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JAPAN
Nov 7, 2004

Obituary: Kenzaburo Hara

Former House of Representatives Speaker Kenzaburo Hara died Saturday at a Tokyo hospital, his family said. He was 97.
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2004

Malaysia to speed up trade talks

Japan and Malaysia agreed to accelerate talks to conclude a free-trade agreement as they ended their sixth round of negotiations Saturday in Tokyo, officials said.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 7, 2004

Rakuten eyes Ichiba

Yasuhiro Ichiba, who accepted money from pro baseball clubs in violation of draft eligibility rules, is set to join the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, baseball sources said Saturday.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 7, 2004

Brooks cuts through a lot of red tape

Andrew Brooks has the confident aplomb of a producer and musician with two highly lauded records. His first album, a house-inflected dance record titled "You, Me & Us," brought him jobs remixing songs of Outkast and Scissor Sisters. His second album, released on Soundslike, the label of influential producer...
MORE SPORTS
Nov 7, 2004

Murata grabs fourth straight title

Yukari Murata, the sole Japanese competitor in Athens Olympic rhythmic gymnastics this summer, won her fourth straight all-around title at the national championships on Saturday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 7, 2004

Comedian Shinsuke looks to be at wits' end

Social distinctions related to class, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation that mean a lot in everyday life tend to mean less in the world of show business. Indeed, it's one of the few places where the normally dispossessed can expect an even break, especially in Japan.
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2004

MMC to supply minivehicle to Nissan

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is planning to supply its mainstay eK-Wagon minivehicle to Nissan Motor Co. next fiscal year, expanding ties between the two automakers, according to industry sources.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 7, 2004

And you thought doing deals in today's Japan was tough

THE DESHIMA DIARIES MARGINALIA 1740-1800, edited by Leonard Blusse, Cynthia Vialle, Willem Remmelink and Isabel van Daalen. Tokyo: The Japan-Netherlands Institute, 898 pp., 2004, 13,000 yen (cloth). It has been 12 years since I had occasion to review on this page the first volume of the Deshima Diaries...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 7, 2004

Mory Kante: "Sabou"

Mory Kante's African groundbreaking 1987 release, "Akwaba Beach," was a crossover blend of European production and African pop that became a staple on European dance floors. Born into a family of griots in Guinea, Kante became a rival singer to Salif Keita in Mali's famed Rail Band, but as the West African...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 7, 2004

Jill Scott: "Beautiful Human"

Originally a street poet who found her singing voice after she sat in with The Roots in her hometown of Philadelphia, Jill Scott was pushed a little too fast on an audience that still hadn't completely digested the neo-soul stylings of Erykah Badu and Angie Stone. On her first album, Scott's earthiness...
Japan Times
Features
Nov 7, 2004

Love her or hate her...

Nahoko Takato became famous on the night of April 8 this year, when the Arab satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera aired video footage of her and two other Japanese held blindfolded at gunpoint in Iraq.
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2004

Japan still trying for China summit

Taku Yamasaki, special adviser to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, will visit China in mid-November to help bring about a meeting between Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao later in the month, according to political sources.
EDITORIALS
Nov 7, 2004

The fattening of the planet

I t's not just Americans and Japanese sumo wrestlers who are fat nowadays. As a witty commentator put it recently in The Hindu newspaper, the world is round, and so are a growing number of its inhabitants. From New York to New Delhi, nutritionists are sounding the alarm about the rising tide of obesity,...
COMMENTARY
Nov 7, 2004

Silence the loose cannons

HONOLULU -- The U.S. presidential election is finally over! Now the hard part begins. I'm not talking about getting North Korea back to the negotiating table; that will come soon enough. Now that Pyongyang knows it has no choice but to deal with the Bush administration, it will find a way to resume the...
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2004

Japan now has to get serious about greenhouse gases

When Russian President Vladimir Putin put the finishing touches on his country's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on Friday, reducing greenhouse gas emissions also moved one notch higher on Japan's policy agenda.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2004

EU dream has caught America napping

WASHINGTON -- Europe: We love to vacation there, if we can afford it. It's the cultural mecca many of us flock to, to awaken our senses and feed our souls. But Europe as a political entity?
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 7, 2004

Nihon TV's documentary "Super TV" and more

This week, Nihon TV's weekly documentary series "Super TV" (Mon., 9:54 p.m.) explores Aokigahara Jukai, the densely wooded area near Mount Fuji that is famous as a final destination for suicide victims.
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2004

Nippon TV corrects shareholding info

Nippon Television Network Corp. has announced a correction in its financial statements, saying shares that had been reported as held by Tsuneo Watanabe, chairman of Yomiuri Shimbun Group Honsha, actually belong to the group's holding company.
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2004

Seibu Lions ballclub up for sale

Scandal-tainted Kokudo Corp. has decided to sell the Seibu Lions baseball team for more than 20 billion yen, sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2004

Child-rearing costs average 16.1% of living expenses

It takes an average of 46,400 yen per month to raise a child, or 16.1 percent of a household's total living expenses, according to a survey by an organization affiliated with the Cabinet Office.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 7, 2004

Kodo

Taiko ensemble, Kodo, know how to take the show on the road: according to their newsletter, the troupe has performed over 2,600 concerts in 42 countries since their 1981 debut (do the math). A wellspring of fresh ideas and aspiring young talent help explain why they grow stronger, year after year, but...
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2004

Substitute CFC emissions to fall short of forecasts

The government revised downward its 2010 forecast for emissions of three chlorofluorocarbon substitutes that cause global warming to a 0.2 percent increase from 1995 levels, sources said Saturday.
SOCCER / J. League
Nov 6, 2004

No call-up for Kazu as Zico names squad

Japan coach Zico scrapped his controversial plan Friday to call up several ex-internationals including striker Kazuyoshi Miura and named an under-strength squad for the national team's upcoming final World Cup qualifier against Singapore.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 6, 2004

Suzuki fined, handed two-year term

The Tokyo District Court on Friday sentenced former House of Representatives lawmaker Muneo Suzuki to two years in prison and fined him 11 million yen for accepting bribes, falsifying a political funds report and perjury.

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?