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COMMENTARY / World
Apr 19, 2004

Malaysia gives Islam a chance to shine

SINGAPORE -- The 11th Malaysian general election March 21 was a historic moment in Malaysian politics and a political watershed in the country's history. It may also have been the turning point in the universal Islamic debate over religion and development, especially as these polls constitute the first...
MORE SPORTS
Apr 19, 2004

Italian jock grabs second Satsukisho on Daiwa Major

FUNABASHI, Chiba Pref. -- There was a strong feeling of deja vu at Nakayama Racecourse Sunday as longshot Daiwa Major crossed the line a winner in the 64th running of the Satsukisho, the first leg of Japan's Triple Crown series.
COMMENTARY
Apr 19, 2004

South Korea's youth now in driver's seat

NEW YORK -- Veteran Asia-hand Nicholas Platt isn't quite ready to canonize Roh Moo Hyun as a great contemporary Asian leader -- notwithstanding last week's stunning endorsement of the populist president of South Korea in elections that catapulted the progressive, pro-Roh party to the top of the heap...
OLYMPICS
Apr 19, 2004

Murata secures Olympic berth

Yukari Murata secured a berth at this summer's Athens Olympics after dominating in all four disciplines and placing first in the all-around standings in an Olympic qualifying event for rhythmic gymnastics Sunday.
COMMENTARY
Apr 19, 2004

Karzai must address ethnic imbalance

ISLAMABAD -- The U.S.-backed regime of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, which has been promised more than $8 billion in international economic aid over the next three years, is still struggling to consolidate its political position.
COMMENTARY
Apr 19, 2004

Push Japan's good intentions

The lesson from the abduction and subsequent release of five Japanese civilians in Iraq is that the government should send a strong message to the Arab world that it is actively pushing humanitarian assistance and reconstruction in the war-torn country.
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2004

Suzuki named Daiwa group president

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. will name Shigeharu Suzuki, senior managing director of the group's wholesale securities company, Daiwa Securities SMBC Co., as its president, company sources said Saturday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2004

Pair's release takes the heat off Koizumi

Foreign Ministry officials in Tokyo were pleasantly surprised Saturday by the news that two Japanese hostages were abruptly freed by their captors in Baghdad.
EDITORIALS
Apr 18, 2004

A political quake in South Korea

Parliamentary elections last week have transformed politics in South Korea. The Uri Party -- which did not exist a year ago -- has won an absolute majority in the National Assembly, giving President Roh Moo Hyun control of the legislature for the first time since he was elected a year and a half ago...
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2004

DPJ to field activist singer Kina

The Democratic Party of Japan plans to field Okinawan singer Shokichi Kina, who held a peace concert last year in Baghdad, as a candidate in the House of Councilors election in July, party lawmakers said Saturday.
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.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes