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CULTURE / Music
Mar 9, 2001

Michio Imazato finds another shade of blue

When Michio Imazato first heard Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue," a record he checked out from the public library in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture, he couldn't have known he'd be leading his own quintet 10 years later in New York City. After all, he was a typical rock 'n' roll-loving high-school kid playing...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 6, 2001

Carefully controlled exoticism

THE ORIENT STRIKES BACK: A Global View of Cultural Display, by Joy Hendry. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2000, 256 pp., 40 illustrations (16 color). 42.99 British pounds (cloth), 14.99 British pounds (paper). A century ago, the West used to entertain and educate itself with random views of the East. World's...
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2001

Jobless rate stays at 4.9%; spending remains in a lull

Dour economic indicators released Friday provided further evidence that Japan's economic recovery is stalling, with unemployment staying at a record-high level of 4.9 percent in January and consumer spending remaining flat.
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2001

Obara pleads not guilty to drugging, rape charges

Joji Obara, a suspect in the death of a British hostess whose dismembered body was discovered earlier this month, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of drugging and raping three Japanese women.
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2001

Dreamcast nightmare to cost Sega 300 jobs

Moving along with its decision to quit production of its Dreamcast game console, Sega Corp. said Monday it will solicit applications from 300 of its 2,600 employees to leave their jobs.
EDITORIALS
Feb 25, 2001

Ode to the Oedo Line

You don't really notice it unless you go looking for it. Mostly, it's hidden away underground, catching the eye at street level only in places where its irrational exuberance breaks through: as a funky glass-tiled box at Akabanebashi, say, or huge, alien-looking metal leaf shapes at Iidabashi. Even the...
CULTURE / Music
Feb 25, 2001

Metal chaos and the forces of artistic evil

Love him or loathe him, you just can't ignore him. That old cliche certainly rings true with Marilyn Manson. Rap might have thrown up its first genuine white rapper, Eminem, to get up the establishment's nose, but metal has the ghoulish Goth freak to take care of the other end.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 25, 2001

Love Psychedelico hits the blue notes

It's every struggling musician's dream: One moment you're scrounging around for gigs and a record deal while trying to keep food on the table and pay the rent, and the next moment, you've got a hit record on your hands and suddenly the talk of the town.
BUSINESS
Feb 24, 2001

PCCW to buy U.S. firm's game arm

Game software developer Pacific Century CyberWorks Japan Co. said Friday it has agreed to buy VR1, the network game software division of U.S. Internet business and entertainment provider Circadence Corp., for about $38 million.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2001

Otaru racism controversy lingers on

OTARU, Hokkaido -- The controversy over some "onsen" (hot spring) bathhouses banning foreigners from their facilities in this northern port town, which is frequented by Russian ships, lingers on more than a year after the issue was first raised.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Feb 21, 2001

Who's napping now?

As any music fan knows, the future of Napster, the biggest free lunch of MP3s on the Net, is still very much in legal limbo. Last week a San Francisco appeals court confirmed a decision made this summer: Napster is knowingly infringing the copyrights of recording artists. The court asked U.S District...
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2001

Japan-the-liberator remark lands criticism upon Norota

A top official of the Democratic Party of Japan on Monday lashed out at a remark made the previous day by the House of Representatives Budget Committee chairman that Japan purged Asia of colonialism during World War II.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2001

Japan-the-liberator remark lands criticism upon Norota

A top official of the Democratic Party of Japan on Monday lashed out at a remark made the previous day by the House of Representatives Budget Committee chairman that Japan purged Asia of colonialism during World War II.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 17, 2001

They came from Zeta Reticuli

Mudvayne are often said to be the "new" Slipknot. Slipknot wear masks and are very famous; Mudvayne wear makeup and are getting there. And they both fit snugly into the new-fangled rock genre known as nu-metal. What's nu-metal? It's old metal but louder, faster and much more pretentious: It makes the...
LIFE / Digital
Feb 16, 2001

From video game to big screen

HONOLULU -- Aki, the scientist/heroine of Square Picture's new movie "Final Fantasy," steps from the door of her space shuttle and surveys the wreckage that is Old New York.
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Feb 16, 2001

Keeping it pure and personal

There are people who have character and there are people who are characters. Coppe, the coolest musician you've never heard of, is both.
JAPAN
Feb 15, 2001

'Japan 2001' fest set to take center stage in U.K.

Several years ago, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono and former British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind came up with an idea. Why not try, they asked, to think of ways for Japan and the U.K. to promote each other's image in a better light?
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2001

Police determine body found in cave to be Blackman's

Police have confirmed that the remains discovered Friday in a cave in Kanagawa Prefecture are those of Lucie Blackman, the 21-year-old British hostess who went missing last July.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Body found in cave identified as Blackman's

Police said Saturday the remains discovered Friday in a cave in Kanagawa Prefecture are those of Lucie Blackman, a 21-year-old British hostess who went missing last July.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2001

Body found in cave identified as Blackman's

Police said Saturday the remains discovered Friday in a cave in Kanagawa Prefecture are those of Lucie Blackman, a 21-year-old British hostess who went missing last July.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2001

Body parts found in a cave near Obara's coastal condo

Police investigating the July disappearance of Lucie Blackman found what appear to be parts of a woman's body Friday in a coastal cave in Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture.
BUSINESS
Feb 9, 2001

Household spending fell 0.9% in '00

Overall monthly household spending averaged 317,133 yen in 2000, down 0.9 percent from 1999 for the eighth straight year of decline, the government said Thursday.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Feb 7, 2001

Top 10 alternative reasons to go ADSL

www.icebox.com Like most of the Net's other starving-artist showcases, there's an overwhelming choice here, but the favorite appears to be Queer Duck. The episodes, about a gay mallard, are sharp social satire in which it's difficult, at least at first, to determine whether the author is preaching discrimination...
LIFE / Digital
Feb 7, 2001

Post-Dreamcast, Sega set to become world's top game publisher

SEATTLE -- With its recent decision to abandon the 128-bit Dreamcast video game console and to publish games for PlayStation2 and other gaming platforms, Sega appears to be leaving the game hardware business permanently. Sega Enterprises cofounder David Rosen says it's about time.
BUSINESS
Feb 6, 2001

TV Tokyo to enter Internet content venture

Television Tokyo Channel 12 Ltd. said Monday it will set up a joint venture with six other firms on March 1 to provide economic news and animation programs via high-speed Internet connections.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2001

Kabuki debuts at middle school

It is nothing new for kabuki actors to go out of Tokyo to perform, but Nakamura Kichiemon recently took an unprecedented step to provoke interest among young schoolchildren in the traditional theater.
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2001

Sega to cut price of Dreamcast

Sega Corp. said Friday it will cut the price of its Dreamcast game console, production of which will be halted in March, in the United States and Japan to reduce inventory.
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2001

Moody's lowers Sega's debt rating

Moody's Investors Service Inc. said Thursday that it has lowered Sega Corp.'s debt rating to B3 from B2, reflecting the computer game company's weaker-than-expected performance and eroding financial flexibility.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?