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BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 1, 2006

MLB stars hope to prove themselves during Nichibei

The plane has landed, and the first battle has begun.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2006

Temples grope for gimmicks to stay relevant, flush

The Kamiyacho Open Terrace cafe in central Tokyo has all the trappings of a trendy establishment -- good coffee, homemade desserts, an airy terrace.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2006

Dolphin kill dogged by mercury, activists

Nearly every day since the first week in September, fishermen have been driving pods of dolphins into quiet coves near the village of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, to kill them for their meat, whatever the mercury content, or sell them to marine parks.
BUSINESS
Oct 31, 2006

MMC stems red ink in first half on cost cuts

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. announced Monday it has cut its losses for the first fiscal half to Sept. 30 compared with the previous year, thanks mainly to a weaker yen and cost-cutting efforts.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 30, 2006

Major pockets fall Emperor's Cup

The win was in the numbers Sunday at Fuchu as Daiwa Major captured his second grade 1 race of his career with victory in the fall Emperor's Cup. Racing from the No. 14 post over 2,000 meters of turf, as he had done for his first top-level victory in the Satsukisho two years ago, the feisty 5-year-old...
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Oct 30, 2006

Will private equity boom in Japan? It did in Europe

After booming in the United States and Europe, private equity finally seems to have set its sights on Japan. Two of the world's top three private equity firms -- Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Texas Pacific Group -- have each opened offices in Japan or expanded their existing Japan operations over...
EDITORIALS
Oct 30, 2006

New flexibility of cell phones

The much-awaited portable-number service for cell phones has started in Japan, enabling users to change carriers without having to change phone numbers. This is a new convenience for customers, but for the cell-phone carriers -- NTT DoCoMo Inc., KDDI Corp. and Softbank Mobile Corp. -- it heralds the...
EDITORIALS
Oct 29, 2006

Japanese and the 'Paris syndrome'

How many victims does it take to make a syndrome? According to a French newspaper, a dozen a year will do. In the case of a trend it has dubbed "Paris syndrome," that would be the 12 or so Japanese tourists a year who are said to be so disenchanted by their encounter with the fabled French capital that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 27, 2006

Bloc Party

Like Franz Ferdinand the year before, in 2005 Bloc Party were pegged by the British press to be the breakout act of the year. A solid prediction, the London quartet's first full length, "Silent Alarm," was met with worldwide acclaim, turning BP into bona fide stars at home and establishing sizeable fan...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Oct 26, 2006

Slow-motion revelations

A group of people who do not know one another, but are united in a common purpose -- possibly waiting for a bus -- stand together in a tightly cropped long shot. One is reading a book, another is listening to music through headphones. There are the young and old; whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians;...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 24, 2006

Fighters-mania warms hearts in cold Hokkaido

SAPPORO -- Cold wind started blowing on the northern island last week. But there is a reason for the people up here to be warm in their hearts and flash smiles on their faces.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 22, 2006

Something 'beautiful' that leaders may not see from on high

Sometimes a very significant event in the life of a country passes largely unnoticed, particularly if it occurs away from the center of power. Just such a thing happened on the 11th of this month.
BUSINESS
Oct 21, 2006

Daiei operating profit up, net profit down

Daiei Inc. said Friday its operating profit for its March-August half was 25.45 billion yen, up 41.9 percent from the previous year, on sales of 672.1 billion yen, due to strong sales in its credit card subsidiary OMC Card Inc.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 20, 2006

Rogge: Baseball still has work to do before Olympic return

IOC President Jacques Rogge said Thursday the Olympics has not closed the door on baseball for good, but that the major leagues need to take an even tougher stance on doping and make their star players available for selection if the sport has any chance of being welcomed back to the fold.
EDITORIALS
Oct 20, 2006

Afghanistan at the tipping point

The top NATO military commander in Afghanistan, British Gen. David Richards, has warned that Afghanistan is at a crucial juncture. If the lives of ordinary Afghans do not improve soon, there is the very real danger that they will switch their allegiance back to the Taliban. Loss of the support of the...
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...
CULTURE / Music
Oct 20, 2006

Isis "In The Absence of Truth"

Where does a band go after stretching the boundaries of its genre as far as possible? Well, if you're Isis, you virtually abandon it. Since their inception as a sludge-metal act in 1997, each of the American quintet's expansive releases have experimented with, and further removed them from, their hardcore...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 17, 2006

Why is Japan kept in dark?

For tourists and residents alike, the quintessential image of Tokyo is of a city lit by artificial light. As soon as twilight gathers, the central shopping and entertainment districts of Shibuya, Shinjuku and Roppongi are awash with neon, shining from each shop and office, even turning the night to a...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 17, 2006

Sony readying plan to challenge iPod

Sony Corp. has vowed to fight iPod's domination in portable digital music players by featuring superior sound quality and simple music downloads that won't require a computer.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 17, 2006

The false hopes of tax cuts

NEW YORK -- There is a movement in medicine to require that applications for licenses to sell a new drug be "evidence-based." By contrast, trained economists view their discipline as having already achieved this scientific standard. After all, they express their ideas with mathematics and arrive at quantitative...
MORE SPORTS
Oct 16, 2006

Chinese stars earn repeat titles

Lin Dan capitalized on his signature left-arm firing shots and Taufik Hidayat lost his signature -- his cool.
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...
BUSINESS
Oct 14, 2006

Retailer Aeon gets Daiei rehab mandate

Daiei Inc. and its biggest shareholder, Marubeni Corp., said Friday they have picked Aeon Co., the nation's largest supermarket chain, to gather capital and organize business alliances to rehabilitate the struggling supermarket operator.
EDITORIALS
Oct 14, 2006

The darkness in Russia

Three recent killings in Russia raise troubling questions about the rule of law in that country. The three incidents are not linked but that is not to say they are random killings: Investigations of the murders will probe the same murky corners where political and economic influence intersect. The realization...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji