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Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Jul 14, 2005

"The Opal Deception," "Solomon Snow and the Stolen Jewel"

"The Opal Deception," Eoin Colfer, Puffin Books; 2005; 344 pp. There's only one person on the planet who can have had more fun than I did reading "The Opal Deception" -- the guy who wrote it.
COMMENTARY
Jul 14, 2005

Unraveling motives of terror

LONDON -- After months of careful planning, it has been the turn of London to suffer the carnage already familiar to the people of Madrid, Jakarta, Casablanca, Riyadh, Istanbul, New York (although not on the same scale) and many other world cities.
MORE SPORTS
Jul 13, 2005

Marines' Valentine firmly against MLB's new international event

Bobby Valentine is not the kind of guy to hold back his feelings. He never has been.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 12, 2005

A fight to the death

Her bony, 80-year-old body floating around inside a nylon shirt and cigarette permanently clamped between what appear to be her two remaining front teeth, Kan Kyon Nam is an unlikely illegal squatter.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 10, 2005

Author asks Japanese courts, 'Where is your mind?'

Sensational crimes are defined by the media since sensations fuel the media engine. Murder has the greatest potential for sensationalism, but some murders attract more attention than others. Through a certain confluence of motive, money, and methodology some hog headlines for weeks while others never...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 10, 2005

New horizons beckon as Train Man heads nowhere fast

The Japanese nation seems to be firmly in the grip of the otaku.
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2005

'Cool Biz' dress code spreads through halls of promotion

The "Cool Biz" casual dress code campaign launched by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on June 1 has spread to the bureaucracy, Diet and Supreme Court, but whether the intended effect -- of setting air conditioners at higher levels in cities to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and thus help curb global...
BUSINESS
Jul 9, 2005

FSA ups protection for insurance policyholders

The Financial Services Agency released a new set of rules Friday to upgrade protection of customers by requiring insurance firms to become more accountable for policies they sell.
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2005

Five-time killer's appeal rejected

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Friday by a 64-year-old man sentenced to hang for murdering a 9-year-old girl and four women between 1985 and 1994.
COMMUNITY
Jul 9, 2005

Humanitarian paints hope for students of Vietnam

Fred Harris looks around the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Yurakucho, central Tokyo, and observes with his usual keen but fond eye, "This was the first club I joined when I came here in 1964." (He was also in Japan while serving as a U.S. soldier during the Korean War.)
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jul 9, 2005

Brace for more bipartisan battles in wake of Supreme Court justice's retirement

WASHINGTON -- The July 1 announcement by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor that she is retiring marks the end of a distinguished 24-year career, and the beginning of a crucial struggle by President George W. Bush to find a replacement.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Jul 8, 2005

No reason to fear the green fairy

Absinthe: muse of poets and painters, tipple of mass murderers. Is it a bringer of truth, or of madness and moral depravity? Known at its peak variously as the Green Goddess, Holy Water, the Green Fairy and "the life plasma of the gods and free thinkers," Absinthe was banned for nearly 100 years, but...
BUSINESS
Jul 8, 2005

FSA takes aim at shady sales ploys

A Financial Services Agency panel released a report Thursday proposing blanket legislation to protect consumers from improper sales and canvassing of investment products.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / COUNTER CULTURE
Jul 8, 2005

YSL raises its flag again

In 1958, at the tender age of 21, Yves Saint Laurent took over the reins at the venerable couture house of Dior. From the outset hailed as a genius, then touted as no less than the savior of the French fashion industry, YSL is one of the world's most enduring fashion icons.
COMMUNITY
Jul 7, 2005

Baby boomers fuel a boom in 'anti-aging' treatments

As baby boomers are heading for their sixties, anti-aging medicine is becoming popular in Japan -- though it may be some time before we catch up with the United States, where more is now reportedly spent on supplements than prescribed medicines.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Jul 7, 2005

Sega online adventure hits the PC

Not to be confused with the original "Phantasy Star Online" that hit the stores back in 2000, Sega has added some new content to this PC version and a slick subtitle: "Blue Burst." The game play hasn't changed much since "PSO" debuted on the Sega Dreamcast console five years ago, but the developers have...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jul 7, 2005

Battling for nature in the face of greed and neglect

I started to buy neglected woodland on a mountainside near where I live in Nagano Prefecture more than 20 years ago. Together with a local forester (and now long-time friend), Nobuyoshi Matsuki, we began tending the woods. One of the delightful results was the blooming of hundreds of wild Calanthe discolor...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 6, 2005

A prize-winning director quite happy to have a laugh

With his short-brimmed hat and carefully trimmed goatee, Kenji Uchida looks strikingly like the private investigator played by So Yamanaka in "Unmei Janai Hito."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 6, 2005

'Noises Off' finds the right director

While tragedy is universal, comedy tends to be far more culturally specific, and this is especially true with theater. When drama is transposed out of its vernacular, audiences can be expected to tune in more easily to a mournful melodrama or saga of self-destruction than to a humorous work with all...
EDITORIALS
Jul 5, 2005

Japan wins by withdrawing ITER bid

France has won the competition to host the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), the world's first nuclear-fusion reactor. Japan fought hard to win the project, but in the end the projected cost and the promise of playing a significant role in subsequent research gave Tokyo ample reason...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 5, 2005

The whaling debate

Stay away Why should a country who has exhausted the whale population in their country come over and hunt a mysterious creature we have all looked after in our country.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2005

Eastern Europe in the Far East

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia For generations of expatri ates in the days before jet travel, the first stop on the journey back to Europe from Japan was Vladivostok, Russia's easternmost city and the terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway.
COMMENTARY
Jul 4, 2005

America's blase approach to doomsday

LOS ANGELES -- The policy of the United States, at the moment the world's only superpower, lacks an overall sense of urgency about the spread and possible use of nuclear weapons. In all probability, this lapse will someday lead to immense tragedy.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 3, 2005

Joyce

The emotion-filled voice and calmly pulsing guitar of Brazilian diva Joyce appeals to a broad spectrum of listeners. Unlike some performers with a strong international following, though, she draws fans by upholding authentic values. This week she brings her distinctive Brazilian music to Tokyo and Yokohama...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 3, 2005

Many ways to view a temple

MUROJI: Rearranging Art and History at a Japanese Buddhist Temple, by Sherry D. Fowles. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005. 296 pp.; 13 color plates and many b/w illustrations, drawings, maps; $50.00 (cloth). Muroji, one of Japan's most beautiful temples, was founded near Nara in the late 8th...
EDITORIALS
Jul 2, 2005

Protection in a modern economy

The recent theft of data from some 40 million credit-card accounts in the United States is another reminder of the insecurities of the digital world. Electronic commerce continues to rise in volume but consumers, retailers, financial institutions and other parts of the business chain have not yet adjusted...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 1, 2005

'Irritating' book of statistics no joke for political crusader

The subtitle of a recently published book by political analyst Atsuo Ito sounds like a joke: "The most irritating data book in Japan."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Jul 1, 2005

Weekend trance party picks

Friday 07.01

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes