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Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 13, 2002

An adopted son of the circus

It was a small advertisement in the paper that led Koichi Yano to one of Canada's leading circus companies, Montreal-based Cirque Eloize. It was 1996, he was in Canada helping his sister settle in and was still under the spell of a recent performance by renowned circus company Cirque du Soleil, also...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 13, 2002

In the nihongo words of the Bard . . .

Kazuko Matsuoka is the Shakespeare translator whose work directors and actors in Japan most like to use. A 59-year-old Tokyo resident, she is the translator appointed for the Saitama Arts Theater's project of staging Shakespeare's complete works. To date, she has translated 11 of the plays, and is now...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 13, 2002

Trail of Dead: 'Source Tags & Codes'

At last year's Summersonic festival, Texas four-piece . . . And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead gave us the best, and most incendiary, live performance Japan saw all year. They ended a phenomenal show by trashing every piece of equipment on stage -- even the drum kit was hurled into the mosh pit...
BUSINESS
Mar 13, 2002

Nippon Steel to enter China housing market

Nippon Steel Corp. said Tuesday it will enter the house-building business in China by licensing its construction technology to a Chinese building materials firm.
COMMENTARY
Mar 12, 2002

Asia changed little by 9-11

HONOLULU -- While the way Americans look at the world may have fundamentally changed since Sept. 11, the basic Asian issues confronting U.S. decision-makers remain largely unchanged. A look at regional concerns shows more similarities than differences to those that existed before Sept. 11.
BUSINESS
Mar 12, 2002

'Economy watchers' see rise in business

Sentiment on the front lines of the workforce improved for the fourth month in a row in February, although pessimistic workers continue to outnumber those with an optimistic outlook, according to a government report released Monday.
COMMENTARY
Mar 11, 2002

Reform takes back seat to economic values

HONOLULU -- Despite the hype, Japan's antideflation package has failed once again to impress the critics. This failure is remarkable given the international attention that has focused on the proposal, the vote of no-confidence that had been delivered by the markets and the pressure applied by the U.S....
COMMUNITY
Mar 10, 2002

Salsa in the city

NEW YORK CITY -- For anyone serious about salsa, New York is the place to be. At around $200 a month for unlimited group sessions, lessons in the city are relatively cheap; instructors are often world-class dancers; and, most importantly, students can immerse themselves in a rich Latin scene.
COMMUNITY
Mar 10, 2002

How I got my freak on

1 for the money 2 for the Lie 3 for my peoples in the struggle gettin' by 4 Lu, Spig Nice and Freaky Tai Music makes me high
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Mar 10, 2002

A few blooming good wines

The month of March moves us toward spring and the brilliant profusion of cherry trees in bloom. During the gray, damp days on the late edge of winter, we daydream of hanami parties. In Tokyo, we'll play a guitar on a blanket in Inokashira Park, eat sushi rolls under the tunnel of blossoms in Aoyama Cemetery,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 10, 2002

Il Pentito: Anyway you slice, it's real Roma

The first thing you see when you walk through the door of Il Pentito is the oven. It's a monolithic, red-brick structure, like a relic from some Industrial Revolution foundry. A massive, dominating presence, it seems to take up half the premises, an impression reinforced by the way the tables are crammed...
EDITORIALS
Mar 9, 2002

The outsider joins the club

Switzerland turned its back on centuries of "splendid isolation" this week and voted to join the United Nations. The decision acknowledges the evolution within the international community since the end of the Cold War and within Switzerland itself. With its historic vote, the country can now play a more...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Mar 9, 2002

Democrats challenging Bush on defense

WASHINGTON -- As the month began, Democrats were beginning to question President George W. Bush's handling of the war against terrorism.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2002

Bank lending falls for 50th consecutive month

Lending by Japanese banks fell 4.6 percent in February from a year earlier, down for the 50th month in a row, the Bank of Japan said Friday.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2002

Fund to fight AIDS set to debut

In an effort to bring the spread of infectious diseases under control, the multibillion-dollar Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will make its official debut at a ceremony in New York next month.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 9, 2002

Finding stories behind the headlines for translation

As the founding managing editors of Kotan Publishing, Gavin Allwright and Atsushi Kanamaru are a match made in the heaven and hell of small independent book making. Certainly they could not be more physically different, one so tall, well-meaning and -- dare I say -- well padded; the other small, neat...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 9, 2002

Burial, cremation and getting flushed

I have always thought the worst way to die is to get flushed down the toilet. My father used to flush everything: large roaches that might revive themselves even after you had stepped on them, flies buzzing their last break dances on the sink, and goldfish. The first sight of a goldfish listing to one...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2002

Sectarian strife spells trouble for BJP

MADRAS, India -- Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's government may fall if the troubles concerning the controversial plan to build a Hindu temple at a site formerly occupied by a mosque escalate further.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Mar 6, 2002

Bush's incendiary pulpit

MOSCOW -- It would be interesting to know who attended U.S. President George W. Bush's talk at Tsinghua University in Beijing on Feb. 22. Obviously planned as a mixture of calculated propaganda and heartfelt preaching, the talk targeted Chinese youth who hopefully will make China democratic, tolerant...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 6, 2002

Ali Hassan Kuban: 'Real Nubian'

Sadly, this third international release from the godfather of Nubian soul, Ali Hassan Kuban, will be his last. Kuban died in June of last year, having spent his life singing and playing his particular brand of raw, earthy, energetic music. Fortunately, "Real Nubian" catches Kuban at the height of his...
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 6, 2002

Clinic: 'Walking With Thee'

Despite the surgical masks and scrubs that the members don for publicity photos, the Liverpool art-punk quartet Clinic is fairly gimmick-free. Their up-to-the-minute DIY aesthetic -- built around melodicas rather than guitars, drum kits rather than drum machines -- places familiar musical ideas in a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Mar 6, 2002

Be true to your old school

Suddenly, it's hip to be trad. Japanese traditional music is now in vogue, as artists such as Chitose Hajime, Hiromitsu Agatsuma, the Yoshida brothers and Shinichi Kinoshita strike a chord with music fans looking for something more rootsy and down-home to listen to than run-of-the-mill J-pop.
SOCCER / THE BALD TRUTH
Mar 5, 2002

2002 on hold as JAWOC ponders making a decision

My Korean girlfriend has come to the conclusion that the Japanese couldn't organize a bun fight in a bakery, let alone a World Cup.
COMMENTARY
Mar 5, 2002

Bush, Jiang draw closer to their divide

HONG KONG -- It is ironic that both Washington and Beijing consider the 30-hour visit to China by U.S. President George W. Bush a great success. After all, neither party got what it wanted most from the other. The United States did not get the antiproliferation agreement it wanted from China and the...
SOCCER / J. League / TALK OF THE TIMES
Mar 4, 2002

Cerezo hopes to take Kashima to third J. League title

Kashima Antlers boss Toninho Cerezo has had a remarkable two seasons with his J. League Division One club despite his short coaching experience.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2002

Beating the U.N. endgame in Cambodia

CANBERRA -- The U.N. Secretariat's Feb. 8 announcement ending further cooperation with Cambodia on jointly run Khmer Rouge trials has set off a round of international commentary, mostly unfavorable to Cambodia. Here is an attempt to set the record straight, based on reliable public sources.
COMMENTARY
Mar 4, 2002

Research needs cutting edge

Since Japan has already decided to reorganize national universities into public corporations in fiscal 2004, it would be useless now to discuss the pros and cons of the plan. I happen to feel the plan will do neither harm nor good.
EDITORIALS
Mar 4, 2002

Creating new demand is the key

An antideflation package put together last Thursday by the government and the Bank of Japan has disappointed everyone. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi himself has acknowledged that it includes "no quick remedies." A key policymaker in the ruling coalition has described it as a "patchwork of stopgap...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2002

Who will limit the U.S. defense budget?

WASHINGTON -- Earlier last month, the Bush administration requested a $46 billion defense budget increase for 2003. That would come on top of a combined $45 billion increase in the annual budget from 2000 to 2002, and be followed by a further increase of $75 billion after 2003. Even factoring out the...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 3, 2002

Nasty, brutish, and flawed

A SUDDEN RAMPAGE: The Japanese Occupation of Southeast Asia, 1941-1945, by Nicholas Tarling. London: Hurst & Company, 2001, 286 pp., $36 (paper) As a rule, there are few positive accounts in Western literature of Japan's occupation of Southeast Asia during World War II, and this book by Nicholas Tarling...

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go