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JAPAN
Oct 19, 2003

Japan set to lend Iraq $3.5 billion

Japan will provide Iraq with $3.5 billion in loans over the three years from 2005, which -- along with a $1.5 billion grant for 2004 announced earlier -- will bring total Japanese aid to Iraq to $5 billion, government sources said Saturday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 19, 2003

Diamond exhibit is a real sparkler

The diamond is a symbol of love, wealth and power. Down the centuries, this precious stone has been adored by the rich and powerful -- among them empresses such as Catherine the Great of Russia and Elisabeth of Austria. Now the general public has the opportunity to get a little closer to the treasures...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 19, 2003

The gangsters that just keep coming back

THE YAKUZA MOVIE BOOK: A Guide to Japanese Gangster Films, by Mark Schilling. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2003, 336 pp., $19.95 (paper). When Mark Schilling was interviewing veteran filmmaker Seijun Suzuki for this book, the director suddenly asked the author: "Why are you interested in yakuza movies?"...
EDITORIALS
Oct 19, 2003

A year after Bali

Just over a year ago, a man wearing a bomb concealed in his clothes walked into Paddy's Bar, a popular nightspot for tourists in Bali, Indonesia, and launched a suicide attack. When the survivors fled into the streets, a minivan loaded with 50 kg of explosives went off. The attacks claimed 202 lives...
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 19, 2003

Zuleta plays the hero

Designated hitter Julio Zuleta drove in the winning run Saturday to lift the Pacific League champion Fukuoka Daiei Hawks to a dramatic 5-4 victory over the Central League champion Hanshin Tigers in Game 1 of the Japan Series. Daiei hawks catcher Kenji Jojima blasts a solo home run off Hanshin Tigers...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 19, 2003

Maverick broadcaster Kume shook 'em up

Since Oct. 10, when the House of Representatives was dissolved, bigwigs from Japan's political parties have been making the rounds of the nightly news shows, spelling out their differences and promoting their spiffy new "manifestos" in preparation for the election on Nov. 9. Though they've contained...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 19, 2003

Tigers players hope to win one for the skipper

I knew I was on my way to a special Japan Series Saturday when several people on my jam-packed Japan Airlines flight were wearing Hanshin Tigers jerseys. There was one Hiyama 24, a couple of Imaoka 7s and several Igawa 29s.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 19, 2003

A timeline of protest in Japanese history

Japanese labor is today characterized by "enterprise unions," company-by-company groupings that account for almost all of the country's labor organizations. Lacking the militancy of their forebears, these unions are credited by some with enabling Japan's postwar economic boom but blamed by others for...
COMMENTARY
Oct 19, 2003

More trouble for Pakistan's democracy

ISLAMABAD -- The first anniversary this month of the restoration of Pakistan's democracy following the three years of military rule has brought little joy over the future prospects of the South Asian nuclear-armed state.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 19, 2003

Asian crime scene

Asia 2000, a small publisher in Hong Kong, offers a "Black Butterfly" crime/mystery series by local writers. In a work with Graham Greene overtones, "Cheung Chau Dog Fanciers' Society," by Alan B. Pierce, tells the tale of small-time financial consultant suspected of laundering drug money, who is kept...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 19, 2003

Two local novelists strut their stuff

THE BANG DEVILS, by Patrick Foss. New York: HarperCollins, 2003 305 pp., $13.95 (paper). AMBASSADOR STRIKES, by Robert J. Collins. California: McKenna Publishing Group, 2003 260 pp., $19.95 (paper). With so much rich material to draw upon, the relatively small number of English novels set in the Kansai...
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2003

Junta critic's 'Burma's Children' photo show portrays Myanmar plight

Munesuke Yamamoto's visa applications to Myanmar have repeatedly been rejected since the freelance photographer conducted an exclusive interview with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon in September 1998.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2003

Fujii tells hearing he's being axed over politics

Japan Highway Public Corp. President Haruho Fujii blasted transport minister Nobuteru Ishihara in a hearing Friday for trying to sack him for what he called political motives.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2003

Gifu gives Big Apple taste of local legend

If you mention the name Furuta Oribe, most Japanese will probably give you a blank stare.
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2003

Juki Net passes U.S. hacker test

Experts at a U.S. computer security firm were unable to hack into Japan's online resident registry system in an experiment conducted to test the system's vulnerability to cyber attacks, the home affairs ministry said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2003

Hibakusha stage protest ahead of Bush's Tokyo visit

A group of people who survived the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki urged Washington to scrap its nuclear weapons at a protest rally ahead of President George W. Bush's visit to Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2003

North Korea best dealt with through dialogue and patience, scholars say

Two Chinese scholars on Friday argued that the only way to resolve the crisis surrounding North Korea's nuclear brinkmanship is through dialogue.
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2003

Koizumi's Iraq pledge wins thanks from Bush

U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday thanked Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for Japan's $1.5 billion pledge to help reconstruct Iraq.
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2003

Cabinet members avoid Yasukuni Shrine in droves

A group of 19 lawmakers paid homage Friday at Tokyo's controversial Yasukuni Shrine during its annual autumn festival, but no Cabinet members made the visit and the number of participants was one-third the usual number.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 18, 2003

Hoshino to bow out after Japan Series

Hanshin Tigers manager Senichi Hoshino has revealed his intention to step down after the Japan Series, citing ill health.
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2003

Mustard gas victims' redress edges nearer

Japan is in final negotiations with Beijing to pay around 300 million yen for the victims of an August poison gas leak from Japanese wartime chemical weapons left behind in China, government sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2003

Tokyo unveils latest financial plan

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government said Friday that it will cut its workforce by 4,000 and raise an additional 30 billion yen from tax revenues to improve its finances by fiscal 2006.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Oct 18, 2003

David Elliott

The Mori Art Museum, an integral part of the Mori Arts Center, occupies space on the top five floors of the 53-story Roppongi Hills Tower, Tokyo. The Mori aim is to have the new Mori Art Museum "become a major feature in the cultural landscapes of Tokyo, Japan, Asia and the world." Over the last 18 months,...
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2003

Air base soundproofing fees face ax

The home affairs ministry ordered the Defense Agency on Friday to have its affiliate cut application fees levied on local residents seeking grants to soundproof their homes near military installations.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’