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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
May 23, 2003

Up there, where the grapes grow slow

An old quip in the wine trade asks, "What do you get when you combine grape juice, brown sugar, white spirits and a few extra-large dollops of oak flavoring?" The answer, which should be obvious to anyone who has trawled the bargain-bin section of Japanese wine shops in the last few years, is "Shiraz,...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 23, 2003

Scottish Premier League title race set to go down to the wire

LONDON -- As Celtic flew home from Seville on Thursday after the UEFA Cup final against FC Porto (a 3-2 extra-time defeat) its preparations for what many believe is an even bigger game began immediately -- a league match away to Kilmarnock. The game may not have the romance of a European final but the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 23, 2003

Akebono lives life to the full

"It was," my dining companion recalls with a sigh, "a diet with just one purpose: to get you to put on weight."
EDITORIALS
May 22, 2003

A fairer sharing of pensions

A government advisory council on social security is considering a proposal to split company-retirement pensions between husbands and wives. The primary aim is to guarantee pension rights for full-time housewives (those not working part time) in recognition of their household work and other duties such...
SUMO
May 22, 2003

JSA warns yokozuna over bad behavior

Yokozuna Asashoryu has been given a stiff warning about his recent disreputable behavior in the sacred ring, Japan Sumo Association officials said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
May 22, 2003

Donald Rumsfeld making big waves

SEOUL -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is the man the world loves to hate. The blunt-speaking former wrestler has managed to infuriate U.S. friends and allies, declaring the nations of "Old Europe" irrelevant and undermining British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the eve of the Iraqi war by...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 22, 2003

Capsule maker makes hay amid SARS panic

A Tokyo company that manufactures enclosed capsules used to transport infectious patients has been swamped with inquiries amid the SARS scare.
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2003

Aceh won't derail Indonesia

SINGAPORE -- Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri has signed a presidential decree putting Aceh under martial law and authorizing military operations after the latest peace talks collapsed in Tokyo last weekend.
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2003

Euro's supporters face uphill battle in Britain

LONDON -- If a strong economy and a strong currency are meant to go hand in hand, the 12-nation euro zone is disproving conventional wisdom, and posing stiff challenges for policymakers with implications for the wider world economy.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 22, 2003

Katydid

* Japanese name: Sesuji tsuyumushi * Scientific name: Ducetia japonica * Description: Katydids (also known as bush crickets) belong to a family of grasshoppers and crickets called the Tettigoniidae. The insects in this family have very long antennae, like threads, sometimes two or three times the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
May 22, 2003

EA scores big time with 'MVP Baseball'

Who knows what burr got under Electronic Arts' saddle, but the biggest name in sports games is really sharpening its act. The publisher of such megahits as "John Madden NFL Football" and "FIFA Soccer," EA has always kind of stunk at baseball. Not anymore.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
May 22, 2003

Political scientist gained key perspective in Japan

On March 19, just hours before U.S. forces began their raids on Baghdad, more than 50 U.S. government intelligence experts as well as scholars and embassy staff from several South Asian countries assembled in a top-floor room at John Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies for a...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDEN PATHS
May 22, 2003

Seasonal spectaculars

In the last week or so, roses have been taking the first of their twice-yearly turns to brighten the streets of Tokyo. Potted roses in narrow sidewalk gardens and shrub roses arching over railway fences have suddenly burst into glorious colors.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 22, 2003

Reading the mind through the face

Victorian Englishmen were not known for feeling comfortable displaying their emotions. Charles Darwin, exceptional in so many other ways, was like his countrymen in this regard, and considered the display of emotions in adult humans to be vestigial, something left over from our evolutionary past. That...
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
May 22, 2003

Book Off chief rolls with the blows as status quo publishers complain

The Japanese may love a hardworking and unassuming company man who out of nowhere wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, but they are still wary of the true entrepreneur who is willing to take risks and shake up long-established ways of doing things.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 22, 2003

Corporate values ignore the bottom line

With all the scandals swirling around U.S. corporations, public respect for CEOs has plunged and, as a lawyer, I can empathize. Stories about sleazy lawyers chasing after ambulances still bring color to my cheeks, so I understand what it's like to work in a profession that is equated with sharks and...
EDITORIALS
May 21, 2003

Moment of truth in the bank crisis

The government decision to inject taxpayer money into Resona Holdings, the nation's fifth-largest banking group, is a fresh reminder of the fragility of the Japanese financial system. There have been no bank runs, but confidence in bank management has been shaken again. Until very recently Resona executives...
COMMENTARY
May 21, 2003

Narrowing the U.S.-South Korean gap

WASHINGTON -- The summit meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun was, by almost all accounts, a success. The main reason, according to the skeptics, was that expectations were very low. No major breakthroughs were achieved, they argue; "success" merely meant...
BUSINESS
May 21, 2003

Honda blows horn about world's first car-crash detector

Honda Motor Co. said Tuesday it has developed the world's first system capable of predicting vehicle collisions.
BUSINESS
May 21, 2003

BOJ decides to pump more cash into system

The Bank of Japan decided Tuesday to pump still more money into the economy amid falling stock prices, a rising yen and the bailout of Resona Bank.
BUSINESS
May 21, 2003

Suzuki Motor records 20% sales increase

Suzuki Motor Corp., the nation's top minivehicle maker, on Tuesday reported record group sales of 2.02 trillion yen for fiscal 2002, up 20.8 percent from the previous year.
BUSINESS
May 21, 2003

Hitachi chip may be used in euro bills

The European Central Bank is considering adopting the world's smallest integrated circuit, developed by Hitachi Ltd., to prevent forgery of euro bills, according to Hitachi sources.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 21, 2003

King Sunny Ade: "Syncro Series"

King Sunny Ade of Nigeria came and went as a star of African music, and these days makes only sporadic appearances. At his peak, in the early '80s, he had a deal with Island Records, which was then hoping he would fill the shoes and sales of the recently deceased Bob Marley. But if Ade's music was reigning...
CULTURE / Music
May 21, 2003

Pop goes the question

Name a record you love that's overlooked:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 21, 2003

The first Western master of woodblock

A Western man clad in a kimono sits in his tatami-floored studio with his paintings strewn about him. In the background a shamisen stands in a wooden box, its neck jutting upward.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
May 21, 2003

Who, what, when, where -- why?

My good friend Tatsumi Orimoto, now one of Japan's best-known artists, has made his mother a central subject in his work for the last several years. This, he once explained to me, is because she always supported him in his creative efforts -- efforts that are, in a word, unorthodox: in one, he famously...
BUSINESS
May 20, 2003

Ailing contractors to delay merger

Troubled contractors Kumagai Gumi Co. and Tobishima Corp. said Monday they will delay the deadline for their planned merger for a year until April 2005 so they can prepare more carefully.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
May 20, 2003

Iraqi revival will cost Russia

MOSCOW -- It is a commonplace to say the war in Iraq was not only about former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein but also about oil. No matter how dangerous Hussein's regime was and how badly the White House needed an impressive victory for the 2004 elections, oil -- as today's key commodity -- was very much...
BUSINESS
May 20, 2003

Doublespeak dominates aftermath of Resona move

The government holds a financial crisis council, but says there is no crisis. It will inject 2 trillion yen into a bank and is expected to become its top stakeholder, but says this does not nationalize the bank.
BUSINESS
May 20, 2003

Business as usual at Resona branches

Operations continued as usual at Resona group banks Monday, the first day of business following the government's decision to inject the capital-starved banking group with public funds.

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers