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BASEBALL / MLB
May 10, 2003

Fukudome breathes life into Dragons

Kosuke Fukudome nailed a three-run homer in the eighth inning and singled home the go-ahead run in the ninth as the Chunichi Dragons came from behind to beat the Yomiuri Giants 7-5 at Tokyo Dome on Friday for their third straight win.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
May 10, 2003

Matt Lagan

People say that the show must go on. They also say that what may happen behind the scenes only the actors know.
COMMENTARY
May 8, 2003

Positioning for the next crisis

In my last column in late April, I treated critically the transformation of America's foreign policy between the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the war against Iraq, focusing on the unilateralist policy of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush. At the end of that column, I gave...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
May 8, 2003

More breathing space in the classroom

Last month, just before the new school year started in Japan, I ran into a neighbor at the supermarket. She's a bit high-strung and gets worked up over school matters, so I try to avoid her. But she collared me by the cabbages and dropped her voice to a dramatic whisper. "Have you heard? The Suzukis...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FRONT-RUNNERS
May 7, 2003

Shimadzu enjoys fruits of research and development program

If he had been a researcher at a major Japanese university, Koichi Tanaka could not have won the 2002 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 7, 2003

Phil Woods

The intense be-bop style created by Charlie Parker changed the shape of jazz and created an entirely new vocabulary for the saxophone. Few sax players could keep pace with the incredible dexterity and musical intelligence of Bird, though many tried.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 7, 2003

Koby Israelite: "Dance of Idiots"

'Dance of the Idiots" takes the thrust of heavy metal and slams it together with a Balkan restlessness while maintaining a strong Jewish spiritedness. If you've grown up in a musical or cultural blender, this record will make perfect sense to you. If you haven't, it will strike you as highly imaginative...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
May 7, 2003

One door opens, another one closes

"The closing of a door can bring blessed privacy and comfort -- the opening, terror. Conversely, the closing of a door can be a sad and final thing -- the opening a wonderfully joyous moment."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 7, 2003

Come on, come on, let's get together

There's collaboration in the air in Japan's contemporary theater world; collaboration between foreign directors and Japanese actors, directors and producers.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 7, 2003

Banda Bassotti

A prominent critic once called the Clash "the only band that mattered," a comment that went beyond appreciation of the band's punk sound and acknowledged its radical political outlook.
EDITORIALS
May 5, 2003

Compromise for Mideast peace

A new road map for peace in the Middle East has been proposed to the two parties in the conflict, Israel and Palestine. The Palestine problem is the main focus in ascertaining the shape of a new order in the Middle East following the Iraq war. The new plan, which aims for a comprehensive settlement,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 4, 2003

Movers and shakers

The J-pop singing duo Kinki Kids are considered "first-class idols" by everyone in show business. However, the premise behind "The Domoto Brothers" (Fuji; Sunday, 10 p.m.) is that they're struggling musicians. On this weekly half-hour show, Tsuyoshi and Koichi Domoto -- who, despite having the same family...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 4, 2003

Let's fight

It's early afternoon on a hot spring Sunday in Tokyo, and in the tranquil neighborhood park of Kodaira a fight is shaping up. Children still hurtle round the playground in one corner of the park, but at the far end, three men, burly and imposing, circle menacingly round a fourth. A crowd has gathered...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 4, 2003

Getting real on the battlefield

Lord Phillip's ax, singing through the air, crashes into the side of my helm and I am slain. My opponent had swept aside my mistimed spear thrust and come inside my range before I could recover. "Well struck, my lord," I cry, and retire from the field. As I walk off I clap my gauntleted hand on his chainmail-covered...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 3, 2003

Tit for tat in the game of Japanese gift-giving

"Beware of Japanese bearing gifts!"
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2003

Hong Kong's blurred sense of identity had a role in SARS fiasco

HONG KNG -- In the end, it took the Chinese Communist Party's nine-member Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) 5 1/2 months to take a public stand on handling the current atypical pneumonia crisis with much greater openness. Guangdong Province experienced the first outbreak of the previously unknown disease...
BUSINESS
May 1, 2003

BOJ promises to keep economy flush

The Bank of Japan on Wednesday said it would force-feed the economy with money as needed, in a bid to wipe out even hints of a collapse in the financial system.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 1, 2003

Flailing Japanese companies, government turn to U.S. recovery 'guru'

Japan, still struggling to find a way out of its bad-loan quagmire, is looking for salvation from a "guru" credited with turning around whole sectors of U.S. industry.
COMMENTARY / World
May 1, 2003

Reform is key to keeping Asia on top

MANILA -- Asia's future is bright, but it is not preordained. Policy reforms that augment investment, lead to the adoption of new technologies and enhance productivity must be pursued to increase the growth potential of developing economies in Asia. The urgency of these reforms is accentuated by the...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
May 1, 2003

Despite hype, Garnett's game lacking

LOS ANGELES -- When Kevin Garnett flopped on the free throw line of life with 15.7 seconds remaining in Sunday' s 102-97 power outage -- the Timberwolves were down three points at the time -- were you thinking what I was thinking?
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.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
May 1, 2003

Hanami with a shot of history

Vancouver, Canada, is a beautiful city. Not only for the magnificent mountains, for salmon spawning rivers, and a largely natural coast, but for the city's many trees. I am told that Vancouver has 124,000 street trees, 30,000 of which flower. The cherry trees especially are glorious.
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2003

TELL struggles amid foreigner influx

Tokyo English Life Line, a telephone counseling service for non-Japanese that celebrated its 30th anniversary this month, sees a need for such services increasing in line with the growing number of foreigners living in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 30, 2003

Symbols beyond the esoteric

Exotic chanting and the ringing of bells drifts from the corners of the dark room. All around are Buddhist statues darting sharp glances; paintings of buddhas and bodhisattvas in bright primary colors; and erotic and grotesque depictions of intertwined male and female deities.
JAPAN / History
Apr 30, 2003

Japan Occupation turned foes into friends

Before Gen. Douglas MacArthur landed at a small airstrip outside Tokyo to begin the U.S.-led Occupation of Japan in 1945, Americans were the object of intense hatred, portrayed by propagandists as rapacious foreign devils.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Apr 29, 2003

Overstaying visas, noisy neighbors and DIY trading

Visa overstaying I'm a Ukranian Citizen now in Japan. I have overstayed my tourist three-month visa. If I would like to go back to my country, what should I do? Can I buy an air ticket without a visa? Do they have money or other kinds of penalties for this type of case? -- Tokyo Don
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 27, 2003

Canine care groups life spirits of sick and needy

There was a buzz of excitement in the pediatrics ward at St. Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo. Children were milling around in their pajamas with impish gleams in their eyes. Soon, they were all jostling near the door to the playroom, the little ones standing on tiptoes to peek inside.
COMMUNITY
Apr 27, 2003

Dolphin 'treatment' defies science

Michael Williams was born severely autistic. Even when he was in his teens, he was unable to communicate, other than through screeching, and his parents had to be constantly on the alert for violent behavior. Without warning, he would bang his head against objects, bite into his own fingers or lash out...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE EXTRA
Apr 27, 2003

Japan rugby needs to act now before it is too late

For followers of Japanese rugby, the last few weeks have not made for happy reading.
EDITORIALS
Apr 26, 2003

Lessons of a cult guru's trial

In the marathon trial of Aum Shinrikyo cult leader Chizuo Matsumoto (also known as Shoko Asahara) at the Tokyo District Court, prosecutors on Thursday demanded the death penalty. "The accused promoted teachings that even approved of murder," they said in a closing argument. "He planned and ordered indiscriminate...

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