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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 20, 2005

Gumshoes who pass in the night

THE RED EARTH OF ALABAMA, by Michiro Naito. Bloomington, Indiana: Authorhouse, 2005, 188 pp., $23.95 (cloth). KINKI LULLABY, by Issac Adamson. New York: Dark Alley, 2004, 358 pp., $13.95, (paper). Even in this age of political correctness, it's proving difficult for popular fiction to wean itself from...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 20, 2005

Madeline Peyroux: "Careless Love"

Madeline Peyroux sounds like Billie Holiday, but in all the right ways. Peyroux's singing is a genuine derivation, though, like a grandchild cherishing the meanings found in a box of long-lost vocal mementos. She has her influences and isn't afraid to hide them.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 20, 2005

"Hachiro: Haha no Uta, Chichi no Uta" on NHK and more

Hachiro Sato, who died in 1973, is one of Japan's most beloved writers of lyric poems and children's songs. His life, however, was far from gentle, as shown on the current nine-part NHK drama series, "Hachiro: Haha no Uta, Chichi no Uta (Hachiro: Songs for Mother, Songs for Father") (NHK-G, Mon., 9:15...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Feb 20, 2005

Sit down and be counted!

One chilly Friday morning last month, high-school teacher Noriyuki Ishida had probably the most stressful experience of his 35-year career.
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Feb 20, 2005

Tears and fears on the road from 'normality'

Everyone loves a hero, and the media loves creating them. So it is hardly a surprise that Alastair Humphreys' five-year round-the-world bicycle odyssey has been largely portrayed as a charitable undertaking.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Feb 20, 2005

There's big, and Hoover Dam big

Take 4,360 cubic meters of concrete (enough to pave a single-lane highway from San Francisco to New York), add 21,000 workers (but deduct an average of 50 a day due to injury or death), stir in 5 million, 8-cubic-meter buckets of cement and 950 km of steel piping, then garnish the lot with a dog that...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Feb 20, 2005

Picture this domestic drama

One fine day in the middle of the night, the head of the Tonomura household in Kobe informed his wife and two grown-up daughters that he was in debt to the tune of more than 10 million yen.
CULTURE / Music
Feb 20, 2005

LCD Soundsystem

James Murphy wants it both ways. A walking encyclopedia of the underground scene, he loathes the narcissism and one-upmanship common among record-shop insiders. His NYC label, DFA, produced some of the most infectious dance singles of the decade thus far, yet Murphy turns down remixing work from Duran...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 20, 2005

Japanese sperm to hit the Big Apple

"You all have to pump this rhythm into your body," Daisuke Koshikawa shouted. "If you think this rhythm is not part of your body, you have to acquire it at any cost."
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 2005

In praise of a 'billy sook'

With spring just around the corner, what images pop into the mind? Naturally, you're thinking cherry blossoms and daffodils, spring lambs and fluffy chickens, dolls and kites, eggs and chocolate. But some of you will also be thinking rabbits, and you are in luck, because next month brings the publication...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 20, 2005

Ah-choo! Picked up an allergy to the hay-fever industry

Last week the pharmaceutical company Riken announced that it was developing a new desensitivity treatment for serious allergy sufferers. The treatment program would entail fifty or so injections over a three-year period, which is quite a reduction in time. I should know. I received biweekly or monthly...
COMMENTARY
Feb 20, 2005

Nightmare choice set to confront China

HONG KONG -- North Korea's surprise announcement last week that it possesses nuclear weapons and would indefinitely boycott the six-party talks immensely complicates the Korean nuclear problem and puts additional pressure on China as host of the multilateral talks to get them started again.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 20, 2005

Sugar frosted, the Thai way

VERY THAI: Everyday Popular Culture, by Philip Cornwel-Smith, photographs by John Goss, preface by Alex Kerr. Bangkok: River Books, 2005, 257 pp., color illustrated, 995 baht (cloth). All countries have something of their own, something the dictionary calls "a kind or sort, especially in regard to appearance...
Features / WEEK 3
Feb 20, 2005

Operation Evacuation

Not only are they a biodiversity disaster, but the millions of sugi (cedars) planted as official policy in the postwar years to yield cheap timber -- but which are now more expensive to harvest than the cost of imports -- have become a serious health hazard across Japan.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 20, 2005

Japanese tests positive for marijuana

A Japanese snowboarder, who is apparently one of the country's hopefuls for the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, has been suspended from competition for 10 months after testing positive for marijuana, sources familiar with the matter said Saturday.
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2005

FSA to assess banks' credit checks

The Financial Services Agency will conduct special inspections to ensure major banks have properly assessed the creditworthiness of their major borrowers for the year through March 31, Financial Services Minister Tatsuya Ito said Friday.
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2005

FSA to discipline Meiji Yasuda

The Financial Services Agency plans to order Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. later this month to suspend part of its business activities for about two weeks over alleged illegal sales practices, FSA sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2005

Toshiba names Nishida to be next president

Toshiba Corp. plans to appoint Senior Managing Director Atsutoshi Nishida, 61, as the company's new president to succeed Tadashi Okamura, 66, who will assume the chairmanship, sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2005

Livedoor to go distance for Fujisankei

Livedoor Co. President Takafumi Horie said Friday the company was prepared for a long struggle to take control of Nippon Broadcasting System Inc. in order to form a business alliance with the Fujisankei media group.
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2005

Bridgestone profit up 29% in 2004

Bridgestone Corp. said Friday its group net profit in the 2004 business year surged 29 percent from the previous year to 114.45 billion yen due to brisk tire sales in Europe and North and South America.
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2005

Kirin brewed 49.1 billion yen net profit in 2004

Kirin Brewery Co. said Friday its net profit for 2004 jumped 52 percent to 49.1 billion yen, thanks to the strong performance of its nonalcohol and overseas beer subsidiaries.
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2005

MMC asking around for buyer of U.S. operations

Struggling Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is quietly seeking a buyer for its U.S. operations, implying the company intends to leave the world's biggest car market, the Asian Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 19, 2005

Yuji Abe

"This is a 50-year-old story," Yuji Abe said.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 19, 2005

Diaspora bridges China and ASEAN

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BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2005

State moves to tackle fake 500 yen coins

The government might ask vending machine makers to improve the capability of sensors in their products to tackle an increasing number of fake 500 yen coin discoveries in Japan, a Finance Ministry official 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?