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JAPAN
Jul 18, 2005

Senior LDP lawmakers don't want election over postal privatization

Three senior lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party came out Sunday against Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's stated plan to dissolve the House of Representatives and hold an election if his postal privatization bills are voted down.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 17, 2005

Did Kapler fall victim to old trick?

Now-former Yomiuri Giants outfielder Gabe Kapler has cleared waivers after being released by the Tokyo team, and he appears headed back from where he came -- Boston -- and a shot at a second consecutive World Series championship ring.
JAPAN
Jul 17, 2005

DPJ exec calls for Cabinet PKO unit

Seiji Maehara of the Democratic Party of Japan has proposed setting up a military unit under the Cabinet specializing in U.N.-authorized international cooperation and peacekeeping operations, DPJ sources said Saturday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 17, 2005

The lights, guitars, action of Go! Team

Film commonly relies on music to add emotional impact. However, with The Go! Team, who hail from Brighton, England, it works the other way around. Early singles were flush with action and near-cinematic thrills, all guitar squalls and percussive thrust, with soaring horn lines that burst through your...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Jul 17, 2005

Taking it easy in the urban jungle

These days, "relaxation" spots are as ubiquitous as Internet cafes and pachinko parlors. As people seek a quick fix for the stress of modern life, businesses offering anything remotely "therapeutic" or "healing" are springing up everywhere. Whether it's reflexology (foot massage) salons in office buildings,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jul 17, 2005

Whiteout and wounds in a world of birds

The first hint of what was to come were the three guys down near the jetty.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 17, 2005

Is it a crime to want realism?

DRAGON'S EYE, by Andy Oakes. Overlook TP, 2005, 460 pp., $14.95 (paper). Eight horribly mutilated bodies are found chained together in Shanghai's Huangpu River. Four of the corpses, the autopsies reveal, turn out to be recently executed criminals; two others are European males; one appears to be an overseas...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 17, 2005

All hail the Land of the Free -- or else!

The United States of America is all akilter.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 17, 2005

TSE must think global: new chief

The Tokyo Stock Exchange needs to be a world-class stock exchange, otherwise Japan will lose its economic clout, Tokyo Stock Exchange Inc. Chairman Taizo Nishimuro says.
JAPAN
Jul 17, 2005

Kao buys Britain's Molton Brown

Kao Corp., a major manufacturer of cosmetics, cleaning and sanitary products, said Saturday it has acquired London-based luxury cosmetics maker Molton Brown Ltd. for about 34 billion yen.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 17, 2005

Eddie Palmieri's Latin All-Stars

After years of playing hot, percussive piano in other people's Latin bands, Eddie Palmieri formed his own group in 1961. In battles of the bands in dance clubs like New York's famed Palladium, Palmieri's always came out on top. He called his band La Perfecta for one reason: It was perfect.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 17, 2005

There's nothing quite like a good Indian argument

THE ARGUMENTATIVE INDIAN: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity, by Amartya Sen. Penguin, 2005, 356 pp., £25 (cloth). "We do like to speak," admits Amartya Sen, citing a well-known fact about Indians in the opening paragraph of "The Argumentative Indian." But what the Nobel Prize-winning...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 17, 2005

TBS's special "Shiina Makoto no Kando Ni-man Mairu" and more

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Jules Verne, the French author who is regarded by many as the father of the science-fiction novel. Over the last century, Verne's tales of adventure and discovery have inspired many people to become writers.
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Jul 17, 2005

Dining where no solo woman dared

Reiko Yuyama believes that adventures are there to be had in daily life without having to go out into the wilderness. In that sense, she says she might be "more of an adventurer than Christopher Columbus or Naomi Uemura," the late, great Japanese explorer and climber who disappeared on Mount McKinley...
JAPAN
Jul 17, 2005

Two held in slaying of homeless man

Two people were arrested Saturday on suspicion of beating a homeless man to death last week in a park in Sumida Ward, Tokyo, police said.
EDITORIALS
Jul 17, 2005

On the verge of decline

The countdown has begun ahead of Japan's plunge into a period of shrinking population that will have a serious impact on the nation's economy and society, especially the labor force and social welfare, including the pension system.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 17, 2005

How gei can one get? 'Pretend gay' is as far as it gets

"Talent," or tarento, is the cushiest job in Japan -- maybe in the whole world. Though you are expected to have some kind of skill (gei), once you achieve a level of regularity as a TV variety show guest, the work is self-perpetuating, though it's by no means guaranteed forever. And rarely do successful...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Jul 17, 2005

Tokyo eyes global catwalk

The Japanese fashion business is abuzz with the news that the six-week-long Tokyo Collections event that has forever been largely ignored by the international media is to be compressed into a government-backed, 10-day industry showcase staged in the grounds of Meiji Shrine in Tokyo's supertrendy Harajuku...
JAPAN
Jul 17, 2005

14 flights on Bombardier planes canceled

The All Nippon Airways group and a Japan Airlines affiliate canceled 14 domestic flights Saturday to check the engines on all Bombardier DHC-8-400 planes after one made an emergency landing in June because smoke had filled the cockpit and cabin, the airlines said.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 17, 2005

Indelible mark of the tattoo

THE WORLD OF TATTOO, by Maarten Hesselt van Dinter. Amsterdam: KIT Publishers/Hotei Publishing, 304 pp., 720 color illustrations, $80 (cloth). Charles Darwin averred that there was not one country in which the inhabitants did not tattoo themselves. From the ancient Briton to the plains Indians, through...

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?