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EDITORIALS
Apr 25, 2004

'A long fuse has been lighted'

With the earlier-than-usual arrival of warm weather, the influenza season in Japan is almost over, and the number of patients reported to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is down 40 percent from last year. However, the danger of the bird flu virus mutating and a new type of influenza breaking...
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 25, 2004

Indians call up Tadano

Japanese pitcher Kazuhito Tadano was called up by the Cleveland Indians, local media reported on Saturday.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2004

90,000 cancer cases laid to smoking

Smoking causes an estimated 80,000 Japanese men and 8,000 Japanese women each year to develop cancer, according to a health ministry report, indicating the huge impact of smoking on public health.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2004

Drivers recount Iraq hostage-taking to terror squad

Terrorism experts dispatched by Tokyo to deal with the Japanese hostage crisis in Iraq obtained full witness accounts from two taxi drivers regarding the abduction of three Japanese civilians on April 11, the fourth day after their captivity was reported, police sources said Saturday.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2004

Half of women here feel they're fat, poll

Nearly half of the female respondents to a Cabinet Office survey released Saturday believe they are overweight, up 6.1 percentage points from the previous survey taken in October 2000.
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 25, 2004

Tamura, BayStars swamp Carp

Hitoshi Tamura homered and drove in three runs on Saturday to lead the Yokohama BayStars to a 10-2 drubbing of the Central League-leading Hiroshima Carp.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 25, 2004

Bob Dylan: "Live 1964: Concert at Philharmonic Hall"

The striking thing about the latest addition to the "Bootleg Series" is the realization that four years into his career Bob Dylan was still a callow youth. The concert took place Halloween night, 1964, a year after the Kennedy assassination, nine months after The Beatles conquered America, but a year...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 25, 2004

Frank Gibney's league of Japanese gentlemen

FIVE GENTLEMEN OF JAPAN: The Portrait of a Nation's Character, by Frank Gibney. D'Asia Vu Reprint Library, Eastbridge, 2002, 356 pp., $24.95 (paper). Fifty years ago, a young American writer named Frank Gibney, fresh out of the U.S. Navy where he had been a Japanese-speaking intelligence officer, published...
Features / LIFE OR DEATH
Apr 25, 2004

'I became an accessory to legal murder'

'The death penalty is legal murder, and as someone who has stood by and watched it being carried out, I am an accessory to murder."
CULTURE / Music
Apr 25, 2004

Otis Rush, Mavis Staples and The Derek Trucks Band

In 1950s Chicago, urban blues exploded into a musical revolution. Fueled by new-style amps and electric guitars, pioneers like Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley and Elmore James forged a hard-driving soundtrack for the new urban culture of migrants from the south. Otis Rush, who headlines this May's Japan Blues...
MORE SPORTS
Apr 25, 2004

Kitajima easily books Athens berth

World record holder Kosuke Kitajima easily won a second Olympic berth when he won his fourth straight title in the men's 200-meter breaststroke at the swimming national championships on Saturday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2004

Japan-U.S. team to work on BSE-test pact

Japan and the United States remained far apart on measures to test for mad cow disease but the two sides managed to agree Saturday to set up a working team of experts to work toward lifting Japan's import ban on U.S. beef as early as this summer.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 25, 2004

New Fuji TV series, "At-home Dad" and more

The new Fuji TV series, "At-home Dad" (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), takes the usual housewife drama and reverses the genders to comic effect. Kazuyuki (Hiroshi Abe), a 37-year-old account executive at a leading advertising firm, is a victim of downsizing, thus forcing his wife to go out and work full-time.
Features / LIFE OR DEATH
Apr 25, 2004

Haunted by visions of a 'horrifying act'

...
Events
Apr 25, 2004

KANSAI: Who & What

30 travelers a day can win Seto bridge pass: Every tourist who crosses the Seto Ohashi Bridge will have a chance to win, via a drawing, a prepaid expressway card between April 29 and May 5.
Japan Times
Features / LIFE OR DEATH
Apr 25, 2004

Only the noose can ease victims' pain

More than four years have passed since his 2-year-old granddaughter was murdered, yet never a day goes by without Tsuneo Matsumura mournfully remembering little Haruna, or having images of her flash through his mind whenever he sees a girl about the same age as she would be.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2004

Indian candidates take care of business

MADRAS -- India's elections are sometimes compared to a circus. Some call it the greatest show on Earth. I prefer to call the national elections, the first phase of which began last week, the greatest "family show" on Earth.
Japan Times
Features
Apr 25, 2004

Reluctantly putting the hanging case

Despite official data showing public support for capital punishment running at around 80 percent, few Japanese are willing to openly defend the death penalty.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 25, 2004

Fear and loathing of the private sector

GUATEMALA CITY -- Citing Microsoft's dominance in the personal-computer industry, European Union regulators imposed tough sanctions, including a record fine of 497 million euros (about $596 million). Following the arguments of this ruling, South Korean authorities have taken their own actions. Meanwhile,...
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2004

MMC rehab without Daimler studied

A Mitsubishi Group task force began compiling a new business rehabilitation plan Saturday for ailing Mitsubishi Motors Corp., following a surprising pullout decision by DaimlerChrysler AG.
COMMENTARY
Apr 25, 2004

Denying terror a moral gain

LONDON -- The terrorist attacks on trains in Madrid in March, which killed more than 200 people and maimed or wounded hundreds more, were planned and executed by Islamic extremists from Morocco, probably with connections to al-Qaeda. It has been claimed that the attacks were inspired by opposition to...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Apr 25, 2004

Bush ads make little dent against Kerry

WASHINGTON -- The continuing reports of tumult and casualties from Iraq and contentious hearings by the Presidential Commission to Investigate September 11th have sucked the oxygen out of the media pipes this month.
Japan Times
Features / LIFE OR DEATH
Apr 25, 2004

Back from the brink after living 28 years on death row

He heard the footsteps approaching down the hall outside. He sat still, barely breathing. The other cells lay equally silent. None of the other condemned prisoners moved. No one spoke. Those footsteps meant only one thing: there was going to be a hanging.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 25, 2004

Kanji curves and strokes

DESIGNING WITH KANJI: Japanese Character Motifs for Surface, Skin & Spirit, by Shogo Oketani and Leza Lowitz. Stone Bridge Press, 2003, 144 pp., $14.95 (paper). If there are a thousand different ways to learn kanji, there are almost as many ways, and excuses, for giving up on the study.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 25, 2004

Agent orange: a weapon of untold destruction

AGENT ORANGE: Collateral Damage in Viet Nam, by Philip Jones Griffiths. London: Trolley Ltd., 2003, 176 pp., £24.95 (cloth). Philip Jones Griffiths' haunting images will sear a space in that part of your memory bank reserved for nightmares and denial. They are powerful and gruesome reminders of what...

Longform

The volunteer lifesavers of Nishihama Surf Lifesaving Club never know what's in store at the start of their day.
It's no simple day at the beach for Japan's volunteer lifesavers