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JAPAN
Apr 29, 2004

Boat crew survivors focus of Bikini nuke test study

The city of Sukumo, Kochi Prefecture, will conduct health studies next month on crews from Kochi fishing boats hit by fallout from the 1954 U.S. hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the Central Pacific.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2004

Gray city's parks green escapes

No plans for the Golden Week holidays? Spending a relaxing day in a park under blue skies may be just the ticket for weary urbanites.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 28, 2004

Selling oneself short in the South

Sonny Rating: * * (out of 5) Director: Nicholas Cage Running time: 110 minutes Language: English Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] There was a time when one could relish seeing Nicholas Cage's name in a film's credits, a fertile period that encompassed 1991's "Wild at...
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2004

Locksmith admits kidnapping, killing writer

A locksmith pleaded guilty Tuesday at the Tokyo District Court to illegally confining and murdering a freelance journalist in September.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 28, 2004

Between blue and gray, love finds a way

Cold Mountain Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Anthony Minghella Running time: 152 minutes Language: English Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Sixty-some years after Scarlett O'Hara clutched that handful of earth and swore she would never go hungry again, another...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 28, 2004

It's back to the future in style

Casshern Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Kazuaki Kiriya Running time: 141 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] The great age of the megalomaniac director, who dreamt of making big, visionary, no-expenses-spared movies, ended with the silents....
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2004

Polish envoy calls on Japan to boost investment, tourism

Polish Ambassador Marcin Rybicki on Monday called on Japan to invest more in Poland and encourage more of its citizens to visit his country.
BUSINESS
Apr 27, 2004

Nissan saw profit reach record level in fiscal '03

Nissan Motor Co. said Monday it posted a record group operating profit of 825 billion yen for fiscal 2003, up 11.9 percent from the previous year.
JAPAN / POLITICS IN FOCUS
Apr 27, 2004

Firms now balking at political donations

Kenji Watanabe spent the last year preaching and begging business leaders around Fukui Prefecture to donate to the Liberal Democratic Party. He was always received politely, but company presidents kept their wallets closed.
COMMENTARY
Apr 26, 2004

A laudable Yasukuni ruling

In a landmark ruling April 7, the Fukuoka District Court ruled that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine, the memorial to Japan's war dead, contravened the constitutional principle of keeping state and religion separate. The court, however, dismissed the plaintiffs' demand for...
CULTURE / Music
Apr 25, 2004

Bob Dylan: "Live 1964: Concert at Philharmonic Hall"

The striking thing about the latest addition to the "Bootleg Series" is the realization that four years into his career Bob Dylan was still a callow youth. The concert took place Halloween night, 1964, a year after the Kennedy assassination, nine months after The Beatles conquered America, but a year...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 25, 2004

Frank Gibney's league of Japanese gentlemen

FIVE GENTLEMEN OF JAPAN: The Portrait of a Nation's Character, by Frank Gibney. D'Asia Vu Reprint Library, Eastbridge, 2002, 356 pp., $24.95 (paper). Fifty years ago, a young American writer named Frank Gibney, fresh out of the U.S. Navy where he had been a Japanese-speaking intelligence officer, published...
Japan Times
Features
Apr 25, 2004

Reluctantly putting the hanging case

Despite official data showing public support for capital punishment running at around 80 percent, few Japanese are willing to openly defend the death penalty.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 25, 2004

The Abyssinians and Friends: "Tree of Satta"

Only in the world of reggae could you get away with a whole album of different versions of a song formed from a single backing track, yet how each version voices the track -- with new vocalists, lyrics or different lead instruments -- is exactly what excites the reggae audience.
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2004

Surgeons in Chiba offer radical solution to obesity

Chiba University's advanced surgery department is conducting a procedure billed as the ultimate treatment for obesity, in which the size of the patient's stomach is drastically reduced.
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2004

Violence drives aid workers out of Iraq

Intense violence in Iraq has driven Japanese civic aid organizations to scale back their operations there.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Apr 24, 2004

Barkley's commentary makes him look like a buffoon

NEW YORK -- As most of us with a pulse know all too well, Charles Barkley rarely says something that isn't stone stupid unless he has impounded somebody else's original thought. And TNT couldn't be prouder presenting its Master of the Oblivious.
BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2004

Bank bill seen unlikely to stabilize financial system

A government-sponsored bill to prop up struggling financial institutions with public funds is apparently designed to boost investor confidence.
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2004

Kawaguchi spends the day in bed

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi remained at home Friday after leaving early from a Diet session a day earlier and canceling appointments due to fatigue, ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima said.
EDITORIALS
Apr 23, 2004

Mr. Vajpayee has reason to smile

India ushered in the world's largest democratic pageant this week as it began the first phase of national elections. The vote will stretch out over three weeks, with counting and final results set for May 13. Blistering economic growth appears to be the springboard for yet another parliamentary majority...
BUSINESS
Apr 23, 2004

Individual traders boost earnings of online brokerages

Online brokerages' earnings surged in fiscal 2003 due to active trading by individual investors during the recent stock market rally.
MORE SPORTS
Apr 23, 2004

Aoki to enter Hall of Fame

Isao Aoki will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Fla., marking the first time for a male Japanese golfer to be honored there, golf sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2004

Heed the warnings or accept the consequences: Koizumi

Aid workers and journalists who ignore government warnings to not travel to dangerous areas should accept responsibility for the consequences, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Thursday.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 2004

Freed hostages traumatized by ordeal, criticism

The three Japanese civilians who returned home after being held hostage for over a week in Iraq are suffering from acute stress disorder, a psychiatrist said Wednesday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 22, 2004

The secret of the 'superhero' spider leads advances in field of biomimetics

Three thousand years ago a bunch of Chinese silkworm farmers got fed up with their job. Instead of carrying out the tedious task of harvesting hundreds of silkworm cocoons for their silk, the farmers wondered if there wasn't an easier way they could make the stuff artificially. There was, but the techniques...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 21, 2004

The brush never lies

Girl With a Pearl Earring Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Peter Webber Running time: 100 minutes Language: English Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] What's in a gaze? It's impossible to view Johannes Vermeer's most beloved work, "Girl With a Pearl Earring" (aka...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 21, 2004

A universe far beyond manga as we know it

Realism no Yado Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Nobuhiro Yamashita Running time: 83 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Foreign manga fans are always praising manga's scope as compared with that of American comics stuck in a narrow superhero...
JAPAN
Apr 21, 2004

Thriving Kyushu bullet trains boost local business

Since partial service started on the Kyushu Shinkansen Line on March 13, passenger numbers have surged, resulting in economic spinoffs.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan