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Japan Times
Features
Feb 19, 2006

Wolf in sheep's clothing

With more power than an F1 Ferrari, Honda or McLaren, souped-up Nissan Skyline saloons have been the Japanese street racer's weapon of choice for decades. More recently, the sedate-looking Skyline's street cred has gone global, with Australia and Britain in particular reverberating to the roar of Japan's...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 19, 2006

Careful planning helps to preserve male-succession mind-set

The morning after it broke, news that Princess Kiko is expecting a baby in September was greeted with predictably meaningless blather on the TV wide shows. Commentators made a connection between the pregnancy and that ceremony the princess and her husband, Prince Akishino, attended in September of last...
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2006

China exploited diplomat over a woman, Aso says

The 2004 suicide of a staff member at the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai came after the Chinese forced him to hand over information to break government codes by exploiting an illicit relationship he was allegedly having with a woman, Foreign Minister Taro Aso suggested Saturday.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 19, 2006

Tale of love and hatred in NTV's 'Drama Complex,' TV Asahi's "Ai no Apron" and more

On Tuesday, NTV's weekly "Drama Complex" series will air a two-hour presentation of master mystery writer Seicho Matsumoto's "Yubi (Finger)" at 9 p.m., a tale of love and hatred played out among an insular group of women.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 19, 2006

Winners are losers, too, in the lingering ledger of war

Ex-soldiers, dressed entirely in white hospital-like attire, some without an arm or a leg, stood or sat in the precincts of a shrine. Some played plaintive tunes on concertinas. Others had a little dog beside them to garner the sympathy of passersby. Often the dog wore a little beanie or sported cheap...
Japan Times
Features
Feb 19, 2006

One man's drive to clean up the Earth

Every foreigner in Japan learns one thing pretty quickly: This being the land of harmony, courtesy trumps candor. Hanging back works best, everywhere and every time.
Japan Times
Features
Feb 19, 2006

Back in time with a legend reborn

Fifty years ago this week -- when Prime Minister Ichiro Hatoyama was reopening diplomatic relations with Moscow; bullet trains or expressways had yet to be built; and a bank staffer's monthly pay was about 25,000 yen -- Tokyo publisher Shinchosha launched the weekly Shukan Shincho, priced at 30 yen....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 19, 2006

Decades of peace have yet to heal Vietnam's wounds

VIET NAM AT PEACE, by Philip Jones Griffiths. London: Trolley, 2005, 312 pp., £39.95 (cloth). This is the final volume in Philip Jones Griffiths' epoch trilogy on Vietnam spanning 40 years. His classic "Vietnam, Inc" (1971) and "Agent Orange" (2003) focus on war and its consequences. Here, we are given...
Japan Times
Features
Feb 19, 2006

An innocent abroad brings his twisted genius to Japan

I first heard about Momus, the alter-ego of the Scottish musical maverick Nick Currie, in 2002, when a writer friend directed me to an article that Currie had written on the coolness of Tokyo's up-and-coming Nakameguro district.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 19, 2006

Women writers opened window on Heian life

OBJECTS OF DISCOURSE: Memoirs of Women of Heian Japan, by John R. Wallace. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2005, 326 pp., with VII illustrations, $65 (cloth). The four major court memoirs written in the late 10th and early 11th century are the "Kagero nikki" (translated...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 18, 2006

All eyes on Mourinho ahead of Barcelona-Chelsea showdown

LONDON -- As Jose Mourinho has won the domestic title in Portugal and England plus the UEFA Cup and Champions League with FC Porto, there would appear few tests left for the Chelsea manager to face.
EDITORIALS
Feb 18, 2006

What right to torment?

Muslim furor in the Middle East and other parts of the world touched off by the appearance of cartoon depictions of the prophet Muhammad has led to diplomatic rows, embassy burnings and violent protests. It now begs serious thought about how the media should exercise the rights to freedom of the press...
BASEBALL / MLB
Feb 18, 2006

Rhodes returns home

Tuffy Rhodes may have played his last game in Japan.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2006

Takebe denies DPJ Horie fund allegations

The war of words continued Friday at the Diet as Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe fended off opposition claims of shady financial ties between his son and jailed Livedoor founder Takafumi Horie.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2006

GSDF troops to start Iraq exit in March

Japan will start pulling out its Ground Self-Defense Force troops from the southern Iraq city of Samawah in March and complete the withdrawal by the end of May, Foreign Ministry officials said Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2006

Traditional prewar houses finding favor with manufactured home-weary

Architect Jun Hirai, 35, lives and works in a refurbished traditional "minka" house built during the Meiji Era (1868-1912) in Obama, Fukui Prefecture.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2006

ASDF general labels China 'threat'

Is China a military threat to Japan or not?
BUSINESS
Feb 18, 2006

Nissan, Renault in light truck tieup

Nissan Motor Co. said Friday it will supply light-duty trucks to Renault Trucks S.A.S., a unit of the Volvo Group, from the first half of 2007 for sales under Renault brands.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2006

LDP calls immigration bill too lax

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party's judicial panel refused Friday to endorse a government draft bill to tighten the immigration law by fingerprinting foreigners upon their arrival in Japan, saying the law needs to be further strengthened to fight terrorism, party members said.
BUSINESS
Feb 18, 2006

January power sales break record

Power sold by the nation's 10 regional electric utilities in January surged 8.9 percent year on year to 83.2 billion kwh, an all-time high for a winter month, according to preliminary data released Friday by the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan.

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