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COMMENTARY
Feb 11, 2004

SDF dispatch opens new era for Japan

The dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq marks a watershed in Japan's post-World War II security and defense policy. The SDF has joined U.N. peacekeeping operations several times since 1992. The latest deployment, though designed primarily to support humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 11, 2004

Back to Futurists and fascists

Max Rating: * * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Japanese title: Adolf no Gashu Director: Menno Meyjes Running time: 108 minutes Language: English Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] With his debut feature, "Max," director Menno Meyjes takes us back to the Germany of 1918, in the immediate...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Feb 10, 2004

Used books, furniture sales and clothes

More readers have been writing to say that they have lost columns cut out for future reference, so could we please relay the same information again. Happy to do so from time to time. Note, however, that that you can find back columns on The Japan Times Web site at www.japantimes.com
COMMENTARY
Feb 10, 2004

'Next big thing' key to growth

During Japan's bubble-economy years of fiscal 1987-1990, consumer spending grew at an annualized 5.5 percent in real terms. But during the Heisei recession of fiscal 1991-2001, consumer-spending growth slowed to an annualized 1.0 percent. Most experts agree that the slowdown in consumer spending, which...
BUSINESS
Feb 10, 2004

Shinsei Bank sets IPO price at 525 yen for listing on TSE

Shinsei Bank said Monday it will make an initial public offering at 525 yen per share when it lists on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Feb. 19.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 10, 2004

Davenport powers to fourth Toray title

Lindsay Davenport cruised to her fourth Toray Pan Pacific Open with a convincing 6-4, 6-1 victory over Bulgarian Magdelena Maleeva on Sunday. Davenport needed less than an hour to walk away with the $189,000 first prize, exhibiting a crushing display of groundstrokes behind a consistently dominating...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2004

Court rejects former sex slaves' plea for damages, government apology

The Tokyo High Court on Monday rejected an appeal by seven women from Taiwan for an official apology from the government and a total of 70 million yen in damages for being forced to provide sex for the Japanese military before and during World War II.
Japan Times
Features
Feb 8, 2004

Dawn of a tragic era

Across a waterfront park in the Shirahama district of Yokosuka, beyond a bronze statue of Admiral Heihachiro Togo, the 15,000-ton Mikasa, his flagship in the Battle of Tsushima (1905), is anchored in concrete -- its chrysanthemum figurehead golden in the winter light, the Rising Sun snapping at the stern....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 8, 2004

Who needs actors when you've got SMAP?

Last summer's Nippon TV scandal, in which a producer admitted he'd bribed monitor families into watching his program, has compromised the Japanese ratings system, but no matter how skeptically you regard such numbers the ratings performance of the pop group SMAP during the first month of the new year...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 7, 2004

Kazuko Asakura

"Bar pianists are like public bathhouses, or shoeshine boys in the street. There are no jobs any more. Situations have changed, and it is shocking how much has disappeared," said Kazuko Asakura.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2004

Officials flee embassy amid terror fears

Officials at the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad have been evacuated from the compound to a separate site in the city amid fears of a terrorist attack, government sources said Friday.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 6, 2004

Player power and disloyalty becoming endemic in English game

LONDON -- There is a new game sweeping English football and the rewards can run into millions for the lucky winners.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2004

Visiting Serb hopes western Balkan economic parley boosts investments

Japan will host a two-day ministerial meeting in April in Tokyo to promote stability and boost the economy of the western Balkans, according to Zlatan Milosevic, visiting director of the Serbian Investment and Export Promotion Agency.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Feb 5, 2004

Deer's tasty demise helps them, too

The first time I saw a Japanese sika (deer, Cervus Nippon) was on tiny Lundy Island, which lies in the Bristol Channel between South Wales and the north coast of the beautiful English county of Devon. I was going on for 20, and had gone to the island to assist the warden.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 4, 2004

My unlikely valentine

Love Actually Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Richard Curtis Running time: 135 minutes Language: English Opens Feb. 7 [See Japan Times movie listings] Love, love, love. Given how movies are pretty indiscriminating when it comes to strewing that word around, there's a positive recklessness...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 4, 2004

Under the skin of Gollum

Many have remarked that the most memorable performance in the "Lord of the Rings" films is given by a computer-generated character, Gollum. But let's not forget the man behind the critter, British screen and stage actor Andy Serkis, seen in films like Mike Leigh's "Topsy Turvy" and Michael Winterbottom's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 4, 2004

Crooked path pays off

Yudan Daiteki Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Izuru Narushima Running time: 110 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Cops and crooks aren't supposed to be pals, but in any society they often become . . . acquaintances, if not quite allies....
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2004

Online conflict-prevention symposium ends on positive note

The fourth online symposium on conflict prevention closed last week with a review session that provided an overview of the nine-day Internet-based event.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2004

G7 communique unlikely to touch on dollar's fall: 'Mr. Yen'

Japan will probably not gain support from the European Union in raising concerns over the dollar's recent decline during an upcoming meeting of Group of Seven finance chiefs, the man known as "Mr. Yen" said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 4, 2004

UNESCO top honor for bunraku puppet theater

On Nov. 7, 2003, bunraku was recognized by UNESCO as a World Intangible Cultural Heritage. The award cited the unique nature of Japan's indigenous puppet theater, and praised the realism with which it portrays human emotions.
EDITORIALS
Feb 3, 2004

Dispatch debate fails muster

The government's inconsistent statements last week on the security situation in the southern Iraq city of Samawah, the destination of Japanese ground troops, has raised new doubts about a survey report that describes the situation as "relatively stable." This suggests, regrettably, that the government...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 3, 2004

'Real' last samurai fights for attention

Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe may be raking in big box-office bucks as The Last Samurai, but a rival claimant to the title has emerged in the unlikely form of a sword-wielding British TV producer.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2004

Electronic toll system users on rise

The Electronic Toll Collection system, introduced in 2001 to collect highway fees without drivers having to stop, is gaining in popularity due to discounts for installing the system and reduced fees for users.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2004

Asylum seeker holds onto hope

On Jan. 23, the day after his book came out, 21-year-old Ali Jane received a surprise phone call from his mother back home in Afghanistan, telling him she and his two older sisters were safe in Kabul.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 1, 2004

A testament to the love of Gainsbourg

A week before her concert appearance in Tokyo, I call Jane Birkin. That's Jane -- heavy breathing on the raunchy 1969 Serge Gainsbourg classic, "Je t'aime . . . moi non plus" -- Birkin.
COMMENTARY
Feb 1, 2004

Paying more for education

LONDON -- Last week the Labour Party government of Prime Minister Tony Blair just barely won a vote in the House of Commons on the payment of "top-up" fees at British universities. The government had failed to consult widely in the Labour Party before announcing its policy on fees, and this was one reason...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jan 31, 2004

Frederick Harris

Many people know Frederick Harris, a 40-year resident of Japan. A past president of the Tokyo American Club, he is a prominent member of several organizations, "joining them if I can give something. If it is to take, I am not interested," he said. Some people know him through his articles, books and...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2004

Creator of blue LED wins ¥20 billion patent payout

The Tokyo District Court on Friday ordered midsize chemical maker Nichia Corp. to pay an unprecedented ¥20 billion to the inventor of a key semiconductor device for his transfer of patent rights to the firm.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat