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COMMENTARY
Dec 23, 2002

Fix the U.S.-ROK alliance

HONOLULU -- Now that the South Korean presidential elections are over, it's time for outgoing President Kim Dae Jung to take the necessary steps to ensure a proper legacy. No, I am not talking about his "sunshine policy" of engagement with North Korea. His bold, if only partially successful, efforts...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 22, 2002

Trial judge completes the vicious circle in curry-poisoning case

Exactly four years ago in this column, I wrote that, egged on by the media, which had already tried and convicted Masumi Hayashi for murder in the Wakayama Curry Poisoning Incident even before she was arrested, "the police . . . proudly announced that they have enough circumstantial evidence to convince...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 22, 2002

The Christmas business

Japanese marketers are well aware that Christmas ranks second in popularity only to New Year's -- above even the Bon holiday in August, when people flock back to their hometowns to pay respect to their ancestors.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Dec 22, 2002

Exploring musical compositions' demarcation lines

What is the difference between a track and a song? To the average listener, nothing -- the terms are often used interchangeably.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 22, 2002

Looks at stolen lives, loot and . . . bases

As Japan's Major League Baseball broadcaster by default, NHK will certainly have its hands full next year when Hideki Matsui makes his MLB debut. It may be a logistic nightmare airing all Ichiro Suzuki and Matsui games, but it pays off in the end with lots of viewers.
COMMENTARY
Dec 22, 2002

Abductee hysteria in Japan

That old saying about democracies being their own worst enemies is getting a good workout in Japan's abductee dispute with North Korea. By any standards, North Korea's willingness to release five Japanese abducted in the 1970s following Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Sept. 17 breakthrough visit to...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 22, 2002

Kazuko Shiraishi does it her way

KAZUKO SHIRAISHI: Let Those Who Appear. Translated by Samuel Grolmes and Yumiko Tsumura. New Directions, 2002, 49 pp., $12.95 (paper). I've met the poet Kazuko Shiraishi three times, on each of her visits to New York. Shiraishi made her latest trip to this city in the spring of 2002, to mark the publication...
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Dec 22, 2002

Historic Zanzibar, as exotic as it sounds

First of two parts Zanzibar! Just eight letters, but what a wealth of romance they sum up!
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Dec 22, 2002

Historic Zanzibar, as exotic as it sounds

First of two parts Zanzibar! Just eight letters, but what a wealth of romance they sum up!
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 22, 2002

Home sweet family Christmas

It's almost Christmas, and children all over the world are getting more excited with each passing day, dreaming and chattering about what presents will await them on Christmas morning.
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 2002

Asia can learn from Europe

SINGAPORE -- Ever since Asian policymakers and analysts began thinking about their part of the world as a collective of nations -- as a "region" -- they have made one thing clear: Asia is a unique place and Europe's experience on this matter just does not apply. That thinking has dominated discussions...
EDITORIALS
Dec 21, 2002

Continuity and strain in South Korea

The election of Mr. Roh Moo Hyun as South Korea's next president promises continuity in Seoul. His victory is a triumph for departing President Kim Dae Jung, who launched Mr. Roh's Grand Millennium Party and inaugurated many of the policies that Mr. Roh inherits. Mr. Roh's pledge to continue Mr. Kim's...
COMMUNITY
Dec 21, 2002

World of Gorgles and other prehysterical things

Any visitor this weekend to the Hirabayashi coffee shop opposite Yokosuka's Shioiri Station in Kanagawa Prefecture might be excused for thinking they had wandered onto another planet. They would be right. Until Monday, it is Clara Birnbaum's world: her World of the Gorgles.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Dec 21, 2002

Tiopira Te Huia

Tiopira Te Huia says he does as his heart dictates.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 20, 2002

Liverpool fans experiencing knee-jerk reaction to team's woes

LONDON -- The phone lines to Liverpool radio stations have been red hot this week. The knee-jerk reaction in the wake of one point from the last 18 has been that Gerard Houllier has lost the plot and Phil Thompson must go.
EDITORIALS
Dec 20, 2002

A bigger Europe for what purpose?

At a summit last weekend in Copenhagen, the European Union reached a historic agreement to add 10 new members. Expansion will nearly double the size of the union, but it only underscores a long-standing question: What is the ultimate goal of the EU? There is, as yet, no convincing answer.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Dec 20, 2002

The yearend holidays are groovin'; Big news for Empress "D"; party picks

Peace, Love, Unity, Respect. Peace on Earth, goodwill toward men.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 19, 2002

Grant cut after bad scene on team plane

NEW YORK -- Horace Grant always speaks his mind, though, at times, it becomes muffled by mystery. As a principal beam of four NBA championships, he is notorious for confronting teammates and chopping on coaches, not always for attribution.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2002

Lifetime of serving humanity helps nurse survive stint in Indonesian jail

BANDA ACEH, Aceh -- On a lonely stretch of road in the midst of a distant war, Joy Lee Sadler, a 57-year-old nurse from Iowa, did what she has done all her life.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2002

United in trauma of terror

While India is the world's most populous democracy, Israel is the Middle East's most notable. Relations between democratic countries can be strained on particular issues, but the underlying strength remains resilient. Judaism and Hinduism are among the world's ancient civilizations and "root faiths"...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Dec 19, 2002

Surviving the season of cold

Plodding -- that's the only way to describe them. Deep snow blankets the winter landscape of the bison in Yellowstone National Park and plod they must through both the winter and the landscape. These mighty beasts don't waste a calorie of energy if they can avoid it.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 19, 2002

Autoimmune disorder may kickstart anorexia in some

At the beginning of the Manic Street Preachers song "4st 7lbs," a girl is heard saying: "I eat too much to die. And not enough to stay alive. I'm sitting in the middle waiting."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Dec 19, 2002

An oasis on a trail of luck

Winter sees Shinobazu Pond in Ueno come alive with winged visitors from the North. Pintail and wigeons arrive early in September, followed by shovelers, mallards, pochard and tufted ducks arriving by November. Along with the resident gallinules, spot-billed ducks and cormorants -- and the perennial sea...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Dec 19, 2002

Ride a dream wave

Kelly Slater is a real surfer -- the high-profile world champion credited with helping reform the sport's image. But "Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer," a new game for PlayStation2, Xbox, and GameCube from Activision, is not about real surfing.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Dec 19, 2002

'Machiya' morphs into IT incubator

KYOTO -- What do traditional Kyoto and broadband Internet access have in common? Not much, which is the problem. The solution is the Kyoto Nishijin Machiya Studio.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 18, 2002

Hot stove ponders fate of Rose, Matsui, Nakamura

This is the final "Baseball Bullet-In" for 2002, so let's take a look at, and make some comments about, topics on the hot stove of baseball news on both sides of the Pacific.
EDITORIALS
Dec 18, 2002

A collapse of fiscal balance

Japan faces a clear and present danger in public finance, epitomized by a crushing debt load equal to 140 percent of its gross national product. In this light, changes to the tax code for fiscal 2003, proposed by the ruling coalition last week, fall far short of expectations. It is essentially a patchwork...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Dec 18, 2002

Ivy: "Guestroom"

Before Adam Schlesinger penned the catchy title song to Tom Hanks' directorial debut, "That Thing You Do," and formed the excellent power-pop band Fountains of Wayne with Chris Collingwood, he was the impetus behind Ivy, the New Jersey trio that pioneered the French pops revival on the U.S. East Coast....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Dec 18, 2002

"el Christmas: The World in Winter"

Before British label el records went belly up, they were considered one of the hippest dispensers of candy-coated twee-pop and lounge music from the '70s and '80s. A holiday compilation album pulled from el's catalog of aural confectionary makes perfect sense as so much of the holiday season nowadays...

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo