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COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2005

Rice shows her mettle in Asian gauntlet

HONOLULU -- A Korean journalist in Seoul last weekend asked visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice how she coped with a bureaucracy staffed largely with white men.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 27, 2005

A fully not-boring Indian adventure

SHANTARAM, by Gregory David Roberts. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2004, 936 pp., $24.95 (cloth). The lives that some people lead can put fiction to shame. One such example would be Australian novelist Gregory David Roberts, a former heroin addict who held up banks with a toy pistol. Apprehended and...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 27, 2005

Ten years of tero in Japan: Notes on usage

Japanese language purists carp about the surfeit of katakana, but as with all cultural manifestations, from bossa nova to breakfast cereals, the Japanese manage to make these linguistic borrowings their own in an unmistakable way, the most obvious being abbreviation.
COMMENTARY
Mar 27, 2005

Who decides life and death?

WASHINGTON -- Last week the U.S. Congress voted to try to save, at least temporarily, the life of Terri Schiavo, who otherwise would slowly starve to death at the hospice in the state of Florida in which she is confined.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 27, 2005

Testing Karzai's politics of inclusiveness

CANBERRA -- Whatever Washington's expectations, Afghan President Hamed Karzai is certainly instituting what he has called "Afghan-style democracy." His inclusion in the government of some individuals who in the past had been highly criticized as "warlords" might be prudent under present circumstances,...
EDITORIALS
Mar 27, 2005

Warning to Japan and the world

A um Shinrikyo's terrorism of 10 years ago has traditionally been viewed though a domestic political prism, one that saw the act as the outgrowth of a uniquely Japanese set of circumstances. In fact, Aum was a harbinger of the future: It was less interested in political theater than killing large numbers...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 27, 2005

Yankee's Matsui visits lectures kids in his hometown on NHK's "Kagai Jugyo" and more

A year ago, SMAP member Tsuyoshi Kusanagi gave a speech at the United Nations University in Tokyo about children.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 27, 2005

First, stop, look and listen

THE SINGLE TONE: A Personal Journey into Shakuhachi Music, by Christopher Yohmei Blasdel, Tokyo: Printed Matter Press, 2005, 168 pp., with photographs and glossary, 1,500 yen (paper). In the summer of 1972 Christopher Blasdel first came to Japan. He was from West Texas, "a landscape dominated by strip...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 27, 2005

Sonny Landreth: "Grant Street"

After regular studio-made blues outings over the last decade, slide-guitar genius Sonny Landreth finally releases a great live CD.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Mar 27, 2005

Swing is the thing for bassist Nakamura

Not many Japanese jazz musicians have played in front of a President of the United States, but Kengo Nakamura is one. After leaving his hometown of Osaka to study at Boston's esteemed Berklee College of Music in 1988, where he switched from electric to acoustic bass, and struggling for a while to find...
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 26, 2005

Hillman's Fighters poised to win it all

In just two seasons American manager Trey Hillman has taken the perennial second-division finishing Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters to the Pacific League playoffs.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 26, 2005

Iwakuma determined to help Eagles soar in Sendai

Hisashi Iwakuma started playing baseball as an elementary school first grader at the age of 6, by throwing a ball against a wall in a game of catch with himself and dreaming of becoming a professional. Now, at age 24, he is arguably the best pitcher in Japanese pro baseball.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 26, 2005

Ando to skate under foreign coach

Japanese figure skater Miki Ando will part company with coaches Nobuo and Kumiko Sato and train under a foreign coach in a bid for a podium finish at next year's Winter Olympic Games in Turin, skating sources said Thursday.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 26, 2005

Toshiba bags JBL Super League

Tom Kleinschmidt hit a key shot late in the fourth quarter as the Toshiba Brave Thunders edged the Aisin Sea Horses 75-73 in the decisive Game 5 to win their second JBL Super League title and first in five years. Toshiba, which trailed 57-54 after three quarters, mounted a comeback in the final period...
EDITORIALS
Mar 26, 2005

Harnessing the power of dreams

Aichi Expo 2005, which opened Friday, differs significantly from previous world expositions. Its theme, "Nature's Wisdom," is the reason why. The six-month fair embodies two overarching principles: environmental friendliness and civic participation. The original construction plan was criticized for its...
MORE SPORTS
Mar 26, 2005

Fukushima to fight for WBA title

Japanese bantamweight boxer Manabu Fukushima will fight Ukrainian WBA champion Wladimir Sidorenko in Tokyo in June in his first shot at a world title in three years, his gym said Friday.
COMMENTARY
Mar 26, 2005

Alliance lets Japan, Britain influence America to change

NAGOYA/LONDON -- The UK-Japan 21st Century Group, set up two decades ago by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, has been mulling over the foreign-policy dilemmas of the two countries at their annual get-together.
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2005

Seibu Railway aims to be relisted in a few years

Seibu Railway Co. hopes to go public again as early as 2008, according a final report by the scandal-tainted group's reform panel released Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 26, 2005

Makiko Tachibana

Each year in January, the first-year students at Bunka Gakuin High School present a weeklong exhibition of their original picture books in English. "My students themselves plan, write and draw the picture books. Their English is simple, but their stories are full of imagination and fantasy. Trying to...
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2005

M&A terminology has lexicon all its own

When a company's board and management try to resist a buyer's overtures -- like the way the Fujisankei Communications Group is resisting Livedoor Co. -- colorful merger and acquisition terms come up. Here are some terms being used in connection with the Fuji TV-Livedoor saga.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 26, 2005

On catching your spouse's culture

There's this lady I know who has one major gripe about life in Japan.
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2005

Welcome foreign investors, Saudi minister tells Japan

NAGAKUTE, Aichi Pref. -- The Saudi minister for commerce and industry said Friday he hopes Japan will take advantage of a new investment climate that is promoting infrastructure projects.
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2005

NBS loan of Fuji stake to Softbank unit parries Livedoor, for now

Fuji Television Network Inc. -- the nation's largest private broadcaster -- is putting up a fierce defense against a takeover attempt by Internet firm Livedoor Co.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2005

Fuji TV to continue talks with Livedoor

Fuji Television Network Inc. will continue talks with Livedoor Co. "at the executive level" on a possible tieup with the Internet service provider, Fuji TV President Koichi Murakami said Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 26, 2005

Dr. Tutu & Tame Iti project paints cultural theft

When Lisa Salmon was introduced to Jeff Root by an old high school friend in California, they found they had Japan in common. Jeff taught here in the early 1990s, and was then head-hunted out of Chicago in 2001; Lisa came initially on the JET program in 1996.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 26, 2005

Dragons favored to book return trip to Japan Series

The following is a team-by-team analysis of the 12 teams in Japanese pro baseball this season:
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2005

Fujita left his heirs 49.1 billion yen

The late Den Fujita, founder and former president of McDonald's Co. (Japan), left his relatives 49.1 billion yen in inheritance subject to taxation, the tax office in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward said Friday.

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?