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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 26, 2005

Know your Shins!

Ask the band directly, what are The Shins about, and the four friends' free-for-all flow of deadpan wit, wild metaphor and the occasional outburst of song (evidence of not just a clever group of people but a happy one) stops cold.
BUSINESS
Jan 26, 2005

Electrical appliance sales fall 1.87%

Sales of household electrical appliances at major retailers slipped 1.87 percent in 2004 from the previous year to 1.98 trillion yen, according to preliminary data released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2005

Get ready, hay fever sufferers

Cedar pollen, a major cause of hay fever, may be prevalent in Japan until mid-May, about a month longer than average, according to weather information provider Weathernews Inc.
BUSINESS
Jan 26, 2005

Nomura posts 32% profit decline

Nomura Holdings Inc. said Tuesday its profit fell 32 percent in the nine months to December due to a slowdown in its bond business and higher costs in its merchant banking operations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jan 26, 2005

Time to reflect on transition

Japan is in the midst of a "Korea boom." It seems that the smiling face of Bae Yong Joon is everywhere, and almost 10,000 (mostly) female fans greeted the superstar Korean actor when he arrived at Narita airport last November. Perhaps sparked by 2002's jointly hosted soccer World Cup, films, fashion,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 26, 2005

Concert of 1,000 cellists looks set to raise the roof in Kobe

World-famous cellist Mstislav Rostropovich will conduct a concert for 1,000 cellos during a weeklong international cello convention in May in Kobe, which is currently commemorating the 10th anniversary of the devastating Great Hanshin Earthquake.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 26, 2005

Digital machines replacing conventional photo booths

Coin-operated digital photo booths that offer high-quality passport and other photos are spreading.
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2005

Panel: Is a woman's place on the throne?

A private advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi kicked off discussions Tuesday on the Imperial House Law, with the central theme to be whether and how a female could ascend to the Chrysanthemum Throne.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 26, 2005

Gosling plays it straight

He's not "Ryan-san" but "Gos-sama" to his Japanese fans, and the tall, lanky 25-year-old from Canada is fast on his way to becoming the next Hollywood sensation ("the next River Phoenix!" gush the Japanese movie magazines). However, in person, Ryan Gosling is an unassuming, laid-back kind of guy who...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 26, 2005

Sub Pop's second coming

In the late '80s and early '90s, Seattle and its music scene became the center of the pop culture universe. Sub Pop, the small label founded by sometime journalist Bruce Pavitt and nurtured with his partner Jonathan Poneman was its primary documenter.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 26, 2005

Talkin' Bertolt

Between his return from the United States after World War II, and his death in 1956, playwright Bertolt Brecht, with his Berliner Ensemble, created one of the finest acting companies in the world -- one which became a testing-ground for his theatrical exploration and challenged the theatrical conventions...
BUSINESS
Jan 26, 2005

Sales tax increase would aid social security: Tanigaki

Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki indicated Tuesday that an increase in the consumption tax will be considered as an option to cope with the nation's swelling social security costs.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 25, 2005

Sano rewrites 200 IM record

Hidemasa Sano set a Japanese record in winning the men's 200-meter individual medley on the final day of a World Cup meet in Berlin on Sunday.
SOCCER / World cup
Jan 25, 2005

Koji Nakata's move to Marseille hits snag

Koji Nakata's hopes of a move to French club Marseille have been put on hold after talks between the Japan international midfielder and his J. League team Kashima Antlers proved inconclusive.
EDITORIALS
Jan 25, 2005

The fewer bond issues, the better

It has been a long time since Japan's bubble in stock and land prices collapsed. Now, however, there is concern that a new kind of bubble -- a "bond bubble" -- may be forming. Financial markets are already "saturated," according to analysts, with massive amounts of bonds that the government issues each...
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2005

Eight from North enter Beijing school

A Japanese school in Beijing where refugees from North Korea have frequently sought sanctuary found another eight people in its compound Monday morning, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2005

Luck helped in quake derailment

Part of a bullet train that derailed in one of the Oct. 23 earthquakes in Niigata Prefecture came close to lying across the opposite track, according to a government interim report released Monday.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2005

Koizumi's evasiveness disrupts Lower House

The Diet got off to a stormy start Monday when opposition lawmakers walked out of a House of Representatives plenary session to protest Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's unsatisfactory answers to their questions.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2005

Panel set to ponder female on the throne

The government will kick off discussions this week that could result in changing the male-only Imperial succession rule which experts say has been practiced for more than 1,000 years.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2005

Japan mulled buying cruise missiles for pre-emptive self-defense: Ishiba

The government considered arming itself with Tomahawk cruise missiles to pre-empt ballistic missile attacks but gave up because it would contradict the postwar policy of not maintaining an offensive capability, former Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba said Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2005

Fund for 'comfort women' to draw to a close in 2007

A fund to compensate women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for the military during the war will be abolished in 2007, former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama said Monday.
COMMENTARY
Jan 25, 2005

Medical reform needs help

In its first report on medical reform, the council to promote deregulation -- an advisory body to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi -- recently recommended lifting some restrictions on "mixed medical care," easing conditions for the private operation of hospitals and reorganizing the government's Central...
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2005

Former leaders to draft new Constitution

A Liberal Democratic Party committee working on drafting a new Constitution decided Monday to have 10 subcommittees headed by former prime ministers and other key members draft reports by March on a new supreme law for the country.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 25, 2005

Japan's enemy within

Riding home from school on the crowded Tokyo underground recently one day, 12-year-old Kim says she felt something hit the back of her head. When she checked what it was, her hand came away covered in saliva spat by a middle-aged male passenger. As he was getting off, the man said: "Get back to your...

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?