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JAPAN
May 29, 2004

Public turns on families of missing abductees

The Associated Press
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2004

Myanmar's thorn in the ASEM process

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Once again, the experiment known as the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) enters the limelight for the wrong reasons. With preparation under way for a summit meeting in Hanoi next October, the focus is not so much on real issues as on the format for participation. Characteristically,...
CULTURE / Music
May 16, 2004

Avril under the skin of consumers

Walking out of Shibuya Station on May 12, you couldn't help but be aware that Avril Lavigne's second album, "Under My Skin," had just gone on sale. There she was, belting out her new single, "Don't Tell Me," up there on the big screen above the 109 Building. Tsutaya had a booth set up with Avril's kohl-eyed...
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2004

Violence drives aid workers out of Iraq

Intense violence in Iraq has driven Japanese civic aid organizations to scale back their operations there.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 17, 2004

Oshii talks softly, but carries a big script

Before I interviewed Mamoru Oshii, his publicist asked if I would need an interpreter. "He tends to mumble," she explained. No, I didn't need an interpreter, but I did turn the volume of my tape recorder on high, fortunately. Looking a decade younger than his 52 years, with a mane of unruly black hair,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 11, 2004

Got something for everyone

Hanochi Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Itsumichi Isomura Running time: 122 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Gege Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Kiyoshi Sasabe Running time: 113 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See...
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 29, 2004

BayStars set sights on Sasaki

Yokohama BayStars president Susumu Minegishi said Wednesday the Central League club will be looking to sign Kazuhiro Sasaki to a contract for this season as soon as he is formally released by the Seattle Mariners.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 21, 2003

Mysteries along the Mekong

BANGKOK 8, by John Burdett. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003, 318 pp., $24.00 (cloth). WAITING FOR THE LADY, by Christopher G. Moore. Bangkok: Heaven Lake Press, 2003, 342 pp., $24.95 (cloth). Can a Western author convincingly put himself inside the mind of a Thai cop? Writing in the first person in...
BUSINESS
Nov 14, 2003

Ashikaga Financial bailout denied

The government denied a news report Thursday that the Financial Services Agency is considering injecting public funds into regional bank Ashikaga Financial Group Inc.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 5, 2003

Ima Robot: 'Ima Robot'

Ima RobotIma Robot
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 6, 2003

Suu Kyi's hunger strike raises the ante

MEDFORD, Massachusetts -- If news coming out from Myanmar is to be believed, Aung Sang Suu Kyi is now on a water-only hunger strike.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Aug 24, 2003

The incredible remixing man

A good remix uncovers an element of the song that was already there so the listener perceives it in a whole new way. A bad remix often ends up as a vehicle for someone else's ego, with the original becoming so contorted and manipulated that it is unrecognizable in the final product.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 20, 2003

Mutated beats for postmod grooving

Scott Herren is many things to many people. To some, he is Delarosa & Asora, the purveyor of jagged, techno dissonance. To others, he is Savath & Savalas, a mutating musical project that navigates electronica, postrock and Spanish folk with equal ease. At the moment, however, Herren's hip-hop outlet,...
COMMENTARY
Jun 29, 2003

China a laggard in preemptive reforms

HONG KONG -- When China sacked its health minister and the mayor of Beijing on Easter Sunday for their mishandling of the SARS crisis, many political analysts predicted that severe acute respiratory syndrome would have the same effect on China that the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 had on the Soviet...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 10, 2003

My mother, the terrorist and other successful families

An old saying in Japanese goes, "Oya no hikari wa nanahikari," literally, "A parent's light is [as good as] seven lights." In other words, children who play their cards right can bask in the glow of their parent's fame.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Jun 8, 2003

Synergetic possibilities at the heart

The piano trio is the heart of jazz. This core unit of piano, bass and drums pumps life into the music. All jazz groups, big or small, rely on the piano, bass and drums (called "the rhythm section") for their crucial thrust of energy. Taken out of a larger group, the piano trio contains all the essentials...
EDITORIALS
May 11, 2003

Myanmar's gestures are not enough

Once again, the military government in Myanmar has made a symbolic gesture to placate international critics. The release of political prisoners is always welcome, but the government in Yangon does not question its right to use the opposition as pawns. The game must stop; nothing less than systemic reform...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Apr 17, 2003

"The Sands of Time," "Smile, Crocodile, Smile"

"The Sands of Time," Michael Hoeye, Penguin Putnam Books; 2002; 277 pp. Once in a rare while, there comes a book in which the characters outlive the story. It was certainly not easy to say goodbye to Hermux Tantamoq, the dignified little hero of Michael Hoeye's terrific debut novel, "Time Stops for...
JAPAN
Mar 22, 2003

Ministries gear up to counter terror threat

Government ministries agreed Friday to prepare for possible terrorist attacks and offer security information to the public as things continue to heat up in Iraq.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 16, 2003

Hard-hitting Bangkok PI knows how to Thai one on

ASIA HAND, 1992, 277 pp.; COLD HIT, 1999, 330 pp.; MINOR WIFE, 2002, 297 pp.; by Christopher G. Moore. Heaven Lake Press, Bangkok (all three books priced at $11.95) Canadian novelist Christopher G. Moore, a former law instructor from British Columbia, has been described as "The Hemingway of Bangkok."...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 9, 2003

Dropping out and tuning in to the rhythm of nature

SANTOKA: Grass and Tree Cairn, translated by Hiroaki Sato. Vermont: Red Moon Press, 2002, 74 pp., $14.95 (paper) No matter how deep one's faith or religion is, one may experience feelings of resignation and defeat as well as the loss of compassion for others and oneself.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 8, 2003

Joshua Redman

Since winning the Thelonius Monk 1991 new jazz player's competition, Joshua Redman's career has been on fast-forward. His rise in popularity was propelled by a contract with Warner Brothers, his greatly noted graduation from Harvard, critical praise from the jazz press and collaborations with a long...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Dec 1, 2002

Drop-dead cool bands percolating in Tokyo's underground

The things I first heard about Marble Sheep really sounded baaad, and I don't mean BAD in an irreverently cool Iggy Pop or Keith Richards kind of way.
COMMENTARY
Oct 31, 2002

China gets handle on weapons exports

HONG KONG -- The summit meeting at Crawford between Chinese President Jiang Zemin and U.S. President George W. Bush should usher in a period of relative stability in Chinese-American relations. While unexpected developments -- such as the air collision last year off the Chinese coast -- cannot be ruled...
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2002

Ministry hopes to pay for babies

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry plans to press for a 4.6 percent increase in its fiscal 2003 budget in order to introduce a 1.04 trillion yen incentive program to boost the nation's birthrate, officials said Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Aug 3, 2002

Solstice weekend under the fog; Camping with the aliens

I knew it was going to be an interesting weekend the moment my press armband arrived in the mail marked No. 13, though I'm not superstitious enough to turn my back on an event like the Solstice Music Festival.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 17, 2002

It takes a village . . .

The feat of building a community takes vision, commitment and lots of time. But once every year, a massive village materializes on a mountainside in Niigata Prefecture in late July, only to vanish into thin air less than a week later.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jun 19, 2002

Asa-Chang and Junray

If melodic instruments are conduits of Venusian emotion, then percussion is their direct Martian counterpart. While a sax can wail and cry its way through a performance, an equally impassioned drum solo is usually described in terms of brute force: ferocious, cataclysmic, tumultuous.
COMMENTARY
Jun 9, 2002

Labour's dearth of dissent

LONDON -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair could be suffering from the first signs of the madness of princes. It is paranoia, and it afflicts almost every political man who has ambition but does not have the security of the divine right of kings (the madness of kings being grandiosity or megalomania.)...

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?