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JAPAN
Mar 27, 2001

Ex-minister Yoshikawa to retire

Former Labor Minister Yoshio Yoshikawa notified the ruling Liberal Democratic Party through a secretary on Monday that he will retire from politics at the end of his current six-year term, aides said.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2001

Ticket agencies join the digital age

Kyodo News The Internet set the scene, cellular phones followed, and now convenience stores have jumped on the bandwagon, drastically changing the way people in Japan buy tickets for concerts, plays and sports events.
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2001

Honda prepares to build transportation system in Singapore

Honda Motor Co. said Monday that it will start research next month on a new transportation system in Singapore under which people will share environmentally friendly vehicles.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2001

War flick touting Japan's role in Indonesia's birth irks Jakarta

A new Japanese film depicting the role of Imperial Japanese Army soldiers in Indonesia's war for independence from the Netherlands highlights a stark difference in views between Indonesians and Japanese over the republic's 1945 birth.
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 27, 2001

Movement that weaves an otherworldly spell

It's not often that a dance production lives up to an ambitious title, but "Luminous," by Saburo Teshigawara and the dance company Karas, certainly does.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2001

Taiwanese visitors attacked, robbed

OSAKA -- Four men assaulted and tied up four Taiwanese in an Osaka building early Monday then stole 3.5 million yen and $500 in cash and other valuables from them, police said.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 27, 2001

States, nations and identities

ASIAN NATIONALISM, edited by Michael Leifer. Routledge, 2000, pp. 196, 17.99 British pounds (paper). In many ways, an understanding of nationalism is essential to understanding contemporary Asia. For many Asian nations, the colonial experience is only a generation away. They are still wrestling with...
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2001

Japan stuck between Mori and a hard place on farm trade

If the world's poorest countries harbor high expectations about any fresh trade concessions from industrialized countries at a key international conference in May, Japan will probably turn out to be a real letdown.
CULTURE / Music / MUSIC NOMAD
Mar 27, 2001

Tradition and innovation in modern Celtic music

Julie Murphy and Sharon Shannon are two of the most talented, forward-looking and musically challenging women in Celtic music. Both have captured the spirit of the times, setting a benchmark for a new generation of musicians in their respective traditions. They will soon be performing in Japan with fine...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 27, 2001

Farewell to the rabbit hutch

THE JAPANESE DREAM HOUSE: How Technology and Tradition are Shaping New Home Design, by Azby Brown and Joseph Cali. Tokyo/New York: Kodansha International, 2001, pp. 132, profusely illustrated with Japanese-language translation insert, 6,000 yen. This big, beautiful, well-designed book tells and shows...
CULTURE / Art
Mar 27, 2001

The Elephant Man's other side

You know the old adage about how consciousness operates? Tell a person not to think of elephants, and they won't be able to stop thinking about elephants.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 27, 2001

Poetry for every mood and season

RYOKAN: Selected Tanka, Haiku, translated by Sanford Goldstein, Shigeo Mizuguchi & Fujisato Kitajima. Kokodo, 2000, pp. 218, 2 ,000 yen. LOVE HAIKU: Masajo Suzuki's Lifetime of Love: Translations by Lee Gurga & Emiko Miyashita. Brooks Books, 2000, pp. 112, 1,600 yen. UTSUMUKU SEINEN /LOOKING DOWN:...
CULTURE / Art
Mar 27, 2001

Excelling in a formerly alien medium

White rappers used to be a joke until a credible one -- Eminem -- came along. In a similar way, Japanese artists' early efforts to master Western oil painting ended up looking extremely ersatz, clumsy or derivative; their paintings mere experiments or study pieces rather than true works of art. The urge...
EDITORIALS
Mar 26, 2001

Act now to save Macedonia

Once again, there is the threat of war in the Balkans. This time, Macedonia is at risk. Once again, Albanian guerrillas are to blame. Their aim is to redraw the borders of the region. There is no need. They can be stopped; to avoid a wider war, the West should do just that.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Mar 26, 2001

Russians living 'la vida loca'

This semester I am teaching a Dostoevsky course. Implausible plots, stumbling dialogues, everybody in love with everybody, romantic triangles overlap like mating frogs, passions mount, money changes hands and is thrown into the fire -- the normal Dostoevsky stuff.
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2001

Anxiety hangs over USJ ahead of launch

By Natsumi Mizumoto Kyodo News Many Kansai residents are counting on Universal Studios Japan to help revive Osaka's stagnant economy, but the higher the expectations, the greater the looming sense of anxiety as its launch next Saturday draws closer.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 26, 2001

Marines beat Lions again

Derrick May hit a two-run homer and Nate Minchey scattered six hits over seven innings Sunday as the Lotte newcomers led the Marines to a 6-1 win over the Seibu Lions at the Seibu Dome.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 26, 2001

High school baseball tourney kicks off at Koshien

NISHINOMIYA -- Fukui Shogyo rallied for five runs in the top of the ninth inning to defeat Tokyo's Obirin High School 11-9 Sunday and join Tokaidai Daiyon of Hokkaido in the second round of the 73rd Japan high school baseball national invitational tournament.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2001

Hiroshima quake toll up to 161 injured, two dead

OSAKA -- Water supplies remained suspended for some 38,000 households in Hiroshima Prefecture on Sunday, one day after a powerful earthquake that left two people dead and 161 injured.
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2001

New global financial products require careful tax treatment

During my time as a Diet member, I often raised the importance of using the Advanced Ruling System.
SUMO
Mar 26, 2001

Kaio captures title in Osaka

Ozeki Kaio won the Osaka Haru Basho on Sunday with a 13-2 record after he defeated fellow ozeki Musoyama and yokozuna Takanohana lost to Musashimaru at the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2001

Group seeks vindication of convicted Nepalese

Demanding justice for a Nepalese man convicted for a 1997 murder they believe he didn't commit, about 100 citizens on Sunday inaugurated a support group to help him win vindication through a Supreme Court ruling.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Mar 26, 2001

Never say you've apologized too much

When Ursula Smith, my publisher friend up in Vermont, wrote to say, "I can't close without offering some (futile) form of apology, as one national to another, for that unfortunate accident off Hawaii," I said there was no need to apologize to me. It was an accident, and I wasn't too clear about the meaning...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 26, 2001

Bush's crash course in global diplomacy

U.S. President George W. Bush has just concluded a crash course in Northeast Asian politics. In the past three weeks, he has hosted South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen. Now Bush has to make sense of those visits, digest the various messages...

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb