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BUSINESS
Jun 18, 2004

5,000 yen note ready to go after flaws fixed

Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki unveiled a sample of the new 5,000 yen bill Thursday after fixing design problems that had caused a delay.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Jun 17, 2004

Puzzle-solving grudge match

Feeling rather bored with life, Donkey Kong, Nintendo's 900-pound gorilla, breaks into a toy factory and steals a shipment of mechanical Mario dolls. To return the dolls, players must help Mario chase the big ape through 40 single-screen levels of chutes and ladders.
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2004

Key tax panel seeks consolidated system

The government's key tax panel on Tuesday proposed revising taxes levied on financial investments to ease risks for individual investors and boost the nation's economy.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2004

New currency eyed for November

New bank notes to replace the current 10,000 yen, 5,000 yen and 1,000 yen bills will enter circulation in November, Finance Ministry officials said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Jun 16, 2004

What fruit has Korean summit born?

HONOLULU -- This week marks the fourth anniversary of the historic June 13-15, 2000, Pyongyang meeting between then-South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korea's current "Dear Leader," Kim Jong Il. It was a meeting that forever changed the geopolitics of the Korean Peninsula. It made the impossible...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 16, 2004

ReJoyce! Fans fete Bloomsday centenary

DUBLIN -- One hundred years ago today is the day described in arguably the greatest novel of the 20th century, James Joyce's "Ulysses." June 16, 1904, was when Joyce's hero, Leopold Bloom, set out on a meandering stroll through Dublin, and the date is now celebrated worldwide as Bloomsday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 13, 2004

Banking on Japan

SAVING THE SUN: A Wall Street Gamble to Rescue Japan From Its Trillion-Dollar Meltdown, by Gillian Tett. New York: Random House Books, 2004, 2,940 yen (paper). This is a remarkable saga about the demise of Long Term Credit Bank and its improbable recovery as Shinsei Bank. It is a story about the Japanese...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 13, 2004

An 'outsider' finds insight into Japan's bad-loan crisis

Just 33 years old when she headed the Tokyo Bureau of the Financial Times, Gillian Tett took an unusual route to the heart of Japan's business world.
COMMENTARY
Jun 13, 2004

Freedom to end up different

MANILA -- Ideological fuzziness has become a hallmark of politics. Instead of accentuating ideological positions, politicians deliberately demonstrate vagueness. This, their advisers argue, prevents the politicians from alienating strategic interest groups crucial for victory in elections.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 13, 2004

Catching up with an indie-rock legend

In their first incarnation, Mission of Burma existed a mere four years, from 1979 to 1983. They were barely known outside of their hometown, Boston. They never sold more than a few thousand records.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 12, 2004

Martin Katz

Recently Martin Katz came on a first visit to Japan. He brought to exhibit in Tokyo a collection of diamond jewelry valued at 10 billion yen. The collection included many pieces worn by Hollywood stars at the red-carpeted award ceremonies of the Oscars. Martin is widely known as the jeweler to whom Hollywood's...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 12, 2004

Conviction, vision led Reagan to greatness

WASHINGTON -- A great man has died, moving a piece of the present into history. It is a history that many of us have been part of and that shapes our future.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jun 11, 2004

Verdict in O.J. criminal trial still a divisive issue

I have been waiting a long time to write this column.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jun 11, 2004

Mind your step at Cu Chi, a tourist trap with a twist

We are standing in the partial shade of a young teak tree peering gormlessly at the forest floor.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 11, 2004

Serendipity in the sticks

I noticed a young boy staring at me from afar as I stood alone at the bus stop, poring over my tourist map. Then, with a shy smile and a face full of curiosity, he walked toward me. And when he got close enough for me to hear him, he opened his mouth and spoke.
EDITORIALS
Jun 10, 2004

Iraqi people's trust will be decisive

The people of Iraq may have mixed feelings about the interim government that came into existence last week, for it is an unelected government assembled ostensibly under the aegis of the United Nations but actually under the influence of the United States. Nevertheless, it is set to take over power from...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 10, 2004

Hormone therapy for menopause?

The age of menopause doesn't seem to have changed much in the last few thousand years. Records from ancient Egypt and Greece indicate that menstruation ended when a woman was around 50 years old. Before that we don't really know, as a woman was unlikely to live much longer than 50.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 9, 2004

'Sugoi' Seguignol showing his stuff in rare second chance

Rarely does a foreign player get a second chance at Japanese baseball. If a gaikokujin does not do well and is let go by a Central or Pacific League team, it is not likely he will be picked up by another club in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 9, 2004

I was a teenage thespian freak

Camp Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Todd Graff Running time: 111 minutes Language: English Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Being a teenager is difficult, but when you're a teenager aspiring to be a music star, that difficulty gets multiplied by 10. So goes...
BUSINESS
Jun 9, 2004

MMC to receive 295 billion yen capital injection

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Tuesday it will receive a capital injection of 295 billion yen from Mitsubishi Group firms and China Motor Corp. later this month, 15 billion yen more than was initially planned.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jun 7, 2004

Putin looks back to the future

MOSCOW -- A new catchphrase is making the rounds in Moscow: "We have already seen that." Summing up the results of the first four-year term of President Vladimir Putin, the expression is a far cry from flattery, as it refers not to the reforms of Peter the Great but to the return of the cult of personality...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 6, 2004

"Kaiteki Sumaeru Navi" on TV Tokyo and more

The new series, "Kaiteki Sumaeru Navi (Comfortable Living Navigation)" (TV Tokyo, Monday, 10 p.m.), satisfies its viewers' hunger for information about better residential spaces than the ones they occupy by visiting five gorgeous or unusual private homes. This week's menu:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 5, 2004

Empowerment training draws interest across Japan

It is Saturday afternoon in Kamioka, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Yuri Morita is bringing the first of a two-day seminar on empowerment issues to a close. The room is full -- some 60 women aged between late 20s and 60s, and a scattering of men.
COMMENTARY
Jun 5, 2004

Filipino politicians just don't like to lose

MANILA -- For the international media, the Philippine elections are a done deal, since the head of the Commission on Elections in an all but orthodox manner unofficially let it be known that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo beat her main contender, ex-movie star Fernando Poe Jr., by more than 900,000...
Japan Times
Uncategorized
Jun 4, 2004

Insatiable thirst for English boosts language schools

You have probably come across a goofy rabbit waving a flag, a grim-faced businessman looking upward into the sky, or a smiling trio comprising a Japanese and two foreigners giving the thumbs up.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Jun 3, 2004

Sims creator: always unique

Will Wright, the creator of "The Sims," may be most accurately described as a cross between Stephen Hawking and Willy Wonka. He has a quirky and ironic sense of humor and a large and loyal following in the gaming world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 2, 2004

The unbearable heaviness of being

21 Grams Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu Running time: 125 minutes Language: English Opens June 5 [See Japan Times movie listings] "21 Grams" struts and shows off like a cowboy in a rodeo -- the director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu pulls out all the stops...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 2, 2004

He spins a top tale

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu made quite a splash with his 2000 debut, "Amores Perros," which put Mexican cinema back on the map. With his followup, "21 Grams," the former radio DJ and commercial director proves that was no fluke, fashioning a film that's every bit as intense and structurally innovative...

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?