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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 10, 2004

South African culture reclaimed in 'Umoja'

Born as a black person under apartheid, growing up in an extremely poor family with eight siblings, having a baby out of wedlock at age 16 -- this is surely a hard life to lead. But South African dancer and choreographer Todd Twala has lived it, and has proved that one can rise above hardship. The musical,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 10, 2004

The Ordinary Boys

It may be that there really are no frontiers left in pop any more; that we are doomed to recycle the past forever. On the title cut of "Over the Counter Culture," the debut album from Brighton's The Ordinary Boys, lead vocalist Preston brays, "Let's see, what can we be now/That hasn't been done before?"...
EDITORIALS
Oct 10, 2004

Time for Goodbye Kitty?

Japan has exported hundreds of things and ideas -- from haiku to Hondas, swordsmanship to sashimi -- of which it can be proud. Hello Kitty, the expressionless icon celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, is another story.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 10, 2004

Nothing fishy going on here

TSUKIJI: The Fish Market at the Center of the World, by Theodore C. Bestor. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2004. 411 pp., $24.95 (cloth). A superb study about the people, pandemonium and relationships that define the Tsukiji fish marketplace, Theodore C. Bestor's "Tsukiji" is enriched by more than...
Japan Times
Features
Oct 10, 2004

A Blade of Light

This was an overexposed day, a negative with excessive contrast. The sun seemed to shine only on Grace's little patch of land, concentrating its white power on the single eucalyptus tree opposite the window and the dry ground around it.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 10, 2004

Bush, Kerry agree on the biggest threat

HONOLULU -- President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry evidently surprised -- and puzzled -- their audiences during their debate in the election campaign when they both pointed to nuclear proliferation as the greatest threat to the national security of the United States.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 10, 2004

Sharapova bags Japan Open

Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova wasted no time in defending her Japan Open title at the Ariake Colesseum on Saturday, blitzing Mashona Washington of the United States 6-0, 6-1 in 51 minutes.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 10, 2004

Free the mind from the grip of thought

OPENING THE HAND OF THOUGHT: Foundations of Zen Buddhist Practice, by Kosho Uchiyama, translated and edited by Tom Wright, Jisho Warner and Shohaku Okumura. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2003. 204 pp., with drawings, $16.95 (paper). "Ordinarily, we think we are alive because our brains are in control....
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 10, 2004

Choosing how to intervene

From Iraq to Darfur, the topic of international intervention to protect people from the brutality of their own governments remains a deeply divisive one for the international community. Western countries are likely to be the subjects not objects of intervention, and their worldview is colored by this...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 10, 2004

"Black Jack" comes back to Nihon TV and more

In addition to being Japan's manga/anime god, Osamu Tezuka was a licensed physician, an abandoned calling that he channeled into one of his later comic series, "Black Jack," about a hard-boiled, unlicensed doctor who possessed amazing surgical skills.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 10, 2004

"A Guitar Supreme"

John Coltrane influenced not only generations of saxophone players, but guitarists and other musicians as well. "A Guitar Supreme" brings together eight excellent guitarists, including Mike Stern, Greg Howe, Larry Coryell and Robben Ford, to honor his legacy with intense fusion takes on Coltrane's challenging...
JAPAN
Oct 9, 2004

Ichiro refuses national award for second time

Baseball superstar Ichiro Suzuki has done it again.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 9, 2004

Extraordinary Diet session likely to be fiery affair

A war of words between the ruling and opposition camps over political funding is expected when the extraordinary Diet session kicks off Tuesday.
JAPAN
Oct 9, 2004

North defector's testimony canceled

A Diet panel dropped its plan Friday to hear unsworn testimony from high-ranking North Korean defector Hwang Jang Yop on issues related to North Korea, particularly its abductions of Japanese, panel members said.
JAPAN
Oct 9, 2004

Prosecutors search UFJ for evidence of probe evasion

Prosecutors on Friday searched UFJ Bank's Tokyo headquarters and the homes of some of its former executives in connection with the bank's alleged obstruction of inspections by the Financial Services Agency last fall.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 9, 2004

East-West game set for Nov. 3

Players selected from all 12 teams, including the Orix BlueWave and Kintetsu Buffaloes who will merge in the off-season, take part in the East-West exhibition game at Tokyo Dome on Nov. 3, Nippon Professional Baseball said Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 9, 2004

Cops target black-market sale of bank accounts

The police, justice and financial services authorities have decided to do something about the black-market sale of bank accounts established for fraud crimes, according to National Police Agency officials.
JAPAN
Oct 9, 2004

Koizumi to host Roh at 'onsen' resort

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun will hold a summit Dec. 17 to Dec. 18 in the "onsen" hot spring resort of Ibusuki, Kagoshima Prefecture, Foreign Ministry sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 9, 2004

LDP's Sakai faces four-year term

Prosecutors on Friday demanded that former lawmaker Takanori Sakai of the Liberal Democratic Party -- accused of not reporting 168 million yen in political donations and defrauding the state of 24 million yen -- be sentenced to four years in prison.
JAPAN
Oct 9, 2004

Typhoon Ma-on to bring huge storm to Kinki, Kanto

Typhoon Ma-on on Friday was moving northward off Minamidaito Island in Okinawa as it gathered strength for what is expected to be the most powerful storm to hit the Kanto region in a decade, the Meteorological Agency said.
JAPAN
Oct 9, 2004

Obituary: Takahiro Sonoda

Takahiro Sonoda, one of Japan's leading pianists, died of a ruptured aorta at his home in Tokyo on Thursday. He was 76.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 9, 2004

Japan starts well in wrestling World Cup

Japan kicked off its campaign for its first title in two years with a strong start after wins over Canada, the United States and India on the opening day of the women's wrestling World Cup on Friday.
SOCCER / J. League
Oct 9, 2004

Semifinals postponed

The J. League on Friday postponed the semifinals of the J. League Nabisco Cup due to inclement weather caused by a typhoon expected for Saturday.
BUSINESS
Oct 9, 2004

Matsuya to serve Chinese beef 'gyudon'

Matsuya Foods Co. said it will resume serving "gyudon" beef-on-rice bowls Wednesday with meat from China.
BUSINESS
Oct 9, 2004

Worker confidence down in September

Business confidence among workers with jobs sensitive to economic trends worsened in September for the second month, sending a closely watched index below the key threshold for the first time in eight months, the government said Friday.
BUSINESS
Oct 9, 2004

Household spending inches upward

Household spending remained virtually unchanged in August from a year earlier, with families spending an average 302,657 yen, up 0.6 percent.

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?