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SOCCER / World cup
Jun 28, 2000

Venables likes France's chances at Euro 2000

BRUSSELS -- Former England manager Terry Venables is tipping France to win the European Championship. Venables, who led England to the semifinals of Euro 96 in England, has been impressed by the improvement in the French team since it won the World Cup two years ago.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2000

Dentsu admits fault in worker suicide

Advertising giant Dentsu Inc. admitted Friday that it was responsible for the 1991 suicide of a 24-year-old employee who had become depressed due to overwork and agreed to pay the family about 168 million yen in compensation to settle the case, a lawyer for the family said.
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
Jun 19, 2000

Japanese shine, beat Bolivia 2-0

YOKOHAMA -- It was a telling scene. Japan manager Philippe Troussier with a broad grin on his face holding aloft his first trophy as his happy players showered him with water in the sunshine following a 2-0 win over Bolivia on Sunday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 18, 2000

Rain, rain, go away

It's that time of year again. Perpetually iron-gray skies, puddles, mud, clashing umbrellas, fogged-up train windows, damp shoes and damper spirits. It's "tsuyu": the rainy season, when nature goes into its annual wet-blanket act.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE
Jun 18, 2000

Never too long

I have perhaps the world's longest list of You have been here too long if. . . It is often easy to see oneself in such lists, recognizing a trait you have absorbed since living here. It has become an automatic reflex, unnoticed until you return home and realize that no one else does it. My moment of...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 11, 2000

Haven't got the yang of Japanese gardening

I came home the other day and noticed my neighbor had cut my grass, trimmed my trees and watered my plants. This is normal. I apologized profusely, thanked Ueda-san repetitively and she said, as always, "Oh, it was nothing."
CULTURE / Art
Jun 1, 2000

Tea goes down well in Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON -- A beautiful Japanese tea room emerges as one enters and goes down the hall in Katherine Lyons' and Austin Babcock's spacious brick house. In this quiet neighborhood in suburban D.C., Lyons, or Soshu, her tea name, teaches the Urasenke tradition of chanoyu. The house has been Urasenke's...
EDITORIALS
May 20, 2000

Risky missile defense

Since the end of the Cold War, hopes for a nonnuclear world have run high. In the real world, however, moves toward disarmament have suffered one setback after another. Now there are disturbing signs of a relapse in the U.S.-Russian strategic arms reduction talks. A chief stumbling block is the U.S....
JAPAN
May 16, 2000

Medics add doubts to Aoki takeover

Remarks made by the late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's doctors since his death Sunday are increasing suspicions among opposition parties concerning Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki's claim, reiterated Monday, that Obuchi asked him to step in as acting prime minister.
CULTURE / Music
May 16, 2000

A natural woman, yes, but a soul singer?

One of the more thought-provoking critical observations I've come across lately (Amy Linden's, to be exact) is the claim that the current crop of young black singers could learn something from the 22-year-old singer-songwriter Fiona Apple about soul. That's "soul" as in Soul, as in Gladys and Nina, as...
COMMUNITY
May 14, 2000

Ex-garbage man bags career as pro caddie

If Jeff Mulberry has any aspirations beyond the odd hole in one, it is to lead as uncomplicated a life as possible. His needs are modest and his interests narrowing down as he focuses on pro golf. Not that he has his eye set on being a winning player, but rather on being the best caddie that friendship,...
COMMENTARY / World
May 12, 2000

Malaysia's Islamists counting on Chinese to tip balance of power

KOTA BAHRU, Malaysia -- Malaysia's opposition theocratic Islamic Party (PAS) sees Chinese support as crucial to its bid to head an alternative broad-based multiracial coalition party capable of taking over the federal government of Malaysia in future, and is working very hard to dispel their fears of...
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
May 11, 2000

Wanted: soccer manager for long-term relationship

Heard enough about Japan soccer boss Philippe Troussier recently? OK, I understand. Don't worry, this is not about him. Well, not much. Today, we go one step beyond to the big question: Who would be right for the job as coach of the Japanese soccer team, assuming it's not going to be Troussier?
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
May 11, 2000

Recalling the toil of winter in the rites of spring

It's May, and for almost all of the nation's 1,700 or so sake brewers, this means brewing activities are over for the season. There are a handful of larger breweries that have climate-controlled factories, and do brew year-round (known as shiki-jozo). But everyone else is limited to the coldest months...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
May 3, 2000

Eyes front

It's that time again. Time to talk about time. I'll try to be brief, since there is so little time for a chat. Or for much anything else.
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
May 2, 2000

Stop this madness!

I'm currently reading Ichiro Ozawa's "Blueprint for a New Japan," his manifesto for giving the government and politicians of this country the kick up the backside they badly need.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 30, 2000

Subverting reality with waste

Sporting longish brown curly hair and a skittish glance, American Tom Sachs bounded into Tokyo for his first Tokyo exhibition at Tomio Koyama Gallery, bringing with him a refreshing whiff of New York art culture.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 23, 2000

Peter Wakefield

"One of the benefits of retirement is that you still have the energy to go to another career. When I came out of diplomatic service, I decided I wanted to do two things: charitable work and art. I am lucky to be able to do both. Now as chairman of Asia House, here I am again," said Sir Peter Wakefield....
COMMUNITY
Apr 20, 2000

Calligraphy with a global message

Tim Jensen confesses that the first time he saw Mitsuo Aida's calligraphy poems his immediate reaction was "I could do that!" Now Aida's greatest fan and translator of three volumes of his work into English, Jensen is not alone in his initial reaction. According to Aida's son Kazuhito, director of the...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Apr 20, 2000

Loose lips can sometimes sink skips

After the New York Mets lost their season opener in Tokyo last month, a few players headed to Roppongi for some beers. On their way to hailing a taxi, one of the team's starting infielders turned to his teammates and said: "I'll tell you one thing about Bobby Valentine. He's the smartest mother (expletive)...
MORE SPORTS
Apr 18, 2000

Cowboys star Emmitt Smith running after NFL records

Nobody will argue that Emmitt Smith of the Dallas Cowboys is one of the premier running backs in National Football League history.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Apr 18, 2000

Heaven knows it's miserable with psyche-scarring Neurosis

Waking up to find Tokyo's governor is a racist pig is a little unnerving, especially if you are foreigner scum like me who at the first rumble of an earthquake will be out on the streets raping schoolgirls, pillaging sushi shops and torturing puppy dogs.
COMMUNITY
Apr 9, 2000

Financial services fly at Banner

Some loudmouth once said that anyone who was in Japan during the bubble years of the late 1980s and had not made money -- a lot of money -- was a fool. Well, that makes me a dunce of the first order.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Apr 5, 2000

Endangered species

Cassandra will always be with us. I don't mean whiners pining for a simpler time, halcyon days, community, blah blah blah. No, I mean voices warning of future dangers visible to anyone with the foresight, intelligence and time to follow a thought to its logical conclusion.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 4, 2000

A costly dearth of leaders

There is growing opinion at home and abroad that Japan lacks national leadership. When the former ruler of a neighboring country suggested recently that Japan had no true leader, there was no public outrage in Japan.
SOCCER / J. League
Apr 2, 2000

FC Tokyo loses tough one in extra time

KASHIWA, Chiba Pref. -- J. League Division One debutant FC Tokyo's winning streak ended at three matches after losing to Kashiwa Reysol 3-2 in extra time on South Korea international Hong Myung Bo's controversial goal Saturday at Kashiwa-no-ha Stadium.
EDITORIALS
Mar 29, 2000

The man in the mirror

To no one's surprise, Mr. Vladimir Putin won Russia's presidential election Sunday. Although the acting president did top the 50 percent level, which allowed him to escape a runoff ballot, the narrowness of his margin was an eye-opener. The much-anticipated landslide never materialized, the Communist...
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 29, 2000

Get Shorty

For many of us living in Japan, the Academy Awards ceremony serves as a reminder of where we are in the bigger scheme of things: behind the curve. We often haven't seen many of the nominated or winning films, some won't be here for another year, and others might not come at all. This is a distribution...
BUSINESS
Mar 24, 2000

Daiwa's rogue trader dreams of a return

ATLANTA -- The culprit in a financial scandal that rocked Japan nearly five years ago now has his eye on a second shot at the financial arena from a most unlikely place -- a small town some 60 km northeast of Atlanta.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb