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JAPAN
Apr 21, 2006

China academy woos Ken Takakura

Veteran Japanese actor Ken Takakura has been named a visiting teacher at the Beijing Film Academy, alma mater to famed Chinese directors Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, the school and a local news report said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Apr 21, 2006

TSE to reinstate normal trading hours Monday

The Tokyo Stock Exchange said Thursday it will resume regular trading hours Monday, three months after it began delaying its afternoon session to deal with surges in transactions caused by the Livedoor Co. scandal.
BUSINESS
Apr 21, 2006

Yahoo Japan sets another profit record

Yahoo Japan Corp. reported Thursday that it set an all-time high for earnings for the ninth consecutive year, helped by an increase in advertising and the popularity of its Internet auction and shopping businesses in 2005.
BUSINESS
Apr 21, 2006

USTR change clouds WTO talks: official

The resignation of Rob Portman as U.S. trade representative will probably impede the progress of trade liberalization talks taking place under the World Trade Organization, Mamoru Ishihara, Japan's vice minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, said Thursday.
MORE SPORTS
Apr 21, 2006

Olympic champs Kitajima, Shibata beaten at national c'ships

Kosuke Kitajima failed to make the medals podium in the men's 200-meter breaststroke and fellow Olympic champion Ai Shibata was unable to keep her 400-meter freestyle title on the opening day of the national swimming championships Thursday.
JAPAN
Apr 21, 2006

China spy plane intrusions hit record

Japan scrambled fighter jets a record 107 times in the year ending in March to intercept what appeared to be Chinese spy planes approaching Japanese air space, a top general said Thursday, amid growing concern in Tokyo over China's recent arms buildup.
BUSINESS
Apr 21, 2006

Exports, imports soared in '05 but oil hit surplus

Japan's exports and imports hit the highest levels on record in fiscal 2005, but larger growth in imports spurred by surging oil prices dented the customs-cleared trade surplus for the first time in four years, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2006

Turning point at Chernobyl

MOSCOW -- The nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl 20 years ago this month, even more than my launch of perestroika, was perhaps the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union five years later. Indeed, the Chernobyl catastrophe was an historic turning point: there was the era before the disaster, and there...
BUSINESS
Apr 21, 2006

McDonald's to boost 24-hour shops

McDonald's Co. (Japan) plans to open more 24-hour outlets and raise the price of its main products, according to its business plan for fiscal 2006.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 21, 2006

Keeping rock simple

Jad Fair is the most unlikely of rock heroes. In his 40s, yet with the tall and gangly body of an adolescent and the naive blue eyes of a child, he looks like a preternaturally wide-eyed manga character.
JAPAN
Apr 21, 2006

Moms: jail Obara for life

The mothers of British and Australian women who were slain in Japan, in 2000 and 1992, told the Tokyo District Court on Thursday that Joji Obara, who stands accused of raping and fatally drugging their daughters, should be sentenced to life in prison.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 21, 2006

Pretty Girls Make Graves "Elan Vital"

Overflowing with fast-paced, addictive post-hardcore anthems, Pretty Girls Make Graves' debut, 2002's "Good Health," had indie rock hipsters frothing at the mouth. The Seattle act followed with 2003's equally impressive "The New Romance." A line-up change saw the band losing a guitarist and adding a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Apr 21, 2006

Psychedelic radar 04.21

Saturday, April 22
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 21, 2006

Freewheeling across the Inland Sea

"Getting there is half the fun."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 21, 2006

The silly world of SpongeBob

OK, class, quiz time: Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? No takers? OK, here's a hint: Absorbent and yellow and porous is he!
CULTURE / Music
Apr 21, 2006

Frank Macchia "Mo' Animals"

All too often, concept albums can seem forced. Music initiated from simple images or feelings tends to work better than music built around grand unified concepts. But, on Frank Macchia's "Mo' Animals," the combination of images, feelings and concepts feel more organic. What's more, these 10 tunes, each...
CULTURE / Music
Apr 21, 2006

The Editors/We Are Scientists

Is the current postpunk revival the second or the third? Having lost count around the time Interpol hired a full-time stylist, I've become jaded about influences. So when The Editors' Tom Smith rejects suggestions that he must have listened to Echo and the Bunnymen as a kid and says he preferred R.E.M.,...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 21, 2006

Photographs by artist taken without a camera

German-born, New York-based artist Marco Breuer will discuss his work, his award-winning book "SMTWTFS" and his most recent New York City exhibition on April 21 at the International House of Japan in Roppongi, Tokyo. The slide lecture, titled "Notes, Queries," is cosponsored by the Tokyo American Center....
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 21, 2006

Yokohama street fest

Magic, juggling, acrobatics and pantomime will be some of the attractions at the 31st Noge Street Performers Festival taking place in Noge, Yokohama, on April 22 and 23, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 21, 2006

L'Artemis: Panache and great value on a plate

Picture this. A substantial fillet of salmon fills the center of the plate, its flesh glinting a delicate pink and adorned with a dab of sour cream and a frond of dill. To one side a small mound of lightly steamed spring vegetables: young peas still in their pods; nanohana (rape greens); a thin wedge...
CULTURE / Music
Apr 21, 2006

The Flaming Lips "At War With the Mystics"

Forget the supposed return to "rock" -- Wayne Coyne and his merry pranksters of indie-dom are as inscrutable as ever on "At War With the Mystics," the Oklahoma-based band's first album in four years. Although they've abandoned the concept-album approach that colored their previous releases, 1999's breakthrough...
BASKETBALL
Apr 20, 2006

Japan to meet Puerto Rico in buildup for world c'ships

Japan will face Puerto Rico in the Kirin Cup in a tuneup for the men's world basketball championships getting under way this August, the Japan Basketball Association said Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Apr 20, 2006

Bill warrants thorough debate

Only two weeks after it was sent to the chamber's floor and with little debate, the Lower House has passed a bill that will allow the fingerprinting and photographing of foreigners as they enter Japan. The legislation is now in the Upper House. The Justice Ministry says that the bill to revise the Immigration...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 20, 2006

Fighters nail down fourth straight win

Tsuyoshi Shinjo homered for the second straight night with a three-run shot Wednesday as the Nippon Ham Fighters beat the Orix Buffaloes 6-3 for their fourth consecutive victory in the Pacific League.
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2006

Ministry confirms 25th mad cow

A health ministry panel confirmed Wednesday that a dairy cow raised in western Japan has tested positive for mad cow disease, making it the nation's 25th case of BSE, ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2006

After a bad winter, experts try to come up with a snow plan

A government panel of experts has come up with an outline of recommendations on how to deal with heavy snow, which caused 150 deaths this winter season.
BUSINESS
Apr 20, 2006

Tokio Marine to buy Asia General of Singapore

Tokio Marine & Nippon Fire Insurance Co. plans to buy a full stake in Asia General Holdings Ltd., a Singapore-based insurance business holding company, in a bid to expand operations in the Southeast Asian market, company sources said Wednesday.

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