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Japan Times
JAPAN
May 23, 2004

Pyongyang summit falls short for kin of those still missing

Family members of Japanese still missing after being abducted by North Korea expressed indignation Saturday over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's failure to gain new information regarding their kin.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 23, 2004

'Transculturation' of migrating musical styles

LOCATING EAST ASIA IN WESTERN ART MUSIC, edited by Yayoi Uno Everett and Frederick Lau, foreword by Bonnie Wade. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2004, 388 pp., with musical examples, $27.95 (paper). This somewhat misleadingly titled collection is an assemblage of papers given at the 1998 Third...
CULTURE / Music
May 23, 2004

Otis Taylor: "Double V"

Otis Taylor's fifth recording, "Double V," is razor-sharp, stripped-down blues brimming with conviction and conscience. Distilling outrage over social injustices into poignant refrains, Taylor sings in angry rasps and whispers of suffering. His blues hits like moonshine; it's hard not to shudder.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 23, 2004

Obsessions with Japan's uneasy history

NEUTRAL WAR, by Hal Gold. New York: The Lyons Press, 426 pp., 2003, $22.95 (cloth). TOKYO, by Mo Hayder. London: Bantam Press, 364 pp., 2004, £10.99 (paper). Novels that tantalize readers by intertwining known facts about the Pacific War with historical what-ifs and maybes bring to mind such entertaining...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 23, 2004

Soga factor dampens family reunion

The outcome of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's summit Saturday with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il elicited mixed emotions from the five former abductees.
COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 2004

How separate are religion, government?

...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 23, 2004

Foreign markets fail to grasp soul of anime

If, as many people claim, Japanese pop culture is sweeping the globe, then anime is the hand that wields the broom. A number of recent big-budget Japanese animated features, including Mamoru Oishii's "Innocence," currently in competition at Cannes, have attracted funding from Hollywood without the usual...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 23, 2004

"Noka no Yome ni Naritai" premiers on NHK and more

The flight of young people from rural areas into big cities seems irreversible. Though the problem is usually discussed in terms of lifestyle choices, the fact is there isn't much money in agriculture and young women don't want to marry farmers.
JAPAN
May 22, 2004

Crown Prince to meet agency chief

Crown Prince Naruhito will meet with the Imperial Household Agency chief when he returns from Europe to discuss his unusually candid remarks about the condition of his wife, Crown Princess Masako, a senior agency official said Friday.
JAPAN
May 22, 2004

Embattled MMC unveils 'last chance' survival plan

Japan's crisis-hit Mitsubishi Motors Corp. unveiled a survival plan Friday featuring a 450 billion yen cash injection, relocation of its head office from Tokyo to Kyoto and major cuts in its global workforce and Australian output.
JAPAN
May 22, 2004

A brief history of the five returnees and their relatives in North Korea

High on the agenda of Saturday's summit in Pyongyang is the possible passage to Japan of the repatriated abductees' families.
JAPAN
May 22, 2004

Woman, 63, dies during descent from Everest summit

A Japanese woman has died while descending from the summit of Mount Everest, her tour guide company said Friday.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 22, 2004

Rhodes' HR helps Giants down Tigers

Tuffy Rhodes hit a two-run homer in the top of the eighth inning Friday to lead the Yomiuri Giants to a 9-4 win over the Hanshin Tigers at Koshien Stadium.
JAPAN
May 22, 2004

Quasi-jury system earns Diet approval

A judicial reform law designed to introduce Japan's first quasi-jury system was enacted by the Diet on Friday, paving the way for the system's launch in 2009.
JAPAN
May 22, 2004

Crown Prince to meet agency chief

Crown Prince Naruhito will meet with the Imperial Household Agency chief when he returns from Europe to discuss his unusually candid remarks about the condition of his wife, Crown Princess Masako, a senior agency official said Friday.
JAPAN
May 22, 2004

Japan to seek info on 10 other kidnap victims

Aside from the five abductees repatriated in 2002, Japan has identified 10 other Japanese nationals as having been kidnapped by North Korea.
BUSINESS
May 22, 2004

Firms look to 'white biotechnology' to cut costs, save energy

Businesses worldwide are increasing their use of "white biotechnology" to save energy, reduce waste and cut corporate expenses by using fermentation as a production method.
JAPAN
May 22, 2004

A brief history of the five returnees and their relatives in North Korea

High on the agenda of Saturday's summit in Pyongyang is the possible passage to Japan of the repatriated abductees' families.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
May 22, 2004

McGrady looking at Suns, Rockets, Spurs, Lakers for future

NEW YORK -- For obvious reasons, Tracy McGrady has narrowed his choices to play next season -- or the following one, at the latest, should the Magic incomprehensibly fail to arrange a trade -- to four teams, all of whom flaunt a centrifugal force.
JAPAN
May 22, 2004

Woman, 63, dies during descent from Everest summit

A Japanese woman has died while descending from the summit of Mount Everest, her tour guide company said Friday.
BUSINESS
May 22, 2004

State wants NPOs to take up slack

The government called for greater cooperation Friday between local governments and nonprofit organizations, stating that public services offered by the former are increasingly limited by fiscal constraints.
JAPAN
May 22, 2004

Terrorist kept calling Japan

A senior al-Qaeda operative who hid from Interpol in the city of Niigata for more than a year made phone calls to two Japanese and 11 foreign Muslim men in Japan after he left the country last year, investigative sources said.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 22, 2004

Ministry to mint expo, airport coins

Japan will mint special coins to mark the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi Prefecture and the opening of Chubu international airport next year, the Finance Ministry said Friday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 22, 2004

Sacred flames and burning Tahiti dreams

On our sail through the Seto Inland Sea, whenever we pull into a harbor for the night, we never know what to expect. At Shiraishi Island, we found people wearing deer skins, blowing though bull horns and shooting arrows into the air. What's this?
EDITORIALS
May 22, 2004

New development plan needed

A s far as corporate earnings reports show, Japan's economic recovery is moving in the fast lane, with many large companies chalking up record profits for the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2004. At the top of the list is Toyota Motor Corp., which reported group net income of more than 1 trillion yen...

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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?