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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 12, 2004

From pukka sahibs to Colonel Blimps of a British Asia

FORGOTTEN ARMIES: The Fall of British Asia 1941-45, by Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper. Penguin/Allen Lane: London, 2004, 576 pp., £25 (cloth). This is a sprawling and spellbinding account of Britain's Asian campaigns during World War II. Drawing on a rich trove of diaries, archives and personal accounts,...
BUSINESS
Sep 11, 2004

UFJ first-half loss to hit 780 billion yen

Ailing UFJ Holdings Inc. announced Friday that it expects a net loss of 780 billion yen for the first half of fiscal 2004 amid pressure to speed up its bad-loan disposals before a planned merger with Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Sep 11, 2004

Russia's underbelly exposed

MOSCOW -- Date: Sept. 1-3, 2004.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 10, 2004

Pats looking Super with Dillon

The NFL is set to kick off the 2004 season with a rematch of last season's AFC Championship Game -- the Indianapolis Colts at the New England Patriots -- on Thursday night. The defending Super Bowl champion Patriots, who are shooting for their third NFL title in four years, are the team to beat. The...
BUSINESS
Sep 9, 2004

UFJ likely to report over 700 billion yen in interim net loss

UFJ Holdings Inc. will probably suffer a net loss of more than 700 billion yen for the fiscal first half of 2004, bank sources said Wednesday.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 9, 2004

Q-chan calls time out on 2004

Japanese record holder Naoko Takahashi will not run in any marathons for the remainder of the year as she is behind schedule due to an injury suffered during training, her management company said Wednesday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 5, 2004

Traveling with eyes wide open

SUN AFTER DARK: Flights into the Foreign, by Pico Iyer. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004, 224 pp., $22.95 (cloth). "They say travel broadens the mind," says G.K. Chesterton, adding, "but you must have the mind." Further, that mind must be both attentive and reflective, independent and philosophical, and...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Sep 5, 2004

Takafumi Horie: Livedoor whiz kid sets a new style

Takafumi Horie, 31, has been the man in the news since the end of June, when he announced that his Tokyo-based Internet service firm, Livedoor Co., was in the market for Osaka's debt-ravaged Kintetsu Buffaloes baseball team.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2004

Nissan unveils six models as part of big sales drive

YOKOHAMA -- Nissan Motor Co. on Thursday unveiled six new models that will be released by mid-January to help achieve the automaker's global sales target.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Sep 3, 2004

Enshrined in the modern world

The accompanying woodblock print depicts Hiyoshi Sanno Shrine, better known today as Hie-jinja in Chiyoda-ku. A stairway on the left ascends through a thick pinery, leading the viewer into the spacious precincts of the shrine.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2004

U.S. visa cut pushing translation firm to Asia

A recent cut in the number of U.S. visas given to foreign technical experts has convinced a U.S. translation-services company to expand its business in Japan and other parts of Asia, MultiLing Corp. President Michael Sneddon said in Tokyo this week.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 2, 2004

"A Gathering Light," "The Coldest Day in the Zoo"

"A Gathering Light," Jennifer Donnelly, Bloomsbury; 2004; 383 pp. "Tell the truth!" It's not just children who get that all the time: Writers do, too. The only difference is that writers don't have to treat the truth too literally, as Jennifer Donnelly shows us in "A Gathering Light."
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2004

Ministries want 85.52 trillion yen next year

Fiscal 2005 budget requests from ministries and agencies on Tuesday totaled 85.52 trillion yen, up 3.4 trillion yen from the initial budget for the current fiscal year, the Finance Ministry said.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 29, 2004

Tenuous but important movie links

THE CINEMA OF JAPAN AND KOREA, edited by Justin Bowyer, preface by Jinhee Choi. London: Wallflower Press, 2004, 258 pp., 24 b/w photos, £45.00 (cloth), £16.99 (paper). The linking of two national cinemas is, as the editor of this interesting collection of essays points out, problematic. Geographical...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2004

Golden efforts belie risk-averse image

WASHINGTON -- A stereotype exists in the United States and elsewhere: Japanese are risk-avoiders while Americans are risk-takers.
COMMENTARY
Aug 29, 2004

Refighting the Medicare budget battle

WASHINGTON -- Medicare, which offers health-care coverage for America's elderly, faces trillions of dollars of unfunded liabilities. Unfortunately, legislators are constantly tempted to increase benefits and thus spending. They should resist their inner darkness as the Bush administration attempts to...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 29, 2004

Media nets gold in ensuring Olympic success

Anyone who has a TV could see that the attendance at the Athens Olympics has been spotty at best. Scalpers have been practically giving tickets away.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2004

Board OKs nationalist-bent history text

The Tokyo metropolitan board of education adopted a controversial, nationalist-inspired junior high school history textbook Thursday that critics say glosses over Japan's wartime atrocities.
BUSINESS
Aug 27, 2004

Debt-servicing costs poised to creep back above 20 trillion yen

Japan's debt-servicing costs are expected to total 20.24 trillion yen in fiscal 2005, up 2.67 trillion yen from the current fiscal year's initial budget, Finance Ministry officials said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2004

Board OKs nationalist-bent history text

The Tokyo metropolitan board of education adopted a controversial, nationalist-inspired junior high school history textbook Thursday that critics say glosses over Japan's wartime atrocities.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2004

Apathy sustains hunger toll

ROME -- Imagine for a moment the thousands of proud athletes from around the world that paraded through the Olympic Stadium in Athens during the spectacular opening ceremony last week. Now, imagine this: In the next 12 hours, hunger and malnutrition will take the lives of more men, women and children...
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2004

Dentsu profit up in first quarter

Dentsu Inc. said Monday that its group operating profit in the April-June quarter jumped 90.3 percent from a year earlier to 10.18 billion yen.
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2004

Wholesale gas prices to rise as much as 4 yen next month

Oil distributors plan to raise wholesale gasoline prices by 3 yen to 4 yen, effective in September, in line with recent surges in crude oil prices, according to industry sources.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 22, 2004

Sexual, textual and visual boundaries

IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES (BFI Film Classics), by Joan Mellen. London: British Film Institute, 2004, 88 pp., with photographs. £8.99 (paper).
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2004

Trade wrangle lifts Latham

SYDNEY -- Sick, sick, sick. That's the only way to describe Australia's belated acceptance of a free-trade agreement with the United States. And if Canberra later gets indigestion from biting off more than it can chew in the deal, don't expect American drug companies to come to the rescue.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 18, 2004

Questions of balance

Fahrenheit 9/11 Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Michael Moore Running time: 122 minutes Language: English Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] The Fog of War Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Errol Morris Running time: 107 minutes Language: English Opens...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2004

Pullout of U.S. forces could skip Japan

Despite the U.S. announcement Monday that it will withdraw up to 70,000 service members from Asia and Europe over the next decade, America's military presence in Japan might not be part of that scenario, according to government officials.
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2004

Pullout of U.S. forces could skip Japan

Despite the U.S. announcement Monday that it will withdraw up to 70,000 service members from Asia and Europe over the next decade, America's military presence in Japan might not be part of that scenario, according to government officials.
EDITORIALS
Aug 17, 2004

No need for gloom over economy

Japan's current economy can be likened to a patient nearly recovering from illness: He is allowed to go outside the hospital when weather permits, but he is confined to bed again to rest if he is exposed to cold air and feels poorly.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past