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BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 21, 2003

Kobayashi ties record

Right-hander Masahide Kobayashi matched a Pacific League high among Japanese players in re-signing with the Chiba Lotte Marines for an annual salary of 230 million yen for next season, baseball officials said Saturday.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 21, 2003

Atomosphere: "Seven's Travel"

Which makes you more uncomfortable, the cartoon gangsta MC who treats women like pieces of meat, or the rapper who spews invective at the women he thinks made him suffer? Slug (Sean Daley), the MC who along with DJ-producer Ant make up the Minneapolis hip-hop group Atmosphere, first made a splash in...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 21, 2003

Year's top commercials 'ad' up to great Japanese TV

Anyone who reads this column regularly probably believes that I find Japanese television completely worthless. It's not true; or, at least, not completely true. I think Japanese TV commercials are very good and often more representative of the hopes and dreams of the nation than the programming is.
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Dec 21, 2003

Big steps for Tokyo's little jazz labels

Independent labels have always been a mainstay of the Tokyo jazz scene, but this year saw a bumper crop of good music coming from small labels. While many of these artists' recordings can only be found at their shows, stacked up neatly on fold-up tables at the back of the club, a number of the larger...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 21, 2003

Zen and the art of gardening

INSIDE JAPANESE GARDENS, by Shunmyo Masuno. Osaka: Commemorative Foundation for the International Garden & Greenery Exposition, 350 pp., 4,800 yen (cloth). In the formal Japanese garden -- a source of delight but also puzzlement to some visitors -- every element has a reason for being there, an ordained...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 21, 2003

Moved by the spirit of song

It was shaping up to be a Japanese Christmas like any other.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 21, 2003

Jazz clubs on New Year's Eve

Most evenings, jazz in Tokyo is squashed into a minuscule four hours, politely finishing early enough for customers to catch the last train home. By other countries' standards, the lack of a late-night set starting at 11 or midnight is almost unbelievable. On New Year's Eve, however, all that changes....
MORE SPORTS
Dec 21, 2003

Secom's escape is Sanix's heartbreak

Rugby fans in Tokyo found out on Saturday what Tongans and New Zealanders have known for years -- just how inspirational a player Inoke Afeaki is.
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2003

Draft 2004 budget relies heavily on bond issuance

Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki submitted on Saturday a draft budget for fiscal 2004 worth 82.11 trillion yen -- but is reliant on bond issuance as Japan faces growing social welfare costs due to the rapidly aging population.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 21, 2003

Hot spots hear gospel

Christmas Gospel Concert by Fukuoka Community Gospel Choir -- at Izumi City Culture Center, Bunka-cho 23, Izumi, Kagoshima Pref. Takes place Dec.21 at 6 p.m.; 300 yen. For details, call (0996) 63-2106.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Dec 21, 2003

Of death and glories

The stench! That was what got me first as I pushed my bike up the steep, narrow lane: the reek of burning hair, bones, hooves and flesh.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 21, 2003

Faye Wong: "It's My Style"

Fans of the Far East's most creative siren, Faye Wong, should know her latest album, "It's My Style," is worth the three-year wait. Due to a poetic reference to opium, the opener (and best track), "To Love," was banned in China. That means most mainlanders will miss hearing Wong trill through Middle-Eastern...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Dec 21, 2003

Olympic champ really was the full Monti

The news that Eugenio Monti had committed suicide on Dec. 1 at the age of 75 (brought about by his battle with Parkinson's disease) probably didn't raise too many eyebrows, but for those in the know the Italian was the very epitome of sportsmanship.
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 2003

Devil of amity lurks in free trade details

SINGAPORE -- The decision at the Japan-ASEAN summit on Dec. 11-12 to create a new "special relationship" between the two may be historic, but the economic free-trade areas that will provide its foundation look like long shots. Japanese efforts are likely to be frustrated by the same political forces...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 21, 2003

Mysteries along the Mekong

BANGKOK 8, by John Burdett. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003, 318 pp., $24.00 (cloth). WAITING FOR THE LADY, by Christopher G. Moore. Bangkok: Heaven Lake Press, 2003, 342 pp., $24.95 (cloth). Can a Western author convincingly put himself inside the mind of a Thai cop? Writing in the first person in...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2003

'Zaito' to be cut 12.5% in fiscal 2004

The Finance Ministry proposed Saturday a 12.5 percent cut in spending under the Fiscal Investment and Loan Program for fiscal 2004, which would be the fifth consecutive year-on-year reduction.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 21, 2003

Gray lining for the silver years

BLESSED WITH OLD AGE: Demographic Change and the Family in Japan's Aging Society, edited by John W. Traphagan and John Knight. New York: State University of New York Press, 2003, 248 pp., $71.50 (cloth), $23.95 (paper). Aging is not what it used to be. Fuwaku, "no longer straying off course" once described...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 21, 2003

Democracy vs. GDP growth

China is the world's biggest country and India is the world's biggest democracy. Each accounts for one-sixth of the world's people. Their fates matter.
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2003

Shootings suspect admits charges

A man arrested Friday in connection with shots being fired at Aum Shinrikyo facilities in Tokyo and Osaka and a teachers' union office in Hiroshima, for which a rightist group claimed responsibility, has admitted orchestrating the attacks, investigative sources said Saturday.
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 2003

Kuwait shows how to tolerate Christians

KUWAIT CITY -- Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein might be in custody, but the process of building democracy in Iraq remains difficult. Kuwait offers an important model of Islamic tolerance. Like other Muslim states, Kuwait is filled with mosques. But Kuwait possesses something that many Muslim nations...
EDITORIALS
Dec 20, 2003

Captive of a democracy

...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2003

Backer's arrest is egg on DPJ man's face

Shingo Nishimura, a House of Representatives member of the Democratic Party of Japan, wrote an essay expressing his gratitude for help in his election campaign in a magazine published by a man arrested Friday in connection with three shooting attacks.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2003

Six arrested over shooting attacks on Aum, union offices

Tokyo police arrested six people Friday in connection with three shooting incidents targeting offices of Aum Shinrikyo in Tokyo and Osaka, as well as a shooting at a teachers' union office in Hiroshima, for which a rightist group claimed responsibility.
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2003

Japan approves plan for missile defense

The government said Friday it will go ahead with plans to introduce a contentious U.S.-developed ballistic missile defense system to protect Japan from attack, such as from North Korea.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 20, 2003

Ai-chan to compete in four events

Teenager Ai Fukuhara will appear in four events at next year's national championships, the Japan Table Tennis Association said Friday. The 15-year-old Fukuhara, who advanced as far as the quarterfinals in women's singles at this year's World Championships, will meet defending champion Aya Umemura in...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2003

Communication is key to restoring tainted nuclear energy's image: paper

Communication among the government, businesses and public is key to restoring public confidence in nuclear power -- which has been tainted by accidents and scandals -- according to a government report released Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2003

Hinomaru hoisted at all spring graduation events

All public elementary, junior high and high schools in Japan raised the Hinomaru during their spring graduation ceremonies, according to an education ministry survey released this week.

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