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JAPAN
Apr 18, 2004

Scrap rat-on-foreigners Web site: Hyogo

KOBE -- Hyogo Prefecture has become the first local government to call on the Justice Ministry to abolish a contentious Web site that asks Japanese to report via e-mail any foreigners they suspect to be illegal aliens.
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2004

Most in poll back Tokyo Iraq efforts

About 68 percent of respondents to a Kyodo News survey released Saturday approved of how the government handled the hostage crisis involving Japanese civilians in Iraq, and more than 60 percent feel Tokyo was right to not cave in to the kidnappers' demand that Japan withdraw its troops from the country....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 18, 2004

Media favors Al-Jazeera over government

In his new book, "The Unconquerable World," Jonathan Schell explains how "people's war" came to be the dominant form of international conflict in the nuclear age. People's war subordinates all aspects of warfare to politics, because only through politics can the strength of the people be harnessed to...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 18, 2004

Surviving uncharted waters, unknown lands and shogun's scrutiny

SAMURAI WILLIAM: The Englishman Who Opened Japan, by Giles Milton. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002, 337 pp., $14 (paper). Samurai William is, of course the English navigator, William Adams, whose story was so effectively fictionalized by James Clavell in the novel "Shogun." Giles Milton has...
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 18, 2004

Fighters deal Marines 10th consecutive defeat

A crowd of 42,000 was on hand at Tokyo Dome on Saturday afternoon to welcome back the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters and see the former Tokyo-based team hand the Chiba Lotte Marines their 10th consecutive defeat by a score of 6-2.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 18, 2004

"Sekai Ururun Taizaiki" on TBS and more

Learning is often called a lifelong process, but what is the meaning of education to someone whose days are known to be limited? This is one of the questions addressed in the new drama series "Denchi ga Kireru Made (Until the Battery Runs Out)" (TV Asahi, Thursday, 9 p.m.).
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Apr 18, 2004

Revisiting an evil stereotype

MOSCOW -- Each country has a reputation. For France, it is wine and food; for Italy, wine, food and the pope; for Holland, canals; for Austria, skiing; for Russia vodka, snow and bears.
Japan Times
Features
Apr 18, 2004

Hanging by a thread

Spurned by many top Japanese designers, patchy in quality and sprawling over a month at a mishmash of venues, the twice-yearly Tokyo Collections -- whose fall/winter 2004/05 shows end this week -- still lay claim to being the highpoints of Asia's fashion year. But are Tokyo's days numbered as the `Paris...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2004

Seoul should offer Bush a dose of reality

WASHINGTON -- "A friend in need is a friend indeed," a saying goes. South Korea's decision on April 2 to send some 3,600 troops to Iraq is a fitting illustration of the adage. The deployment will make South Korea the largest U.S. coalition partner in Iraq after Britain.
Japan Times
Features
Apr 18, 2004

New rich fashion a Shanghai style of sorts

SHANGHAI -- "There is nothing the Cantonese will refuse to eat, and nothing the Shanghainese will refuse to wear" is a popular Chinese adage harking back to Shanghai's 1930s heyday when it had a worldwide reputation for decadence and glamour.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 18, 2004

Rovo with Buffalo Daughter and Goma

With nary a Jerry Garcia reference in sight, neither Rovo nor Buffalo Daughter fit the jam band stereotype. Yet both tend toward complex, improvised songs that revel in their own sprawl. They may not be jam bands, but they certainly jam.
Japan Times
Features
Apr 18, 2004

Rebels with cachet revel in paradox

For the young British-Japanese fashion design duo of Patrick Ryan and Mami Yoshida, the words yab and yum -- which, together as Yab-Yum, give their label its name -- are a good fit for this Tokyo-based team when you search out their real meanings.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 18, 2004

A spiritual journey that begins within

What is the sound of the universe? What does one hear? These are questions that crossed David Sylvian's mind prior to the making of his most recent album "Blemish," the debut release of his Samadhi Sound label last year. Talking over the phone from London last week, the singer/songwriter and frontman...
CULTURE / Music
Apr 18, 2004

Philipp Van Endert: "Trio"

Occasionally, the last grab of a CD buying spree is the winner. That's certainly the case with Philipp Van Endert's "Trio," a CD of brilliantly fluid guitar-trio jazz that I found tucked down at the bottom of a new-release display. Such an accomplished cool jazz session would normally have scads of online...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 18, 2004

Beijing Ripper goes chop-chop; New York whodunit has a rap

CHINESE WHISPERS, by Peter May. London: Coronet Books, 2004, 402 pp., £6.99 (paper). MURDER IN CHINA RED, by Dean Barrett. New York: Village East Books, 2003, 260 pp., $11.95 (paper). Honolulu Detective Charlie Chan made his literary debut in Earl Derr Biggers' 1925 novel "The House Without a Key."...
COMMENTARY
Apr 18, 2004

Death of Deng's triangular relationship

HONG KONG -- One certainty emerges amid the democratic turmoil in Taiwan and Hong Kong and amid the authoritarian turmoil in the higher reaches of the Chinese Communist Party, which is skilled at concealing its innate factionalism: The triangular relationship between China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, as envisaged...
CULTURE / Music
Apr 18, 2004

"C'mon Miracle": Mirah

Wielding the purest voice of anyone on the Pacific Northwest indie scene, Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn has become the token female singer-songwriter on Calvin Johnson's proudly lo-fi K Records label, and is probably more famous for her work with Phil Elvrum's psych-pop band The Microphones than she is for her...
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2004

Bribes get Suzuki aide suspended term

A former aide to former lawmaker Muneo Suzuki received a suspended two-year prison term Friday for conspiring to accept 1.1 million yen in bribes and concealing 100 million yen in income from Liberal Democratic Party-related ticket sales and donations in 1997 and 1998.

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