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BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 4, 2004

Valentine's Marines take over lead in PL

Former New York Mets players Benny Agbayani and Matt Franco combined for all five runs Saturday as the Chiba Lotte Marines downed the defending Japan Series champion Daiei Hawks 5-2 at Chiba Marine Stadium.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Apr 4, 2004

Robert Whiting: Outside the box

Back in 1972, a 30-year-old New Jersey native who had recently graduated from Tokyo's Sophia University was in New York City, trying to talk to anyone who would listen about politics and life in Japan. Nobody was interested.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 4, 2004

D.D. Jackson

DD Jackson's muscular and frenetic keyboard style reminds listeners that the piano is, after all, a percussion instrument. He drums the piano as much as plays it, drawing out sounds that few other contemporary players can manage. While traditional-minded fans of lyrical piano will wince at his attack,...
COMMENTARY
Apr 4, 2004

Taiwan invasion scenario not so unlikely

HONG KONG -- It's unimaginable that China would ever go to war against Taiwan, right? Until recently, that's what I thought.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 4, 2004

Pop Meiji romance revives tired legend of poor Okichi

BUTTERFLY IN THE WIND, by Rei Kimura. Amsterdam: Olive Press, 2003, 166 pp., with illustrations, $16.95 (paper). Poor Okichi -- carried away against her will to become concubine to the American consul in Japan, torn away from her handsome lover, stigmatized forever as "Tojin" Okichi, property of the...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 4, 2004

"News Station" becomes "Hodo Station" on TV Asahi and more

On March 26, TV Asahi's nightly news program, "News Station," ended after 18 1/2 years and 4,795 programs. Host Hiroshi Kume wrapped up the record run with a toast.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 4, 2004

Dead Kennedys: "Live at the Deaf Club"

March 1979. The relatively benign Jimmy Carter was in the White House, the Zen-liberal Jerry Brown, Jr., in Sacramento. It may have been over-reaching of San Francisco's most stridently political hardcore band, The Dead Kennedys, to characterize the West Coast as a Nazi police state in "California Uber...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 4, 2004

Chance to pick up and move

WASHINGTON -- On May 1, the European Union will grow by 10 new members, mostly from Eastern Europe. In public, the optimism is great as is the gloating at overtaking the United States in population, gross domestic product and currency strength. In private conversations, however, there is great fear of...
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2004

Pension reform furor rumbles on

Two opposition parties boycotted Friday's plenary session of the House of Representatives to protest remarks made by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on pension reform.
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2004

Revolving door risk seen a year ago

Officials of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry said Friday the ministry compiled a document in February 2003 that recognizes the danger of automatic revolving doors -- but did nothing to improve safety standards.
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2004

Ishihara airs sea, port security report

Nobuteru Ishihara, minister of land, infrastructure and transport, presented a white paper Friday to the Cabinet that emphasizes crime prevention and counterterrorism in Japanese territorial waters and ports of entry.
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2004

Crackdown has publishers running scared

Yasunori Okadome last month suspended publication of his profitable monthly gossip magazine Uwasa-no-shinso (The Truth Behind Rumors), due to fears that a lawsuit could put him out of business for good.
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2004

Contentious magazine to remain unsold

Publisher Bungeishunju Ltd. said Friday it will not sell the remaining copies of a controversial edition of a weekly magazine, after the Tokyo High Court on Wednesday overruled a lower court's injunction barring publication of an article in the edition.
BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2004

Itochu forecasts 32 billion yen loss due to asset write-down

Trading house Itochu Corp. said Friday it will book a 125 billion yen charge to write down the value of fixed assets for fiscal 2003, joining a growing list of companies that have front-loaded an accounting rule change scheduled for fiscal 2005.
BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2004

FamilyMart, Itochu eye China foray

FamilyMart Co. and Itochu Corp. said Friday they will set up a joint venture in Shanghai to operate convenience stores in the region, beginning in the summer.
EDITORIALS
Apr 3, 2004

Nurturing the sprouts of recovery

Japan's economic recovery, supported chiefly by large, export-oriented manufacturers, is spreading to other sectors, according to the Bank of Japan's quarterly survey on business sentiment. However, it is premature to conclude that the economy is headed for a self-sustaining recovery led by domestic...
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2004

Professor Kitaoka to be U.N. envoy

The government said Friday that it will appoint Shinichi Kitaoka, a University of Tokyo professor and a foreign policy adviser to the government, as an ambassador to the United Nations, and Takahiko Horimura, ambassador in charge of international counterterrorism cooperation, as ambassador to Brazil....
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 3, 2004

Tigers hand Giants a mauling

The next time the Yomiuri Giants go shopping, they might want to consider a few good relief pitchers.
BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2004

Chinese firm tells IRCJ of Kanebo purchase plan

Chinese drugmaker Sanjiu Enterprise Group has informed the Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan of its plans to buy the pharmaceutical business of Kanebo Ltd., an official of the Chinese firm's Japan unit said Friday.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Apr 3, 2004

F.A. gives Eriksson new deal, but how long will he stay?

LONDON -- "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him."
BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2004

Household spending up in February

Household spending rose a real 5.2 percent in February from a year earlier for the fourth consecutive monthly gain.
BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2004

Boeing upbeat over new 7E7 jets

U.S. aircraft maker Boeing Co. said Friday it anticipates steady demand for its new 7E7 Dreamliner jets in Asia.
BUSINESS
Apr 3, 2004

Kamei rejects U.S. proposal on beef ban

Farm minister Yoshiyuki Kamei on Friday brushed aside a U.S. request for outside mediation aimed at breaking the impasse over Japan's ban on U.S. beef imports.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 3, 2004

Amazing instant anywhere electric mug!

It used to be that we only had to deal with funny Japanese English. But with the flood of goods imported from China, we now have a different kind of English written on the boxes of products we buy.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight