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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 10, 2005

The man in the photo

"Over 4,000 pictures!" the press officer shouts with enthusiasm over the phone the day after the opening of the most comprehensive exhibition of 65-year-old Nobuyoshi Araki's photographs to date.
BUSINESS
Nov 10, 2005

Takeuchi exits race for OECD chief

Japan's candidate for new chief of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development withdrew her candidacy Tuesday, according to the Foreign Ministry.
SOCCER / J. League
Nov 9, 2005

Zico assembles strong squad

Japan coach Zico on Tuesday named Bolton Wanderers star Hidetoshi Nakata to a near full-strength squad for next week's home friendly with Angola.
BUSINESS
Nov 9, 2005

Foreign reserves down $1.77 billion

Japan's foreign-exchange reserves stood at $841.79 billion at the end of October, down $1.77 billion from the month before for the second straight monthly fall, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 9, 2005

Study finds broccoli combats gastritis

As futurists get excited by the prospect of engineering ourselves to have longer lives, it's easy to forget that, as well as the high-tech ways, there are very simple ways to live longer.
JAPAN
Nov 8, 2005

Japan Tobacco to challenge planned antismoking measures

In rare move, Japan Tobacco Inc. will challenge on Tuesday a government plan to introduce smoking restrictions.
EDITORIALS
Nov 8, 2005

Ending the zero-rate policy

In March 2001, the Bank of Japan set short-term interest rates at near zero, declaring that the nation's economy had entered a period of deflation. That extra-loose monetary policy, which is said to have had few parallels in the world, is likely to change next spring, because an upturn in consumer prices...
BUSINESS
Nov 8, 2005

Poverty fight using wristband sales finds skeptics

The "whiteband" movement in Japan to eradicate poverty in developing countries, using celebrities in a tieup with a public relations company, has had some unexpected results, with misunderstandings and allegations about how the money raised is being used.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 8, 2005

The art of having fun in style

Agnes Trouble Bourgeois, known to the world as Agnes B., started to design clothes at the age of 19 and opened her first boutique in Les Halles in Paris in 1976. Twenty-nine years later, her company has 129 boutiques, selling clothes, accessories and travel goods around the globe. While there are 32...
EDITORIALS
Nov 7, 2005

Draft revision tosses principles aside

The Liberal Democratic Party, which has long claimed that the present pacifist Constitution was imposed on the Japanese people by the Occupation Forces, has announced a draft revision. Although the text begins promisingly enough with "The Japanese people, based on their own will and determination, establish...
JAPAN
Nov 6, 2005

Tepco eyeing 4% cut in spring rates

Tokyo Electric Power Co. is thinking about cutting its rates by an average of 4 percent next spring, company sources said Saturday.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 6, 2005

Hot hibachi league heating up; can Jojima cut it in majors?

Welcome to the new sponsored "Baseball Bullet-In," and thanks to Jeff Libengood and the staff of the just-opened East West Fitness workout place in Tokyo for the support. If you would like to sponsor a column in an upcoming edition of The Japan Times, please contact me at the e-mail address below.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 6, 2005

A modern master of an old tradition

MIREI SHIGEMORI: Modernizing the Japanese Garden, by Christian Tschumi, photographs by Markuz Wernli Saito. Stone Bridge Press, 128 pp., $18.95 (paper). A revival of interest in the dry landscape garden of Japan both domestically and internationally took place during the early Showa Era (1926-1989),...
JAPAN
Nov 6, 2005

Komeito chief urges ministers to avoid shrine

." Visits by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and other leading politicians to Yasukuni, which enshrines 14 convicted World War II Class-A criminals along with Japan's war dead, have repeatedly sparked strong protests from China, South Korea and other Asian countries that see the shrine as a symbol...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 6, 2005

The dangerous liaisons of ambassadors to China

AMBASSADORS FROM THE ISLANDS OF IMMORTALS: China-Japan Relations in the Han-Tang Period, by Wang Zhenping. Honolulu: Association for Asian Studies/University of Hawai'i Press, 2005, 388 pp., with illustrations, $53.00 (cloth). Relations between Japan and China may be troubled right now, but then they...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 6, 2005

The media is insuring itself, but is failing to assure the people

Japan has a reputation for being a shoppers paradise, but while Japanese consumers are considered savvy and discriminating, they aren't necessarily safe from those who would want to take advantage of them.
EDITORIALS
Nov 5, 2005

Unacceptable rhetoric from Iran

The statement by Iran's president, Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that Israel should be "wiped off the map" is unacceptable. Apart from purely moral objections, there are legal issues too: As a member of the United Nations, Iran has agreed never to use force or threaten the use of force against other countries....
Japan Times
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Nov 5, 2005

Nakagawa hints at WTO compromise

Newly appointed farm minister Shoichi Nakagawa says Japan needs to make compromises where it can to contribute to progress in market-opening talks under the World Trade Organization.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 5, 2005

Holy cow, Genki-kun -- it's a typhoon!

With all the typhoons and hurricanes around the world, I thought it might be time for an uplifting story of storm survival. As I was looking for stories, a "Planet Japan" listener named Ty Cedars tipped me off to an animal who overcame all odds and survived a devastating typhoon. This animal's story...
BUSINESS
Nov 5, 2005

Toyota suffers first drop in profit in four years

Toyota Motor Corp. said Friday its group net profit for the first half of fiscal 2005 declined 2.3 percent from the previous year to 570.5 billion yen -- the company's first interim profit drop in four years.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 5, 2005

Artist intrigued by things we take for granted

Markuz Wernli Saito cannot come to the phone when I call him as arranged in Kyoto.
BASKETBALL
Nov 4, 2005

Broncos hope to ride Benoit's leadership

David Benoit has traveled all over the world to play basketball. And after years on the road and countless leagues, including the NBA, he reckons he has the game figured out: you win as a team.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 4, 2005

Charity auction

At Tokyo English Life Line's (TELL) 10th Annual Connoisseurs' Auction, Nov. 18 at the Australian Embassy in Tokyo, guests can enjoy a cocktail buffet, sample wares and empty their wallets in order to fill up their wine racks by bidding for a variety of rare Old and New World wines.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Nov 4, 2005

Psychedelic radar 11.04

Saturday, Nov. 5
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Nov 3, 2005

Make English mandatory for elementary pupils, Kosaka says

The new education minister believes English education should be made mandatory for elementary school students.
COMMENTARY
Nov 3, 2005

Curtain falling on Chirac?

PARIS -- For decades it was widely assumed that Europe needed an engine to go forward, and that France and Germany were best qualified to play that role. For the time being, however, this has ceased to be true. If any member aims to lead the European Union, it's Britain, which holds the EU presidency...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2005

A sign of Japan's decline

LONDON -- He didn't clap his hands, he did not wear a frock coat and he did not sign the visitors' book as "prime minister." So 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