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CULTURE / Music
Dec 17, 2003

Sound tidings we bring

The gift of music never fails and you can fill plenty of stockings with these re-releases, compilations and holiday music, handpicked by the JT music elves Tom Bojko, Philip Brasor, Jeff Hammond, Jason Jenkins, Michael Pronko and Suzannah Tartan
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 16, 2003

'Shut-ins' turn backs on Japan

To look at 29-year-old Kenji Tanaka laughing and drinking with his friends, it's hard to believe that he spent the best part of his twenties cut off from almost all human contact.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 12, 2003

The Oak Door: Steak a claim to heavyweight dining

The first thing you see as you enter The Oak Door is the bar, surrounded on three sides by sleek, glass-fronted wine racks packed with boutique New World wines. The second thing that grabs your eye is the warm, flickering glow emanating from the bank of wood-fired ovens by the kitchen, and the white-clad...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 10, 2003

Imagine art for all people, living peacefully

Yoko Ono loves me. Or at least she said that she does in the e-mail interview we conducted as she crisscrossed the globe.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 10, 2003

Think Positive

To the general public, Yoko Ono is best known as the wife of John Lennon. Some may have a vague inkling that she is important for something other than the far-out records she made with her husband, but without knowing exactly what.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 10, 2003

Pacific League holds much promise for 2004 season

The Pacific League has lost 10-year veteran Seibu Lions all-star Kazuo Matsui, one of its best performers, to the major leagues and the New York Mets. Tuffy Rhodes, having been released by the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes, will probably be gone as well, moving to the Yomiuri Giants or another Central League...
COMMENTARY
Dec 1, 2003

LDP's diminishing appeal

In the Nov. 9 Lower House election, the governing Liberal Democratic Party lost 10 seats while the opposition Democratic Party of Japan gained 40. New Komeito added a few seats thanks to its cooperation in the election with the LDP, its ruling-coalition partner. The Social Democratic Party and the Japan...
EDITORIALS
Nov 29, 2003

Competitive threat to insurers

Japan Post, a mammoth public corporation that provides mail, savings and insurance services, is under fire from private life insurers here as well as from U.S. and European insurance industries and government authorities. Their object of criticism is the new life insurance policy that JP plans to sell...
EDITORIALS
Nov 28, 2003

'Mini-nukes' a big problem

The United States' decision to pursue the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons is wrong. At a time when Washington is trying to convince other nations that nuclear-weapons programs should be abandoned, the U.S. move suggests that such weapons are useful after all. It is one more blow to...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 21, 2003

Chen winning back respect for Taiwan's position

NEW YORK -- Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan's president, recently made a whirlwind international tour. During a three-day transit in New York three weeks ago, he received the 2003 award from the International League for Human Rights. He attended centennial independence anniversary celebrations of Panama, then...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Nov 16, 2003

Wallabies stun All Blacks in Rugby World Cup semifinal

SYDNEY, Australia -- The All Blacks' World Cup bogey continues and they will have to wait another four long years before they can get another crack at the prized William Webb Ellis trophy for the tournament's winner.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 15, 2003

Definitely don't go to this restaurant!

What would the Japanese do without all those magazines telling them what to do and where to go? There are fashion magazines with detailed instructions on how to apply eye makeup, recreational magazines that suggest "date courses" in which you take your date on a pre-planned route that includes a trendy...
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 2, 2003

Giants interested in acquiring Tuffy

The Yomiuri Giants are looking to acquire Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes outfielder Tuffy Rhodes after the slugger hit a snag in negotiations for a multiyear contract with his present club, baseball sources said Saturday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / INTERNATIONAL RATIONALE
Oct 25, 2003

Narita airport prepares for battle with Asian hubs

NARITA, Chiba Pref. -- When Masatoshi Uchida joined New Tokyo International Airport Authority, the quasi-governmental organ that operates Narita airport, in 1977, he never dreamed he'd end up selling Hermes goods.
COMMENTARY
Oct 19, 2003

More trouble for Pakistan's democracy

ISLAMABAD -- The first anniversary this month of the restoration of Pakistan's democracy following the three years of military rule has brought little joy over the future prospects of the South Asian nuclear-armed state.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2003

Gifu gives Big Apple taste of local legend

If you mention the name Furuta Oribe, most Japanese will probably give you a blank stare.
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2003

Cops targeted loan sharks in September crackdown

Authorities across the nation handled 125 cases of loan-sharking in September, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Oct 13, 2003

To text or not to text

You knew it had to come. When it was reported last week that a British rehabilitation clinic had begun treating patients for an uncontrollable addiction to text messaging, it certainly sounded like a sign of the times. Or something. It was hard to be sure of the precise significance of the announcement...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2003

Charming the IMF in Dubai

HONG KONG -- James Wolfensohn, the president of the World Bank, made the most powerful speech of his career at the annual meetings of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund in Dubai last month. It was full of sharp sound bites driving toward a vital central theme that Wolfensohn enunciated...
MORE SPORTS
Oct 8, 2003

Experts tip All Blacks or England for World Cup

Former All Black legend Colin Meads recently caused a stir when he said that he thought England would beat New Zealand in the final of the 2003 Rugby World Cup. For a New Zealander to admit such a thing was considered by some in the land of the silver fern to be treasonous!
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2003

Exhaust curbs to sting truck operators

Hideaki Tsuchiya's small trucking firm in Tokyo's Meguro Ward faced a major headache earlier this year: Five of his 20 trucks did not meet new exhaust regulations that take effect in the metropolis Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Sep 28, 2003

Welcome to 'Mother Sofa'

MOSCOW -- Moscow seems to have the biggest concentration of furniture stores per square kilometer in the world. Downtown is a cramped place, with barely enough space for designer clothing and jewelry boutiques. Yet, in the peripheral neighborhoods, furniture stores thrive.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 24, 2003

Sounds Numero Ono

You could call Seigen Ono a connoisseur of sound. He chooses only the finest sonic ingredients and knows exactly how to obtain them. As an avant-garde jazz composer and guitarist, he might not be a household name, but check out the credits on some of the best records of the last two decades and there's...
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2003

Takenaka, Kawaguchi retain posts as dust settles after Cabinet reshuffle

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi retained Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka and Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi after reshuffling his Cabinet on Monday, defying calls for their ouster from within the Liberal Democratic Party.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 21, 2003

Kabuki: the opera of Japan

KABUKI PLAYS ON STAGE: Volume IV -- Restoration and Reform, 1872-1905, edited by James R. Brandon and Samuel L. Leiter. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2003, 430 pp. with illustrations, $50, (cloth). This is the final volume in a monumental series that contains the texts of 52 plays, all of them...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2003

India, Israel ally against Islamic terror

MADRAS, India -- India has now realized that it needs a new strategy for fighting terror on its soil. More importantly, it now understands that it requires new allies as well. When Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon flew into New Delhi recently, his visit signaled a turning point in India's foreign...
EDITORIALS
Sep 17, 2003

High hopes for Ms. Ogata and JICA

Japan has updated its policy guidelines for official development assistance -- concessionary aid to developing countries -- for the first time in 11 years. ODA has long been considered a key instrument of Japanese diplomacy, but its effectiveness as such has been admittedly less than satisfactory. The...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 31, 2003

Enthusiasm for EU club has evaporated

PRAGUE -- When communism in Eastern Europe collapsed, the region's new democratic leaders agreed that joining the European Union -- fast -- must be their priority. "Back to Europe!" became the slogan, one enthusiastically backed by a majority of their populations. Yet eight months before that dream formally...
BUSINESS
Aug 29, 2003

Firms lick their lips over flat-panel TVs

Major consumer electronics makers are rolling out the latest batch of flat-panel TVs for the all-important yearend shopping season.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2003

Bandai's sword-brandishing robot begets yet another corporate acronym

CEO, COO, CFO and even CSO (chief strategy officer) are part of today's simmering pot of corporate alphabet soup as Japan Inc. increasingly adopts U.S.-style management regimens.

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