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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 29, 2003

Kocani Orkestar: "Alone at My Wedding"

The Kocani Orkestar is a brass band from Macedonia with a formidable rhythm section of four tuba players and a lone percussionist. Their songs are alternately led by male or female singers, a clarinet, several trumpets or a banjo that's played like an oud. On their new album, "Alone at My Wedding," the...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2003

Fate of asylum seeker nearly settled

Japan and China have begun final negotiations for the handover of a 64-year-old Japanese woman who was taken into custody by Chinese authorities after fleeing North Korea in November, government sources said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 29, 2003

Mother Teresa: a shining example for all of humanity

MADRAS, India -- In a time of harrowing sectarian strife, the Vatican has shown that there is an ocean of compassion and tolerance in the highest form of faith.
BUSINESS
Jan 29, 2003

Mitsubishi to farm out PC servers

Mitsubishi Electric Corp. plans to farm out all production of its personal computer servers, company officials said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jan 29, 2003

Shipments of audiovisual gear rise

Domestic shipments of audiovisual equipment amounted to 2.02 trillion yen in 2002, up 0.6 percent from the previous year for the first rise in two years, an industry body said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jan 29, 2003

Cabinet OKs set of corporate restructure bills

The Cabinet approved a set of corporate restructuring bills Tuesday, paving the way for the much-touted launch of a government-backed entity tasked with rescuing ailing firms the government deems salvageable.
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2003

Justice council looks to smooth tenant evictions

A Justice Ministry panel on Tuesday introduced a draft plan to help evict tenants occupying properties up for sale with the intent of preventing them from being sold.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 29, 2003

The Branford Marsalis Quartet

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis has always been more adventurous than his younger brother, the better-known trumpeter Wynton. He has jumped outside jazz tradition to back up Sting on his world tours, do a stint as leader of the "Tonight Show's" house band, and dabble with hip-hop and funk in his own band...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 29, 2003

Kimya Dawson: "I'm Sorry That Sometimes I'm Mean"

The biggest star to emerge from New York's antifolk scene is Beck Hansen, but before King Loser went legit he was more of a hanger-on than a guiding light. The Moldy Peaches -- 30-year-old Kimya Dawson and 21-year-old Adam Green -- embody the antifolkies' art-is-fun credo more convincingly, and having...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2003

Plutonium extracted from spent fuel is 206 kg short

A tally of plutonium extracted at a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, since it began operating has come up 206 kg short, the government said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jan 29, 2003

"Synkretizm: A Mountain Thinking the River Fire."

Voodoo, with its mix of West African mysticism and French Catholicism, plays a vital role in the lives of Haiti's rural poor, but it gets a bad rap elsewhere. For the faithful, the communion of saints and shamans offers even the most piteous peasant his own sliver of paradise. But to outsiders, voodoo...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jan 29, 2003

A true master of the art of making photographs

I remember once playing a little mind game with Tokyo-based photographer Torin Boyd. We were sitting in a Kabukicho bar, looking through his portfolio. Every time I said something about "taking pictures," in his response he substituted the verb "make" for the verb "take," as in "I made this picture last...
BUSINESS
Jan 29, 2003

Shiokawa set to bolster budget review

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Tuesday he wants to strengthen the government's review of the use of budget money in fiscal 2003 as a Cabinet-wide initiative.
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2003

Teachers snub new guidelines

More than half the elementary and junior high school teachers responding to a poll disfavor new guidelines introduced last April by the education ministry, saying the reduced curriculum is lowering children's academic abilities, according to a survey by Kyodo News.
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2003

Panel members at odds over Monju ruling

Members of the Atomic Energy Commission on Tuesday voiced mixed views over a high court ruling the previous day that nullified the government's approval in 1983 of the Monju fast-breeder reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 29, 2003

The end of art history and the last laugh

Since 1984, the National Museum of Art, Osaka, and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, have been examining trends in contemporary art in a series of exhibitions titled "A Perspective on Contemporary Art." Pay a visit to the latest in the series, though, and you might be forgiven for wondering exactly...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2003

Obiuary: Jean-Jacques Origas

Jean-Jacques Origas, a French scholar of Japanese literature and expert in Japanese-language teaching, died Sunday at a hospital in a Paris suburb, sources in Japan who were close to him said. He was 65.
BUSINESS
Jan 29, 2003

LDP mulls letting insurers cut yields

A group of legislators in the Liberal Democratic Party has started considering ways to enable life insurers to cut guaranteed yields to policyholders, including a proposal for the Financial Services Agency to order financially troubled firms to make the cuts, it was reported Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 29, 2003

And this year's ceramics winners are. . .

Awards. We all love them, whether they are for movies, music, or for sports personalities. The art world here in Japan is no different, and there are many awards to honor those who have excelled in their respective art forms.
BUSINESS
Jan 29, 2003

Sony executive Ohga decides to retire

Norio Ohga, Sony Corp.'s chairman of the board, said Tuesday he will step down for health reasons.
BUSINESS
Jan 29, 2003

Retail, wholesale sales drop a combined 3.7% in 2002

Domestic wholesale and retail sales fell a combined 3.7 percent in 2002 to 582.27 trillion yen, declining for the 11th straight year and by the largest margin since 1999, the government said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jan 29, 2003

Skymark aims to profit from shuffle

Skymark Airlines Co. said Tuesday that President Takashi Ide has been replaced by Masayuki Inoue, formerly of British Airways, as part of a shakeup at the executive level.
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 2003

Can we trust 'Davos man'?

The rich, the powerful and the famous last week descended once again on the Swiss village of Davos for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF). This year, the assembled luminaries pondered the loss of "trust" that has sapped institutions worldwide. The question is a vital one. Of the many...
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2003

Ling Ling jets off to Mexico to mate with three pandas

Ling Ling, the only giant panda at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo, departed Monday for Mexico for a third attempt at breeding with female pandas there, following two previous failures.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2003

Woman, 85, killed with roller skate

Police arrested a Dutch man Sunday evening for allegedly killing an elderly woman in Tokyo by hitting her on the head with a roller skate, police officials said Monday.

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