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JAPAN
Nov 29, 2004

Suspected hepatitis E cases tied to restaurant's pork

One of six people suspected of contracting hepatitis E after eating pork intestines at a barbecue restaurant in Kitami, Hokkaido, has died, health ministry and Hokkaido government officials said Sunday.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 29, 2004

Home-bred horses tops in Japan Cups

Japanese runners landed a knockout one-two punch to claim both the Japan Cup Dirt and the Japan Cup on Sunday at Tokyo Racecourse, keeping the winner's share at home for the second year in a row.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Nov 29, 2004

Remains of the Occupation mentality

NEW YORK -- Sometimes a perception formed during an era, however unthinking, never seems to leave you. When I read, in a detailed chronology of Yukio Mishima (1925-70), that Meredith Weatherby visited Mishima at a New York hotel for an all-day discussion about his translation of Mishima's "Confessions...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2004

A new dawn for Myanmar?

Many Myanmar watchers might have been surprised when they got news of the pending release of nearly 4,000 prisoners who had been inappropriately jailed by the notorious Military Intelligence (MI) wing of former Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt's regime.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Nov 29, 2004

National security may prove weak link in maintaining economic ties

Last week, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao met -- for the first time in a year -- on the sidelines of the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Chile. Ever since Tokyo and Beijing restored diplomatic ties in the 1970s, there has been an underlying belief...
COMMENTARY
Nov 29, 2004

Know what reform can't do

It looks as though Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is determined to push through postal privatization as the ultimate goal of his structural reform efforts.
EDITORIALS
Nov 28, 2004

Found in translation

I n the field of law, Japan certainly cannot yet be said to be sufficiently open vis-a-vis other countries. In order to improve this situation, a law-and-ordinance translation group set up within the government's Office for Promotion of Justice System Reform has unveiled a project to translate legislation...
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2004

UFJ, Misawa Homes reportedly to seek IRCJ aid

UFJ Bank and Misawa Homes Holdings Inc. are finishing preparations to seek help from the Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan to restructure the struggling home builder, sources close to the move said Saturday.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2004

MMC, Merrill Lynch eye car-loan business

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Saturday it is considering setting up a joint venture with Merrill Lynch & Co. to engage in North American financing operations as part of the struggling automaker's rehabilitation efforts.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 28, 2004

A clotheshorse for all seasons

"What will she be wearing?"
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 28, 2004

Light remains green for Filipinos in Japan -- well, kind of

The announcement of a basic free-trade agreement between Japan and the Philippines at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum in Santiago, Chile, was met with a positive response in the Japanese media. Japan, after all, clearly came out ahead: Tariffs on Japanese imported steel products will be substantially...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 28, 2004

"Chikyu: Fushigi Daishizen" on NHK and more

It's easy to believe that whenever humans come into contact with nature, nature suffers. However, this week's installment of NHK's nature show, "Chikyu: Fushigi Daishizen" (The Earth: Wondrous Nature; NHK-G, Monday, 8 p.m.), visits an area of Japan where people and nature have been living in harmony...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 28, 2004

A clever yarn crafted from a hoax

MY LIFE AS A FAKE, by Peter Carey. Faber & Faber, 2004, 276 pp., £6.99 (paper). One of the most stunning acts of literary criticism in modern times was perpetrated in an Australian magazine called Angry Penguins during World War II. It consisted of a small body of faux experimental poetry, purporting...
Japan Times
Features
Nov 28, 2004

WATCHING THE DETECTIVES

On a rainy Saturday night in the neon-drenched streets of Shinjuku, Kenji Shimura looks like 1,000 other salarymen: off-the-rack black suit, sensible shoes and a face made for anonymous middle-management in an insurance firm.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 28, 2004

Kanye West

The term "old school" can be taken several ways on Kanye West's "The College Dropout," easily the overground hip-hop album of 2004. The once and future producer of Jay-Z, West obviously makes a lot of money so he doesn't have to convince anyone that his lack of higher education didn't hold him back....
Japan Times
Features
Nov 28, 2004

Revealing 'The Japanese Sensibility': Modernity

Who was this man who wrote, "When I die I forbid the erection of anything resembling a monument, and if erected I am vehemently opposed to any words being engraved into it, and if people must engrave words into it I absolutely despise when they gush on and on, because I'd rather that someone just rolled...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 28, 2004

So many deities for still many troubled lives

EIGHT MILLION GODS AND DEMONS, by Hiroko Sherwin. Plume Books, 2003, 320 pp., $14 (paper). When "The Name of the Rose" transformed Umberto Eco from obscure Italian academic to international best-selling author, a common complaint among readers of his dark novel was that only after wading through the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 28, 2004

Kaki King: "Feet to Make Us Longer"

Guitar virtuosos often sacrifice melodic beauty for string-bending technique. Many guitar-lovers' CDs sound more like showy practice routines than musical statements. Kaki King's sophomore release, "Feet to Make Us Longer," like her debut, "Everybody Loves You," avoids this pitfall. Her stunning guitar...
MORE SPORTS
Nov 28, 2004

'Golden Jubilee Day' at the races

R acing fans will be treated to a must-see today at Tokyo Racecourse. In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Japan Racing Association, two of the biggest Grade I events of the year -- the Japan Cup Dirt and the Japan Cup -- both international invitationals, follow each other in a one-two, top-level...
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2004

Kokudo employee found dead in suspected suicide

An employee of scandal-hit Kokudo Corp. was found dead Nov. 21 on the seashore in Yamagata Prefecture, and police are looking into the possibility he killed himself, according to sources familiar with the case.

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?