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Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 25, 2005

Stage plays restore your faith in comedy

"Comedy is an escape, not from the truth but from despair; a narrow escape into faith," wrote the English playwright Christopher Fry in Time magazine in 1950. These days the moment you switch on television in Japan, you are likely to be assailed by gales of laughter as young comedians talk frantically,...
BUSINESS
May 25, 2005

ATMs need to take foreign cards: critics

The inability of most automated teller machines at Japanese banks to accept foreign credit cards has long irritated tourists and short-term foreign residents in a country where cash still plays a key role in everyday life.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 24, 2005

Here comes the fear

Japan is following other developed countries in drafting antiterrorism laws.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 24, 2005

NTT Com to offer fragrances via Net

NTT Communications Corp. said Monday it has developed a way to offer fragrances via the Internet.
COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 2005

Chinese protests stiffen Japanese resolve

The Law of Unintended Consequences has been at work again, this time in the intense Japanese reaction to the Chinese demonstrations last month against Japan, some of them violent. In a word, the eruption in China has backfired in Japan.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 22, 2005

Fuji TV dramatizes Naoki Prize winning novel "Kuchu Buranko" and more

This week's "Friday Entertainment" special (Fuji TV, 9 p.m.) is a dramatization of the 131st winner of the Naoki Prize for Literature, Hideo Okura's novel "Kuchu Buranko (Flying Trapeze)."
EDITORIALS
May 22, 2005

Brave new words

Not so long ago -- six or eight months, perhaps -- we heard a young man describe something as "ginormous." We were impressed. Although we had never heard the word, its meaning was obvious: gigantic plus enormous. How clever of this person, we thought, to coin such a fun, economical new way of saying...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 22, 2005

Joe Lovano

Saxophonist Joe Lovano knows just how to rough up a bop number, wail like a bird of prey and keep each and every note right on target. Too young to have fully joined the free jazz movement and too old to be a slick self-promoter, Lovano relies instead on straight-on integrity. He knows people don't come...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 21, 2005

Collaborating on Japan's photography masters

Mumi Trabucco and Kanji Embutsu share a passion for photography. Which is why -- if not how -- they have come to be working together on the two-day exhibition "Modern Masters of Photography -- Japan" to be staged at Prudential Tower in Tokyo's Akasaka-Mitsuke on May 28 and 29.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2005

Battling the windmills while Iraq burns

DOHA, Qatar -- Cast aside the nonsensical rhetoric about U.S. President George W. Bush's ostensibly successful efforts to bolster democratic tendencies "sweeping" the Middle East, and you'll discover that the facts are not so rosy, with Iraq remaining the most horrific reminder.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
May 19, 2005

PET bottles

Dear Alice,
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
May 17, 2005

Valentine living it up in Japan as Marine faithful think pennant

Bobby Valentine isn't interested in talking about when or if he'll make a return to the major leagues. The former New York Mets manager is perfectly happy here in Japan.
COMMUNITY / LIFELINES
May 17, 2005

More on books, cake and bank bungles

Used books On the subject of used books, and where to get them/leave them, an alert reader writes in to let us know that Caravan Books, long a popular spot to pick up bargains, closed down in March.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
May 15, 2005

Race not a factor in Nash's MVP victory

NEW YORK -- Miami Herald columnist Dan Le Batard played the race card last week and, despite the fact there was no one else sitting at his table, he couldn't resist dealing from the bottom of a deck obviously not near full.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 15, 2005

When law and justice won't mix

JAPAN'S COLONIZATION OF KOREA: Discourse and Power, by Alexis Dudden. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005, 215 pp. $45 (cloth). Lawful and just are two separate things that may be irreconcilable. A good example that offers plenty of material to fathom this out was the annexation of Korea by Japan....
Japan Times
Features
May 15, 2005

A hands-on approach to healing in a trice

Lying on your back, you pull up your shirt and push down your pants a bit. Your partner gently touches your navel, then moves their fingers slightly down.
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
May 15, 2005

No laughing matter

O n the stage, Charlie Chaplin was known as the tramp who made millions laugh without saying a word. But in his heart of hearts, it seems the great comic wanted to be a statesman whose words could change history.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 14, 2005

Near relegation, Saints wondering where it all went wrong

LONDON -- If Norwich City beats Fulham on Sunday then Southampton will lose the top division status it has held since 1978. Relegation would complete one of the most remarkable and unexpected declines in Premiership history -- two years ago Southampton finished eighth and was beaten 1-0 by Arsenal in...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 14, 2005

'Double standard' beef plan may fuel consumer anxiety

Although the Japanese government is poised to exempt cattle 20 months or younger slaughtered in the United States from screening for mad cow disease, local governments here plan to continue checking all slaughtered cattle.
BUSINESS
May 14, 2005

Resona pays 100 million yen to 130 victims of fraud

Resona Holdings Inc., the parent of Resona Bank and Saitama Resona Bank, has refunded 100 million yen to 130 victims of swindling.
BUSINESS
May 13, 2005

METI seeks measures to promote robot use in aging society

An industry ministry study group Thursday called for government measures to help promote the use of robots to deal with the rapidly aging workforce.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 12, 2005

Fetuses found to inherit mother's trauma

Stress can motivate us, but it can also get us down. And though it might just make us feel blue, it can also kill us. It depresses levels of sex hormones and people stressed by deadlines are more likely to suffer heart attacks.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 12, 2005

Middle-aged men seek reconciliation with wives

Oh boy. It's happened at last: the junai (pure love) boom of last year that changed even the behavioral patterns of Sentagai no Jyoshikousei (the high school girls of Center-Gai, Shibuya) has reached the last and most difficult segment of the Japanese populace: the over-45 salaryman.
EDITORIALS
May 11, 2005

Confidence in train safety

The safety of public transport in Japan has been thrown into doubt by the April 25 train derailment in Hyogo Prefecture, which killed 107 people and injured 460, and by a succession of other transport-related incidents that have followed -- including train overruns, a bus accident, errors by air traffic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 11, 2005

The eternal flamenco

The fiery folk art of flamenco is more than just a dance -- it's an entire culture. And that culture -- the dances, songs, guitar-playing and rhythms -- are all fueled by the mysterious spirit of duende.
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2005

Design for sustaining peace

DILI, East Timor -- The United Nations has not been notably successful in moving from initial stabilization, infrastruc- ture reconstruction and re-establishment of local governance institutions to the more demanding goal of leaving behind self-sustaining structures of state that can implement rapid...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 10, 2005

Repairs, free calls, tickets and cheesecake

Auto-repairs Therese comes to Claire's rescue concerning the latter's request for an auto-repair shop in the Shibuya/Yoyogi area (Lifelines; April 26).
EDITORIALS
May 9, 2005

Fishing for sustainable profits

The good news for Japan's fisheries is that some of its products enjoy growing demand abroad, particularly in some parts of Asia. This year's government white paper on fisheries stresses the importance of developing overseas markets and highlights a variety of export-oriented initiatives across the country....

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