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MORE SPORTS
Oct 23, 2006

Meisho Samson fails to capture Triple Crown

KYOTO -- Meisho Samson's bid for the Triple Crown was stopped at two Sunday as darkhorse Song of Wind stormed down the stretch to clinch the final leg Kikkasho in record time. Winning time was 3 minutes, 2.7 seconds over 3,000 meters of fast turf. Second choice Dream Passport followed Song of Wind over...
EDITORIALS
Oct 23, 2006

Britons bridle over veil

The phrase "straw poll" has acquired some nuance in Britain this month. It used to mean asking people what they think about an issue -- any issue. Suddenly it seems to mean asking people what they think about Straw -- Jack Straw, that is, the former British foreign secretary -- and in particular his...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Oct 23, 2006

Room for microcredit in the notorious 'gray zone'?

For sci-fi lovers, the twilight zone is a scary place, the stuff of bad dreams. But for borrowers of consumer loans in Japan, it is the "gray zone" that constitutes the nightmare.
COMMENTARY
Oct 23, 2006

Waves build against carrier

The mayor of the city of Yokosuka and the governor of Kanagawa Prefecture have expressed willingness to accept the deployment of a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at U.S. Yokosuka Naval Base, stirring optimism among central government officials that a controversial issue is about to be solved....
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 23, 2006

Hammies rally in pivotal 7th inning

NAGOYA -- Makoto Kaneko had found a new way to make an out in every Japan Series at-bat heading into the seventh inning of Game 2.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 23, 2006

U.S. should heed Suez lesson

LONDON -- If you're an imperial power, your troops often end up in places that most of your citizens cannot even find on the map: Mesopotamia for Roman soldiers, for example, or Afghanistan for the British. It looks foolish, viewed with the long perspective of history, and yet lots of people fall for...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 23, 2006

The global plight of the girl combat soldier

NEW YORK -- Legal proceedings against Thomas Lubanga Dyilo now taking place before the new International Criminal Court offer some hope that a serious kind of crime will be effectively punished and deterred.
SOCCER / J. League
Oct 22, 2006

Frontale holds Reds

SAITAMA -- Boss Guido Buchwald called for his league-leading Urawa Reds side to snuff out Kawasaki Frontale's title challenge before Saturday's home game, but the third-place team refused to bow down in an entertaining 2-2 draw.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Oct 22, 2006

Top scout Poitevint gives Matsuzaka's game a once over

The sweat on the uniform from his final game had hardly dried and already speculation was running rampant about whom he would be pitching for in the major leagues next season.
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2006

China squeezes Pyongyang

A series of meetings last week among the foreign ministers of the United States, Japan, South Korea and China were significant for helping the four nations confirm their mutual cooperation in implementing sanctions against North Korea following its first nuclear-weapons test Oct. 9.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 22, 2006

Dragons grab Game 1

NAGOYA -- Once Kenshin Kawakami remembered how to be himself, the game was in the bag.
BUSINESS
Oct 22, 2006

L.A. mayor makes tourism pitch

Visiting Los Angeles Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa engaged in a tourism campaign Friday and Saturday designed to attract more Japanese travelers to the West Coast city.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 22, 2006

NHK's "Premium 10," Nihon TV's "Catherine the Great" and more

On Sept. 23, 35,000 people flocked to the Tsumagoi resort area in Shizuoka Prefecture to attend a concert featuring folk-rock singer Takuro Yoshida and the soft rock trio Kagu-yahime. In 1975 these two artists played for 12 hours at the same site in front of 50,000 fans at the first-ever concert of its...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 22, 2006

Plea to a TV comic: Take on the big boys and take on politics

To Hikari Ota, c/o Titan Talent Agency.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 22, 2006

Exploring the cobwebs and exposing some dirt

ISTANBUL: Memories of a City, by Orhan Pamuk. Faber & Faber, 2006, 348 pp., £8 (paper). Turkey it seems has always inspired fear. The memory of advancing Turkish units camped outside the gates of Vienna haunted the European mind for centuries. "Where the Turk treads, no grass grows," ran one saying...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 22, 2006

Macha's return for MLB-NPB series off after firing by A's

Apparently it is a jinx to be the manager of the Oakland Athletics and be named to head a Major League All-Star tour of Japan. For the second time in four years, an A's skipper has been changed after getting the assignment to lead a visiting team in the nichibei yakyu.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 22, 2006

Something 'beautiful' that leaders may not see from on high

Sometimes a very significant event in the life of a country passes largely unnoticed, particularly if it occurs away from the center of power. Just such a thing happened on the 11th of this month.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 22, 2006

It would be a crime to underestimate the gardener

This past summer I was delighted to discover a new "ethnic detective" character named Masuo "Mas" Arai, an elderly Japanese-American gardener whose credentials include a green thumb and a nose for sniffing out criminals. The creation of Los Angeles-based journalist and author Naomi Hirahara, Arai made...
SOCCER / J. League
Oct 21, 2006

Reds in position to put Frontale away in J. League title race

SAITAMA -- Urawa's Guido Buchwald and Marcus Tulio Tanaka might have different points of view on the importance of Saturday's game against Kawasaki Frontale, but they agree on one thing.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 21, 2006

Mourinho showing signs of double vision in Cech incident

LONDON -- The problem with Jose Mourinho is that as a manager the Chelsea boss makes a lousy witness.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 21, 2006

Dragons, Fighters set to battle

NAGOYA -- The Japan Series will begin Saturday at Nagoya Dome, when the Central League champion Chunichi Dragons lock horns with the Pacific League-winning Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.
SOCCER
Oct 21, 2006

Ono making impact off bench

SAITAMA -- Injury-jinxed midfielder Shinji Ono has given Guido Buchwald a boost by saying he is prepared to help Urawa Reds in their quest for the J. League title by starting games on the bench.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji