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LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Dec 20, 2001

Surviving the 'Pikmin' pickle

Captain Olimar, the main character in "Pikmin," isn't really a character, he's a cursor. He doesn't do anything other than tell the Pikmin what to do.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Dec 20, 2001

For the surfing Santa

www04.giftcertificates.com/index.cfmGiftCertificates.com has Uncle Spud's name written all over it. And it has your name written all over it, too, if you've got more nieces and nephews than you can count on one finger. And if you haven't broken out the plastic yet. Let's face it, it even has your name...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2001

The real aim behind the Sept. 11 attacks

LONDON -- Osama bin Laden is Timothy McVeigh with a beard, and no more representative of the Arab world than McVeigh was of America. It's important to hang onto that thought, because otherwise the storm of emotion that followed the broadcast of the tape in which the author of the atrocities of Sept....
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2001

Breaking an uneasy silence

Kippur Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Amos Gitai Running time: 118 minutes Language: Hebrew Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2001

A familiar face in the mirror

Vanilla SkyRating: * * * Director: Cameron Crowe Running time: 135 minutes Language: English Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2001

Fun and family bonding

Spy KidsRating: * * * 1/2 Director: Robert Rodriguez Running time: 88 minutes Language: English Now showing
COMMENTARY
Dec 19, 2001

Door to constitutional change

Last June, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi created an advisory panel on his proposal aimed at empowering the public -- not lawmakers as at present -- to directly elect the premier. The group is expected to come up with recommendations on the plan by next summer.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2001

Wholesalers still clinging on

While foreign retailers are seeking to trade directly with Japanese manufacturers in an effort to cut costs and prices, wholesalers will continue to play a key role in the domestic distribution chain, according to Seiichiro Kojima, president of nonfood wholesaler Chuo Bussan Corp.
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2001

Toshiba to pull out of DRAMs

Toshiba Corp. said Tuesday it will terminate its business in dynamic random access memory chips next year in a reorganization aimed at securing profitability in its semiconductor business in fiscal 2002.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 19, 2001

No Big Mac, no surprise

It should not be a surprise to anyone that Mark McGwire is not going to play for the Chunichi Dragons next season.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2001

John Howard gets but a brief respite

SYDNEY -- Pangs of guilt are creeping into the Australian psyche in this self-indulgent time of year. The annual spending frenzy, known to some as Christmas, is being contrasted with the wretched life of hundreds of refugees detained on Australia's Indian Ocean territory, Christmas Island.
Japan Times
JAPAN / INTERNATIONAL RATIONALE
Dec 19, 2001

Foreign retailers relying on adaptability to survive

When French retailer Carrefour and U.S.-based Costco Wholesale Corp. opened their outlets in Makuhari, Chiba Prefecture, a year ago, many saw the foreign stores as a threat to domestic supermarkets.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2001

Fires rose over 60,000 mark in 2000

Fires reported in 2000 topped the 60,000 mark for the first time in three years, with arson accounting for one in eight cases, according to a government report released Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2001

Son to get into the phone business

Beginning this spring, some broadband Internet users will be able to place a three-minute call to the U.S. for 7.5 yen over a new service to be offered by Softbank Corp.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2001

Pediatrics strained to breaking point

It was just after midnight one recent weekend in the emergency room of Showa University Hospital in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. Pediatrician Katsura Sugihara was treating his 12th patient of the night, when the phone rang.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2001

The revolution will be cinematized

Hikari no Ame Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Banmei Takahashi Running time: 130 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2001

Hunt off for missing Japanese: Pyongyang

Tokyo reacted with concern Tuesday to news that North Korea has suspended its search for missing Japanese believed to have been abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s.
CULTURE / Art
Dec 19, 2001

Capturing the moving image

Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) is holding an exhibition of photographs of the homeless, running till Jan. 27 at the Tokyo Photographic Culture Centre.
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Dec 19, 2001

Great coffee with some art on the side

I took a visiting young German painter to Ben's Cafe in Takadanobaba the other day. We met to have a beer and a chat -- and because Jorn was eager to show me a book of his new work, with an eye to me maybe helping arrange a show for him.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2001

Senior Chongryun official indicted over embezzlement

Prosecutors on Tuesday indicted a senior official of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryun) on charges he instructed heads of a failed credit union to embezzle about 830 million yen of the union's funds.
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Dec 19, 2001

Shed a tear, pass the hat

What a Drag Dept.: Two well-known music mags, FM Fan and Indies Magazine, are calling it quits after their December issues. Falling advertising revenues are why their publishers, Kyodo News and Rittor Music, respectively, have decided to shut them down.
CULTURE / Art
Dec 19, 2001

A night traveler crossing the border of art and literature

For many Japanese writers and artists of the 1920s and '30s, Surrealism was simply a stylistic novelty. Poet Shuzo Takiguchi, however, produced Surrealist writings whose message was lent conviction by the risks he took -- at the time, artistic and political freedoms were restricted.
CULTURE / Art
Dec 19, 2001

Views on a cityscape in continuous flux

It is more than 70 years since the French architect Le Corbusier confounded New Yorkers by declaring that their skyscrapers were not high enough. His vision was to curb the ugly sprawl of land-gobbling suburbs by creating cities that grew ever skyward. Now, as urban centers get bigger, his "four brutal...
CULTURE / Art
Dec 19, 2001

How-to secrets of Japan's greatest artistic export

First of two parts There can be few readers of The Japan Times who have not browsed a secondhand bookshop in Japan, hoping to discover an unrecognized gem of a woodblock print. Although the subjects they depict are far removed from the reality of contemporary Japan, ukiyo-e still charm us today. Western...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 19, 2001

2001 -- A sound odyssey

It was a year for rocking, for boppig, for grooving, for moshing, for swaying and of course, for listening. Taking one last spin through the sounds of the past 12 months, our music writers tell us what they heard.

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