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SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 31, 2001

Drop your drawers and give me 20 (ml, that is)

Mark Heppelle is a 37-year-old Canadian currently living in Japan with his wife and two kids where he runs a small English school. But that's not his only source of income. Heppelle also has a rather unique sports-related job, the results of which can be seen almost daily on sports pages across the globe....
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 30, 2001

'Exciter': Depeche Mode

With a name like a dubious aphrodisiac jelly, "Exciter," the latest effort by the ever-boyish Depeche Mode, promises more of the "pervy" lyrics and electronic pop/rock that has seen it sell 50 million albums since the early '80s.
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2001

How a legend is born

Born Lenny Hilton McGurr, he first picked up a spray can in 1970, aged 15. An only child from a lower-middle class Manhattan home, graffiti provided him with "a solution to my identity crisis" -- a crisis brought on by the news he was adopted.
CULTURE / Art
May 30, 2001

From darkness into light

At the turn of the 20th century, Odilon Redon (1840-1916) was one of the most intriguing and original painters in Paris, and his subject matter, the timeless world of myths and dreams, has ensured he is not forgotten. With the current exhibition of his works at the Odakyu Museum in Shinjuku, the curators...
COMMENTARY
May 30, 2001

Monarchy makes a comeback

LONDON -- The Crown Prince of Japan visited Britain last week and was warmly received all round.
BUSINESS
May 29, 2001

Fast track eyed for easing capital-gains tax

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Monday he wants to accelerate the schedule for simplifying the capital-gains taxes on stock sales.
MORE SPORTS / THE DUKE OF HAZARDS
May 29, 2001

Olazabal marching toward spot on Europe's Ryder Cup squad

This is the time of year when the world's top pros expect their game to start clicking. Three of the four majors on the golf circuit come up in a short space of time.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
May 28, 2001

Progress made in how Japan sees Korea

The latest instance of textbook controversy has reminded me of the changing descriptions in the entry on Korea in different editions of a well-known Japanese-language dictionary. Reports have it that the South Korean government was so upset by a certain textbook that its protests brought on a diplomatic...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
May 28, 2001

Time for Bush to test his healing powers

Washington is not in an area normally vulnerable to earthquakes, but on Tuesday, the earth began to shake all over town. The epicenter of the quake was up on Capitol Hill; specifically, in Suite 728 of the Hart Senate Office Building, the office of Sen. James Jeffords, the junior senator from Vermont....
JAPAN
May 27, 2001

Roland creator follows his own tune to international success

OSAKA -- From its humble beginnings almost 30 years ago, Roland Corp. today is one of the world's top electronic musical instrument manufacturers. In fact, nearly any musical performance features the ubiquitous brand name somewhere on stage.
EDITORIALS
May 27, 2001

When borders are better

Aliens come in many guises. There is the extraterrestrial kind, variously envisaged over the years as little green men, wrinkly creatures homesick for their own planet, curious kidnappers and genocidal invaders. There is the human kind -- people who fetch up in some foreign country and find themselves...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 27, 2001

Cosmetics companies give themselves a makeover

Truth in advertising has never been a strong concept in Japan, but no one flouts it as boldly as the cosmetics industry, which is understandable, since makeup itself is a form of deception. One company's antiwrinkle cream is said to "prevent aging," an obvious impossibility, while the manufacturer of...
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2001

Charting a course as wide as the region

To understand the logic that is driving the Bush administration's redesign of U.S. military strategy, overlay two maps. The first focuses on wealth and population. It highlights Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, some of the world's richest and most important trading nations. China, India and...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 26, 2001

Job-hunting tips for the nation's students

Japan's unemployment rate is the highest ever in the postwar era. This is especially bad news for students, who are finding it difficult to find jobs upon graduating. But don't despair, students, deep down the bubble economy is still bubbling! Japan is still paying people to do jobs that don't even exist...
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2001

Can Tanaka fulfill her duties?

The words and actions of Makiko Tanaka, who made a dashing entry onto center stage as foreign minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, are attracting attention from various quarters for various reasons.
JAPAN
May 24, 2001

Energy initiatives at local level stressed

YASU, Shiga Pref. -- Initiatives by local governments in cooperation with residents are indispensable in cutting power consumption and promoting renewable energy, Takeshi Wada, a professor at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, said Wednesday at the opening of a meeting of local governments pushing green...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 24, 2001

Perez is talking the talk in Japan

All it took for Eduardo Perez to learn the names of his Hanshin Tigers teammates was one embarrassing moment.
CULTURE / Film
May 23, 2001

Director shoots close to home

Director Toshiaki Toyoda recently took time to talk to me about his "Unchain," his new film about four young boxers in Osaka.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 23, 2001

'If You Happy With You Need Do Nothing': Alfie

In Britain, "slow-fi" (that's one of the terms being bandied about) is the new rock 'n' roll. It's a genre of music that is, yawn, perfect for dropping off to sleep to. That doesn't mean it's boring, it means it's slow acoustic guitar music made by people glued to stools who are probably majorly into...
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2001

Begrudgingly, Bush endorses dialogue

SEOUL -- U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage's meeting with South Korean President Kim Dae Jung last week clearly signaled that the United States will renew bilateral negotiations with North Korea, affirming similar assurances given by Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly at his April...
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
May 22, 2001

Jubilo stung by cancelation of Club World C'ship

"I'm thinking about going to Spain this summer," a taxi driver in Iwata told me Saturday. "It's the World Championship and Jubilo will be there, you see."
CULTURE / Music
May 20, 2001

You gotta fight for your right to freedom

Adam Yauch, MCA of the Beastie Boys, has come a long way since 1986's "License to Ill," the obnoxious, wildly juvenile album that launched the careers of the punk-turned-hip-hop trio from New York. And not just musically. He's become one of the voices of a worldwide political movement, one heard in Tokyo...
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2001

Changing Australia celebrates its centennial

SYDNEY -- A smiling, articulate Australian schoolgirl standing before an audience of 7,000 of Australia's top dignitaries . . . it was a grand sight, worthy of this young nation's first 100 years of democratic government.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 20, 2001

Amid a whirlwind of change, an elegant history of Japan

JAPAN IN TRANSFORMATION: 1952-2000, by Jeffrey Kingston. Harlow, Essex, U.K.: Pearson Education/Longman, 2001; 230 pp., b/w plates XII, $12. As the British historian, the late A.J.P. Taylor, remarked: "History gets thicker as it approaches recent times." The broad outlines, the major themes, have...
COMMENTARY
May 20, 2001

Koizumi honeymoon rolls on

Three weeks after its debut, the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi continues to command high popularity. In opinion polls immediately after its inauguration April 26, the new administration received record approval ratings of over 80 percent. The "Koizumi boom" is likely to last for...
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2001

Tokyo ready to beat the drum for IAEA nuclear arms protocol

In a rare diplomatic initiative toward curbing the global proliferation of nuclear weapons, Japan will host an international conference next month to step up efforts to prevent the spread of the deadly weapons in the Asia-Pacific region.
JAPAN
May 18, 2001

Expelled doctor explains plight of North Koreans

A German physician who worked as a volunteer doctor in North Korea for 18 months until being expelled at the end of last year has called for action to help suffering children in the country.
BUSINESS
May 18, 2001

Dollar-yen rate awaits Koizumi's delivery

The currency market remains caught in the crosscurrents of optimism about the structural reforms advocated by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and fears of their deflationary impact.
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
May 17, 2001

Time for the young ones to leave the nest

Philippe Troussier on the J. League: "The Japanese are soft and the players are soft and the referees are soft. One little bump in a game and it's a foul. These would never be fouls in Europe, in Spain or England."

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan