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JAPAN
May 31, 2004

SMBC recovered loans day before firm sought protection

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. collected billions of yen in loans it had made to Morimoto Corp., a midsize general contractor, one day before the Osaka-based firm filed for protection under the Civil Rehabilitation Law last fall, sources close to the case said Sunday.
MORE SPORTS
May 31, 2004

King Kamehameha rules supreme at Nippon Derby

FUCHU -- A mere three weeks after a 5-length win of the NHK Mile Cup, King Kamehameha once again reigned supreme, this time with a length-and-a-half record win of the year's biggest racing event, the Nippon Derby.
JAPAN
May 31, 2004

Japan bakes; Miyazaki sets record

Temperatures soared Sunday nationwide, with the mercury hitting figures equal to a midsummer day.
JAPAN
May 31, 2004

Recruit workers allegedly hid stock gains

Dozens of former and current employees of Recruit Co., a major information service firm, have been accused of failing to declare billions of yen in profits from selling their holdings of the company's unlisted shares, sources close to the case said Sunday.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 31, 2004

Valdes, Jojima launch grand slams as Hawks blast BlueWave

Catcher Kenji Jojima drove in six runs Sunday as the streaking Fukuoka Daiei Hawks cruised to an 18-6 win over the Orix BlueWave at Yahoo BB Stadium.
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2004

Gandhi grew stronger by stepping back

Sonia Gandhi surprised herself, her party, the country and the world by leading the Congress alliance to victory in India's 14th general election. Having shattered the hubris and complacency of the Bharatiya Janata Party government and punctured the pride of the political pundits, she then stunned everyone...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 31, 2004

Numbers show road to recovery fraught with inflationary risk

The preliminary GDP figures Japan released May 18 show that the gross domestic product in the January-March quarter expanded 1.4 percent (5.6 percent annualized) in real terms over the previous quarter. Compared with the same period in 2003, first-quarter GDP grew a robust 5.4 percent. The GDP has now...
JAPAN
May 31, 2004

Big quake strikes off Honshu coast

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 struck off Japan's eastern coast Sunday, but the tremors that reached the archipelago could hardly be felt. There were no reports of injuries or damage.
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2004

Elites out of touch on Iraq

CLAREMONT, California -- America's ability to play a positive role in the world, especially with regard to supporting its allies and friends, depends significantly on achieving its wartime aims in Iraq. While it is common to speak of the United States as the world's only remaining superpower, at best...
COMMENTARY
May 31, 2004

Taiwan-China gap can still be bridged

HONG KONG -- The conciliatory inaugural address May 20 by Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, taken together with a major statement a few days earlier by Beijing, show that both Taiwan and mainland China are eager to avoid a confrontation. It is now conceivable that, given good will and flexibility on both...
COMMENTARY
May 31, 2004

Recovery needs new markets

The Japanese economy is finally showing signs of recovery after remaining in the doldrums since May 1991, according to media reports. For example, stock prices are rising, corporate performance is improving, exports are expanding and capital spending is growing.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
May 31, 2004

The buck for abuse once stopped at the top

NEW YORK -- One of the early explanations proffered for "Iraq prison abuse" was the U.S. military's failure to foresee the large numbers of Iraqis they would round up. This explanation (included in the May 9 New York Times article "In Abuse, a Picture of G.I.'s Ill Prepared and Overwhelmed") lost credibility...
BASEBALL / MLB
May 30, 2004

Arakaki sharp as Hawks down BlueWave for third straight win

Pedro Valdes and Nobuhiko Matsunaka hit back-to-back homers in the top of the eighth inning Saturday to power the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks to a 5-1 victory over the Orix BlueWave.
SOCCER / J. League
May 30, 2004

First victory for Reds in Nabisco Cup

Holders Urawa Reds swept aside Oita Trinita 3-0 away on Saturday to record their first win in the group stage of the Nabisco Cup.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 30, 2004

TV Asahi's animated family comedy "Atashin'chi" and more

Monta Mino, look out! Comedian Shinsuke Shimada is looking to overtake you as the most popular emcee on TV. Unlike you, Shimada can't be seen every single night of the week, but some nights he can be seen more than once.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 30, 2004

Shōchū: The spirit of the times

All it takes is a whiff and a sip of shōchū  to realize it is markedly different from the more common nihonshu (which Westerners call "sake," although in Japanese, sake is a catchall word for all alcoholic drinks).
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 30, 2004

Media leave Imperial family forgotten, lonely, and in a corner

The excitement last weekend over North Korea's release of some of the Japanese abductees' children overshadowed another news story about prisoners of the state -- the Japanese Imperial family. Crown Prince Naruhito returned from his whirlwind wedding tour of Europe to a tense Imperial Household Agency...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 30, 2004

The Michael Nyman Band

Though Michael Nyman has worked with a variety of film directors, most notably Peter Greenaway and Jane Campion, his film scores are instantly recognizable. The horns sound regally, the strings pulsate and his band swings so wildly that the music threatens to fly apart. As a music critic in the 1960s,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
May 30, 2004

On a desert driveabout in search of somewhere

We hit Botswana with no particular place to go.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 30, 2004

Freedom in a feudal land

FINDING MONJU, by Earle Ernst. Key West: Eaton Street Press, Inc., 186 pp., 2000, $19.95 (paper). The late Earle Ernst was the author of that seminal work, "The Kabuki Theater," first published in 1956 and still in print, and the editor of the 1959 "Three Japanese Plays." While a member of the Allied...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 30, 2004

Geography, history flex E. Asia's 'quadrilateral'

THE GEOPOLITICS OF EAST ASIA: The Search for Equilibrium, by Robyn Lim. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, 208 pp., £65 (cloth). East Asia is a dangerous neighborhood and thus professor Robyn Lim admonishes Japanese leaders to abandon "head in the sand" pacifism and acknowledge that at the dawn of the 21st...
Japan Times
Features
May 30, 2004

Sommelier serves up a vintage haunt

Shinya Tasaki is Japan's best-known sommelier. Regularly featured on television, in newspapers and magazines, he runs his own French restaurant, as well as a wine bar and a school for sommeliers.

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?