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CULTURE / Music
Mar 6, 2005

Lenine: "Lenine in Cite: Ao Vivo"

This live recording by Lenine, one of Brazil's best singer-songwriters, has little of the delicate acoustics or subtle, lilting rhythms of early bossa nova performers. In short, don't expect the dulcet tones of "Girl from Ipenama." Recorded live in Paris, "In Cite" is a powerful blend of Brazil's northeast...
Japan Times
Features
Mar 6, 2005

Issey Ogata: Comic chameleon

Issey Ogata is nothing if not versatile. Alone on an empty stage, he has audiences in fits as he performs his seriously funny one-man shows portraying characters as diverse as a classic sarariman (office worker) and a folk-song diva -- one after another.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 6, 2005

Red Krayola

Few musicians have tuned in and then twisted the musical zeitgeist as much as Mayo Thompson. Red Krayola, the main conduit for his music, is arguably rock's longest running underground band. Founded in Texas in 1966 as a psychedelic group, Red Krayola made the most outlandish freaked-out sounds of the...
COMMENTARY
Mar 6, 2005

Trashing liberties we die for

LONDON -- At the end of last year, 69 men, it is thought, were being held in British prisons as terrorist suspects. Only 11 of these had been convicted of any offense. Twelve were being held in Belmarsh prison without trial (since then, one has been moved to Broadmoor, a high security mental hospital)....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 6, 2005

People are so funny about their paper money

Every so often there's a big news story about someone finding a huge amount of money in the unlikeliest of places. The most recent one had to do with tens of millions of yen in cash discovered in a stream in Hasuda, Saitama Prefecture.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 6, 2005

NTV's "Super TV" focuses on kittens surviving in Osaka's Shinsekai area and more

Nihon TV's weekly documentary series, "Super TV" (Mon., 10 p.m.), gets closer to the ground this week with a program about the alley cats who live in Osaka's Shinsekai area of bars and small businesses. A video crew followed the feline denizens of the mazelike district for a full year, and the result...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 6, 2005

New Western poetry from an old Japanese tradition

THE TANKA ANTHOLOGY, edited by Michael McClintock, Pamela Miller Ness & Jim Kacian. Red Moon Press, 2003, 231 pp., $24.95 (cloth). EDGE OF LIGHT: The Red Moon Anthology of English Language Haiku, edited by Jim Kacian et al., Red Moon Press, 2004, 175 pp., $16.95 (paper). The haiku, already well established...
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 5, 2005

J. League gets with the world program

Who says the Japanese are inflexible?
MORE SPORTS
Mar 5, 2005

Marinos face major threat from rejuvenated Jubilo

Here is a team-by-team preview of the 18 clubs in the J. League's first division this season:
EDITORIALS
Mar 5, 2005

Mr. Tsutsumi called to account

Mr. Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, the former leader of the scandal-tainted Seibu Railway group, has been arrested on charges of presenting false financial reports and selling stock to clients without sufficient information disclosure. His arrest, carried out Thursday jointly by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors...
COMMENTARY
Mar 5, 2005

India's new double standard

NEW DELHI -- The growing warmth in U.S.-Indian relations is getting strangely reflected in India's adoption of U.S.-style dual standards on democracy.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 5, 2005

Classy acts to follow in voice, audition coaching

Last month, Alice Hackett and Robert Tsonos were facing each other onstage in "Les Liasons Dangereuses," produced by Tokyo International Players. Now they are facing me, talking about coaching and training actors, writers, businesspeople and teachers -- anyone who needs help with projecting personality,...
BUSINESS
Mar 5, 2005

Foreign-takeover blocks to come later

It is difficult to submit legislation for increasing regulations on purchases of Japanese broadcasters by foreign companies during the current Diet session, Taro Aso, minister of internal affairs and communications, said Friday after a Cabinet meeting.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 5, 2005

Okada looking to conquer Japan, Asia and rest of world

YOKOHAMA -- Yokohama F. Marinos manager Takeshi Okada has set his sights on a domestic and continental title double in 2005.
BUSINESS
Mar 5, 2005

GE plots housing-loan sector foray

U.S. conglomerate General Electric Co. will enter Japan's housing loan business, opening seven outlets in six major cities from April, company officials said Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 5, 2005

Marja Kullberg

"You can miss everything else, but not this: midsummer in Sweden. This is our tradition, going back a long time, to celebrate the 24 hours of daylight of midsummer, the occasion everybody waits for after a long, dark winter."
BUSINESS
Mar 5, 2005

Livedoor ups stake in broadcaster

Livedoor Co. has increased its stake in Nippon Broadcasting System Inc. to more than 45 percent in terms of voting rights, Livedoor sources said Friday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 5, 2005

Get! Strunk & White's punctuation soup

The Japanese have some unique ways of learning English. Did you know, for example, that you can learn English from animal crackers? Yes, animal crackers in Japan have English names on them, presumably to provide an educational aspect to snacks. Talk about forcing the language down our throats! Perhaps...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 5, 2005

Investment managers push Indian stock funds

Investors are taking an interest in Indian stocks as "high-risk, high-return" investments gain favor in a country where interest rates are virtually zero, stock prices seesaw and deposit protection will soon be curtailed.
BUSINESS
Mar 5, 2005

Surcharges considered for falsified financial reports

The governing Liberal Democratic Party will propose a bill to impose surcharges on companies falsifying their financial statements, members of an LDP panel on corporate accounting said Friday.
BUSINESS
Mar 5, 2005

Seibu Railway open to offers on baseball club

Scandal-tainted Seibu Railway Co. would consider offers on the Seibu Lions professional baseball club, the head of a Seibu group reform panel said Friday.
BUSINESS
Mar 5, 2005

Toyota Vitz reclaims pole position in vehicle sales battle

Toyota Motor Corp.'s Vitz was the best-selling new car in Japan in February, returning to the top spot for the first time since July 2000.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 4, 2005

Ai-chan to play for Liaoning

Japanese table tennis player Ai Fukuhara will join Chinese club Liaoning after turning down an offer from Super League rival Beijing, table tennis officials said Thursday.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Mar 4, 2005

Poor loser Mourinho in danger of losing the plot altogether

LONDON -- If, and it is a huge if, I decide to make a less than flattering gesture to someone in a bar I would make sure I knew where the guy was standing. Otherwise, I might find myself explaining my actions to a few people who were less than happy with what they saw.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 4, 2005

Oda leads the field after qualifying round

Nobunari Oda
EDITORIALS
Mar 4, 2005

Ailment needs a national response

For sufferers of kafunshou (pollen allergy) or hay fever, this is shaping up into a really bad year. Because of last summer's sweltering heat, the amount of cedar pollen in the air is forecast to rise two or three times above average, possibly exceeding the worst-ever level of 1995. Reports say that,...
BUSINESS
Mar 4, 2005

Yahoo Japan to pay 2004 dividends

Yahoo Japan Corp. said Thursday it will begin paying dividends for fiscal 2004.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2005

Waking up to China's threat

NEW YORK -- On Feb. 19, Japan and the United States issued a joint statement that maintaining peace and security in the Taiwan Strait is a common strategic objective. This was nothing extraordinary except for the fact that Japan, for the first time, joined the U.S. in voicing public concern about China's...
BUSINESS
Mar 4, 2005

Nippon Steel ups profit estimates

Nippon Steel Corp. on Thursday revised upward its group net and pretax profit forecasts for the fiscal year to March 31, citing higher prices of steel products stemming mainly from bigger demand overseas.
BUSINESS
Mar 4, 2005

BOJ provides short-term cash boost

The Bank of Japan pumped 500 billion yen into the short-term money market Thursday in its first emergency fund provision in about four months as it feared banks' reserves at the central bank would fall below its liquidity target.

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