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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jun 24, 2005

So you want to be a rock 'n' roll star?

Forget karaoke. Why sing along to an "empty orchestra" (which is what karaoke means in Japanese) when you could be the star -- center stage -- fronting your own live band? I am sure that many people who have perfected their "empty" performances must have dreamed of taking it a step further.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2005

Two research whale burgers to go, please

A Hokkaido fast food joint began offering whale burgers Thursday as antiwhaling nations urged Japan to cut back on its catch at an international whaling conference.
EDITORIALS
Jun 23, 2005

Putting the Vietnam War to rest

Ten years after the two countries normalized relations, and three decades after the end of the Vietnam War, a leading Vietnamese official is visiting the United States for the first time. Prime Minister Phan Van Khai's trip holds out hope that the two countries will put the war behind them. The vocal...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 23, 2005

China's growth sums just don't add up for the planet

China's 1.3 billion (and counting) citizens are poised to transform the global landscape dramatically, both economically and ecologically.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2005

Death, disease not linked to smoking: high court

The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal filed by former smokers, some now deceased, who were each demanding 10 million yen in compensation from Japan Tobacco Inc. and the government for tobacco-induced illnesses.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2005

Osaka 'curfew' plan rife with problems

OSAKA — It's a Saturday evening in early 2006, and four Osaka-area 15-year-old friends, Kenji, Taro, Yoko and Yuka, show up at a theater to see the latest movie. The time is 6:45 p.m., 15 minutes before the movie starts.
BUSINESS
Jun 23, 2005

Credit card data thieves ring up 110 million yen

Data on about 46,000 Visa card holders have been stolen and so far, more than 110 million yen in illicit purchases have been reported, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 22, 2005

Agreement at a 'minuscule level'

It was extraordinary to see two national leaders having a hard time putting a face on a two-hour-long summit meeting that apparently did not produce any substantive agreement. At an internationally televised press conference following the summit in Seoul on Monday, South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun...
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2005

Private universities shine in 2005 civil service exam

A record 406 applicants from private universities passed the top level civil service exam this fiscal year, accounting for a record 24.3 percent of successful candidates, the National Personnel Authority said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 22, 2005

Teaching the world to sing in perfect harmony

When Kazufumi Miyazawa, vocalist of the Japanese rock band The Boom wrote the song titled "Shima-uta" about 15 years ago, no one imagined the path it would take, starting as a huge domestic hit and then gaining a life of its own abroad.
COMMUNITY
Jun 21, 2005

Should we hunt whales?

The pro-whaling position anguishes those nations that resent Japan's apparent cruelty.
BUSINESS
Jun 21, 2005

Credit card companies urge calm over data theft in U.S.

Major credit card firms appealed Monday for calm after it was learned that personal information on tens of thousands of Japanese card holders may have been leaked as a result of a security breach in the United States.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2005

Child-abuse consultations rise by 25%

Child consultation centers across the nation dealt with about a quarter more cases in fiscal 2004 than a year earlier, a preliminary survey by the welfare ministry showed Monday.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2005

Couple murdered before dormitory blast

Two people were found dead Monday following an explosion at a corporate dormitory in Itabashi Ward, Tokyo, police said.
COMMENTARY
Jun 21, 2005

The euro's legs are shaking

LONDON -- Now that the proposed European Union Constitution has been well and truly sunk (although parts may be salvaged), could the same fate happen to the euro currency?
EDITORIALS
Jun 19, 2005

Inevitable need to be ready

Due to the geographic and geological characteristics of the Japanese archipelago, middle- to large-scale natural disasters can strike at any time. While military conflicts or terrorism may be thwarted through human efforts, typhoons and earthquakes are unstoppable, affecting all those residing in this...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 19, 2005

The community in mind as a matter of practice

RITUAL PRACTICE IN MODERN JAPAN: Ordering Place, People, and Action, by Satsuki Kawano. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005, 152 pp., with b/w photos, $17.00 (paper). "Ritual" has meanings other than the primary dictionary definition, which insists upon the prescribed order of a religious ceremony...
COMMENTARY
Jun 19, 2005

Energy plan that terminates the econom

WASHINGTON -- "We're all Keynesians now," declared U.S. President Richard M. Nixon when he surrendered his fiscal policies to liberal orthodoxy. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did much the same with his recent executive order calling for draconian cuts in the emission of "greenhouse gases" linked...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 19, 2005

Tim Ries' the Rolling Stones Project

Though rock musicians from Sting to Joni Mitchell to the Grateful Dead have always brought jazz elements into their music, often hiring jazz mercenaries to do it, jazz has rarely used rock as a source of much more than electricity. Tim Ries has set out to reclaim some of the listeners lost to rock decades...
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2005

Chinese, S. Koreans overwhelmingly oppose Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni

More than 80 percent of Chinese and South Korean respondents to a recent survey oppose Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine and Japan's bid to become a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2005

Cambodia school intrusion raises security scrutiny here anew

Thursday's deadly hostage-taking by four intruders at an international school in Cambodia has further driven home the need for schools in Japan to assess whether they have taken adequate security measures.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2005

Koizumi nixes Yasukuni replacement

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday rejected a suggestion that the government set up a new war memorial as a substitute for Tokyo's war-related Yasukuni Shrine.
EDITORIALS
Jun 18, 2005

New era of bank card security

Bank deposit safety in Japan is threatened increasingly by people using forged or stolen cards to make illegal withdrawals. Now, members of the Diet are preparing to introduce a bill that would require all financial institutions -- including commercial banks, post offices and credit unions -- to compensate...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jun 17, 2005

Alcohol continues to fuel Best's free fall toward tragic ending

LONDON -- When George Best was having problems with his first wife, Angie, I shared a flight back to England with him from Miami -- he was playing for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the North American Soccer League at the time.

Longform

Ayumi Matsuki, a priestess at Yoshiwara Shrine, shows off some "o-mamori" charms. She says visitors to the shrine have increased since the NHK drama “Unbound” began airing this month.
Tracing Tsutaya Juzaburo, Edo’s media maverick