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BUSINESS
Jan 22, 2002

Inventor hopes lawsuit over diode empowers peers

Shuji Nakamura is confident that his court battle can radically change the relationship between Japanese companies and their in-house inventors.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 22, 2002

Jungle rockets in French Guiana

KOUROU, French Guiana -- It must be one of the best-protected sites in South America. To the north is the ocean, full of devious currents and deadly sharks. To the south is dense rain forest, unforgiving to those who enter unprepared. The site's most important buildings are ringed with electronic fencing...
EDITORIALS
Jan 22, 2002

Houston, we have a problem

The fallout from the collapse of Enron, the Houston, Texas-based energy conglomerate, continues to accumulate. Enron's spectacular implosion -- the largest bankruptcy in history -- raises questions on issues ranging from accounting rules to White House access and influence. It might be a cautionary tale...
LIFE / Travel
Jan 22, 2002

Jungle rockets in French Guiana

KOUROU, French Guiana -- It must be one of the best-protected sites in South America. To the north is the ocean, full of devious currents and deadly sharks. To the south is dense rain forest, unforgiving to those who enter unprepared. The site's most important buildings are ringed with electronic fencing...
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2002

Coast guard vessels to mount 30mm machine guns

The Japan Coast Guard will install long-range machine guns on its larger patrol vessels in the wake of last month's shootout with an unidentified ship in the East China Sea, coast guard officials said Monday.
Events
Jan 22, 2002

Relief group to come to Herat's rescue

KYOTO -- The road from the Iranian border town of Dogaroun to Herat in northwest Afghanistan is a dusty, bumpy track lined with land mines much of the way.
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2002

Schizophrenia given new Japanese name

Japan's psychiatric society decided Saturday to change the Japanese name of schizophrenia to help dispel prejudice against people with the disorder, sources close to the society said.
EDITORIALS
Jan 21, 2002

Activating the Kyoto treaty

The international agreement on climate change, better known as the Kyoto Protocol, is expected to take effect later this year, perhaps in September. But the United States, the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, is conspicuously absent from the ratification process. The U.S. boycott is certainly a serious...
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2002

Afghan envoys voice hope they will leave with 'full hands'

Representatives of the interim administration of Afghanistan expressed hope Sunday they would obtain a sufficient aid commitment during the two-day conference on the reconstruction of their nation starting in Tokyo today, while the tug-of-war over how much money each donor will pledge continued late...
COMMENTARY / JAPAN IN THE GLOBAL ERA
Jan 21, 2002

Charades begin with 'Narita neurosis'

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Some 10 years ago, a Japanese student at an institute in Bologna where I was a visiting professor produced an essay in which he wrote "because Japan has a unique culture, it is misunderstood and discriminated against by other countries."
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2002

NGO envoys discuss future Afghan role

Delegates of 59 nongovernmental organizations, including 26 NGOs from Afghanistan, gathered at a Tokyo hotel Sunday to discuss the vision and role for NGOs in rebuilding the Central Asian nation on the eve of a two-day ministerial meeting on Afghan reconstruction.
BUSINESS
Jan 21, 2002

Dollar to test upper limit this week

The U.S. dollar is likely to test its topside against the yen this week, but unabated appreciation is unlikely to occur due to yen-supportive comments by Japanese officials and rising frustration with the weak yen in other Asian nations.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2002

A rightist revival in Europe

LONDON -- For the past five years, the center-left has held the whip hand in Western Europe. Whether in the shape of Prime Minister Tony Blair's New Labour administration in Britain or the more traditionally leftwing Socialist-led government in France, social democracy has ruled in the major countries...
SOCCER / J. League
Jan 21, 2002

Dutch double act reunited at Urawa

SAITAMA -- Former Japan and Jubilo Iwata manager Hans Ooft and former Celtic and Sanfrecce Hiroshima manager Wim Jansen have formed a coaching tag team at the Urawa Reds in an attempt to rebuild the struggling J. League Division One club into a successful outfit.
EDITORIALS
Jan 20, 2002

The Segway's Japanese roots

At the end of December, Emeritus Professor Kazuo Yamafuji of Tokyo's University of Electro-Communications had something interesting to add to the buzz of talk about the Segway Human Transporter, the self-balancing robotic scooter unveiled earlier in the month by U.S. inventor Dean Kamen.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2002

Entrance exams begin for university hopefuls

Annual preliminary university entrance examinations administered by the government began Saturday at 684 locations nationwide to screen 602,089 applicants with tests in six subjects.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 20, 2002

Lingual skills key to global communication

You would think that four national languages would be enough. Not for the Swiss. Along with German, French, Italian and Romansh, English is making considerable inroads.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2002

3,000 officers to police Afghan talks

The Metropolitan Police Department will mobilize about 3,000 officers to guard this week's international conference on reconstruction assistance for Afghanistan in Tokyo, MPD officials said.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2002

American brings kabuki to Japanese as well as foreigners

Mark Oshima never imagined he would appear on a kabuki stage when he first arrived in Japan in 1981, taking a year off from university to write his senior thesis on a theme that had nothing to do with the classical Japanese theater.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2002

Man injured by bomb in park trash can

An explosion in a trash can Saturday morning at a park in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward seriously injured a homeless man, police said.
BUSINESS
Jan 20, 2002

Bank employee held over fraud

Tokyo police on Saturday arrested a former employee of Dresdner Bank's Tokyo branch on suspicion of swindling about 30 million yen from the bank.
COMMUNITY
Jan 20, 2002

Tandoori meets takoyaki in Kansai's Little India

KOBE -- The port city of Kobe, with the largest concentration of Americans and Europeans in the Kansai region, a few of whom have lived in Japan since the Taisho Era (1912-1926), has long been known as one of Japan's most Westernized cities.
COMMUNITY
Jan 20, 2002

Kabukicho: where worlds collide

About 1 a.m. on the morning of Sept. 1, 2001, a fire of undetermined origin swept through the No. 56 Myojo Building in Shinjuku's Kabukicho district, resulting in the deaths of 44 people on the upper two floors. While investigators say they have ruled out arson, stories in the tabloid press continue...
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2002

Agencies seek help for Aral Sea

When top officials from dozens of nations and international organizations convene in Tokyo on Monday for two days of discussions on the rebuilding of Afghanistan, they may not be aware that their efforts could spark unintended environmental and political side effects, according to experts.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 20, 2002

Murder and mass suicide? Now that's entertainment

CHUSHINGURA AND THE FLOATING WORLD: The Representation of Kanadehon Chushingura in Ukiyo-e Prints, by David Bell. Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library, 2001. 170 pp. with 41 b/w plates, 45 British pounds (cloth) One spring day in 1701 there was an altercation in Edo Castle. Perceiving insult, a local lord...
CULTURE / Music
Jan 20, 2002

Blonde Redhead: Melody of the inexpressible

New York's Blonde Redhead is an excellent reminder of what made "indie" rock independent in the first place. Trying to pin them down, to encapsulate their music in a pithy phrase or two is, to quote the title of their fourth album, like trying to give "an expression of the unexpressible."
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 20, 2002

Discussing the humane execution of the law

As far as I know, no one has tried to figure out why two of the most popular theatrical releases of 2000 in Japan were "The Green Mile" and "Dancer in the Dark," movies whose dramatic core involved capital punishment and whose moral compass pointed toward the opinion that noncombat state-sanctioned killing...
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Jan 20, 2002

A heavenly match made in Tsukishima

Ajisen strikes you as special before you even walk in the door. Great care has been taken in creating the entrance itself -- a good sign of the good things to come.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear