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JAPAN
Sep 26, 2005

Japan, U.S. plan joint command center

Japan and the United States plan to establish a joint air-defense command center at the U.S. Air Force's Yokota base in western Tokyo by fiscal 2009, Japanese and U.S. government sources said.
EDITORIALS
Sep 26, 2005

Avoiding a spinout over oil

It's as if a new oil shock had arrived. Prices of crude oil futures, which once hit $70 a barrel, have not come down enough, still hovering above $60 a barrel -- more than three times the prevailing level of three years ago.
Japan Times
SUMO
Sep 26, 2005

Asashoryu storms to sixth straight title

Grand champion Asashoryu completed an impressive comeback Sunday, winning his sixth straight Emperor's Cup on the final day of the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament with wins over ozeki Tochiazuma and Bulgarian Kotooshu in a playoff.
COMMENTARY
Sep 26, 2005

China should face its own unsavory past

NEW DELHI -- The new foreign-policy subtleness that China has displayed in recent years is a far cry from the coarse image its earlier Communist rulers presented, especially when they set out, in then-Premier Zhou Enlai's words, to "teach India a lesson" in 1962, or when, to quote strongman Deng Xiaoping,...
COMMENTARY
Sep 26, 2005

Underwhelmed in Okinawa

Most of the Japanese political community is all agog over the overwhelming victory of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party in the Sept. 11 Lower House election. Okinawa Prefecture is the exception.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 26, 2005

Constitutional debate welcome

NEW YORK -- I was recently intrigued by the constitutional debate -- not in Iraq, but in Japan -- when I read a book on the art of writing, "Bungei Tokuhon," that Yukio Mishima dictated in 1958.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2005

Finessing a tougher Taiwanese defense

HONOLULU -- The new commander of American forces in Asia and the Pacific, Adm. William J. Fallon, has begun making subtle but distinctive changes in his command's endeavor to keep the peace between Taiwan and China, widely considered to be potentially the most explosive conflict in Asia.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Sep 26, 2005

Currency-controlling China not yet qualified to join ranks of G7

The two biggest events in the postwar history of currency exchange markets are the Nixon shock of August 1971 and the Plaza Accord of September 1985.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2005

Koizumi predicted to visit Yasukuni

A former vice president of the Liberal Democratic Party said Sunday he thinks Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will visit Yasukuni Shrine by the end of the year.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2005

Aichi World Expo comes to a close on a sunny note

NAGAKUTE, Aichi Pref. -- The Aichi World Expo ended Sunday with gorgeous weather, record crowds and a sense of a job well done among organizers and participants.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Sep 25, 2005

Lions edge Hawks to lock up playoff spot

Pinch-hitter Taketoshi Goto doubled in a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth inning Saturday afternoon as the Seibu Lions rallied to defeat the Softbank Hawks 6-5 to wrap up a place in the Pacific League playoffs.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 25, 2005

Carp may bring in ex-player Brown to try and revive club

Hiroshima Carp manager Koji Yamamoto has announced he will be stepping down at the end of this season, and press reports have indicated the leading candidate to replace him is former Carp infielder-outfielder Marty Brown.
EDITORIALS
Sep 25, 2005

No face-off, please

Medical controversies have a way of making fence-sitters of even the most opinionated among us. Assisted suicide, life support, late-term abortions: We listen to the practical and ethical pros and cons on such issues and end up incapable of holding a view for longer than 10 minutes.
Japan Times
SUMO
Sep 25, 2005

Asa tied for lead as Kotooshu loses

Kisenosato defeated Bulgarian Kotooshu on Saturday to ensure the hunt for the Emperor's Cup will go down to the final day of the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament.
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2005

Obituary: Sadamasa Arikawa

Sadamasa Arikawa, a special effects director known for such works as the original "Godzilla" film and the TV series "Ultraman," died Thursday of lung cancer at a hospital in Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture, his family said. He was 80.
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2005

New satellite knocked out for hours

Japan's newest weather satellite, the Himawari 6, was out of service for six hours Saturday morning due to glitches in the onboard communications system, the Meteorological Agency said.
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2005

Big typhoon draws close to Tokyo

Tokyo and its surrounding areas were due for heavy rain and strong winds Sunday as powerful Typhoon Saola headed toward the Izu island chain, the Meteorological Agency said Saturday.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Sep 25, 2005

Storm surge of deficit spending forecast

WASHINGTON -- When things go wrong, they all go wrong for U.S. President George W. Bush. We have watched his approval ratings sag through the summer as his policies in Iraq and elsewhere have begun to unravel. Then came Hurricane Katrina nearly four weeks ago, and it appears that the bottom has fallen...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 25, 2005

Corruption and intrigue in high places

THE ASSASSIN'S TOUCH, by Laura Joh Rowland. New York: St. Martin's Minotaur, 2005, 312 pp., $24.95 (cloth). BEAUTIFUL GHOSTS, by Eliot Pattison. New York: St. Martin's Minotaur, 360 pp., 2004, $24.95 (cloth). A day after Hurricane Katrina devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast, I fired off an e-mail message...
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2005

Birthrate fall bigger worry than ever, poll shows

The country is more concerned than ever about the falling birthrate, according to a Cabinet Office survey released Saturday.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 25, 2005

TV Tokyo's "Giants of Beauty" looks back on photographer Ihei Kimura's works, and more

On Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m., NHK will broadcast in two parts an award-winning French miniseries about "The Dominici Affair" on its BS-2 channel. The 2003 dramatization revisited one of France's most notorious criminal cases, introducing new evidence.
COMMUNITY
Sep 25, 2005

America's chip off the old block can't promise potatoes forever

When I was studying Soviet politics at graduate school in the 1960s, my professors were adamant about one thing: Soviet leaders viewed the world through the prism of their ideology (Marxism-Leninism), while we Americans were democratic, pragmatic and open to discourse.
Features
Sep 25, 2005

Shinobazu Pond

"Listen," said Nishizawa-san.

Longform

A store clerk tries to cool things down in front of their shop by spraying a hose.
Is extreme weather changing the way Japan shops?