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EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2004

Reform-oriented shuffle

Just as he indicated he would do before Monday's Cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi filled major party-executive posts and Cabinet posts with politicians loyal to his postal-reform policy. Prior to the naming of the new Cabinet lineup, Mr. Koizumi appointed Mr. Tsutomu Takebe, a former...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 28, 2004

To hell and back again

For a woman who barely cheated death earlier this year and who has since spent months recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Nahoko Takato looks in remarkably fine fettle.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Sep 27, 2004

Oil-shock veteran Japan strong enough to weather surging prices

Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed at a conference in Vienna on Sept. 15 to increase daily crude oil production by 1 million barrels to 27 million. This is a record that exceeds even the 26.7 million barrels agreed on in fall 2000, and signals OPEC's intent to correct...
COMMENTARY
Sep 27, 2004

Election shows Indonesia has come of age

BRUSSELS -- All the appearances are that Indonesia, the world's third largest democracy and largest Muslim state, has come of age, with the consolidation this year of a democracy that was reborn after 44 years in 1999.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 26, 2004

Mourinho's method wins many games, not many friends

LONDON -- Returning from Chelsea's 3-0 Champions League win over Paris Saint-Germain in France last week this correspondent was the last passenger to leave the team's plane. A police officer at Gatwick Airport asked: "Did they win?"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 26, 2004

Howl of Los Lobos stronger than ever

For 30 years, East L.A.'s Los Lobos has made a habit of crossing borders. One look through their discography reveals the Latin rock quintet's frequent movement between Mexican folk and American R&B, with regular stops along the Mississippi for funk and blues. Recent albums have even showed a moody, experimental...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 26, 2004

Who knows if it is teaching or torture?

I WOULDN'T WANT ANYBODY TO KNOW: Native English Teaching in Japan, edited by Eva P. Bueno & Terry Caesar. JPGS Press, 2004, 252 pp., 2,500 yen, $25.00 (paper). Tall stories are clearly better than short ones, at least in the world of publishing. A whole industry has grown out of the perceived, often...
Japan Times
Features
Sep 26, 2004

Abandoned misfit who found peace in prose and his new land

In the West, Lafcadio Hearn is largely unknown outside of small circles of Japanophiles and aficionados of Gaelic writers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 25, 2004

New Center for Creative Arts up and running

Anyone passing the South Korean Embassy in Tokyo's Moto Azabu in recent months may well have wondered about the flag reading "RBR -- New Center for Creative Arts" flying from the building opposite. Also the steady flow of visitors -- every age, color, race and creed.
EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 2004

Elaboration needed on UNSC bid

I n New York this week, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has focused his diplomatic efforts on Japan's bid for permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council. At the Japan-U.S. summit meeting on Tuesday, Mr. Koizumi sought President George W. Bush's active support for this quest. What he...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 24, 2004

Northern delights of Sapporo

Despite its easy proximity, brought by the relatively short flying time from Tokyo, an air of remoteness still hangs over Hokkaido. Physically the island is more a last outpost of Siberia than an integral part of Japan. In Hokkaido, little rice grows, scant cherry trees bloom, no rainy season descends,...
BUSINESS
Sep 23, 2004

August trade surplus logs first decline in 14 months

Japan's trade surplus fell 26 percent in August from a year earlier to 576.1 billion yen, marking its first decline in 14 months as higher oil prices pushed up overall import prices, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2004

Look for a larger Russian role in Korea

SEOUL-- With the six-party talks in the deep freeze, South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun is looking east to help break the ice. In his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow this week Roh is expected to both press Putin to play a more active diplomatic role in resolving the nuclear standoff...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 22, 2004

And in the tattered black tights, Papa

Backdrop Papa Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Toshio Lee Running time: 98 minutes Language: Japanese Opens Oct. 8 [See Japan Times movie listings] Boys want their fathers to be heroes. Men want to be heroes to their sons. These truisms sound old-fashioned in today's unheroic Tokyo,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 22, 2004

It's a thin line between love and hate

Monster Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Patty Jenkins Running time: 109 minutes Language: English Opens Sept. 25 [See Japan Times movie listings] Aileen Wuornos is often tagged the first female serial killer and the first U.S. woman to receive the death penalty neither is true,...
EDITORIALS
Sep 22, 2004

Landmark power transfer in China

The resignation of Mr. Jiang Zemin as chairman of China's Central Military Commission (CMC), the country's top military post, completes the transfer of power from Mr. Jiang to his successor, Mr. Hu Jintao. The handover is a landmark in modern Chinese politics, but its political impact is unclear. Mr....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 22, 2004

Stop usif you'veheard thisone before

The Quiet American Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Philip Noyce Running time: 101 minutes Language: English Now showing [See Japan Times movie listings] When Graham Greene penned his novel "The Quiet American" in 1954, he was set on capturing a particular point in time in late,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 22, 2004

Let's dance to those rhythms

To the soft tinkle of a music box, a solitary couple twirls on stage, spinning faster and faster as the whispering voices of the night entice them. Suddenly the doll-like figures vanish, and the stage and auditorium erupt in a blaze of nightclub beats. The floor vibrates to the rhythm of three-dozen...
COMMENTARY
Sep 21, 2004

Anwar release burnishes Badawi's image

HONG KONG -- Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has unexpectedly taken a meaningful stride away from the authoritarian rule of former Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohammad. As a result, the charismatic former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will now be free to influence the course of Malaysian...
MORE SPORTS
Sep 19, 2004

Tachibana, Takeda capture duet

Miya Tachibana and Miho Takeda, who won the duet silver at the Athens Olympics, took advantage of the absence of their Russian archrivals Saturday to win the duet final at the synchronized swimming World Grand Prix meet.
Japan Times
Features
Sep 19, 2004

Cream-puff heaven is open to all

First it was Chinese dumplings that got the theme park treatment at Ikebukuro Gyoza Stadium in 2002. Then, last year, up popped Ice Cream City. So, what was to be this year's gastronomic addition to the menu of attractions at Namco Namja Town in Sunshine City?
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Sep 19, 2004

Wat a middle-aged way not to get so wet

There are good times to arrive in Bangkok weighed down with expensive camera gear, recording equipment and a snappy new tropical suit just tailored in Singapore.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 19, 2004

In search of an elusive identity

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN, by Don Lee. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004, 318 pp., $24.95 (cloth). THE PEARL DIVER, by Sujata Massey. New York: HarperCollins, 2004, 335 pp., $23.95 (cloth). One formula frequently applied to the mystery novel involves adoptees who reach adulthood and seek to track down their...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 19, 2004

Chechen-Arab connection goes far back

CHICAGO -- As gunmen seized a school full of hostages in southern Russia last week, President Vladimir Putin had held a meeting that might have seemed to some like a distraction.
COMMENTARY
Sep 19, 2004

Removing the thorn from Japan-China ties

HONG KONG -- Last month, when Japanese and Chinese teams faced each other in the Asian Games soccer final in Beijing, Chinese fans booed so loudly that they drowned out the strains of the Japanese national anthem. And when Japan won, the spectators pelted the Japanese players' bus with soda bottles and...
MORE SPORTS
Sep 18, 2004

Injured Suetsugu pulls out of meet

Shingo Suetsugu, the 200-meter bronze medalist at last year's World Championships, has withdrawn from the upcoming Seiko Super Meet 2004 Yokohama, organizers said Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 18, 2004

Ian Nish

LONDON -- Forward-thinking programs drawn up during World War II gave opportunity to many non-Japanese young people to become specialists in Japanese studies. An undergraduate at that time, Ian Nish joined the ranks of those who embarked upon sterling work that turned them into Japan experts. He speaks...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’