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COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2004

Thailand paying the price for flu coverup

BANGKOK -- Thai politicians belatedly ceded center stage to the public health experts as a strategy was mapped out to curb and contain the rapidly spreading avian flu. Until Jan. 23, the Thai government emphatically and continuously denied, in the face of mounting evidence and allegations of a coverup,...
EDITORIALS
Feb 1, 2004

Japan and that gold statuette

Japan received two nods when the latest Oscar nominees were announced in Los Angeles last Tuesday (two and a half, if you count Sofia Coppola's quirky comedy, "Lost in Translation," in which a version of Tokyo stars right alongside best-actor nominee Bill Murray). Ken Watanabe was nominated for his supporting...
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2004

Kao to pay 400 billion yen for Kanebo's business

Kao Corp. and Kanebo Ltd. said Saturday they are in talks on Kao's purchase of Kanebo's cosmetics operations in what would be Japan's biggest nonfinancial corporate buyout.
Events
Feb 1, 2004

KANSAI: Who & What

Foreign students sought for Japanese classes: The Osaka International House Foundation is seeking foreign students to sign up for its weekly Japanese-language classes, which begin on April 6 at its facility in the city's Tennoji Ward.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2004

Key figure in Sagawa Express scandal dies

Hiroyasu Watanabe, former president of Tokyo Sagawa Express Co. and a central figure in the 1992 political donation scandal involving its parent firm, Sagawa Express Co., died Jan. 11, sources said Saturday. He was 69.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 1, 2004

Japan: pink heaven for traffickers

How many of the 700,000 to 4 million global victims of human trafficking a year (according to a 2002 U.S. State Department survey) end up in Japan?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 1, 2004

Black Eyed Peas

It's important to remember that the Black Eyed Peas, a self-described "old school" rap group, started out as a break-dancing collective at a time and in a place where break-dancing was considered corny. In Los Angeles in 1992, if you weren't a "gangsta" you were sort of ignored, which is why Eazy-E,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 1, 2004

Scrapped progams on the late PM Kakuei Tanaka and more

This space is usually reserved for information about programs that will be aired in the coming week, but this time we present a program that isn't going to be aired.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 1, 2004

Speaking out from the streets

Diana was born in Santa Marta, Colombia, in 1973, the third of four children. Her father was an electrician who worked on construction projects that often took him away from the family for months at a time. There wasn't much money in the house, but all the children went to school -- their sharp-tongued...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 1, 2004

Japanese Mafia struggles

THE JAPANESE MAFIA: Yakuza, Law and the State, by Peter B.E. Hill. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003, 323 pp., $35 (cloth). In this superb book Peter Hill challenges prevailing interpretations of the yakuza and, in doing so, explores the pathology and dynamism of contemporary Japan. He dismisses...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 1, 2004

A testament to the love of Gainsbourg

A week before her concert appearance in Tokyo, I call Jane Birkin. That's Jane -- heavy breathing on the raunchy 1969 Serge Gainsbourg classic, "Je t'aime . . . moi non plus" -- Birkin.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 1, 2004

Savath & Savalas: "Apropa't"

In the spring of 2002, Scott Herren -- known best for avant-garde hip-hop under the moniker Prefuse 73 -- decided to put his beats in storage and move to Spain. There he met Eva Puyuelo Muns, a singer/songwriter with tastes in traditional Latin music similar to his own. Together, they took Herren's side...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 1, 2004

Sex Mob: "Dime Grind Palace"

Unsuspecting visitors to the Sex Mob Web site will find not pornography, but a portal leading into a playfully eclectic avant-garde jazz quartet. As the name suggests, they do put plenty of sex into their music. Snippets of the bump and grind, the slow drag and the shimmy and shake remind post-boppers...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 1, 2004

The answers without the questions

ZEN SAND: The Book of Capping Phrases for Koan Practice, by Victor Sogen Hori. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2003, 764 pp., $37.00 (cloth). Back in 1947 when I was sitting with Dr. Suzuki Daisetsu, he gave me my first and last koan -- the one about Nansen Fugan's cat. The eminent Zen master Nansen...
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 1, 2004

Tough opener for Marinos

Defending league champion Yokohama F. Marinos will entertain Nabisco Cup holders Urawa Reds in the pick of opening-day matches on March 13 as the J. League released the fixture list for the first stage of the 2004 season on Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2004

Takenaka debates investment classes

Heizo Takenaka, state minister for financial services, exchanged opinions Saturday with high school teachers and representatives of civic groups on how to teach students about asset management and investments.
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 1, 2004

Jubilo's tough draw

Japan's Jubilo Iwata, which has been placed in arguably the toughest group for the first stage of the 2004 Asian Football Confederations Champions League, announced on Friday the schedule for six of its matches in Group E.
COMMENTARY
Feb 1, 2004

Paying more for education

LONDON -- Last week the Labour Party government of Prime Minister Tony Blair just barely won a vote in the House of Commons on the payment of "top-up" fees at British universities. The government had failed to consult widely in the Labour Party before announcing its policy on fees, and this was one reason...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 1, 2004

Entertaining the idea of surrogate mums

Last week, the health ministry decided not to recommend revisions to current guidelines regarding fertility treatments. This disappointed the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which has been advocating the legalization of such controversial procedures as the use of surrogate mothers because they say they...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 1, 2004

China-Southeast Asia relations blossom

SINGAPORE -- Chinese worldwide ushered in the Year of the Monkey on Jan. 22. The outgoing Year of the Goat had been excellent for China -- despite the outbreak of SARS last winter -- and a relatively good year for Southeast Asia.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2004

Tobacco ads to go up in smoke?

The days of omnipresent tobacco advertisements here may be coming to an end.

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