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JAPAN
Aug 2, 2004

1950s-era plutonium showing up near Japan

Plutonium particles scattered by a series of nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll in the 1950s have been accumulating in seas close to Japan, a research team has found.
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2004

Media scrutinized over coverage of NPA-chief shooting case

Major news media outlets are once again taking heat for depending too much on information from investigative authorities in their reporting, this time over recent incidents surrounding the 1995 shooting of the National Police Agency chief.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2004

Japan, U.S. may hold 'kampo' talks

Japan and the United States are considering holding talks in Tokyo around Aug. 20 on the privatization of the government-run "kampo" life insurance program, sources from the two governments said Saturday.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2004

Bill to enable overseas deployment

The government has decided to compile a bill to enable it to deploy the Self-Defense Forces overseas any time it deems necessary, aiming to submit it to the Diet next year, government sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2004

Local areas to get help attracting more tourists

The transport ministry will provide assistance to prefectural governments in attracting foreign tourists, including designating historic areas and hot spring resorts as priority areas, ministry officials said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 1, 2004

Priorities at Camp Cropper

Somewhere near Baghdad International Airport is a U.S.-run prison with the stern designation "High Value Detention Site" and the jaunty name of Camp Cropper. It was in the news last week following reports of a visit by Iraq's new minister for human rights, Bakhtiar Amin, to the prison's most highly valued...
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2004

Government working to join IAEA team in North Korea

Japan has been working with the United States to join a U.N.-led nuclear inspection team in North Korea, assuming Pyongyang agrees to accept the inspectors, according to sources close to Japan-U.S. relations.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2004

Privatizing Japan Post could lead to profit hike

Splitting up and privatizing Japan Post into four independent units could increase profits by up to 900 billion yen a year, according to a recent estimate presented to the government's postal privatization preparatory office.
Japan Times
Features
Aug 1, 2004

Violin maestro with many strings toher bow

Violinist Midori Goto was only 14 when, in 1986, she played with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the late maestro Leonard Bernstein at the annual Summer Festival at Tanglewood in rural Massachusetts. That was remarkable enough, but what made Goto world-famous was not simply that she...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 1, 2004

David Murray and the Gwo-Ka Masters: "Gwotet"

David Murray likes to toy with combinations. On his most recent release, "Gwotet," he implausibly mixes a punchy Latin horn section, rollicking Afro-beat guitar and three or four distinct drumming traditions. Then he lathers it all in unrestrained free jazz blowing. Though not all Murray's many grand...
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2004

Ichiban Shibori to go to Philippines

Kirin Brewery Co. plans to market its Ichiban Shibori beer in the Philippines through the sales network of Manila-based San Miguel Corp. beginning in August, company sources said Saturday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 1, 2004

David Grubbs

'I'll choose what's next," David Grubbs sings repeatedly on the opening cut of his latest album, "A Guess at the Riddle." The Kentucky-born guitarist seems to accept the inevitable, which is one way of looking at his unusual career. Having begun by making fairly conventional indie rock in a group called...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 1, 2004

Koizumi: Robot? Dummy? Dictator? All three?

A comedy troupe called The Newspaper has recently been lampooning Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's performance at the last G-8 summit. According to the weekly magazine Aera, in one skit, a member dressed as Koizumi explains why he committed Japanese troops to a multinational force without first consulting...
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2004

Japan, U.S. may hold 'kampo' talks

Japan and the United States are considering holding talks in Tokyo around Aug. 20 on the privatization of the government-run "kampo" life insurance program, sources from the two governments said Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 1, 2004

Atmospheres that transcend time

KAWASE HASUI: The Complete Woodblock Prints, by Kendall H. Brown, with essays by Amy Reigle Newland and Shoichiro Watanabe. Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, two volumes, 550 pp., 700 color illus., 2002, $265.00 (cloth). Kawase Hasui (1883-1957), sometimes deemed "the foremost 20th-century Japanese landscape...
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2004

Bill to enable overseas deployment

The government has decided to compile a bill to enable it to deploy the Self-Defense Forces overseas any time it deems necessary, aiming to submit it to the Diet next year, government sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2004

Local areas to get help attracting more tourists

The transport ministry will provide assistance to prefectural governments in attracting foreign tourists, including designating historic areas and hot spring resorts as priority areas, ministry officials said Friday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Aug 1, 2004

Pursuing a degree in bop and beyond

Senzoku University is different from other universities in Japan. Huge black cases jam the hallways; five parallel lines are etched onto the whiteboards; lecterns hold stereo systems; and many classrooms are empty but for a few metal stands or the occasional grand piano. It's all down to the study of...
COMMENTARY
Aug 1, 2004

Mideast role challenges EU

PARIS -- France and Germany no longer make the law in Brussels. In spite of a long fight, they failed to get their Belgian candidate elected to head the European Commission and could only accept the appointment of Jose Durao Barroso, who, as prime minister of Portugal, backed U.S. intervention in Iraq....
OLYMPICS
Aug 1, 2004

Nagashima won't manage Japan

Former Yomiuri Giants manager Shigeo Nagashima, who is rehabilitating from a stroke suffered in March, will not lead the Japan national baseball team at the upcoming Athens Olympics, an informed source said Saturday.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2004

Government working to join IAEA team in North Korea

Japan has been working with the United States to join a U.N.-led nuclear inspection team in North Korea, assuming Pyongyang agrees to accept the inspectors, according to sources close to Japan-U.S. relations.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2004

Daiei rescue package calls for 300 billion yen

Struggling retail giant Daiei Inc. has worked out a new three-year rehabilitation package, including 300 billion yen in financial aid from three creditor banks, sources close to the plan said Saturday.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 1, 2004

"Eigo de Shabera Night" on NHK and more

NHK has the good fortune to control the Japan rights to several Korean TV dramas that are very popular, and they don't let them go to waste. They use clips as resources on other shows, especially their Korean language classes.

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?