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JAPAN
Jun 27, 2005

Alleged bid-riggers got huge Japan Highway deals

Forty-seven companies allegedly involved in rigging bids for government construction projects also won contracts worth a combined 443.7 billion yen over the past five years for steel bridge orders placed by Japan Highway Public Corp., according to internal Japan Highway documents.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2005

Will South Korea's economy follow Japan's?

GUATEMALA CITY -- Despite numerous economic stimulus packages during his tenure in office, South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun must regret his promise to oversee annual economic growth of about 7 percent during his five-year term. As it is, the South Korean economy grew in the first quarter of 2005 at...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jun 27, 2005

Economists, remember to mind your Ps and Qs

Children are told to mind their Ps and Qs when they go visiting. They must be on their best behavior. They have to be able to speak like well-educated young people. They have to know P from Q. Well, so do economists, actually.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2005

Poll indicates DPJ poised for gains

With one week to go before the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election, a new poll shows support for the opposition Democratic Party of Japan among voters in the capital is up 10 percentage points from four years ago.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2005

German ambassador confident of UNSC success

Strong backing from developing countries is likely to be enough to get the "Group of Four" nations over the top in their effort to expand the U.N. Security Council, according to Germany's ambassador to Japan, Henrik Schmiegelow.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2005

Asylum seekers get a big kick out of 'One Ball, No Border' tourney

Cheers and laughter echoed Sunday morning around Waseda University's soccer field in Nishitokyo as an estimated 150 people seeking asylum, lawyers, Japanese volunteers and friends gathered for an annual futsal tournament to mark World Refugee Day.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jun 26, 2005

Late show from Rhodes as Giants down Tigers

Tuffy Rhodes hit a three-run homer in the top of the ninth inning Saturday to lift the Yomiuri Giants to an 8-6 win over the Central League-leading Hanshin Tigers.
MORE SPORTS
Jun 26, 2005

Mongolian obtains citizenship

Mongolian makuuchi division rank-and-filer Kyokutenho has obtained Japanese citizenship, sumo sources said Friday.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 26, 2005

New book offers interesting retrospective on Japanese game

Remembering Japanese Baseball, an Oral History of the Game is the title of a new book by Robert K. Fitts, the creator of RobsJapanese Cards.com, the world's largest Web site dedicated to Japanese baseball cards and memorabilia.
EDITORIALS
Jun 26, 2005

Filipinos lose a moral force

The death of Cardinal Jaime Sin is a grievous loss to the Philippines. Cardinal Sin was a spiritual and moral force in a country that often seemed to lack that authority. He provided comfort and wisdom to the Philippine people, and legitimacy to the popular movements that toppled two governments. He...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 26, 2005

Divorces among elderly couples the topic of TV Tokyo's "Monday Entertainment" and more

For as many reasons as there are old people, the number of divorces among elderly Japanese couples who had been married for many years rose steeply during the 1990s. However, in the last several years the number has leveled off. Apparently, the stabilization of the divorce rate of seniors has little...
Features
Jun 26, 2005

Learning to fly

He had been looking for someone to commit suicide with for a long time. Now that he had found the right person, Ken had traveled half the way around the world in order to carry out his plan. He was nevertheless surprised to find himself standing on a familiar-looking train platform with his hands tucked...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 26, 2005

The Damned

The Damned's 1977 debut, produced by Nick Lowe for Stiff Records, has often been called the first British punk album, but the distinction is merely a technical one. The Sex Pistols and The Clash were already around, so by the time those groups released LPs, The Damned already sounded passe. In retrospect,...
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2005

Latest case comes as no surprise to Japan's scientists

Japanese experts said Saturday they are not surprised a second case of mad cow disease has been confirmed in the United States, and probably the first involving an American-born cow, saying they already knew about the danger of contamination in the country.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 26, 2005

Opportunities go begging as the blind follow dissembling blind

Japan and Australia are natural partners.
EDITORIALS
Jun 26, 2005

A taxing matter

...
Japan Times
Features
Jun 26, 2005

What price is heritage?

Landmark one day, parking lot the next -- that is the fate that seems about to befall an early 20th-century stone building in the heart of historic Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 26, 2005

The Red emperor's new clothes

MAO, THE UNKNOWN STORY, by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday. Jonathan Cape, 2005, 814 pp., £25 (cloth). It is savagely ironic that just when China is viciously attacking Japan for trying to rewrite its history, here is a book that claims that the whole official history of the revered founding father of Communist...
CULTURE / Music
Jun 26, 2005

Art Brut: "Bang Bang Rock & Roll"

Vocalist Eddie Argos can't sing. His band, Art Brut, prove more tuneful, but none of this matters on "Bang Bang Rock & Roll,' the London quintet's fantastic debut album. Instead of singing, Argos simply raises his voice, rambling with the articulate, impulse-driven zeal of someone who planned to use...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 26, 2005

Intriguing mix of loose ends and aimless youth

THE METHOD ACTORS, by Carl Shuker. Washington, D.C.: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2005, 512 pp., $16 (paper). There has been a great deal of discussion and debate about where literary modernism ends and postmodernism begins. The confusion arises in part because, far from being something entirely different than...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2005

State, religion must not mix if Japan is to shed negative prewar legacies

Prime ministers must not visit Yasukuni Shrine if the constitutional principle of separation of state and religion is to be observed, according to an expert on Yasukuni issues at the University of Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Jun 26, 2005

The beginning of empathy?

HONOLULU -- The strains in the Japan-South Korea relationship are far too deep-rooted for any single summit meeting to assuage. Rather, the objective of any summit should be setting the proper tone for bilateral relations. By this yardstick, the meeting Monday between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2005

Call them illegal, but they're also heroic

SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- "Being that you are an alleged expert in language, you should know the difference between legal and illegal," the reader stated in his e-mail, as he reacted angrily to one of my articles on immigration.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 26, 2005

Hokusai: From East to West and back again

HOKUSAI AND HIS AGE: Ukiyo-e Painting, Printmaking and Book Illustration in Late Edo Japan, edited by John T. Carpenter. Amsterdam: KIT Publishers/Hotei Publishing, 2005, 357 pp., 227 color & 126 b/w photos, $125 (cloth). The West first discovered the art of the Japanese woodblock print. Though popular...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 26, 2005

Japan gets a life and finally drags its heels into Live 8

There used to be a common expression that money used to send men to the moon could better be spent on feeding people down here on Earth. As if in response, funding for space exploration was eventually cut and more money was channeled into so-called development aid, the ultimate aim of which, we were...
COMMENTARY
Jun 26, 2005

New deal between Beijing, Hong Kong

HONG KONG -- Almost two years ago, on July 1, 2003, well over half a million people marched through the streets of Hong Kong to protest against a national-security bill that they feared threatened their rights and freedoms. The massive demonstration shook the Hong Kong government to its foundations and...

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?