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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 2, 2003

The Machiavellian good

MACHIAVELLI'S CHILDREN: Leaders and Their Legacies in Italy and Japan, by Richard J. Samuels. New York: Cornell University Press, 2003, 456 pp., $39.95 (cloth). This is an intriguing comparison between Japan and Italy, two nations that seem so different, but in fact share a great deal. Both nations came...
BUSINESS
Nov 1, 2003

ANA swings back into black

Despite the impact of the SARS epidemic across Asia and the Iraq war, All Nippon Airways Co. said Friday it swung back into the black in the first half of fiscal 2003, posting a group net profit of 20.57 billion yen.
BUSINESS
Nov 1, 2003

TV Asahi raises earnings forecast

TV Asahi Corp. said Friday it has raised its group earnings forecast for the first half and full year of fiscal 2003 due to strong performance in its music publishing business.
BUSINESS
Oct 31, 2003

Nissan to recall 2.56 million vehicles

Nissan Motor Co. said Thursday it will recall 2.56 million vehicles worldwide, including some 1.03 million units in Japan, due to defective engine sensors.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 31, 2003

Rugby world takes notice of Japan's inspirational performance

SYDNEY -- They came, they saw and they conquered the hearts of rugby fans from all over the world, but ultimately the Cherry Blossoms left Australia on Wednesday without the one thing they were craving for -- a win in Rugby World Cup 2003.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 30, 2003

Jojima, Igawa named MVPs

Kenji Jojima of the Japan Series champion Daiei Hawks and Kei Igawa of the Central League pennant-winning Hanshin Tigers were named the Most Valuable Players of the 2003 baseball season on Wednesday.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 30, 2003

Canada posts solid victory over Tonga

WOLLONGONG, Australia -- Following on from games in cities such as Perth, Adelaide and Townsville, the 2003 Rugby World Cup hit another non-rugby union town when the steel city of Wollongong hosted the game that decided which team would finish last in Group D.
COMMENTARY
Oct 30, 2003

Europe rues decline amid shift to Asia

PARIS -- Officially, we were discussing Russia's place in Asia. It was hard to tell whether the French senator/historian on the panel was warning of Moscow's return to great-power status or urging it on. He was no crypto-communist, however: For him, Russia's resurgence would signal the return of multipolarity...
BUSINESS
Oct 29, 2003

Hino Motors net profit soars nearly fourfold

Hino Motors Ltd. said Tuesday its group net profit for the April-September half of fiscal 2003 soared nearly fourfold from a year earlier due to brisk sales.
BUSINESS
Oct 29, 2003

Matsushita Electric group net profit rises 31.5%

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Tuesday its group net profit for the fiscal first half grew 31.5 percent from a year earlier to 23.15 billion yen on the back of restructuring effects and strong sales of digital home products.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 29, 2003

Troubled Sony unveils restructuring plans

Sony Corp. on Tuesday unveiled sweeping restructuring measures, including plans to shed 20,000 jobs and close domestic TV plants, with the consumer electronics giant struggling to reclaim a competitive edge over its rivals.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 28, 2003

U.S. muscle proves too much for speedy Japan

GOSFORD, Australia --They say good things come in threes. Following Sunday's games that saw England and Ireland win two wonderfully competitive games, the United States and Japan produced a pearl of a match at a sold-out Central Coast Stadium on Monday evening.
BUSINESS
Oct 28, 2003

Sharp to hike Spain output of LCD TVs

Sharp Corp. plans to double the output capacity of liquid crystal display TVs at its Spanish factory in April, seeking to meet surging demand in Europe.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 27, 2003

Tigers, Hawks have beer on ice

FUKUOKA -- The Hanshin Tigers had the beer on ice in anticipation of a wild victory celebration, while the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks' "Japan Champions 2003" logo T-shirts were stacked up next to a Fukuoka Dome dumpster in case they had to be thrown away.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Oct 27, 2003

War perspective of poets oceans apart

NEW YORK -- A gentleman named Paul Preusser, describing himself as "a composer and fresh graduate from the New England Conservatory," has recently written to ask if I could help him with poems of Kotaro Takamura (1883-1956). He has been commissioned to compose "a song cycle using poetry which is influenced...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 26, 2003

Hidden truths of the Hermit Kingdom

PYONGYANG: The Hidden History of the North Korean Capital, by Chris Springer, photos by Eckart Dege. Budapest: Entente Bt., 2003, 158 pp., $29.95 (paper). Although the capital of the new Hermit Kingdom is not a popular tourist destination, we now have this interesting detailed guide to the socialist...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 26, 2003

Revealing more to life and death

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF YUKIO MISHIMA, by Henry Scott Stokes. Tuttle Publishing, 2003, 271 pp., $16.95, (cloth). One afternoon in the late 1960s, Henry Scott Stokes received a visit at the Tokyo office of the London Times from the writer Yukio Mishima, who declared to the startled young journalist, "You...
BUSINESS
Oct 25, 2003

Auto giants increase production in first half

Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. increased global vehicle production in the first half of fiscal 2003 to meet growing overseas demand.
BUSINESS
Oct 24, 2003

Trade surplus dips due to energy imports

Japan's trade surplus for the first half of fiscal 2003 slipped 0.8 percent from the same period last year, marking its first fall in two years.
COMMENTARY
Oct 24, 2003

Criticism prods Bush to tune diplomacy

So far, the war in Iraq and the issues surrounding North Korea have topped news of international events in 2003.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Oct 23, 2003

Mavs got best of Walker-LaFrentz swap

NEW YORK -- At first aghast, I figured Danny Ainge must be using Rick Pitino as his consigliere.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 23, 2003

Expert lays bare environmental carnage of war

While environmental destruction is often the last thing considered when war breaks out, this form of devastation can take decades -- if not centuries -- to correct.
BUSINESS
Oct 23, 2003

Matsui Securities sees its first-half profit surge 327%

Matsui Securities Co. said Wednesday it chalked up a consolidated net profit of 2.51 billion yen in the first half of fiscal 2003, up 326.6 percent from the 588 million yen earned in the first half of fiscal 2002.
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2003

Germany's hard choices

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder won a critical victory Friday when Germany's Lower House of Parliament passed a package of social and labor market reforms. The bills are designed to reinvigorate the German economy, the once mighty engine of Europe that now appears infected with "the Japanese disease."
BUSINESS
Oct 22, 2003

Domestic PC shipments up 13%

Shipments of personal computers in Japan came to 5.151 million units in the April-September period, up 13 percent from a year earlier for the first increase in 2 1/2 years, an industry association said Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2003

Japan slowly pulls head out of sand on smoking ills

During the five years since a landmark suit against tobacco manufacturers and the government was filed, slight but steady progress has been made in regulating cigarette sales and advertising.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Oct 19, 2003

Unconvincing France struggles by upstart Japan

TOWNSVILLE, Australia -- Japan may have lost its second game in the 2003 Rugby World Cup but the Cherry Blossoms produced a performance against France that surpassed even their heroics of last week when they lost to Scotland, but won over a nation.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 19, 2003

Out of the ordinary

SELECTED POEMS 1976-2001, by Peter Robinson. Manchester, Britain: Carcanet, 2003, 139 pp., £8.95 (paper). NO VISION WILL TELL: 100 Selected Poems 1992-2002, by Scott Watson. Sendai, Japan: Bookgirl Press, 2002, 123 pp., 1,500 yen (paper). Both of the poets reviewed here, one British and the other American,...

Longform

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