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SOCCER / World cup
Oct 24, 2002

Toyota Cup tickets on sale Oct. 27

Ticket for the Toyota Cup match on Dec. 3 between European champion Real Madrid of Spain and South American champion Olimpia of Paraguay will begin at 10 a.m. on Oct. 27 at major ticket outlets, organizers announced Wednesday in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 24, 2002

'Tax evaders' steal the talk of Shanghai

SEOUL -- A little over a month ago I was on the way to Shanghai to spend a month teaching at Fudan University. I read an article in a Hong Kong newspaper that said the topic on everyone's lips in China was the upcoming 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. This is the congress at which...
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Oct 24, 2002

EU reticent over funding Pyongyang nuclear reactors

European Union member states have voiced reservations over continuing to fund an international consortium to help build light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea, EU's new ambassador to Japan Bernhard Zepter said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Oct 24, 2002

The final gasps of the 'do nothing' 107th Congress

WASHINGTON -- It isn't much of a surprise that the 107th Congress is ending without much of a record of accomplishment. It had a spurt of success in its early months, passing President George W. Bush's mammoth tax cut and pushing through a respectable education program, but little has been accomplished...
EDITORIALS
Oct 24, 2002

Mr. Koizumi's answers lack candor

The current extraordinary Diet session, dubbed an "economy Diet," has its work cut out: debating measures for economic recovery and banking reform. As it turned out, the Lower House's opening debates on Monday and Tuesday did not measure up to that billing. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's answers...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 24, 2002

Securing consensus on Iraq

SEOUL -- As the U.N. Security Council debate on Iraq moves forward, precedent is pertinent. For Korea a half-century ago, it took three Security Council resolutions to authorize and organize an armed U.N. response; for Kuwait in 1990, more than a "baker's dozen."
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 24, 2002

Getting up close and personal with global issues

While studying and researching in England several years ago, Eno Nakamura was surprised to find that Japanese and English children had strikingly different views of the future. That contrast convinced her of a critical need for Japanese schools to put more emphasis on "the future," and to get their students...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Oct 24, 2002

Aliens add to autumn show

Autumn in Japan is a colorful season, and not only because of the famed koyo foliage of its trees. In gardens, fields and roadsides, too, flowers burst forth as if to celebrate the return of sensible weather after the long, sweaty rigors of summer. However, some of the best-known blooms of this fall...
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Oct 24, 2002

Namco puts up a fight

In 1990, fighting games really came into their own, as Capcom's "Street Fighter II" lit up video arcades like they hadn't been in nearly a decade.
EDITORIALS
Oct 23, 2002

Ireland gives the EU a go-ahead

I f at first you don't succeed, try again. That appears to have been the thinking of Irish politicians in their battle to secure public endorsement of the Nice Treaty, which provides the ground rules for expanding the European Union. Last weekend, a second ballot won popular support. Ireland's change...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 23, 2002

Series brings back memories

Episode 5 in the series of Japan Series between the Yomiuri Giants and Seibu Lions gets under way on Saturday at the Tokyo Dome, and it should be a dandy. My feeling is it will go the full seven games, and I'll predict Seibu will win that seventh game at the Big Egg on Sunday, Nov. 3.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Oct 23, 2002

Deedees: "D.D.R.P."

It's not Ryo, it's Rio, and the name doesn't really suit him. It's sounds a little too exotic for a squat Japanese bloke covered with scary tattoos and sporting a skinhead haircut.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 23, 2002

A musical that rewrites history

"Pacific Overtures" isn't one of Stephen Sondheim's most famous musicals, but the story it tells -- of the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry's Black Ships in July 1853 and the opening of Japan to the West -- has been updated and given a new twist by a Japanese director and cast.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Oct 23, 2002

They don't make revolutions like this anymore

Way back when I was in college, images of Cuban rebel leader Fidel Castro (or Che Guevara, his right-hand man) were to be seen everywhere. Posters hung in student apartments and dorms, in teachers' offices, and in clubs, cafes and shops that catered to the campus crowd. The scruffy yet charismatic figure...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 23, 2002

Take a flight of the imagination to the far side

Life in Tokyo is busy and routine, and it often seems that the chances of having a truly "new" experience become fewer as we get older. Similarly with the stage. If you've assiduously been going to the theater for more than 20 years, the freshness of the experience tends to fade. Regrettably, it is often...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Oct 23, 2002

Rocket From the Crypt: "Live From Camp X-Ray"

John "Speedo" Reis' critical image is of a pop culture otaku who channeled his obsessions into decent rock 'n' roll that doesn't embarrass the artists it reveres. The name of his best-known group, Rocket From the Crypt, pays homage to both Rocket From the Tombs, the legendary Cleveland shock-rock group...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Oct 23, 2002

Asagaya Jazz Festival

Asagaya is a quietly hip part of town with a dense nexus of sake bars, music venues, performance spaces and specialty shops. But once a year, Asagaya throws open its streets, clubs and cinemas to two days of jazz, transforming the neighborhood into Asagaya Jazz Streets.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Oct 23, 2002

Getting keyed in on musical talent

I don't like the phrase "child prodigy." It sounds vaguely condescending, and it brings to mind images of pushy parents forcing reluctant children to follow in the footsteps of Beethoven, Mozart and Michael Jackson.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 23, 2002

Spirited away

QUEENSLAND, Australia -- Each August, ghosts who have no descendants pour through the Gates of Hell into the streets of cities and villages of Southeast Asia. During the full moon, the most dangerous time of the year, the earth teems with hordes of these creatures, lusting for ribald entertainment and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Oct 23, 2002

Mr. Lif: "I Phantom"

In recent years, no other music has suffered more identity crises than hip-hop. Chat rooms and studios are constantly boiling over with debate over what direction urban poetry should take, while the airwaves are smattered with mixed messages on how it can achieve artistic prestige -- via activism, lyrical...
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2002

A disappointing policy speech

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's policy speech to the Diet last Friday can be summed up in a word: disappointing. It was disappointing particularly because he failed to explain in plain language how he intends to prevent a dangerous economic downturn. People know first hand that things are getting...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 22, 2002

North Korea's last gambit

WASHINGTON -- North Korea's surprise announcement of a secret nuclear-weapons program has thrown cold water on a recent warming of relations with South Korea and Japan that included family reunions, rejuvenated economic cooperation and, in particular, a stunning admission of past misdeeds against Japanese...
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Oct 22, 2002

Bogged in Botswana's mudholes

It is traditional for this column to supply a Nature Travel horror story as close to Halloween as scheduling permits. Halloween is still some time away. But this one's most definitely a two-part column. So forgive us for starting early.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 22, 2002

Too smart for your own good

It was a merger made in heaven.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 21, 2002

Hishi Miracle lands triple crown final leg

KYOTO -- An upset had been predicted for Sunday's Kikkasho, but few saw it involving 10th pick Hishi Miracle and 16th choice Fast Tateyama, in a 1-2 finish that brought over 180,000 yen on a 100 yen exacta.
EDITORIALS
Oct 21, 2002

And now to work in South Asia

Pakistan and India have both held important elections in recent weeks. In Pakistan, the government party won as expected. In Kashmir, the pro-India party that has ruled the restive region for decades was routed. Even more important than the results is the fact that the votes were held at all. Now, both...

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