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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 3, 2002

Together, they made magic

THE EMPEROR AND THE WOLF: The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune, by Stuart Galbraith IV. Faber & Faber, 2002, 848 pp. 32 pp. of b/w photos, $40 (cloth) Many directors have favorite actors and many actors have favorite directors. One thinks of John Ford and John Wayne, Ingmar Bergman...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Mar 1, 2002

Marsh crab

* Japanese name: Sawagani * Scientific name: Geothelphusa dehaani * Description: Crabs are decapods, which means "10 legs." Marsh crabs are usually red-and-cream colored, but may be found in other colors -- perhaps caused by mutations -- in different parts of the country. Crabs have exoskeletons like...
BUSINESS
Mar 1, 2002

Three to launch dual-CPU cell phones

NEC Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Matsushita Communication Industrial Co. said Thursday that they will market new third-generation mobile handsets with jointly developed technology in the second half of this year.
BUSINESS
Feb 28, 2002

Daiei to get 520 billion yen from its main creditors

Struggling supermarket operator Daiei Inc. announced Wednesday a fresh three-year restructuring program that features 520 billion yen in financial support from its three main creditor banks, up 100 billion yen from an earlier plan.
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2002

Nissan unveils first vehicle codeveloped with Renault

Nissan Motor Co. on Tuesday released the new version of its March compact car, the first vehicle to feature a platform jointly developed with its French partner, Renault S.A.
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Feb 27, 2002

Hanayo and Tenko: through a lens blurrily

Cocky, irreverant and devil-may-care, invariably to be found surrounded by admirers as he holds forth from behind a big fat cigar, the Neo-Pop painter Takashi Murakami has for the last few years been one of Japan's leading international art stars.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 27, 2002

Epoca de Ouro: 'Cafe Brasil'

Brazil has produced more than its fair share of indigenous popular music, but the most basic is choro, which in Portuguese literally means "sobbing." That isn't to say all choro songs are designed to make the listener break down in tears. It has more to do with the ensemble sound, a kind of contrapuntal...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 27, 2002

Angelo Badalamenti: 'Mulholland Drive'

David Lynch has always been one of cinema's most astute directors when it comes to sound. Whether its recycling pop songs in an entirely new context ("Blue Velvet") or pure industrial ambience (the radiator hiss from "Eraserhead"), Lynch has always used the soundtrack deliberately to add another dimension...
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2002

Daiei may slash capital by 99%

Debt-saddled retailer Daiei Inc. said Monday it may slash its capital by more than 99 percent under a three-year restructuring plan scheduled to be unveiled Wednesday.
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Feb 22, 2002

Silver water beetle

* Japanese name: Gamushi * Scientific name: Hydrophilus acuminatus * Description: Adapted for aquatic life, water beetles have streamlined bodies and heads. Despite this, they are not powerful swimmers, having normal legs that are not flattened like oars for swimming. Most of their lives are spent...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / INTERNATIONAL RATIONALE
Feb 21, 2002

Japanese companies begin to build their brands

In October 1999, Nissan Motor Co. chief Carlos Ghosn said he planned to boost Nissan's brand power as part of a turnaround plan for the then ailing automaker. Many Nissan workers were initially confused.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 20, 2002

Onward klezmer voyager

Like people, music travels. How else could a handful of Japanese musicians have come to embrace klezmer, a centuries-old Eastern European folk music historically associated with traditional Jewish weddings?
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Feb 18, 2002

No surprise investors shun 'homely' Japan

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- For a nation to be competitive in the global era, above all it has to be attractive. That, argues my colleague Stephane Garelli, author of the annual IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook (WCY), is the ultimate criterion in determining how nations compete in the global era. Attractiveness...
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2002

Antiwar campaigners to donate documents to Vietnamese museum

Members of a Japanese group that campaigned against the Vietnam War will visit Ho Chi Minh City later this month to donate materials and documents detailing their activities in the 1960s and 1970s to the state-run War Remnants Museum.
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Feb 15, 2002

Greater horseshoe bat

* Japanese name: Kikugashira-koumori * Scientific name: Rhinolophus ferrumequinum * Description: Quite a large bat, the greater horseshoe bat is a buff-brown color, body length 60-80 cm, wing length 60-65 cm. Its distinguishing feature, however, is the complex and grotesque horseshoe-shaped nose that...
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Feb 14, 2002

Art appreciation as commodity fetishism

For the next three months, the Tokyo Opera City Gallery is devoting its large exhibition space to "JAM: Tokyo-London." Born of a cross-cultural happening in England in 1996, this second installment of JAM focuses on art, fashion and music. Premiered at the Barbican Gallery in London last summer and now...
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Feb 13, 2002

Nimaime wa so-so, baby

I hate to say it, but Love Psychedelico has succumbed to the dreaded "second-album syndrome" with "Love Psychedelico Orchestra," which was released Jan. 9. It's not a bad album -- in fact it has some great songs, like the opening track, "Standing Bird," which features a wonderfully infectious keyboard...
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Feb 8, 2002

Japanese hare

* Japanese name: Nihon-nousagi * Scientific name: Lepus brachyurus * Description: Hares are like rabbits, only bigger and faster, with longer legs and ears. In winter, their fur is thick and white (with black tips to the ears), but as the weather gets warmer, hares molt and grow a lightweight brown...
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Feb 7, 2002

Monkeys rate second look

Not many people jumped at "Super Monkey Ball" when it hit the market.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 6, 2002

From Dakota to Nagoya with a pirouette

Next week will see the great and the good of the ballet world descend on Nagoya for the Fourth Japan International Ballet and Modern Dance Competition. This triennial event, inaugurated in 1993, is unusual among leading international dance competitions in featuring simultaneous classical and modern dance...
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2002

Shiokawa wants quick budget OK

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa on Monday called for swift passage of a 81.23 trillion yen general-account budget for fiscal 2002, designed to accommodate structural reform measures pursued by the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 3, 2002

Japan makes a profitable connection

THE MOBILE INTERNET: How Japan Dialed Up and the West Disconnected, by Jeffrey Lee Funk. ISI Publications, 2001, 200 pp. $32 (cloth) In the 1970s and '80s, Japanese carmakers flooded world markets with products fresh from factories where workers wore uniforms, sorted parts into brightly colored bins,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 3, 2002

It's not just who's cast but how they're cast out

A nother milestone in Japan-Korea cultural relations is achieved with the two-part drama special "Friends" (TBS, Monday and Tuesday, 9 p.m.). Japanese idol Kyoko Fukada and Korean heartthrob Wonbin portray a couple who meet in Hong Kong and then strike up a cross-Japan Sea e-mail exchange that turns...
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Feb 1, 2002

Japanese squirrel

* Japanese name: Nihon risu * Scientific name: Sciurus lis * Description: The Japanese squirrel is an arboreal species, which means it lives in trees. It has a long, bushy tail, large tufted ears and sharp claws. Its fur changes color according to the season. In summer, the fur is red-orange. In winter,...
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2002

Analysts release ethical standards draft

The Security Analysts Association of Japan has unveiled a draft on professional ethical standards that calls for analysts to be banned from investing in securities that they recommend to investors.
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Jan 29, 2002

Bellmare looking at more than just soccer

J. League second division club Shonan Bellmare is making a unique challenge to transform itself into a multi-sports organization.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 28, 2002

Commission a model of global cooperation

Responding to the call by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in September 1999, then-Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy set up an independent, 12-member International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty to try to bridge the divide between international intervention and national sovereignty....
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jan 25, 2002

Serow

* Japanese name: Nihon kamoshika * Scientific name: Capricornis crispis * Description: Serows look like a cross between a goat and an antelope, with horizontal pupils and sharp, dagger-like horns. The ears are mule-like, narrow and tasseled, and are longer than the horns. Serows are the most primitive...

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.