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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 13, 2002

Reassessing Kurosawa's neglected masterpiece

SEVEN SAMURAI: The Film by Akira Kurosawa, by Joan Mellen. London: British Film Institute, 2002, 96 pp., with many b/w photos, 8.99 British pounds (paper) The National Film Theater in London is currently presenting a two-month-long festival featuring the works of Akira Kurosawa. A number of other events...
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jan 13, 2002

A space-age think pad with the sweet smell of success

Each year begins with a clean sheet. Like the first page in a new diary, it is pure and unblemished. (The coffee-and-ink stains come later as we juggle our resolutions with the realities of life.) As such, the simple, white world of Bar Kapa seems an appropriate place to start. Even after two years of...
BASEBALL / MLB
Jan 12, 2002

Eight enter Japanese Hall of Fame

Kazuhiro Yamauchi, one of the best sluggers of the late 1950s and 1960s, has been elected to the Hall of Fame along with seven other notable contributors to Japanese baseball, baseball officials said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 12, 2002

Indo-Pakistani chances for peace improve

It now appears that war between nuclear powers India and Pakistan can be prevented. Islamabad's current crackdown on militant organizations may not have fully satisfied New Delhi, but Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's gesture at the recent conference of the South Asian Association for Regional...
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2002

Filmmaker records life and death in Manila's garbage dumps

"Someone get a saw!" yells a rescue worker frantically digging in a heap of garbage for a buried body. A blackened corpse slowly emerges, but rescuers are unsure if it is a man or woman. "I know her," someone finally says. "It's Mrs. Garret."
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2002

Farm minister's retirement pay hit

Lawmakers on Thursday fiercely criticized the huge retirement payment allocated to Hideaki Kumazawa, the former vice farm minister who stepped down this month amid criticism of the ministry's handling of the recent outbreak of mad cow disease.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 10, 2002

Arab nations leaving Palestinians to face Israel alone

BEIRUT -- There has always been a vital Arab dimension to the Palestinian struggle. For a long period, in fact, the Arabs bore the brunt of the struggle, waging four, mainly disastrous, wars, in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973, with little or no Palestinian participation in them.
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2002

Hokkaido skating marathon slated

Japan is the country of 1998 Nagano Olympics gold medalist speedskater Hiroyasu Shimizu and 2000 Sydney Olympics gold medalist marathon runner Naoko Takahashi.
COMMENTARY
Jan 10, 2002

Nuclear deployment danger

HONOLULU -- The handshake between Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in Nepal last Saturday caused an international sigh of relief as the two nuclear powers took a tentative step back from the brink of war. Tensions will remain high on the Indian subcontinent,...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 10, 2002

Eco-tour program puts priority on people

First of two parts Stefan Ottomanski is a rare educator: He thrives on uncertainty and views obstacles as opportunities to teach both his students and himself lessons that were never part of the curriculum.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 9, 2002

Skiers Funaki, Harada named to Olympic team

Olympic gold-winning duo Kazuyoshi Funaki and Masahiko Harada were named Monday to Japan's ski jumping team for next month's Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
JAPAN
Jan 9, 2002

Foreign visitors expected to rise 8.7%

Foreign visitors to Japan this year will increase 8.7 percent from last year to 5.14 million, thanks to the World Cup soccer finals that kick off in May, the nation's largest travel agency predicted Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 9, 2002

Tokyo Kandenchi putting a little spark back into the Bard

For my first theater outing of 2002, I went to see "A Midsummer-Night's Dream" by Tokyo Kandenchi (Tokyo Dry Battery). In this -- their 25th anniversary performance, but their first-ever brush with the Bard of Avon -- the company made no pretense of striving to scale great literary heights, but instead...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 9, 2002

Assisting artists to enrich the spirit

Despite the relentless advance of the global economy, the cliche of the starving artist or student has not completely lost its currency. Younger artists seeking to establish themselves, or scholars wishing to devote more time to their studies, are generally in for a belt-tightening experience.
Events
Jan 8, 2002

Kansai / Who & What

Talk-no-kai holding two discussion sessions Talk-no-kai, a Nara-based citizens' group, is going to hold two English discussion sessions in Nara on Saturday.
JAPAN
Jan 8, 2002

Fund drive seeks to restore graves in Uzbekistan

A group of 40 lawmakers and business executives has launched a fundraising drive aimed at restoring Japanese graves in Uzbekistan and erecting a monument in honor of those who died as forced laborers on foreign soil.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 8, 2002

Behind the scenes with Phnom Penh's 'orange girls'

PHNOM PENH -- In central Phnom Penh, at one end of a semiderelict building, is a tiny lean-to shack. Its walls are made of scavenged wood planks and its roof of corrugated iron. The ground around it is a swamp of sewage and mud due to the daily monsoon rains. To get to the shack, you have to hop along...
COMMENTARY
Jan 8, 2002

India set to keep full press on Pakistan

NEW DELHI -- The biggest question now is whether war will break out between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan. Although no right-minded citizen in either country wants war, many forget that Pakistan has thrust an undeclared war on India for years, bleeding India noticeably. Thus the aim is not...
JAPAN
Jan 8, 2002

Foreign brides fill the gap in rural Japan

TOZAWA, Yamagata Pref. -- Cheerful laughter echoed through this snow-covered village in the Tohoku region one morning as a group of women sat down to chat over tea.
Events
Jan 8, 2002

Tourists take on Takla Makan aboard thirsty ships of desert

AMAGASAKI, Hyogo Pref. -- To enter the Takla Makan Desert in China's Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region may mean to never return.
SOCCER / THE BALD TRUTH
Jan 8, 2002

Former Sanfrecce boss Thomson itching to get back into J. League

SYDNEY -- Former Sanfrecce Hiroshima manager Eddie Thomson is the sort of person who could sell Michael Schumacher a used Skoda.
BUSINESS
Jan 8, 2002

Argentina crisis not yet a danger

The economic woes of Argentina are not likely to have major negative effects on the rest of the global economy, Vice Finance Minister Toshiro Muto said Monday.

Longform

Pedestrians commute through Shibuya Station in central Tokyo, an area that is almost never devoid of people.
As the rest of Japan shrinks, Tokyo grows