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JAPAN
Oct 26, 2004

Mission in Iraq won't be affected by rocket: Hosoda

Japan does not plan to withdraw or scale down its contingent of troops in southern Iraq after a rocket was fired into its base there, a top official said Monday.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 25, 2004

Lions force decider

NAGOYA -- Daisuke Matsuzaka came through with another huge win.
BUSINESS
Oct 25, 2004

New bank notes could draw underground cash into the light

When the Bank of Japan puts new bank notes into circulation next month, it could draw out cash hoarded away in the country's underground economy and into investments like gold and real estate.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2004

First-ever bullet train derailment reveals safety-system's limitations

The Toki No. 325 bullet train on the Joetsu Shinkansen Line was running at 210 kph when the first of a series of powerful quakes hit Niigata Prefecture shortly before 6 p.m. Saturday evening.
BUSINESS
Oct 25, 2004

Japan's drive for efficiency takes sting out of fuel prices

Dotted with energy-efficient factories and fuel-saving cars, Japan has been less affected by surging oil prices than most wealthy countries.
EDITORIALS
Oct 25, 2004

Subsidy reforms under siege

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's initiative to give local governments more fiscal freedom is meeting stiff resistance from within his own administration. He wants to achieve his goal by cutting state subsidies. To make up for subsidy cuts, the central government needs to shift more of its tax-collecting...
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2004

Machimura, Powell agree to boost military discussions

Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell agreed Sunday to hold strategic talks at the ministerial level to discuss the security situation in the Asia-Pacific region.
COMMENTARY
Oct 25, 2004

China reconstructs past to chart future

NEW DELHI -- How folklore guides Chinese foreign-policy interests was brought out by Beijing's recent spat with South Korea over the ancient kingdom of Koguryo, which was founded in the Tongge River basin of northern Korea and, at its height, included much of Manchuria.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Oct 25, 2004

Manchuria as a whipping post

NEW YORK -- The New York Times has an intriguing take on Japan. The latest example is an article with the heading "Atrocity Amnesia: Japan Rewrites Its Manchuria Story" (Sept. 19).
COMMENTARY
Oct 25, 2004

ODA looks wasted on China

This year Japan marks the 50th anniversary of the official development assistance program it launched after getting out of the postwar economic chaos. The Foreign Ministry's 2004 white paper on ODA boasts that Japan, now one of the world's largest ODA providers, has made major contributions to the economic...
COMMENTARY
Oct 25, 2004

A dialogue that can persuade Muslims

LOS ANGELES -- Whoever emerges as the next president of the United States must work hard indeed to set U.S. relations with the global Muslim world aright. Leaving aside America's pressing domestic concerns, that issue might prove Job No. 1 for George W. Bush or John Kerry.
EDITORIALS
Oct 24, 2004

Tallying national happiness

I n most countries, progress is measured in terms of GNP or GDP -- gross national or domestic product. But one small country has adopted a startlingly different yardstick. In 1972, the king of Bhutan declared that progress in the landlocked Himalayan mini-kingdom would henceforward be gauged in terms...
Rugby
Oct 24, 2004

Brave Lupus bruise Big Blue

The Toshiba Brave Lupus juggernaut kept rolling along on Saturday as the most feared pack in Japanese rugby brushed aside IBM Big Blue 67-18 at Tokyo's Chichibunomiya.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2004

Western Japan faces increased flooding

The densely populated urban areas of Osaka and Nagoya as well as the western Kyushu region surrounding the Ariake Sea are at risk from rising sea levels resulting from higher oceanic temperatures.
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2004

French reporter conducted espionage for Russia in Russo-Japanese War

Russia obtained information on Japan's strategy for the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War, including the plan for a major offensive in northeastern China in March 1905, through a Tokyo-based French correspondent and other sources, according to the recent study by a Russian scholar.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 24, 2004

Best not to forget the women in the debate on stem-cell research

Embryonic stem-cell research is a hot topic in the upcoming elections in the United States. John Kerry has said that one of his first acts if elected president will be to reverse the Bush administration policy of no federal funding for ESC research. And in California, voters will decide whether or not...
Japan Times
Features
Oct 24, 2004

Kitty collector plans afterlife together as well

Some have ridiculed her taste. Others have called her infantile. Yet Asako Kanda, a 31-year-old receptionist at a crafts and culture school in Tokyo, has never had any qualms about her long-running love affair with Hello Kitty.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 24, 2004

You put a spell on us

"Earnest, to me, is a bad word." Dean Wareham is reclining on a cream-colored couch in the offices of P-Vine, his Japanese record label, looking over a list of adjectives a popular Web site uses to describe his band, Luna. Curious, amused and slightly wary, he skims the list, eyebrows raised, quickly...
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2004

Public mixed on brain-death transplants

The public is divided over whether to allow transplants of organs from brain-dead people who have not made it clear whether they wish to become donors, according to a government survey.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 24, 2004

Martin, Medeski and Wood: "End of the World Party (Just in Case)"

The latest Medeski, Martin and Wood release, "End of the World Party (Just in Case)," goes further than ever into unpredictable musical zones. Unlike most jazz or even jazz-influenced bands, MMW foregrounds carefully crafted sounds and juicy grooves rather than traditional chords and melodies.
Japan Times
Features
Oct 24, 2004

The cat's whiskers of Kawaii

At 10 a.m. last Saturday, the moment the doors of the Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo's Nihonbashi district were opened, a small scrum of people rushed in, headed straight to the escalators and then up to the fifth floor.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 24, 2004

Nihon TV's "Tatta Hitotsu no Takaramono" and more

Former idol superstar Seiko Matsuda makes her 2-hour TV drama debut this week in "Tatta Hitotsu no Takaramono (Just One Treasure)" (Nihon TV, Tues., 9 p.m.), which is about the short life of a special boy.

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?