Search - 2003

 
 
CULTURE / Music
Oct 20, 2006

GO!GO!7188 "Parade"

Like many of the best things in life -- love, drunkenness, ice cream, fireworks -- GO!GO!7188 are tricky to explain but a joy to experience. Formed in 1998, the band blend rockabilly rhythms, surf guitar and J-pop hooks, and the end result is enough to elicit giddiness, goose bumps and gasps from just...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 19, 2006

America's double standard fuels crises

LONDON -- The U.S. government's double standard in dealing with the intensifying nuclear crisis in North Korea further strengthens the argument that President George W. Bush's colonial designs are either exasperated by the vulnerability of his foes or deterred by their lethal preparedness.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 15, 2006

Things a lot different for 2006 Fighters heading into Japan Series

Congratulations to manager Trey Hillman and everyone connected with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters on winning the franchise's first Pacific League pennant in a quarter century. The organization has come a long way since the last championship 25 years ago and should make a much better showing than last...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 15, 2006

The first steps to rapprochement

JAPAN'S FOREIGN POLICY 1945-2003: The Quest for a Proactive Policy, by Kazuhiko Togo. Leiden: Brill Academic, 2005, 484 pp., $49 (paper). Kazuhiko Togo, one of Japan's leading strategic thinkers about foreign policy, wrote an article in the June issue of Far Eastern Economic Review calling for a moratorium...
SUMO
Oct 14, 2006

Haircuts, sumo stars and amateurs in Osaka

Autumn is a time of change for the Japanese. Summer clothes are put away and sightings of thicker, woollier garments become increasingly common. The mercury encounters a daily struggle to stay first above 20 degrees then above 10, and the country collectively takes its foot off the pedal.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 13, 2006

School's out for Oreskaband teens

'I don't think being high-school girls is an important part of our band," says 18-year-old Tae-san, drummer with Osaka ska band Oreskaband. And with mere months until their graduation, we're about to find out if she's right.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 12, 2006

Beijing challenges the West in Africa

PRAGUE -- Ever since the Berlin conference of 1883, which Belgium's King Leopold II called "the sharing of Africa's cake," the West has assumed exclusive rights over sub-Saharan Africa. But, while centuries of struggle to end colonial rule and apartheid have not changed this much, now Western influence...
EDITORIALS
Oct 11, 2006

Fear of another arms race

North Korea's announcement that it went ahead with a nuclear-weapons test Monday appeared timed to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's summit with South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun -- a day after his summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
BUSINESS
Oct 11, 2006

Businesses welcome Chinese thaw but remain cautious

The business community greeted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Sunday summit in Beijing with Chinese President Hu Jintao, billed as a fence-mending effort by the two countries, with a sigh of relief.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 8, 2006

Masterful Matsuzaka

TOKOROZAWA, Saitama Pref. -- Kazumi Saito was good enough to beat any pitcher in Japan on Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Oct 8, 2006

Mr. Bush, a period and a comma

Copy editors and others who are persnickety about the English language probably know the witty American usage guide "Lapsing Into a Comma." The book is all about grammar and style and is well worth reading. But it's the title that's truly memorable -- and it has been in the air again recently thanks...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Oct 7, 2006

PL playoffs offer many questions

This time last year, a heck of a brew was being whipped up east of Tokyo.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 6, 2006

The Lemonheads "The Lemonheads"

If you want to love this album, look to the lyric sheet. Reviving the sweet 'n' sour Lemonheads moniker with new bandmates, Evan Dando eschews the warm country tone of his 2003 solo album "Baby I'm Bored," instead opting for a less dynamic, spiky electric sound. Despite sweet vocal melodies on "Become...
MORE SPORTS
Oct 5, 2006

Qualifier Troicki takes Federer to edge at Japan Open

Top seed and world No. 1 Roger Federer faced a tough test in his first-ever appearance at the AIG Japan Open on Wednesday before dispatching qualifier Viktor Troicki 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-3) at a packed Ariake Colosseum.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2006

Iraq's Christians at risk of annihilation

LONDON -- The world is consumed by fears that Iraq is degenerating into a civil war between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. But in this looming war of all against all, it is Iraq's small community of Assyrian Christians that is at risk of annihilation.
BUSINESS
Oct 5, 2006

U.S. beef hard sell as concern lingers, Aussies fill void

Michal Small has been waiting eagerly for the return of U.S. beef to Japan, but it seems the American will have to wait a while longer before the Roppongi Hills restaurants she frequents start serving the fare again.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 5, 2006

Departing director created a new platform for contemporary art in Tokyo

It would have been difficult to find a more dramatic backdrop for last week's press conference announcing that Mori Art Museum's British-born director David Elliott will be leaving after October, and that his second-in-command, Fumio Nanjo, will take over the helm of Japan's largest privately endowed...
EDITORIALS
Oct 5, 2006

JAL flying through stormy skies

The international and domestic operations units of Japan Airlines Corp., the nation's flag carrier, merged Oct. 1. The merger means the complete reorganization of JAL and a new start for the airline. But the new JAL faces rough times ahead.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2006

Repression belies rhetoric in Georgia

TBILISI -- In recent weeks, leaders of various opposition organizations in Georgia, such as Antisoros and Fairness, have been jailed on unfair accusations of plotting a coup on behalf of Russia. But the wave of political repression merely reflects President Mikhail Saakashvili's desperate effort to cling...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Oct 3, 2006

Transport minister wants road taxes to be spent on more than just roads

Gas and vehicle taxes should not be spent only on road construction but also on protecting the environment, including maintaining the nation's forests, according to the new minister of land, infrastructure and transport.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2006

Abe looks to compel schools to push 'patriotism'

As the extraordinary Diet session began Friday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe laid out his legislative agenda and left political observers speculating over the government's apparent tilt to the right and its push for "patriotism."
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2006

Young and tech-savvy, India's market remains largely untapped

Japanese companies increasingly look to India for business opportunities, but they have yet to fully tap the potential of one of the world's fastest-growing economies with its vast pool of skilled human resources, said participants in a recent symposium in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2006

Give Yasukuni a miss: New Komeito

must step on the accelerator for structural reforms . . . but when the LDP goes too far, we need to (say) wait a minute" and hit the brakes, he said. Although Abe has not clearly stated if he will visit the shrine again, he did go to in April while serving as chief Cabinet secretary, a trip that was...
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2006

Economy looks strong as Abe takes reins

Japan got a double dose of good economic news Friday with the release of healthy industrial production and consumer price figures that underline continued recovery of second-largest economy in the world.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?