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COMMENTARY
Aug 11, 2002

U.S. may manage Kashmir row at best

NEW DELHI -- Every regional crisis seems like an opportunity for U.S. policy to advance its interests. This has come out starkly since 9/11, as Washington has gone about extending its influence and building long-term strategic arrangements with nations across Asia, from the Caspian region to the South...
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2002

Nippon Food beef probe expands

OSAKA -- Farm ministry investigators expanded their probe Saturday into the suspected defrauding of the state-run beef buyback program by Nippon Food Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan's largest ham and sausage maker, Nippon Meat Packers Inc.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2002

Meteor shower expected Monday

The Perseid meteor shower, a midsummer favorite of stargazers, is likely to light up the moonless skies over Japan on Monday night when it peaks, according to the national observatory. The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan said the moon will set around 9 p.m. Monday. This will make it possible,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2002

Full trains, traffic jams at start of Bon

The nation's expressways, railways and airports were jammed Saturday with people heading back to their hometowns or overseas for the start of the traditional Bon holiday week.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2002

Smog alerts in hot Kanto set to be worst in decade

Tokyo and surrounding prefectures, baking in intense summer heat, have been subject to almost daily smog alerts since the beginning of August and observers expect the number of alerts will be the highest in a decade.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2002

Five die, six injured in crash after truck driver falls asleep

Five people died and six were injured in a multiple pileup early Saturday morning on an expressway in Mie Prefecture after a large truck, whose driver had apparently fallen asleep, crashed into lines of holidaymakers' cars, police said.
COMMENTARY
Aug 11, 2002

Universal role of new soldier

LONDON -- "A soldier's life is terrible hard" goes the song, and so it remains today, but with some big differences.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Aug 11, 2002

Money woes carry on as season dawns

Christopher Davies of the London Daily Telegraph is one of Britain's most prominent soccer writers. He regularly covers Premier League champion Arsenal in the Champions League and the Republic of Ireland internationally. Davies has covered eight World Cups and is a former chairman of the Football Writers'...
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 11, 2002

Hawks hold off Buffs, Rhodes

Kintetsu slugger Tuffy Rhodes hit his 34th and 35th homers of the season, but the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks pulled away with three runs in the ninth inning and avoided their first seven-game losing streak in three years with a 7-5 win over the Buffaloes.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2002

Tanaka bombshell leaves LDP in by-election crisis

The surprise resignation of Makiko Tanaka from the Lower House means more problems for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, already facing an uphill battle in key Diet by-elections in October.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2002

Beijing forcing Chen to take own road

NEW YORK -- Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's posture toward China has undergone a significant change recently -- from showing infinite good will to proclaiming that Taiwan is an independent sovereign state and that Taiwan's future should be determined by the people of Taiwan. He now supports legislation...
MORE SPORTS
Aug 11, 2002

Sunday Silence in battle for his life

Japan's leading sire, Sunday Silence, is suffering from laminitis, a debilitating disease of the hoof, and may be euthanized within the week.
COMMUNITY
Aug 11, 2002

Seeing is believing: Junichi Yaoi's experiences with the supernatural

Junichi Yaoi's otherworldly encounters took place decades ago, but in his memory, it's as if they happened yesterday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Aug 11, 2002

FBI -- why not give it a shot?

Fifteen years ago, Shokuan-dori was a dark no man's land trapped in the vacuum between Kabukicho and Shin-Okubo. The latter, at that time, was an area buzzing with life as it gained momentum as headquarters for Tokyo's non-Japanese Asian foreigners. But it wasn't until several years later that a few...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 11, 2002

Chill out in Tokyo's favourite haunts

Sites of assassinations, murders and suicides; dark, dank tunnels and creepy old abandoned buildings; weird creatures, the stuff of legends whose origins are lost in the mists of time . . . Tokyo harbors dozens -- perhaps even hundreds -- of "ghost spots" where inexplicable, sinister phenomena have reputedly...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Aug 11, 2002

Really making a meal of it in Austria

Second of two parts One of the most heady delights for any wine lover is a visit to a vineyard. Hike or bicycle through the countryside, then sip wine and unpack a picnic near lush, green rows of vines. In the warm afternoon, tromp down into the winery's cool, dark cellar that smells of damp earth and...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 11, 2002

Days of the dead: O-bon and the ghosts of Japan

It's that time of year again. The whole of Japan seems to be on the move as people head to their hometowns for the mid-August O-bon festival. And it's not just the living who make travel plans this month. O-bon is the Buddhist holiday when the spirits of the dead are believed to visit the homes of their...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Aug 11, 2002

A jazz life to the fullest

It used to be that the jazz life followed a relatively set pattern. Young players joined the bands of older pros, learned what they could, went on to become a leader themselves and, maybe, if they were lucky, got a recording contract. Nowadays, however, jazz players are as likely to get their education...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 11, 2002

Old Edo's many-splendored glories

The Tokugawa Shogunate may have been crumbling, and Commodore Perry's "Black Ships" may have been tearing aside the veil behind which Japan hid from the world for more than 200 years . . . but the commoners of eastern Edo were preoccupied with other matters: A craze for potted plants was sweeping the...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 11, 2002

Going where the wild things are

BEYOND THE LAST VILLAGE: A Journey of Discovery in Asia's Forbidden Wilderness, by Alan Rabinowitz. Aurum Press, 2002, 300 pp., 19.99 British pounds (cloth) Marco Polo went to Myanmar in the 13th century and saw jungles teeming with wild beasts and unicorns. Centuries later, during British colonial...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 11, 2002

Pretend you win some, you lose some

For the second year in a row, NHK commemorates the end of the Pacific War with a drama special based on a novel by Hisashi Inoue. Last year, it was Inoue's epic about a Tokyo family, "Aozora no Tango." Sunday at 9 p.m. on NHK-G, it will be a more lighthearted tale set shortly after the war.
COMMUNITY
Aug 11, 2002

One god to rule them all

All new regimes know their enemies. Having swept away the forces of the shogunate, the architects of the 1868 Meiji Restoration found themselves facing another foe. This fifth column was invisible: Its ranks were made up of yokai (ghosts) and bakemono (monsters), kappa (water sprites) and tengu (goblins)....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 11, 2002

We are more than just numbers, aren't we?

On Aug. 3, something interesting happened on the TBS newsmagazine "Broadcaster." Following a report on the new computerized resident registry network, commonly referred to as Juki Net, which would go into effect the following Monday, the show's presenter apologized for not covering the topic fully when...

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