumber; farmers till their paddies to rice-planting songs; and the boatmen's rhythmic melodies...
BUSINESS
Dec 15, 2001

Investment pact near for Tokyo, Seoul

Japan and South Korea are likely to agree on the outline of a bilateral investment accord by the end of this year and put it into force in summer, Japanese trade officials said.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2001

Arafat losing his grasp on leadership

BEIRUT -- The closer Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat gets to the fulfillment of his long-standing dream of establishing a Palestinian state, the more his plans seem to go awry. Now holed up in Ramallah, just 10 km from the holy city, his chances of ever entering it look their bleakest ever....
EDITORIALS
Dec 12, 2001

A lesson from Mr. Schroeder

Attention here has been focused on Japan's unprecedented response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States. Germany also has been grappling with the same issue amid a similar historical legacy. While Germany, too, has decided to send military forces to assist the U.S.-led coalition, the debate...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2001

Marrow bank struggles to meet demand

More bone marrow donors are needed to save the lives of people with deadly blood diseases, according to the Japan Marrow Donor Foundation.
BUSINESS
Dec 12, 2001

Enron Japan files for bankruptcy

Enron Japan Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of failed U.S. energy giant Enron Corp., said Tuesday it and three other Enron group companies in Japan have filed for bankruptcy.
Events
Dec 11, 2001

Kobe Hash House joggers chalk up white powder snafu to experience

KOBE -- The recent anthrax attacks in the United States have caused panic throughout the world over the deadly bacteria.
Japan Times
Events
Dec 11, 2001

New Zealand kendo practitioners publish quarterly journal in English

KYOTO -- Having practiced kendo for over a decade, Alexander Bennett and Hamish Robison have long been aware of the lack of English reading material on the sport, aside from technical manuals. The two New Zealanders thus decided to rectify the situation.

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