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SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Sep 25, 2007

Hakuho, and other foreign-born wrestlers, dominate the Autumn Basho

Of the 700 men active in professional sumo less than 10 percent are foreign-born. Of the six divisions in which they compete, only one went the way of a Japanese rikishi at this year's Autumn Basho. The remaining five divisions were dominated by men from afar.
Reader Mail
Sep 2, 2007

Nothing like conventional bombs

Regarding Grant Piper's Aug. 26 letter, " 'Greatest evil' is not apparent": Noncombatants should not be targeted in war, under any circumstance. No matter what countries at war have already done to civilians, it is still illegal to target women, children and people outside the military.
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Jul 3, 2007

Anticipation tarnished by tragedy before Nagoya basho

At a time when sumo fans were excitedly anticipating the first tournament since late 2003 that boasts two yokozuna, tragedy struck: In late June, a 17-year-old rikishi died after a training session.
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
May 2, 2007

Sony goes drag-and-drop for digital music

Sony's missteps in the world of digital music players provide lyrics for enough blues albums to populate, well, an iPod. But while the electronics behemoth may never script another legend like the Walkman, it refuses to shuffle quietly off the stage. Sony is set to bring out the B100 series of MP3 players....
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 13, 2006

Polonium, peacocks -- and a dead spy

It's one of the biggest stories of the year -- and certainly the most unusual. I'm talking about the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy living in London who was poisoned with a radioactive isotope last month. Nothing like this has been seen for nearly 20 years, back when the Cold War...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Oct 21, 2006

Future is now for feel-good Fighters

NAGOYA -- In hindsight, bringing baseball to Hokkaido seems as much a no-brainer as bringing Trey Hillman in to manage the Nippon Ham Fighters.
BASKETBALL
Oct 8, 2006

Kashiwagi triggers Sea Horses' win

KAWASAKI -- Shinsuke Kashiwagi came off the bench and played for only about half of the game.
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2006

Toshiba plans to build LCD TV plant in Poland

Toshiba Corp. plans to build a liquid crystal display television plant in Poland to boost production of large screen LCD television sets for the European market, company sources said Sunday.
COMMENTARY
Aug 25, 2006

Softening northern borders

MARIEHAMN, Finland -- It was cruel irony that the Aug. 16 killing of a Japanese fisherman by Russian security forces in the Northern Territories took place just as a group of Japanese and Russian scholars and former government officials were meeting with a group of Alanders to discuss possible creative...
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2006

Koizumi unveils Africa medical research award

The government has formally announced an award named after scientist Hideyo Noguchi to honor medical researchers and personnel working for Africa, with the first presentation scheduled for 2008.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 21, 2006

Waving goodbye to the city

The sound of waves lapping on the shore. The cool sea breeze. Beautiful people wearing very few clothes. Overdressed cocktails. What better way could there be to while away a hot summer's day than a beach-bar crawl along Shonan Bay?
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2006

Matsushita, Hitachi plan to triple LCD panel output capacity

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Hitachi Ltd. jointly said Wednesday they will triple the liquid crystal display panel production capacity at their joint venture in Mobara, Chiba Prefecture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 5, 2006

Man from Wareika returns

During a break in a Tokyo recording session, Rico Rodriguez puts down his trombone to lark around on the roof with the teenage members of Oreskaband, the all-girl ska band he's been working with. That, at 72 years old, he is now old enough to be their grandfather doesn't even faze him.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Nov 22, 2005

Bob Sliwa

Bob Sliwa, 50, who hails from Massachusetts, has lived in Japan for 22 years. He is the Advance Design Director at COBO Design Co., Ltd., one of the biggest industrial design firms in Japan, and a judge for the Japan Car of the Year Award. He followed the success of his 2004 book "Lexus ga Ichiban ni...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 18, 2005

Sweet Mysteries of the Orient

THE ASIAN MYSTIQUE, by Sheridan Prasso. Public Affairs Books, 437 pp., 2005, $27.95, 2,850 yen (cloth). Apparently, there are still Western men who believe that the East is an obliging seductress, mass producing an endless line of voluptuous women, whose laconic sexual pliancy is only exceeded by their...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2005

Chiba man couldn't settle for just piece of pi

Akira Haraguchi says he was never a genius in school. But at 59, the Chiba man recited pi -- the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter -- from memory to 83,431 decimal places.
BUSINESS
Apr 15, 2005

Toyota boosts car wireless service

Toyota Motor Corp. on Thursday announced a beefed up wireless system for cars that can call an ambulance when an air bag opens, play thousands of karaoke tunes and send a mobile-phone message when a car door is left unlocked.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 13, 2004

How mum juggles racing, soccer, K1, Portugal

Last Tuesday, Sonia Ito is busy with household chores in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture. Early evening she leaves husband Yuta with 2-year old daughter Julia and catches the train for Tokyo. By 7:30 p.m. she's seated on a purple "zabuton" in Fuji TV's headquarters at O-Daiba, recording the soccer program...
BUSINESS
Oct 30, 2004

LCD venture planned

Hitachi Ltd., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Toshiba Corp. said Friday they have officially signed an accord to set up a joint venture to manufacture liquid crystal display panels for flat TVs in January.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 20, 2004

Esoteric ways of the samurai

THE PERFUMED SLEEVE, by Laura Joh Rowland. New York: St. Martin's Minotaur, 326 pp., 2004, $24.95 (cloth). SENSEI, by John Donohue. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 258 pp., 2004, $23.95 (cloth). For the ninth time since his 1994 debut in "Shinju," Sano Ichiro ("the shogun's most honorable investigator...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 2, 2004

More than a name in the game

THE MEANING OF ICHIRO: The New Wave From Japan and the Transformation of Our National Pastime, by Robert Whiting. New York: Warner Books, 2004, 318 pp., $25.95 (cloth). "The Meaning of Ichiro" is gathering deserved acclaim as a great book on baseball, but it would be a pity if it was not also appreciated...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 8, 2004

2003: worst and best of times for U.N.

Twelve months ago, the international community heaved a sigh of relief as the major powers appeared to reach a compromise on how to manage Iraq. But Washington's determination to act on its own cut short the role of U.N. weapons inspectors and challenged the very notion that the organization has a role...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 1, 2003

Radioactive fallout courtesy of U.S.

In 1789, a German chemist, Martin Heinrich Klaproth, announced that he had discovered a new element in the dull black mineral pitchblende. He named it after the planet Uranus, itself discovered only eight years earlier.
EDITORIALS
Feb 16, 2003

The micro and the macro

Have you noticed how the news has been running on two different tracks lately? The truth is, it probably always does, but every now and then the split suddenly seems more striking. On the one hand, there are the day-to-day ups and downs of human existence, everything from the weather to prognostications...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 19, 2002

Autoimmune disorder may kickstart anorexia in some

At the beginning of the Manic Street Preachers song "4st 7lbs," a girl is heard saying: "I eat too much to die. And not enough to stay alive. I'm sitting in the middle waiting."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 3, 2002

Where the moon's 'pure light' shines

Three narrow valleys indent the pine-tufted Honmoku headland. Around 1887, Hara Zenzaburo, Yokohama's leading silk merchant, built a villa atop the lip of San-no-tani, the third valley from the west. While father drank in the view of Tokyo Bay, the Tanzawa and Hakone ranges, and Mount Fuji, his adopted...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 4, 2002

Salsita: Just like they do it back in old Mexico

'The best Mexican food in town,' the hand-chalked sign outside Salsita proclaims. That's certainly a cocksure statement for a cantina of such modest dimensions. But, as we all know (in Japan better than anywhere else), when it comes to eating well, what matters is neither the size of the kitchen nor the length of the menu but quality, attention to detail and that plus-alpha personal touch. You'll find Salsita has that in spades.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 28, 2002

Taking a shortcut to enlightenment

THE COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING BUDDHISM, by Gary Gach. Alpha Books, 2002, 408 pp., $18.95 (paper) Half a billion people in the world consider themselves Buddhists, and millions of Westerners have embraced the religion and its tenets. For the uninitiated, and even for some initiates, Buddhism...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji