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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 10, 2002

Mitsuyo Ohira : Lessons in life

High-flying lawyer Mitsuyo Ohira doesn't have the kind of past you'd expect. After falling victim to bullying at junior high school, she attempted suicide by disembowelment, dropped out of school and hung out with drug-using delinquents. All that before, at age 16, becoming the wife of a gang boss.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Nov 10, 2002

Balladeer does it in his own good time

If there are no second acts in American lives, as F. Scott Fitzgerald said, for some musicians at least, there's a second take. After famed recording sessions in the late 1950s that made him popular, Jimmy Scott's unique vocal style was not heard again on a new recording for some 30 years. Then, in the...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 10, 2002

A wretched winter for Tories and royals

LONDON -- This is proving to a wretched winter for two of Britain's most hallowed institutions. The reasons say much about the way the country has changed -- and is changing.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 10, 2002

'Godzilla' is just getting warmed up

Hideki Matsui may not have cleared the fences, but that doesn't mean he failed to impress.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 10, 2002

Isolate Pyongyang if it doesn't come clean

WASHINGTON -- In June 1994, as the United States and North Korea stepped back from the brink of war over the North's nuclear weapons program, a moderate consensus in the U.S, South Korean, Japanese and Chinese governments applauded the Agreed Framework for averting a crisis through dialogue and negotiation....
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 9, 2002

Bar code's replacement packs data into a series of squares

A seemingly random collection of black-and-white blocks will become an increasingly common sight when we buy soda out of a vending machine, bet on a horse race or purchase items at a store.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2002

Public health problems in the Americas

NEW YORK -- Latin America and the Caribbean enter the new century showing measurable gains in several health indicators such as life expectancy, infant survivability and the fight against several infectious diseases. Most countries in these regions, however, still face daunting challenges due to sprawling...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 9, 2002

Shoko Sugitani

A dozen years ago, pianist Shoko Sugitani owned nine pianos, which she kept in different places. She is now down to seven, some of them in Duesseldorf and the rest in Tokyo. She has a favorite piano that she takes with her to important concerts. For the concert scheduled with the Warsaw Philharmonic...
BUSINESS
Nov 8, 2002

Chile seeks global integration: minister

Chile is determined to boost economic ties with the Asia-Pacific region, as evidenced by its conclusion last month of a free-trade agreement with South Korea, visiting Chilean Foreign Minister Soledad Alvear said Thursday.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 8, 2002

F.A. in free fall as Premier League clubs make play for power

LONDON -- It was Ron Saunders, the former Aston Villa manager, who once said: "If you're going to commit suicide, do it yourself."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Nov 8, 2002

Loggerhead turtle

* Japanese name: Ao-umigame * Scientific name: Caretta caretta * Description: Turtles are reptiles with limbs modified into swimming paddles. Loggerhead turtles have a characteristically large head, but they don't have a big brain: It's their jaws that are large. The reddish-brown carapace of adults...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Nov 8, 2002

"Short and Scary!," "Notso Hotso"

"Short and Scary!" Louise Cooper, Oxford University Press; 2002; 96 pp.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 8, 2002

The fight for equal protection of the law

Next Monday will be a red letter day for the issue of racial discrimination in Japan.
BUSINESS
Nov 7, 2002

World Bank slightly more upbeat about East Asia

East Asia is expected to stage a stronger economic rebound in 2002 than was anticipated six months ago, the World Bank said Wednesday. However, the Washington-based institution remained cautious about whether the recovery, based on brisk exports, will be sustained.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2002

Shocking raids open new era in Australia

SYDNEY -- In dawn raids across Australia, gun-toting security police bashed down doors, questioned Indonesian residents, then carted off private papers to check for suspected terrorist activities. Surely this is Hollywood? No, it's "she'll be right, mate" Australia.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 6, 2002

Hillman takes Fighters' helm

Anyone hoping the Nippon Ham Fighters' new American manager will shake things up may be in for a disappointment.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 6, 2002

Lemper takes lyrical leap

NEW YORK -- "I don't find inspiration in harmony, but in the darker corners of life," says actress and cabaret singer Ute Lemper at her home in New York City, where I caught up with her last week. On Nov. 9, she will be singing at the Akasaka Act Theatre in Tokyo, which will be the entertainer's fourth...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 6, 2002

The Polyphonic Spree: "The Beginning Stages Of . . ."

Smile. Go ahead, it's good for you. That's right, smile now. Can you do it? If you're finding an impromptu grin difficult, pick up the first album by The Polyphonic Spree, "The Beginning Stages Of . . .," and wash away any gloom for at least 68 minutes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 6, 2002

Chris Potter: "Traveling Mercies"

Chris Potter's "Traveling Mercies," the followup to his highly acclaimed "Gratitude" album, is in many ways better, but in all ways more adventurous. "Gratitude" paid saxophone debts to the past with tunes dedicated to Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter, but on the new release, Potter is...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 6, 2002

A message of tolerance set in stone

History is never short on irony. The Indian subcontinent, now one of the world's most unstable nuclear hotbeds, once cradled a religion founded on nonviolence. And what is today a breeding ground for sectarian fundamentalism was the birthplace of a rich artistic heritage that drew deeply on the tolerant...
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Nov 5, 2002

Antlers outsmart Reds to capture Nabisco Cup

A 59th-minute goal by midfielder Mitsuo Ogasawara handed the Kashima Antlers a deserved 1-0 victory over the Urawa Reds in the Nabisco Cup Final in front of 56,064 fans at Tokyo National Stadium on Monday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Nov 5, 2002

Trapped in a cold tent by a strong wind outside

As readers may recall, our last Halloween horror story left us in Chobe national park, Botswana. Not the northern part of Chobe: the part with easy access, good roads, fantastic riverbank campsites and glorious views over the game-rich flood plain to the distant forests of Namibia. No. That would have...
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 5, 2002

Need a franchise player? Top scout says take Matsui over Ichiro

A year of speculation was brought to a sudden end on Friday when superstar slugger Hideki Matsui announced he was ending his 10-year career with the Yomiuri Giants and heading to the major leagues in search of a bigger challenge.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 4, 2002

America's way not always the best way, economists say

Although U.S. and British-style capitalism has prevailed throughout the world, Japan should fight to preserve the positive aspects of its traditional economic systems, scholars and economists said at a recent seminar in Tokyo.
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Nov 3, 2002

Sapporo makes quickest ever exit from J1

Consadole Sapporo was relegated to Division Two with four more matches remaining in the season -- the quickest ever exit from the top division of the J. League.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 2, 2002

Back to the future via broken promises

BRUSSELS -- Next year's crisis on the Korean Peninsula has come early. The year 2003 was to see an explosive conjuncture of events: a change of regime in South Korea, markedly less sympathetic to engagement with the North than that of current President Kim Dae Jung; the final failure of the United States...
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2002

EU 'withholds funds' for N. Korea reactors

The European Parliament has decided to temporarily withhold its 2003 funding to a consortium charged with building nuclear reactors in North Korea following Pyongyang's admission that it is developing nuclear arms, EU sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
Nov 2, 2002

Targets for debt ratios to be part of rescue deal

The government is considering setting debt-ratio targets that companies in danger of folding will be required to meet before getting government help securing further financing, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma said Friday.

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