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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 6, 2005

Takebe Ayatari: The ultimate bunjin

TAKEBE AYATARI: A Bunjin Bohemian in Early Modern Japan, by Lawrence E. Marceau. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 2004, 370 pp. + xxi pp., 16 color plates, 122 b/w plates. $69.00 (cloth). Takebe Ayatari (1719-1774), the subject of this detailed and scholarly monograph,...
Japan Times
Features
Mar 6, 2005

Issey Ogata: Comic chameleon

Issey Ogata is nothing if not versatile. Alone on an empty stage, he has audiences in fits as he performs his seriously funny one-man shows portraying characters as diverse as a classic sarariman (office worker) and a folk-song diva -- one after another.
EDITORIALS
Mar 5, 2005

Mr. Tsutsumi called to account

Mr. Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, the former leader of the scandal-tainted Seibu Railway group, has been arrested on charges of presenting false financial reports and selling stock to clients without sufficient information disclosure. His arrest, carried out Thursday jointly by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors...
BUSINESS
Mar 5, 2005

Toyota Vitz reclaims pole position in vehicle sales battle

Toyota Motor Corp.'s Vitz was the best-selling new car in Japan in February, returning to the top spot for the first time since July 2000.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2005

Group wants BMW Tokyo chief as Daiei president

A consortium led by trading house Marubeni Corp. has proposed making BMW Tokyo Corp. President Fumiko Hayashi the new president of ailing supermarket chain Daiei Inc., sources said Wednesday.
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 2, 2005

Defender Nakazawa honored by soccer writers

Yokohama F. Marinos and Japan defender Yuji Nakazawa on Tuesday was named the 2004 Footballer of the Year in a poll of Japanese soccer writers.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 2, 2005

Struggling aviation startups using wrong strategy, expert says

Despite the emergence of budget airlines that pose a threat to major carriers around the globe, Japanese startup carriers are still struggling to take off, with some already in rehabilitation.
EDITORIALS
Feb 28, 2005

Look for VAT hike on the agenda

It appears that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is pushing the consumption-tax issue onto the political agenda. During a Lower House plenary session earlier this month, he said, in effect, that the value-added tax should be increased as part of overall social security reform. Until recently, Koizumi...
COMMENTARY
Feb 28, 2005

Police have let trust escape

The Japanese police system was once regarded as one of the best in the world, but that is no longer true. In a spate of scandals, some officers are said to have created slush funds with public money while others have falsified internal reports to improve their performance records.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 27, 2005

Where there's magic, there's Buddha

THE DHARMA OF DRAGONS AND DAEMONS: Buddhist Themes in Modern Fantasy, by David R. Loy and Linda Goodhew, foreword by Jane Hirshfield. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2004, 155 pp., $14.95 (paper). David R. Loy and Linda Goodhew's "The Dharma of Dragons and Daemons" is subtitled "Buddhist Themes in Modern...
EDITORIALS
Feb 27, 2005

The British navy's pink carpet

'R um, sodomy and the lash" are the words Winston Churchill is popularly credited with using to sum up the traditions of Britain's Royal Navy. (A former assistant has said that Churchill never uttered the famous phrase but wished he had.) Either way, the idea that Her Majesty's naval forces have always...
Features
Feb 27, 2005

New order in court

May 21, 2004, was an epoch-making day for Japan; it was the day the Diet passed a law to introduce a new criminal court system that will involve ordinary citizens in the administration of justice for the first time in postwar history.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2005

Insurers race to get into medical policies as population ages

The risk of getting sick may soon be more important than the risk of dying, according to the life insurance industry.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 23, 2005

Foreign stars to battle Japan stars in March 14 charity game

Kudos: To Bobby Valentine, Trey Hillman, Tsutomu Ito, Kazuhiko Ushijima and all the players who will participate in the Pro Yakyu Charity Game at Tokyo Dome on Monday, March 14.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 23, 2005

Whitewash fails to cover the pain

In "Akuma no Uta, (Devil's Song)" the playwright Keiishi Nagatsuka, 29, seems to ask what we Japanese have learned from defeat in World War II. Leaning heavily on comedy, farce, satire and sometimes tragedy, Nagatsuka's answer -- as one of a generation only able to know about that human catastrophe from...
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2005

More challenges face EU charter

Spanish voters approved the European Union's new constitution by an overwhelming majority in Sunday's referendum -- the first time that a EU country had put the charter to a popular vote. This victory is no cause for complacency, however. The document, signed in October, will not take effect if it is...
MORE SPORTS
Feb 21, 2005

Meisho Bowler speeds home in record

The first big race of the year went down in record time to favorite Meisho Bowler as the 4-year-old held off a field of veterans for a wire-to-wire, length-and-a-quarter win of the February Stakes (Jpn., I) in Tokyo on Sunday.
COMMENTARY
Feb 21, 2005

Pyongyang toeing 'red line'

North Korea shocked the world with its announcement Feb. 10 that it will "indefinitely" stay away from the six-party talks on its nuclear arms program and that it already has nuclear weapons.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 20, 2005

Gumshoes who pass in the night

THE RED EARTH OF ALABAMA, by Michiro Naito. Bloomington, Indiana: Authorhouse, 2005, 188 pp., $23.95 (cloth). KINKI LULLABY, by Issac Adamson. New York: Dark Alley, 2004, 358 pp., $13.95, (paper). Even in this age of political correctness, it's proving difficult for popular fiction to wean itself from...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Feb 20, 2005

Sit down and be counted!

One chilly Friday morning last month, high-school teacher Noriyuki Ishida had probably the most stressful experience of his 35-year career.
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2005

Toshiba names Nishida to be next president

Toshiba Corp. plans to appoint Senior Managing Director Atsutoshi Nishida, 61, as the company's new president to succeed Tadashi Okamura, 66, who will assume the chairmanship, sources said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 19, 2005

Diaspora bridges China and ASEAN

SINGAPORE -- On Feb. 9, the start of the Year of the Rooster, ethnic Chinese communities across Southeast Asia took stock of their progress and their future in the shadow of China's peaceful development and its strengthened status within the region of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations....
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2005

SMFG, Daiwa units to merge

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. said Friday their venture capital units will merge Oct. 1.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 19, 2005

Cosmopolitan stands for cultural understanding

A gaggle of students leaving Cosmopolitan Consultancy in Kawasaki's Shin-Yurigaoka point the way to the front door. "Up, up," they urge, to the third floor, where Suzan Matkin awaits with slippers and English tea.
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2005

Tax offices start accepting '04 returns

Regional tax offices nationwide began accepting 2004 income tax returns Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2005

Chubu airport has high air-freight hopes

When Central Japan International Airport in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, opens Thursday, it hopes to become the nation's main international air freight hub.
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2005

With ANA back in black, next chief eyes new overseas routes

Chicago, Delhi, Bombay and Moscow.

Longform

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