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JAPAN / LASTING IMPACT
Sep 17, 2006

Timeline of Asahara's court saga

Following is a chronology of events linked to the trial of Aum Shinrikyo cult founder Shoko Asahara:
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2006

Three die, 29 hurt as typhoon nears Kyushu

A powerful typhoon approaching Kyushu triggered flash floods and landslides Saturday that killed three people in Saga Prefecture.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2006

Aneha wins fight to be granted bail

Disqualified structural engineer Hidetsugu Aneha, indicted on charges related to the building-safety scandal, should be granted bail soon, now that a court has rejected an appeal by prosecutors against his release.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2006

Long inevitable goodbye of Tony Blair

LONDON -- In early 1999, Paddy Ashdown, then the leader of Britain's Liberal Democratic Party (and since then, as Lord Ashdown, Europe's envoy in Bosnia), was found with a woman not his wife and forced to resign his post.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 17, 2006

Noodles with attitude

Chairman Mao Zedong -- who back in 1935 wrote that his nation's basic task was "to oppose the attempt of Japanese imperialism to annex China" -- obviously had some, shall we say, issues with the Middle Kingdom's diminutive neighbor to the east.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 17, 2006

Nihon TV's "2,000 Days That Will Linger in History" and more

Pretty soon we won't have Junichiro Koizumi to kick around any more, at least not as prime minister, and for those of you who are already feeling nostalgic for the "Koizumi Theater," Nihon TV will present a two-hour dramatization of his administration Monday at 9 p.m.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 17, 2006

Monsters out of the closet

MILLENNIAL MONSTERS: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination, by Anne Allison, foreword by Gary Cross. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006, 332 pp., 48 b/w photos, $24.95 (paper). When I was a child, toys from Japan were kept in the cheapest bins of Woolworth's and Newberry's. Sparkler-wheels...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 17, 2006

Bizarre bouts of self-expression

Nearly 300 spectators cheered wildly as disco music blared. A spotlight picked out two fighters approaching the ring to kick off a puroresu (prowrestling) event held recently in a Tokyo town hall.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 17, 2006

Adding some passion to our plastic world

PLASTIC CULTURE: How Japanese Toys Conquered the World, by Woodrow Phoenix. Kodansha International, 2006, 112 pp., fully illustrated, 3,150 yen (cloth). Plastic toys were once considered cheap, disposable and replaceable -- bright and cheerful mass-manufactured dolls, model cars and trinkets that needed...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 17, 2006

Self-censorship conjures ominous echoes of the past

These days a simple but potent Japanese word is appearing in the media with inordinate frequency. It is hannichi, which means "anti-Japanese." An incident last month brought to mind an earlier era, when the word hannichi was also in common currency. Some words skip decades, returning to haunt the national...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 17, 2006

Struggling to put the brakes on the culture of drunk driving

What makes a crime more heinous than another? We usually think it has to do with intention. Murder, which implies pre-meditation, is more seriously punished than manslaughter, which implies lack of premeditation.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 17, 2006

Heartbreak heaven for staff

It's 9 o'clock on a Monday morning. A phone rings in an office and the boss picks it up. At the other end she hears the fragile voice of one of her staff telling her she broke up with her boyfriend the day before. "I would like to take a shitsuren kyuka," the staffer says. Unperturbed, the boss replies:...
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2006

Murakami now plans court battle

Yoshiaki Murakami, the founder of Japan's best-known investment fund, intends to plead not guilty to insider trading charges despite admitting to them at the time of his indictment, judicial sources said Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 17, 2006

Have a nice 'sol'

It's that time again. Every so often, life on our planet just seems so bleak there's nowhere to look but out. That was certainly the case this past week. Not only did the usual whack-a-mole wars keep flaring and simmering, even good things had their dark sides. Here in Japan, the welcome birth of a prince...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 17, 2006

Take a wild ride on the Orient Express

THE OTTOMAN CAGE by Barbara Nadel. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005, 312 pp., $23.95 (cloth). DRAGON FIRE by William S. Cohen. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2006, 383 pp., $24.95 (cloth). "One of the most frequently asked questions that I get as a British author," Barbara Nadel tells the e-zine...
SUMO / Basho reports
Sep 16, 2006

Kisenosato halts Asashoryu's streak

Grand champion Asashoryu of Mongolia was handed his first loss Friday on a day of upsets at the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 16, 2006

Cole's tall tale: Move to Chelsea not about money

LONDON -- I was halfway through writing this column when there was a knock at the door.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Sep 16, 2006

Aoki, Swallows give Romano tough time

It took getting ahead for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows to get even.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2006

Princess, baby check out of hospital, head for palace

Prince Hisahito made his first public appearance Friday afternoon as he and his mother, Princess Kiko, left the hospital to go home.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2006

Japanese centenarians to reach a record 28,395

, of Fukuchi, Fukuoka Prefecture, is the oldest person in Japan at 113, and Tomoji Tanabe from Miyakonojo, Miyazaki Prefecture, who turns 111 on Monday, is the oldest man. KYODO PHOTOS
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2006

Asahara's execution finalized

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a special appeal by lawyers for Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara, finalizing the death sentence for the man who masterminded the cult's horrific nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2006

Envoy's vehicle shot in Baghdad

An official vehicle carrying Japan's acting ambassador to Iraq was hit by a bullet in Baghdad, but there no one was injured, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2006

Crown Prince to go to Tonga funeral

Crown Prince Naruhito will attend the funeral of Tonga's King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV next week, the government said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2006

Horie ordered profit inflation tactics, Miyauchi says

Livedoor Co.'s former Chief Financial Officer Ryoji Miyauchi testified about his former boss Takafumi Horie in court Friday and said that he and other former executives acted on orders from Horie to inflate the company's earnings for the business year to September 2004.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell