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BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Sep 24, 2006

Veteran Kuwata to leave Giants

Yomiuri Giants right-hander Masumi Kuwata hinted Saturday he will leave the Central League team at the end of the season.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2006

Restaging of legendary folk concert draws 35,000

Some 35,000 people gathered Saturday for an open-air concert at Tsumagoi resort in Kakegawa, Shizuoka Prefecture, featuring a reunion of the performers in a legendary 1975 show.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2006

Justice minister still refuses to sign execution orders

Justice Minister Seiken Sugiura has expressed his unwillingness to give the go-ahead for executions before he steps down next Tuesday with the outgoing Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, according to sources.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2006

Horigome tabbed as next Supreme Court chief justice

The government has decided to appoint Yukio Horigome, a Supreme Court justice, as the next chief justice, replacing Akira Machida who will retire Oct. 15, government sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2006

Abe may turn more assertive in Asia: U.S. paper

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, guaranteed to win the prime minister's post Tuesday, will likely bring an assertiveness to foreign policy and may redefine Japan's leadership role in Asia and the world, modeling himself as a "fighting statesman," an influential U.S. newspaper said in an editorial...
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2006

Talks open with China to lay summit groundwork

and Japanese officials open two days of policy talks in Tokyo on Saturday. KYODO PHOTO
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 24, 2006

Softbank's Saito better statistically than Matsuzaka, Kuroda

We mentioned here last week that major league scouts visiting Japan think Chunichi Dragons outfielder Kosuke Fukudome is the best Japanese position player in the Central or Pacific Leagues, but who is the best pitcher?
EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 2006

Summer's end

It's true, summer tends to linger on like an unwanted guest long after the autumnal equinox gives it the official boot in late September. But the season needs to face facts: Ever since August departed, it's been looking tired and stale. The same thing happens every year. The first twinges of fall set...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 24, 2006

Dark tales of a neglected Tokyo underclass

ABANDON THE OLD IN TOKYO by Yoshihiro Tatsumi, edited and designed by Adrian Tomine, introduction by Koji Suzuki. Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly, 200 pp., $19.95 (cloth). An old man is reduced by the debt that has ruined him to performing like a dog ("Why don't you spin around three times and bark?")....
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2006

The art of making classical music fans

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- September is traditionally the time when opera companies and orchestras return to their home cities from Aix, Salzburg, Tanglewood and countless other summer festivals. This is also marked (on both sides of the Atlantic) by the return of worries about how classical music is financed....
BUSINESS
Sep 24, 2006

Common economic statistics sought

The government has decided to introduce common standards to determine economic statistics in cooperation with other Asia-Pacific nations as well as the United States for easier mutual comparison, officials said Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 2006

Right to a minority opinion

The Tokyo District Court last week ruled illegal the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education's policy of forcing school teachers to sing the national anthem "Kimigayo (Your Reign)" during school ceremonies. The court ruled that the policy violates Article 19 of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom...
BUSINESS
Sep 24, 2006

Well-managed farms to get bonus

The agriculture ministry has decided to selectively allocate its subsidies for vegetable-growing districts that are making efforts to increase production efficiency, ministry officials said Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2006

Japan needs a Willy Brandt

BERLIN -- Junichiro Koizumi will resign as the Japanese prime minister at the end of this month and be replaced by Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe. Koizumi became prime minister in April 2001. After more than five years as prime minister, Koizumi's political record is checkered: He achieved big successes...
BUSINESS
Sep 24, 2006

BTM UFJ hit over money laundering

U.S. financial authorities are contemplating imposing an administrative punishment on the U.S. units of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ for its allegedly lax monitoring against money laundering, sources said Saturday.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 24, 2006

NHK's "Ongaku Idenshi," Nihon TV's "Diet Combat" and more

One of the most common questions asked of pop musicians is, Who are your influences? This question is the premise behind a new series on NHK, "Ongaku Idenshi" (NHK-G, Mon., 11 p.m.), which literally means "The Genes of Music." According to the show's producers, a musician's particular sensibility is...
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2006

Last M-V rocket delivers satellite to observe the sun

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on Saturday launched the SOLAR-B observation satellite into orbit, where it will study the sun's magnetic field.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 24, 2006

Tracing the genealogy of gekiga

Presented a copy of the latest English-language collection of his work, Yoshihiro Tatsumi turns it over in his hands and says, "This looks too beautiful to be a comic book."
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2006

Maglev crash in Germany won't affect JR's version

The experimental maglev train project in Japan won't be affected by an accident in Germany that killed 23 people, a company official said Saturday.
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 24, 2006

Koizumi's Shake, Rattle & Roll

Elvis impersonator? Japan's Thatcher? Faction buster? Nah, as the curtain falls on the Koizumi show, he will be remembered above all for his missed opportunities and self-indulgent gestures at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo -- that, and steamrollering the Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 into oblivion....
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 24, 2006

Japan's hordes of hoarders still look to their navel nest eggs

I have spent nearly 40 years writing about Japan, virtually all of the time trying to show how Japanese people are really no different from other nationalities. But, by God, there is one aspect of Japanese life that makes this country unique. I defy any reader to name a society that has a custom like...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 24, 2006

Monkey business can be serious literature

MONKEY by Wu Cheng-en, translated by Arthur Waley. London: Penguin Books, 2006, 352 pp., £9.99 (paper). After many years out of print, this famous translation, originally published in 1942, is this autumn back in the bookstores. It is a partial rendering of a 16th-century Chinese classic text, otherwise...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 24, 2006

Paternity suits brought by moms symptoms of family registry law

If the celebration over the birth of Prince Hisahito has proved anything, it's that "Who's your daddy?" is one of the most important questions in Japan.
SUMO / Basho reports
Sep 23, 2006

Asashoryu moves two wins ahead with two days to go

Mongolian grand champion Asashoryu dodged a bullet to beat compatriot Ama on Friday and zero in on his 18th Emperor's Cup at the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2006

575 defense workers took unauthorized trips: agency

A total of 575 Defense Agency employees, including Self-Defense Forces personnel, have traveled abroad without informing their superiors, agency officials said Friday.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight