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Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2004

Former abductee wants to return to his university

Kaoru Hasuike wants to return to Chuo University, where he was a student when he was abducted to North Korea in 1978.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2004

Workers' health getting worse

A record 47.3 percent of salaried workers showed abnormal readings in their health checkups last year, according to a government survey released Saturday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 29, 2004

Think of One

Music and travel may be hobbies for most folks, but Belgian world-rock fusionists, Think of One, consider the two more than mere avocation. More mobile, multilingual and gregarious than a carnival sideshow, To1 have turned globetrotting into a full-time gig. Their journeys in Morroco resulted in three...
EDITORIALS
Aug 29, 2004

Another 'Americanization'

A merican consumers have been described as "quick to spend" while Japanese consumers have been "slow to spend." In fact, Americans tend to spend the extra money they get rather than save it. So a tax cut quickly boosts spending, often leading to an overheating of the economy. A culture of overconsumption...
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2004

Powerful typhoon on collision course with west Japan

Powerful Typhoon Chaba was expected to move slowly northwest to approach or strike the Amami Islands and western Japan between Sunday and Monday, the Meteorological Agency said.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 29, 2004

Tenuous but important movie links

THE CINEMA OF JAPAN AND KOREA, edited by Justin Bowyer, preface by Jinhee Choi. London: Wallflower Press, 2004, 258 pp., 24 b/w photos, £45.00 (cloth), £16.99 (paper). The linking of two national cinemas is, as the editor of this interesting collection of essays points out, problematic. Geographical...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 29, 2004

Prince Po: "The Slickness"

Prince Poetry, who was Pharoahe Monche's better half in the influential rap duo Organized Konfusion, has abbreviated his moniker for his solo career, and it would be nice to think he appropriated "po" to distance himself from the overground hip-hop obsession with money. Taking up where OK left off, he's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 29, 2004

Keeping up to speed with a tabla master

New York-based bassist and producer Bill Laswell has always been a man with his ear to the ground, quick to sense any coming seismic shifts in the musical landscape. In the late 1990s, he had been noting the proliferation of Indian tabla-infused drum 'n' bass music from people such as Talvin Singh, Joi...
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 29, 2004

Ramirez, Iwamura deliver the goods as Swallows trip Giants

Alex Ramirez hit a three-run homer and Akinori Iwamura added a solo blast Saturday as the Yakult Swallows downed the Yomiuri Giants 6-3 at Jingu Stadium.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2004

Golden efforts belie risk-averse image

WASHINGTON -- A stereotype exists in the United States and elsewhere: Japanese are risk-avoiders while Americans are risk-takers.
COMMENTARY
Aug 29, 2004

Refighting the Medicare budget battle

WASHINGTON -- Medicare, which offers health-care coverage for America's elderly, faces trillions of dollars of unfunded liabilities. Unfortunately, legislators are constantly tempted to increase benefits and thus spending. They should resist their inner darkness as the Bush administration attempts to...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2004

A refitted Security Council

Everyone acknowledges the need for U.N. Security Council reform in theory. Unfortunately, they cannot agree on an one particular reform package. Once people see the details of a concrete proposal, losers and opponents always seem to outnumber winners and supporters. The urgency for reform is now extreme....
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2004

LDP planning crime victim bill

The Liberal Democratic Party will submit a bill to the Diet in the fall designed to improve support systems for crime victims, party sources said Saturday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 29, 2004

Media nets gold in ensuring Olympic success

Anyone who has a TV could see that the attendance at the Athens Olympics has been spotty at best. Scalpers have been practically giving tickets away.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2004

Falun Gong branch gets nonprofit status in Tokyo

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government on Friday granted nonprofit status to the Japanese branch of China's outlawed Falun Gong group, metro government officials said.
EDITORIALS
Aug 28, 2004

Crucial challenge of Najaf

The situation in Iraq remains volatile as fighting continues in the holy city of Najaf. Shiite militia fighters loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have been holed up in the Imam Ali mosque for three weeks now, putting up fierce resistance against U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2004

School kids becoming more violent

Public elementary school children committed a record 1,777 violent acts in the 2003 academic year, the education ministry said Friday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 28, 2004

Japanese baseball commissioner wants to keep two-league system

Japanese baseball commissioner Yasuchika Negoro said Thursday he prioritizes maintaining the two-league system in the debate over whether to realign Japanese professional baseball.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2004

Another reactor pipe at Kepco plant worn thin

A coolant water pipe in another reactor at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Mihama nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture -- site of a fatal steam rupture earlier this month -- has also worn down to below the minimum thickness, government officials said Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2004

Kawaguchi adds her voice to UNSC clamor

The Foreign Ministry will step up its efforts to achieve Japan's goal of gaining a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council after the fall U.N. General Assembly session.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 28, 2004

Hammer throwing for the whole family

Every time I turn on the TV, the Japanese are winning Olympic medals -- mostly the same ones -- over and over again. But this is Japan, where repetition is highly prized as a way to impress upon us the vital importance of repetition. Practice, practice, practice and you will succeed.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2004

Missing part only involved crashed chopper, U.S. says

The Aug. 13 crash of a CH-53D helicopter in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, was due to a problem specific to just that chopper, a senior U.S. Marine Corps officer said Friday, defending the U.S. military's resumption of flights of the same type of aircraft.

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?