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SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 18, 2002

Eriksson latest victim of kiss-and-tell fast sell

LONDON -- After two months it is about time this column came up with a world exclusive. Apologies for the delay but I hope it was worth waiting for.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Oct 18, 2002

Stag beetle

* Japanese name: Miyamakuwagata * Scientific name: Lucanus maculifemoratus * Description: This is a large, reddish-black, heavily armed (and armored) beetle. Males have a fearsome but elegant pair of antlerlike jaws, about 15 mm long, with sharp teeth. Body length ranges from 43-72 mm. Females do not...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Oct 17, 2002

Poncho Sanchez

Poncho Sanchez built his reputation as the West Coast's hottest conga player the old-fashioned way -- with hard work and hot rhythms. Coming up outside the New York-Havana axis of Latin music, he had to work a little harder to get his stylistic variation of Latin jazz accepted. The subtle differences...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 17, 2002

Human traffickers targeting kids

Wani is an umbrella bearer.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 17, 2002

'Tis a pity she's the leading actress

Contemporary theater in Japan existed as something akin to an underground cult in the 1960s and '70s. In the '80s, with bubble money swilling around everywhere, many of these youthful, looselyknit groups came in from the cultural margins and formed theater companies. Led by experimental directors such...
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Oct 17, 2002

Honor (and fun) among thieves

American-made adventure games do not typically hit the Famitsu top 10 rankings that determine what's hot in gaming in Japan. "Donkey Kong Country," a British-made Super Famicom game, was Japan's all-time best-selling foreign-made adventure game.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Oct 13, 2002

Beijing stymies Pyongyang experiment

HONG KONG -- Pyongyang-Beijing ties used to be characterized as being "as close as lips and teeth," but that phrase no longer applies to the relationship. For no sooner does North Korea arouse deep Japanese public outrage with its prevarication over past abductions than the isolated Stalinist state provokes...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Oct 11, 2002

Red damselfly

* Japanese name: Beniito tonbo * Scientific name: Ceriagrion nipponicum * Description: The red damselfly is small (body length 34-41 mm). Damselflies can be distinguished from dragonflies (both in the insect order Odonata) by the way they perch. Damselflies rest with their wings folded together over...
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
Oct 11, 2002

Kanji power unlocks the secret room of Japanese literature

Surely many of you, including overseas readers of The Japan Times online, live within 100 km of a Japanese-language bookstore or a university with a collection of Japanese books. Japanese literature is available, but confronting the sheer volume of offerings can be overwhelming.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Oct 11, 2002

"Time Stops For No Mouse," "Hairy Bill"

"Time Stops For No Mouse," Michael Hoeye, Puffin Books; 2002; 262 pp. It's a mouse's world.
EDITORIALS
Oct 10, 2002

Put a stop to rising crime

Spurred by a spate of vicious crimes and a sharp rise in crimes by foreigners, the number of criminal offenses in Japan last year reached a record postwar high of 2,735,612 cases. The arrest rate, which is a barometer of public safety, fell to 19.8 percent, the first time since 1945 that it had dropped...
EDITORIALS
Oct 8, 2002

The U.S. returns to Pyongyang

The visit by Mr. James Kelly, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs, to Pyongyang yielded no breakthrough in relations between North Korea and the United States. Nonetheless, the two sides are talking and appear committed to a serious dialogue. The U.S., like Japan, should give...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 6, 2002

Tuning into the changing face of higher education

Japan's universities are at a crossroad. The notion has been voiced in some quarters for many years, but now -- by common consent -- the fact of the matter is impossible either to deny or to ignore.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2002

Koizumi almost pulls it off

SHANGHAI, China -- My perspective for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to North Korea is that of the Chinese. I have been in Shanghai since just before his visit. The reports I have been reading and listening to are those of the Chinese media and my Chinese friends and colleagues.
COMMUNITY
Oct 6, 2002

Teachers take the strain of a system in flux

Hiroshi Sato, 37, is an assistant professor of political science at a private university in Tokyo that, while not among the nation's top-ranked seats of learning, nonetheless enjoys a high status and popularity.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Oct 6, 2002

Simmered veggies just like mama used to make

In a traditional Japanese restaurant's kitchen, the head chef — the oya-kata, literally the boss — wields the knife and rules the cutting board. He watches and directs each phase of food preparation, beginning with the early-morning procurement of fish. Standing close to the chef and performing an...
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 6, 2002

Yukio Ninagawa: visionary player on the world's stage

Internationally acclaimed theater director Yukio Ninagawa has staged countless plays in Japan, elsewhere in Asia, and in the United States and Europe.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2002

AIDS: a medical and social epidemic

The rapidly increasing number of AIDS orphans worldwide is one of the most serious consequences of the AIDS epidemic today. It is estimated that more than 13 million children currently under 15 have lost one or both parents to AIDS, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. In Asia, the rapid spread of the infection...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 4, 2002

Solution to halting racist behavior not easy

LONDON -- UEFA is currently investigating three cases of racism during recent European ties -- Hajduk Split vs. Fulham, Valencia vs. Liverpool and PSV Eindhoven vs. Arsenal.
EDITORIALS
Oct 4, 2002

Clarifying the whole truth

The government's investigation into the fate of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s has made some progress, although the findings include shocking details. Credit goes to an 11-member fact-finding mission that returned Tuesday from two days of difficult activities...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Oct 4, 2002

Sea cucumber

* Japanese name: Torafunamako * Scientific name: Holothuria pervicax * Description: Despite their name, sea cucumbers are not plants but animals, close relatives of sea urchins and starfish. They are all echinoderms, and members of this group are radially symmetrical. This kind of symmetry is most...
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2002

N. Korean aid depends on abductions' resolution

Japanese economic aid to North Korea must be based on the settlement of the abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents, a Japanese official said Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2002

Peacemaking efforts deserve applause

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- International public opinion seems focused almost exclusively on the issue of Iraq these days while other important regional developments are relegated to the back burner. Among the developments that deserve greater attention are the moves toward peace in Sri Lanka.
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2002

Law to cut illegal bidding lags at local level, ministry says

The implementation of a new law to correct improper bidding processes has been lagging at the local level, the land ministry said Friday.
COMMENTARY
Sep 29, 2002

Signs the EU is coming of age

PARIS -- The most striking fact to emerge from the recent Germany elections is that for the first time a majority of voters in a EU member-state has been motivated by foreign-policy concerns. In the past, the country's worsening economic situation and high unemployment rate would have cost Chancellor...
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2002

Pyongyang must tell the full story

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's meeting Friday with the families of those abducted by North Korean agents made it unmistakably clear that the understanding and support of those relatives -- and of the Japanese public in general -- is essential to progress in the normalization talks that are expected...
BUSINESS
Sep 28, 2002

State's handling of banks under scrutiny

All eyes are on how the government will try to prop up the nation's banks and get them to shed their nonperforming loans. With many experts viewing capital injections as a key step in this regard, we take a closer look at the issue:
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2002

Stick to the facts on Saddam Hussein

WASHINGTON -- The claims of U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney that Iraq might join with terrorists to strike the United States at any time are far-fetched. Very little about the historical record or current intelligence lends credence to that view. It cannot be...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2002

Relatives demand details on abductees, rap Koizumi

The families of Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea met for the first time with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday and demanded that the government confirm the information from the Stalinist state regarding the fates of the missing people.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years