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BASEBALL / MLB
May 3, 2004

Tuffy's 300th homer not enough to save stuttering Giants

Tuffy Rhodes hit his career 300th homer in Japan on Sunday but it wasn't enough as the Hiroshima Carp edged the Yomiuri Giants 4-3.
COMMENTARY
May 3, 2004

EU constitution no shoo-in

PARIS -- Now 78, former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing managed at the end of last year to achieve two major successes: He was elected to the Academie Francaise, which for more than three centuries has been France's most prestigious intellectual institution; and the Convention of the Future...
BASEBALL / MLB
May 3, 2004

Big Six player pitches no-hitter

Rikkyo University (St. Paul's University) third-year student Yasuaki Hino pitched a no-hitter to lead his team to a 7-0 victory over Waseda University in a Tokyo Big Six league game on Sunday.
JAPAN
May 2, 2004

U.S. looks to expand Japan's military role

OSAKA -- On Nov. 19, 1953, then U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon mounted the podium at a special meeting of the Japan-America Society in Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
May 2, 2004

A passion for punctuation

What's the biggest and most inspiring British export since the latest volume of "Harry Potter"? Not embattled football star David Beckham. Not a young prince, dutifully inspecting misery in the Third World. Not even another eloquent apologia for the fiasco in Iraq by Prime Minister Tony Blair. No, the...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 2, 2004

TV Tokyo's "Takeshi Daredemo Picasso" and more

On May 1, the 26-year-old kabuki superstar Ichikawa Shinnosuke officially became Ichikawa Ebizo XI. The ceremonial succession was a monumental event because, for the first time since 1843, two generations of Ichikawas bearing the names Ebizo and Danjuro will play on the same stage at once.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 2, 2004

Japan welcomes students, but you might end up majoring in crime

The controversy over the increase in crimes committed by foreigners in Japan is centered mainly on appearances and interpretation. The National Police Agency's use of statistics to show that "foreign crime" is on the rise has given the agency license to initiate policies that many people, both Japanese...
JAPAN
May 2, 2004

Asahara needs more lawyers: judges

Court-appointed lawyers may defend Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara in his death penalty appeal as the one private lawyer currently representing him may not be able to handle the case on his own, trial sources said Saturday.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 2, 2004

Echevarria smashes three home runs as Fighters ride BlueWave

Angel Echevarria hit three homers Saturday to lead the Nippon Ham Fighters to a 9-2 win over the Orix BlueWave.
MORE SPORTS
May 2, 2004

Yonekura named to Olympic team

Kanako Yonekura was among 11 Japanese players to claim berths for the Athens Olympics on Saturday as the International Badminton Federation named the list of players qualified to take part in the Games.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 2, 2004

Mary J. Blige

Four years ago, the queen of hip-hop soul said she was through with drama, but Mary J. Blige without drama is like rain without water: No major R&B artist who emerged in the '90s has plumbed her own psychological depths so effectively without embarrassing herself. What she probably meant was that it's...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 2, 2004

Scripting Yazujiro Ozu: Avoiding sentimentality to reveal pathos

TOKYO STORY: The Ozu/Noda Screenplay, by Yazujiro Ozu & Kogo Noda, translated by Donald Richie & Eric Klestadt, introduction by Richie. Stone Bridge Press, 2003, 144 pp., $12.95 (paper). The opening scene in Yazujiro Ozu's 1953 film "Tokyo Story" takes place not in the nation's capital but at the Inland...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
May 2, 2004

Ryuichi Hirokawa: Picture this . .

With soldiers silhouetted against dramatic desert sunsets, or helicopters swooping over cityscapes, most mainstream-media photographs we see of the war in Iraq are nothing if not models of artistic composition and taste.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 2, 2004

Bill Charlap Trio: "Somewhere"

Pianist Bill Charlap has become one of the finest -- and most prolific -- interpreters of standards in jazz today. Securing the coveted position as pianist for hard-bopping Phil Woods, and gracing countless straight-ahead recordings (as well as a Steely Dan CD) over the past decade, he has still found...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 2, 2004

Lighters up for rocker Jack Black, an American classic

I've been told that I look like Jack Black. I don't see the resemblance myself. What these people probably mean is that I "remind" them of Jables, and I can understand why. We both love good American rock music and good American food, we're both uninhibited and funny, and we both wear size 40 BVD white...
JAPAN
May 2, 2004

ING employee in more hot water

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is expected to serve a fresh arrest warrant later this month on a former employee of ING Securities (Japan) Ltd. suspected of embezzling more than 1 billion yen worth of securities, police sources said Saturday.
MORE SPORTS
May 2, 2004

'Ai-chan' replaces 'Mr. Giants' in Tokyo Olympic torch relay

Table tennis player Ai Fukuhara will replace former Yomiuri Giants manager Shigeo Nagashima as one of the five Olympic torch runners selected by the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) and Tokyo metropolitan government, sources said Friday.
Events
May 2, 2004

KANSAI: Who & What

Takatsuki set to host sixth jazz festival: A large-scale, free jazz festival will be held on May 3 and 4 in the city of Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 2, 2004

More than a name in the game

THE MEANING OF ICHIRO: The New Wave From Japan and the Transformation of Our National Pastime, by Robert Whiting. New York: Warner Books, 2004, 318 pp., $25.95 (cloth). "The Meaning of Ichiro" is gathering deserved acclaim as a great book on baseball, but it would be a pity if it was not also appreciated...
JAPAN
May 2, 2004

Asahara needs more lawyers: judges

Court-appointed lawyers may defend Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara in his death penalty appeal as the one private lawyer currently representing him may not be able to handle the case on his own, trial sources said Saturday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 2, 2004

A battle for 'the fate of the world'

At approximately 6:20 p.m. on May 7, 1954, the shooting had stopped everywhere but at one last outpost, called strongpoint Lily, where a handful of Moroccan soldiers under a French major, Jean Nicolas, still held out.
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2004

Terrorists taken out inspire replacements

HONOLULU -- The good news is that the United States and its allies have captured or killed 3,500 to 4,000 terrorists since the hijacked airliner assaults on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001. The bad news is that the terrorists are being replaced as fast as they are eliminated, especially in...
JAPAN
May 2, 2004

DPJ reveals Constitution proposals

The Democratic Party of Japan has decided to include the phrases "exercising the right of self-defense" and "maintaining the Self-Defense Forces" in an interim report on constitutional reform scheduled to be compiled this month, party sources said Saturday.

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