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EDITORIALS
Feb 12, 2005

More disappointment for South Asia

South Asia is home to the some of the poorest nations in the world. The region desperately needs greater integration to marshal its resources and help stimulate development that will offer its citizens better lives. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was created to do just that,...
SOCCER / World cup
Feb 10, 2005

Japan nets late winner

SAITAMA -- Japan managed to avoid a major disaster with an injury-time winner from Masashi Oguro securing the points in a thrilling 2-1 win in a World Cup Group B Asian qualifier against North Korea at Saitama Stadium on Wednesday night.
EDITORIALS
Feb 9, 2005

Good sportsmanship in Saitama

Japan's national soccer team plays the North Korean team today in a qualifying match for the Asian World Cup in Saitama City, just north of Tokyo. Given the continued tense relations between the two countries, the Japanese government is calling on Japanese supporters to avoid quarreling with supporters...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2005

Beijing's military buildup races ahead

HONOLULU -- China is modernizing its military forces faster than anyone expected only a few years ago, escalating the potential danger to the island of Taiwan, to American forces and bases in Asia, and to the overall balance of power in the region.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 30, 2005

Japanese hero pointedly ignored

It's said that the virtue most valued in Japan is loyalty, which is why the famous heroes of Japanese literature and history are people who made sacrifices for their lords rather than their beliefs. And often, as in the case of the 47 ronin celebrated in Chushingura or the tokkotai (kamikaze) pilots...
COMMENTARY
Jan 29, 2005

China's global impact grows

LONDON -- Suddenly China has become the No. 1 topic on the agenda of every Western policy forum and think tank. That the focus should be so sudden is in a way surprising.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 28, 2005

Top student players need to get a 'real' rugby education

The university final earlier this month between Waseda and Kanto Gakuin highlighted all that is good and bad about college rugby in Japan.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 27, 2005

Faltering Funaki left off squad

Nineteen-year-old Daiki Ito and Noriaki Kasai were among the five skiers named to the national team for the Nordic Skiing World Championships, but struggling Nagano Olympic gold-medalist Kazuyoshi Funaki was left off the list, the Ski Association of Japan said Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 26, 2005

Concert of 1,000 cellists looks set to raise the roof in Kobe

World-famous cellist Mstislav Rostropovich will conduct a concert for 1,000 cellos during a weeklong international cello convention in May in Kobe, which is currently commemorating the 10th anniversary of the devastating Great Hanshin Earthquake.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 26, 2005

Talkin' Bertolt

Between his return from the United States after World War II, and his death in 1956, playwright Bertolt Brecht, with his Berliner Ensemble, created one of the finest acting companies in the world -- one which became a testing-ground for his theatrical exploration and challenged the theatrical conventions...
COMMENTARY
Jan 24, 2005

A return to Northern basics

The Japan-Russia talks on the Northern Territories are deadlocked. Shortly after the end of World War II, the Soviet Union seized four islands or islet clusters northeast of Hokkaido -- Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and Habomai. In 1993, the two nations issued a joint statement calling for the conclusion...
Japan Times
Features
Jan 23, 2005

Women to the fore in study of statues

At midday on March 29, 1914, a yacht named Mana, flying the British colors, dropped anchor in the tiny inlet of Cook's Bay, Hanga Roa. On board was an anthropologist who would carry out the first systematic survey of the Easter Island statues, and who would also record the last memories of a dying generation...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jan 22, 2005

Harry Sweeney

Dr. Harry Sweeney said: "Racing in Japan under the Japan Racing Association is the best in the world. There is no question about it." He speaks with the authority of someone "happy and proud to be involved with it." He thinks he, as a non-Japanese who is a member of the Breeders' Association of Japan...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 16, 2005

Antibalas burn it down and build it back up

At the intersection of North Moore Street and Broadway in downtown Manhattan is No Moore, a bar favored by well-heeled young professionals. The walls are exposed brick, the wooden floor is comfortably worn and, in the daytime, sunlight gilds the space through floor-to-ceiling windows. It's a pleasant...
EDITORIALS
Jan 14, 2005

Deserts of an in-house inventor

The dispute involving the inventor of the blue light-emitting diode (LED) and his former employer has ended in a mediated settlement in which the Tokyo High Court has confirmed the in-house inventor's right to a fair reward. The high court heard the case between Mr. Shuji Nakamura, the inventor and now...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 14, 2005

Kobe: picturesque city by the sea

As last month's terrible tsunami off Sumatra and the subsequent tidal waves showed only too well, the shiftings of the earth's crust can lead to horrific natural calamities. Sitting atop one of the world's geological hot spots, Japan is of course no stranger to these phenomena. And the ever-present threat...
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Jan 13, 2005

"The Time Wreccas," "Winnie's Magic Wand"

"The Time Wreccas," Val Tyler, Puffin Books; 2005; 338 pp. Children's fiction these days is so all-knowing, so cynical, even, that possibly only a first-time writer can bring back to it the naivete that it has all but lost. Perhaps Val Tyler, author of "The Time Wreccas" has not noticed how popular...
EDITORIALS
Jan 6, 2005

Uncertain economic prospects ahead

The world's economic outlook for 2005 is uncertain at best. Pessimists may worry about worst-case scenarios, but economic disasters, unlike natural disasters, can be prevented through better planning and management. Much depends on how major economic powers -- particularly the United States, Europe,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 5, 2005

Following the line to enlightenment

In order to write an article about renowned Zen master Tanchu Terayama's Hitsuzendo calligraphy exhibition, I was offered the rare opportunity to visit his mountain retreat in Ibaraki Prefecture to participate in a workshop with Terayama himself. I first got a call from Terayama's most dedicated student,...
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2005

Movie portrays struggle of ethnic Korean who became Rikidozan

A new Japanese-South Korean joint film about professional wrestler Rikidozan celebrates his short, tragic life. Rikidozan, known as Yokdosan in Korean, was a national hero in Japan in the 1950s and 1960s. But few Japanese knew at the time that he was an immigrant from the Korean Penisula because the...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jan 1, 2005

F.W. de Klerk

In his autobiography. "Long Walk to Freedom," Nelson Mandela wrote: "On February 2, 1990, F.W. de Klerk stood before Parliament to make the traditional opening speech and did something no other South African head of state had ever done: he truly began to dismantle the apartheid system and lay the groundwork...
EDITORIALS
Dec 31, 2004

Year of shattered ideals

This year was widely expected to be a pageant of democracy. Elections were scheduled around the world, and they went off, almost without exception, without a hitch. That happy outcome was the brightest result in a year colored by disappointment. The year 2004 may well be remembered for the many promises...
COMMENTARY
Dec 26, 2004

The will to clean up politicos

MANILA -- Political parties are essential components of democratic governance. Democracies require political parties as these offer the voter political choices at election time. They also represent and channel divergent social interests and diffuse them in what is typically a protracted political process....
COMMENTARY
Dec 25, 2004

Waiting for Japan to change -- or can it?

LOS ANGELES -- For as long as I write this column on Asia, which enters into its 10th year next month, I doubt I'll ever witness anything as amusing or telling as the flareup that took place at the close of the University of Southern California's Asia Conference last month.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 24, 2004

Minato Mirai: Loading bay to pleasure haven

Originally home to a huge shipbuilding dock, Yokohama's Minato Mirai 21 area is today a great attraction for day and nighttime visitors alike. The "21" of Minato Mirai's name stands for the 21st century, but plans to redevelop the coastal area were underway by 1965, just as Japan's economy started soaring...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2004

Chief Yasukuni priest brings business savvy to shrine

At one time, Toshiaki Nambu was just an ordinary employee at Dentsu Inc., the nation's top advertising agency, working with such clients as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.

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