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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 28, 2004

Freedom is flagging in Japan's public-school system

Few people are probably aware that the national flags of many countries are not, strictly speaking, national flags. There is no law, for example, that designates the Union Jack as the national flag of the U.K. In most countries, the national flag and national anthem are defined, as such, by custom rather...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 28, 2004

History behind a rocky democracy

INDONESIAN DESTINIES, by Theodore Friend. Cambridge: Belknap/Harvard University Press, 2003, 628 pp., $35 (cloth). INDONESIA: People and Histories, by Jean Gelman Taylor. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003, 420 pp., $39.95 (cloth). These two books complement each other nicely and contribute greatly...
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2004

China urged to prevent landings on disputed isle

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi has asked China to prevent a recurrence of similar incidents following the landing of seven Chinese activists on one of the disputed Senkaku Islands last week, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 28, 2004

A subversive sampler of the future

Since the '80s -- when the first samplers came on the market -- sampling in music has evolved from a revolutionary and barely understood practice to become a standard tool in the production of even the most mundane pop song. It's all in the hands of the user -- and when those hands belong to Coldcut,...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2004

The Iraq war in retrospect

The question that crops up repeatedly when we register our opposition to the Iraq war is: Would you rather then have Saddam Hussein still in power? It's a fair question that deserves a serious answer. Unlike in 1990, when Hussein did have a few admirers, last year he had none. This makes the failure...
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2004

Deadly Roppongi door draws scrutiny

The automatic revolving door at the Roppongi Hills complex in Tokyo that crushed a child to death moves about 25 cm even after built-in safety sensors are activated, the door's manufacturer said Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 28, 2004

Zen and the art of Beatnik haiku

JACK KEROUAC: Book of Haikus, edited and with an Introduction by Regina Weinreich. Penguin USA, 2003, 240 pp., $13.00 (paper). Jack Kerouac (1922-69), the King of the Beats, started writing haiku with the belief that this short poetic form was an avatar of Zen, and he pursued both haiku and Zen to his...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 28, 2004

Fuji TV's "New New York Love Story" and more

The government is talking about reforming the ailing pension system and cutting benefits. A retired salaryman with a wife who is a full-time homemaker receives on average 230,000 yen a month as social security. Obviously, it is difficult to live on that amount of money without other forms of income....
Japan Times
Features
Mar 28, 2004

Barenboim Project to 'strip' Beethoven

The 32 piano sonatas that Beethoven composed between 1799 and 1824, including some of his most recognized works like the "Moonlight" and "Appassionata" sonatas, are often considered among the German composer's finest and most personal musical achievements.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 28, 2004

Filling in the template for a changing Cambodia

CAMBODIA, by Michael Freeman. London: Reaktion Books, 2004, 198 pp., 43 color photographs, £19.95 (paper). With Angkor as its capital, the Khmer empire ruled over what is now central and southern Vietnam, southern Laos, Thailand and part of the Malay Peninsula. Now dwindled to Cambodia, Angkor's colossal...
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2004

Kepco inks accord with COGEMA on MOX supply

OSAKA -- Kansai Electric Power Co. reached an agreement Friday with COGEMA, France's state-owned nuclear fuel reprocessing company, to sign a contract possibly this summer for manufacturing mixed oxide-uranium fuel.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2004

Asylum-seeker prefers death before detention

An Afghan asylum-seeker suffering depression and posttraumatic stress disorder tried to kill himself last week while being moved from a hospital in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, to a detention facility, it was learned Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2004

Hemophiliac targets hepatitis C blunders

A hemophiliac who achieved fame through his dogged fight to make the government accountable for the use of HIV-tainted blood products is picking a fight again, this time over Tokyo's handling of hepatitis C.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2004

Isle intruders get fast boot back to China

Seven Chinese activists who were arrested for illegal entry after landing on the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea were deported to China on Friday night.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2004

Japan on Hamas' side: Israel envoy

Israeli Ambassador to Japan Eli Cohen lodged a protest Friday with the Foreign Ministry over Japan's condemnation of Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin.
EDITORIALS
Mar 27, 2004

The last thing Japan, China need

Japan-China relations are strained again, this time over a territorial dispute involving a group of uninhabited islets in a potentially oil-rich area of the East China Sea. On Wednesday, seven Chinese activists landed on one of the Senkaku Islands. Japanese police arrested them for violating the Immigration...
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 27, 2004

Nagashima moves hospital

Former Yomiuri Giants manager Shigeo Nagashima transferred to another Tokyo hospital on Friday to begin a rigorous physical therapy program, Yomiuri spokesman Atsushi Harasawa said the same day.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2004

Chongryun embezzler gets six years

A former head of the financial bureau of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryun) was sentenced to six years in prison Friday for embezzling 837 million yen from the failed Chogin Tokyo Credit Union.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2004

Tension mounts before MLB hits Tokyo Dome

It was business as usual Friday afternoon at Tokyo Dome -- high school boys checking out baseball memorabilia at a store, mother-toddler pairs munching away at a fast food joint near the stadium gates.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 27, 2004

On splitting the cultural fairway

Out on the hometown golf links with an old high school chum, I soon ended up in trouble -- for our initial drives found me in ankle deep rough and him sitting pretty on a small rise in the center of the fairway. Before plunging into the weeds, I complimented my friend on his position, and he returned...
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2004

Toyota makes Forbes' 2004 top 10

Toyota Motor Corp. was the highest-ranked Japanese company in Forbes magazine's 2004 corporate rankings, moving up to the eighth spot from 10th a year earlier, the U.S. business magazine said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2004

Tokyu poised to sell 85% of travel unit to investment firm

Railway firm Tokyu Corp. said Friday it will sell 85.03 percent of wholly owned travel subsidiary Tokyu Tourist Corp. to Activ Investment Partners Ltd. for 2.49 billion yen.
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2004

Deflation maintained grip on Tokyo in fiscal '03

A key gauge of consumer prices in Tokyo edged down 0.3 percent in fiscal 2003 for the fifth straight annual decline.
COMMUNITY
Mar 27, 2004

Ability to get up and go anywhere is true power

In India, he went to Darjeeling for one reason only: to drink tea.
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2004

Mitsui Chemicals in China venture

Mitsui Chemicals Inc. said Friday it has agreed with Chinese petrochemical company Sinopec Corp. to form a joint venture to make a high-performance plastic component used in home electronics and optical discs.

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