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JAPAN
Oct 2, 2004

WFP shows how school meals fight hunger

The World Food Program opened a monthlong exhibit Friday in Tokyo that features photos of children worldwide benefiting from the WFP school meal program and relief goods they have received.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2004

Kitagawa to back second runway for loss-making Kansai airport

Newly appointed transport minister Kazuo Kitagawa says he will push for construction of a second runway by 2007 at the debt-strapped Kansai International Airport.
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2004

Intel-Disney broadband service eyed

Intel and The Walt Disney Co. Japan will start offering a new service in Japan next month that lets computer users add their own special effects as they watch Disney cartoons set to classical music.
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2004

Sumitomo Metal opens new furnace

Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. began using a new blast furnace Wednesday at its Kashima steelworks, the first time a Japanese steelmaker has started a new large blast furnace in 25 years.
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2004

Nikon, ASML settle patent disputes

Nikon Corp. said Wednesday it has agreed to a settlement with ASML Holding NV of the Netherlands over patent disputes, with ASML paying Nikon $87 million.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 30, 2004

Deaf school phenomenon points to innate language origins

So there's this deaf American visiting Russia, and he's thirsty. Using American Sign Language, he says to his deaf-guide, "I really want a soda." But in Russian Sign Language, the gestures he used correspond to, "I really want to have sex." Guessing at some linguistic problem, the Russian guide diplomatically...
COMMENTARY
Sep 29, 2004

Offer Pyongyang transparency challenge

HONOLULU -- "It's all South Korea's fault!" In a refreshing change from its natural tendency to blame Washington for all the world's troubles, Pyongyang has recently announced that it cannot proceed with the six-party talks over its clandestine nuclear-weapons programs since "the foundation for talks...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 29, 2004

Rhapsody to the bohemian lifestyle

More than a century has passed since the first performance Puccini's "La Boheme" in 1896, yet it remains one of the most widely performed operas in the world. That may be because the opera, a dramatization of the French writer, Henry Murger's 1849 novel "Scenes of the Bohemian Life" , seems to celebrate...
EDITORIALS
Sep 29, 2004

The road to 'sports citizenship'

The good news about Japanese professional baseball last week was that the players averted a second weekend strike following a last-minute agreement with management. A week earlier, an unprecedented walkout had been staged in protest against a merger deal between the Kintetsu Baffaloes and the Orix BlueWave...
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2004

Reform-oriented shuffle

Just as he indicated he would do before Monday's Cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi filled major party-executive posts and Cabinet posts with politicians loyal to his postal-reform policy. Prior to the naming of the new Cabinet lineup, Mr. Koizumi appointed Mr. Tsutomu Takebe, a former...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 28, 2004

To hell and back again

For a woman who barely cheated death earlier this year and who has since spent months recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Nahoko Takato looks in remarkably fine fettle.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Sep 27, 2004

Oil-shock veteran Japan strong enough to weather surging prices

Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed at a conference in Vienna on Sept. 15 to increase daily crude oil production by 1 million barrels to 27 million. This is a record that exceeds even the 26.7 million barrels agreed on in fall 2000, and signals OPEC's intent to correct...
COMMENTARY
Sep 27, 2004

Election shows Indonesia has come of age

BRUSSELS -- All the appearances are that Indonesia, the world's third largest democracy and largest Muslim state, has come of age, with the consolidation this year of a democracy that was reborn after 44 years in 1999.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 26, 2004

Mourinho's method wins many games, not many friends

LONDON -- Returning from Chelsea's 3-0 Champions League win over Paris Saint-Germain in France last week this correspondent was the last passenger to leave the team's plane. A police officer at Gatwick Airport asked: "Did they win?"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 26, 2004

Howl of Los Lobos stronger than ever

For 30 years, East L.A.'s Los Lobos has made a habit of crossing borders. One look through their discography reveals the Latin rock quintet's frequent movement between Mexican folk and American R&B, with regular stops along the Mississippi for funk and blues. Recent albums have even showed a moody, experimental...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 26, 2004

Who knows if it is teaching or torture?

I WOULDN'T WANT ANYBODY TO KNOW: Native English Teaching in Japan, edited by Eva P. Bueno & Terry Caesar. JPGS Press, 2004, 252 pp., 2,500 yen, $25.00 (paper). Tall stories are clearly better than short ones, at least in the world of publishing. A whole industry has grown out of the perceived, often...
Japan Times
Features
Sep 26, 2004

Abandoned misfit who found peace in prose and his new land

In the West, Lafcadio Hearn is largely unknown outside of small circles of Japanophiles and aficionados of Gaelic writers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 25, 2004

New Center for Creative Arts up and running

Anyone passing the South Korean Embassy in Tokyo's Moto Azabu in recent months may well have wondered about the flag reading "RBR -- New Center for Creative Arts" flying from the building opposite. Also the steady flow of visitors -- every age, color, race and creed.
EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 2004

Elaboration needed on UNSC bid

I n New York this week, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has focused his diplomatic efforts on Japan's bid for permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council. At the Japan-U.S. summit meeting on Tuesday, Mr. Koizumi sought President George W. Bush's active support for this quest. What he...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 24, 2004

Northern delights of Sapporo

Despite its easy proximity, brought by the relatively short flying time from Tokyo, an air of remoteness still hangs over Hokkaido. Physically the island is more a last outpost of Siberia than an integral part of Japan. In Hokkaido, little rice grows, scant cherry trees bloom, no rainy season descends,...
BUSINESS
Sep 23, 2004

August trade surplus logs first decline in 14 months

Japan's trade surplus fell 26 percent in August from a year earlier to 576.1 billion yen, marking its first decline in 14 months as higher oil prices pushed up overall import prices, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2004

Look for a larger Russian role in Korea

SEOUL-- With the six-party talks in the deep freeze, South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun is looking east to help break the ice. In his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow this week Roh is expected to both press Putin to play a more active diplomatic role in resolving the nuclear standoff...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 22, 2004

And in the tattered black tights, Papa

Backdrop Papa Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Toshio Lee Running time: 98 minutes Language: Japanese Opens Oct. 8 [See Japan Times movie listings] Boys want their fathers to be heroes. Men want to be heroes to their sons. These truisms sound old-fashioned in today's unheroic Tokyo,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 22, 2004

It's a thin line between love and hate

Monster Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Patty Jenkins Running time: 109 minutes Language: English Opens Sept. 25 [See Japan Times movie listings] Aileen Wuornos is often tagged the first female serial killer and the first U.S. woman to receive the death penalty neither is true,...
EDITORIALS
Sep 22, 2004

Landmark power transfer in China

The resignation of Mr. Jiang Zemin as chairman of China's Central Military Commission (CMC), the country's top military post, completes the transfer of power from Mr. Jiang to his successor, Mr. Hu Jintao. The handover is a landmark in modern Chinese politics, but its political impact is unclear. Mr....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 22, 2004

Stop usif you'veheard thisone before

The Quiet American Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Philip Noyce Running time: 101 minutes Language: English Now showing [See Japan Times movie listings] When Graham Greene penned his novel "The Quiet American" in 1954, he was set on capturing a particular point in time in late,...

Longform

Wealthier women in the prewar era had been the targets of various media-related health campaigns that mistakenly encouraged them to avoid everything from riding bicycles to reading novels when their monthly cycles came around.
Menstruation in Japan: Breaking the silence, slowly