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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 31, 2003

Multitusking with talented pachyderm painters

Talk about eccentric.
BUSINESS
Oct 31, 2003

DoCoMo operating profit slides

NTT DoCoMo Inc. said Thursday its operating profit for the fiscal first half fell 7.8 percent due to the heavy cost of incentives paid to handset vendors.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2003

Aum member gets death for role in 24 murders

Senior Aum Shinrikyo cultist Tomomasa Nakagawa was sentenced to death Wednesday for his role in the murders of 24 people.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Oct 30, 2003

Hall of Famer West regrets Riley's decision to walk away from coaching

NEW YORK -- Don't look now (you're too late, anyway, the preseason is over), but the Grizzlies were the NBA's most improved Canadian outcast during the exhibition schedule, their sole setback to the champion Spurs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 29, 2003

An artist in a land of ice and snow

Jorg Schmeisser traveled to Antarctica on the icebreaker Aurora Australis in 1998. The result was a series of works -- etchings, drawings and paintings -- that became "Breaking the Ice," a major exhibition showing in Kyoto and scheduled for Tokyo and Yokohama, that explores the majesty and uncanny beauty...
BUSINESS
Oct 29, 2003

Honda profit down in first half as yen, operating costs rise

Honda Motor Co. said Tuesday its consolidated operating profit fell 6.8 percent to 301.87 billion yen during the fiscal first half, marking the first year-on-year decrease in three years.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 29, 2003

Troubled Sony unveils restructuring plans

Sony Corp. on Tuesday unveiled sweeping restructuring measures, including plans to shed 20,000 jobs and close domestic TV plants, with the consumer electronics giant struggling to reclaim a competitive edge over its rivals.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2003

Panel says trials should have four 'citizen judges'

The head of a government panel on judicial reform submitted a draft proposal Tuesday advocating the appointment of four "citizen judges" to work alongside three professional judges at trials.
EDITORIALS
Oct 28, 2003

Manifestos leave voters in the dark

Not all political parties campaigning for the Nov. 9 general election describe their campaign promises in the form of a "manifesto." But they all have a common objective: explaining their beliefs and policies to the electorate in clear language. Yet many descriptions are equivocal and even confusing...
MORE SPORTS
Oct 28, 2003

U.S. muscle proves too much for speedy Japan

GOSFORD, Australia --They say good things come in threes. Following Sunday's games that saw England and Ireland win two wonderfully competitive games, the United States and Japan produced a pearl of a match at a sold-out Central Coast Stadium on Monday evening.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 28, 2003

Convicted Briton says he was drug run patsy

Most of us can name a time when our lives changed forever, but few can do so as precisely as Nicholas Baker: 11.30 a.m. on April 13, 2002.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 28, 2003

Skin care, leases and illegal tax

Skin problems NWW asks "where can I find an English-speaking dermatologist or specialist clinic in Tokyo area?"
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / A GAIJIN'S TALE
Oct 28, 2003

Harsh words

I was riding the notorious Yamanote line late one Saturday night when a group of three apparently intoxicated foreigners jumped on, their eyes immediately scanning the carriage for likely female prey.
Japan Times
JAPAN / TALKING SHOP
Oct 27, 2003

English a plus but don't sell job skills, discerning palate short

Nobuhiro Hashiba was aware that it was a thinly veiled test to see whether he would be a worthy boss or a mere business suit recently sent by a Japanese company.
EDITORIALS
Oct 26, 2003

Discord over LDP's retirement age

Age seems to matter in politics as well. With the Liberal Democratic Party having set a 73-year age limit for candidates running for Lower House seats under the proportional representation, or PR, system, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Thursday asked two elder politicians -- former Prime Ministers...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 26, 2003

Hidden truths of the Hermit Kingdom

PYONGYANG: The Hidden History of the North Korean Capital, by Chris Springer, photos by Eckart Dege. Budapest: Entente Bt., 2003, 158 pp., $29.95 (paper). Although the capital of the new Hermit Kingdom is not a popular tourist destination, we now have this interesting detailed guide to the socialist...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 26, 2003

Fostering the will for a better way

MYSORE -- On the outskirts of historic Mysore -- city seat of maharajas until Indian independence in 1947 -- is a settlement called Kuduremala. A community of just 800 people, its name is testament to the former rulers of Mysore -- which occupies about a third of present-day Karnataka State -- who took...
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2003

Diet nepotism -- birthright of passage

In Japanese politics, family ties still count a lot.
BUSINESS
Oct 25, 2003

Group discusses regional economies

The government on Friday held the first meeting of a special task force charged with revitalizing regional economies.
COMMUNITY
Oct 25, 2003

Palette mixes people of every color and capacity

Naoko Taniguchi is a pioneer in bringing mentally handicapped individuals into the community. Thirty years ago, when she began volunteer activities, families still regarded the disabled as a source of shame. She says the situation is improving, "though there will be no major shift until companies hire...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 24, 2003

Poring over all tea's attractions

Kenji Takano's tea room fills the light and spacious basement of a building in Jinbocho -- an area that's best-known for its shops crammed with old books, prints and posters, and for the number of small publishing companies based there.
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2003

End of two-track system no help to women

As the protracted economic slump prompts companies to shed the time-honored practices of lifetime employment and seniority-based wages, another victim of the cost-cutting ax is the two-track hiring system that has effectively kept women's wages lower than men's.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 23, 2003

Hoping rain stays away

Rain played a factor in Game 3 of both the Japan Series and the World Series on Tuesday in Osaka and Miami, respectively. The Fukuoka Daiei Hawks-Hanshin Tigers matchup was postponed until Wednesday, while the New York Yankees and Florida Marlins were delayed 38 minutes by a squall.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 23, 2003

Expert lays bare environmental carnage of war

While environmental destruction is often the last thing considered when war breaks out, this form of devastation can take decades -- if not centuries -- to correct.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 23, 2003

No rush to judgment

In a meeting in Heidelberg earlier this month, science historians concluded that German science between 1933 and 1945 was exploitative and unethical. The organizer of the meeting, Wolfgang Eckhart, head of history of medicine at the University of Heidelberg, said in Nature last week: "We have proven...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 23, 2003

Crime wave fears prompt citizen patrols

Driven by concerns about rising crime, citizens are standing up to protect themselves by forming neighborhood watch groups.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 22, 2003

Cynic's view of the sex and the city

One of kabuki's most prolific playwrights, Tsuruya Nanboku, produced 120 dramas in the last 25 years of his life. This month, the Kabukiza, in Ginza, stages just two of them, a pair of remarkable sewamono (realistic plays) titled "Kamikakete Sango Taisetsu (A Pledge of Love to Sango)" and "Osome Hisamatsu...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 22, 2003

It's a man's, man's world . . . unfortunately

Last week I looked at two plays depicting the lives of women. This week, the focus is two excellent contemporary comedy dramas about modern Japanese history -- and that means it's big-shot male politicians, bureaucrats and gangsters who hold center stage.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 21, 2003

Japan still bazaar for the bizarre

It's not news that Japan is a vast emporium for some of the weirdest products ever retailed on the planet. We've all read the stories about high-tech toilet seats, used schoolgirls' underwear, million-yen pet beetles, canned whale blubber, and so on.
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2003

Inmates claim assaults common

More than one-third of Japan's prison population has been assaulted, intimidated or bullied by prison guards, the Justice Ministry's first extensive nationwide survey of inmates showed Monday.

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