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JAPAN
Jul 10, 2005

Mitsubishi Heavy offers to purchase U.S. power plant titan Westinghouse

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. has offered to buy major U.S. nuclear power plant builder Westinghouse Electric Co. in a multibillion yen deal, company officials said Saturday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 10, 2005

Contort yourself, by any means necessary

"No New York," the 1978 compilation produced by Brian Eno, remains a snapshot of lower Manhattan's music scene at that time. The pioneering punk club CBGB's was thriving, the influential performance space-cum-disco, the Mudd Club, was about to open and a musician could still afford to live in the East...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 10, 2005

NTV's "Otona no Natsu Yasumi," Fuji's "Rodo Kijun Kantokukan" and more

Several years ago, actress Shinobu Terashima won a Japan Academy Award and lots of overseas critical praise for her portrayal of a troubled young woman in the movie "Vibrator."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 10, 2005

Chicago's fertile ground

Traditionally, American musicians who want to reach the masses gravitate to Los Angeles or New York, where the big record labels and artist-management companies are headquartered. However, pop music tends to have a regional pedigree, and with the rise of truly independent labels in the 1980s musicians...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 10, 2005

New horizons beckon as Train Man heads nowhere fast

The Japanese nation seems to be firmly in the grip of the otaku.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 10, 2005

Existential dilemma from the Japanese wasteland

TOWARD MEANING: Poems of Kikuo Takano, translated by Hiroaki Sato. Middletown Springs, Vermont: P.S., A Press, 2004, 116 pp., $12 (paper). Kikuo Takano (born 1927) first wrote poetry in the bleak postwar years and is said to have burned his initial output. Aligning himself in 1953 with Ayukawa Nobuo's...
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2005

Detention, deportation of asylum seekers protested in Tokyo

Around 150 people including asylum applicants, lawyers and supporters gathered Saturday in a park in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, to protest the forced detention and deportation of people seeking asylum.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 10, 2005

Where Zen is perfectly at home

ZEN AND KYOTO, by John Einarsen. Uniplan Co., Inc, 2004, 135 pp., 2,381 yen (paper). Like heaven and hell, or the elements of earth and rock, Zen and the city of Kyoto are joined at the hip.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 10, 2005

"Old Kyoto" revived

OLD KYOTO, by Diane Durston. Kodansha International, 248 pp., 120 color photos, 150 illustrations, 2004 (revised edition), 2,200 yen (paper). Diane Durston, a writer, lecturer and consultant on Japan and Asian studies, describes Kyoto with the loving care of a preservationist. She begins "Old Kyoto,"...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 10, 2005

Coming out of the linguistic closet

QUEER JAPAN FROM THE PACIFIC WAR TO THE INTERNET AGE, by Mark McLelland. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005, 248 pp., 15 b/w photos, $34.95 (paper). Japanese homosexuals face a peculiar problem. There is a true confusion among terms for sex, gender, sexual orientation, and gender expression. As one scholar...
CULTURE / Music
Jul 10, 2005

Afrika Bambaataa

If any one person could be said to have invented hip-hop it's the man born Kevin Donovan in the Bronx in 1960 who, during the mid-'70s, organized block parties where he acted as DJ and his friends acted as emcees, rapping to the beats he selected so carefully. The wider world didn't turn to Donovan,...
Japan Times
Features
Jul 10, 2005

DEPRESSION

'Istarted to get to work late -- sometimes at 11, then at 12 and then at 2; and then I had to quit my job."
Japan Times
Features
Jul 10, 2005

Support groups to aid of all affected

When people become clinically depressed, it's not just they who suffer. Families of the depressed are deeply affected -- riding an emotional roller coaster -- and when a breadwinner is afflicted, as is often the case, financial struggles inevitably ensue. Worst of all, many families must live with the...
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2005

University presidents take voluntary salary cuts

The heads of 10 national universities that acquired corporate status in spring 2004 have voluntarily cut their pay in an effort to promote business efficiency, it was learned Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Jul 9, 2005

'Hello, fingerprint, please'

In an effort to check an increase in crimes committed by foreigners, the government is moving toward introducing compulsory fingerprinting for foreigners entering and leaving Japan -- a move that is expected to draw fire from foreign residents in Japan and possibly lead to conflicts with some foreign...
BUSINESS
Jul 9, 2005

Key money supply gauge up in June

Japan's most closely watched gauge of money supply grew 1.7 percent in June on a year-on-year basis, following a 1.5 percent rise in May, the Bank of Japan said in a preliminary report Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2005

'Cool Biz' dress code spreads through halls of promotion

The "Cool Biz" casual dress code campaign launched by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on June 1 has spread to the bureaucracy, Diet and Supreme Court, but whether the intended effect -- of setting air conditioners at higher levels in cities to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and thus help curb global...
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2005

U.K. attacks trigger official fears that Japan is next

Thursday's deadly terrorist bombings in London raised fresh concerns among Tokyo officials Friday that Japan might be the next target due to its support for the U.S.-led war on Iraq.
BUSINESS
Jul 9, 2005

FSA ups protection for insurance policyholders

The Financial Services Agency released a new set of rules Friday to upgrade protection of customers by requiring insurance firms to become more accountable for policies they sell.
BUSINESS
Jul 9, 2005

Japan firms' U.K. workers OK

Japanese firms breathed a collective sigh of relief Friday after determining that all their employees in London appear not to have been injured in the series of deadly explosions that rocked the transportation system in the British capital.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jul 9, 2005

Japan -- where the oldies are always golden

That pitter-patter you hear right now is probably only the remains of the rainy season slipping drop by drop from your eave spouts. Yet there is another melancholy drizzle in this land that falls all year round. It is that misty-eyed drool for all things past. Yes, this country is literally dripping...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 9, 2005

Umibiraki -- drunk fish, a certain charm

On the first Sunday of July for hundreds of years now, a priest has performed a Shinto ceremony called umibiraki on Shiraishi Island. At this "opening-of-the-sea" ceremony, the priest blesses the sea making it safe for swimming.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji