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SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 8, 2002

F.A. in free fall as Premier League clubs make play for power

LONDON -- It was Ron Saunders, the former Aston Villa manager, who once said: "If you're going to commit suicide, do it yourself."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Nov 7, 2002

Bear facts about honey traps

Twenty years ago, in arguments with officials of the Forestry Agency, which was clear-cutting great swaths of old mixed forest and selling off much of the timber to be turned into wood chips, I tried to stress the individual value of various trees. In those days, a 150- to 200-year-old horse chestnut...
Japan Times
SOCCER / World cup
Nov 7, 2002

Zico reveals his plans for Japanese team

In an exclusive interview with The Japan Times, Brazilian soccer legend and newly appointed Japan national team coach Zico aired his views on his philosophy and plans for the future of Japanese soccer.
JAPAN
Nov 6, 2002

China silent over missing Japanese

Chinese authorities have not provided any information on a missing Japanese working to help North Korean refugees in northern China and his interpreter, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Nov 6, 2002

No growth without reforms, report says

Persistent deflation and massive bad loans in the nation's banking system have weakened Japan's economy and no improvement will be seen until structural reforms are implemented, according to an annual government white paper released Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 6, 2002

The Polyphonic Spree: "The Beginning Stages Of . . ."

Smile. Go ahead, it's good for you. That's right, smile now. Can you do it? If you're finding an impromptu grin difficult, pick up the first album by The Polyphonic Spree, "The Beginning Stages Of . . .," and wash away any gloom for at least 68 minutes.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2002

Nisei seeks 'kiyomoto' doctorate

Mark Oshima first wanted to study Japan's prewar colonial policy and become an academic, changed his mind and decided to earn a doctorate in 19th century kabuki, and ended up studying "kiyomoto" -- musical accompaniment to kabuki dancing.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Nov 5, 2002

Trapped in a cold tent by a strong wind outside

As readers may recall, our last Halloween horror story left us in Chobe national park, Botswana. Not the northern part of Chobe: the part with easy access, good roads, fantastic riverbank campsites and glorious views over the game-rich flood plain to the distant forests of Namibia. No. That would have...
EDITORIALS
Nov 3, 2002

A sneer heard round the world

Last week brought another of those bittersweet cultural anniversaries that seem bent on reminding us how hard it is to keep the cutting edge sharp, but also why it matters to keep trying.
JAPAN / Media
Nov 3, 2002

Vernacular Views

Philosophy Professor Kenji Tsuchiya of Ochanomizu Women's University has got a big problem, as related in his column in the weekly Shukan Bunshun.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 3, 2002

The many faces of Macao

MACAO, by Philippe Pons. Translated from the French by Sarah Adams. London: Reaktion Books, 2002. 135 pp. with 33 illustrations, £14.95 (paper) At the end of his splendid evocation of the city of Macao, Philippe Pons quotes a paragraph by journalist and novelist Italo Calvino about cities that "sometimes...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Nov 3, 2002

Terror in our own backyard

A key phrase in my recent e-mail exchanges has been, "The world has gone crazy." The hostage drama in Moscow; the shooting spree in the Washington, D.C. area; the bombing of two nightclubs in Bali; the Finnish teenager who blew up himself and six other people in a suburban shopping mall; the killing...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 1, 2002

Saints skipper Strachan runs tight ship

LONDON -- It was, said Southampton striker James Beattie, "a moment of madness."
BUSINESS
Nov 1, 2002

Sumitomo posts 5.4% rise in profit

Trading house Sumitomo Corp. said Thursday its group net profit in the first half to Sept. 30 grew 5.4 percent to 21.41 billion yen, despite sales sinking 5.5 percent to 4.57 trillion yen.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Oct 31, 2002

Birds' island havens failing whole species

Teuri-jima Island is a special place, being a legally protected breeding habitat of seabirds. It was also the main subject of a recent Japan-U.S. government-level symposium in the nearby mainland town of Haboro, Hokkaido. Shocking facts emerged from that meeting.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 2002

The noble art of collecting

Artists trying to earn a living before these days of government grants, international art fairs and global cultural celebrity were at the mercy of the people holding the purse strings. Teaching was (and remains) a way of getting by, but for the premodern artist, real security depended largely on catching...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Oct 30, 2002

Afloat but not adrift on the sea of dreams

As the fall exhibition season moves into high gear, there are a number of good shows going up at Tokyo's leading contemporary art galleries, and what is notable is that a fair number of them are based on well-defined themes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 30, 2002

Psyched up

Members of Keiko Takeya's Dance 01 company rehearse for "Psyche," to be presented in collaboration with Italy-based Iranian artist Hossein Golba. "Psyche" (meaning "breath, life and soul" in Greek) will employ the language of dance to evoke the fluid, metaphysical world of the intellect, says Golba....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Oct 30, 2002

Yaida takes off on flight of 'flancy'

Why monkey with a winning formula? That seems to be the logic behind singer/songwriter Hitomi Yaida's third album, "i/flancy," which reached No. 1 on the Oricon album chart for the week ending Oct. 28.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 30, 2002

Louis XIV understood power, absolute power

Ovid's "Metamorphoses" (composed 8 A.D.) described the palace of the sun, tall-columned and fashioned from precious metals, inside which sat the radiant god Apollo on a throne studded with emeralds. The Roman poet's description was pure fantasy, but Louis XIV, King of France from 1643-1715, seemed set...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Oct 30, 2002

Patricia Barber: "Verse"

Patricia Barber's singing, piano playing and songwriting have an intimacy that is veiled in intimation. She feels close, but elusive, as if she's constantly singing from the shadows. They are beautiful shadows, though, with an alluring stylishness. Over the course of seven releases, Barber has steadily...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Oct 27, 2002

Shake a leg down to Yotsuya for imported carnivale

Saci Perere is a remarkable little Brazilian nightspot -- not only for having survived for more than a quarter of a century, but also for having done so with never-diminishing energy. I think of the bar, which takes its name from a mischievous one-legged ghost in Brazilian folklore, as one continuous...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 27, 2002

Romantics, reporter go far away, so close

In Japan, there's a commonly held romantic notion that people who really want to pursue certain kinds of ambitions have to go abroad to do so. Only by immersing oneself in an environment that offers no distractions from the goal can one truly master a discipline.
COMMUNITY
Oct 27, 2002

Putting the best face on death

People are said to look peaceful in death. But imagine if a deceased's family were to gaze fondly at their loved one only to find the face garishly caked with foundation, rouge and lipstick. Horrifying, or what?

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight