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JAPAN
Nov 24, 2003

SDF troops to begin antiterror training for Iraq

In preparation for their planned dispatch to Iraq, Ground Self-Defense Force units will begin training this week to deal with terrorist attacks, it was learned Sunday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Nov 24, 2003

High price of media-fabricated heroism

NEW YORK -- Good for her. U.S. Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, finally given a chance on TV to have her say, punctured the notion of heroism concocted by the Hollywood publicist placed in Baghdad and the American mass media, ever the willing partner of their government when it comes to war.
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2003

Third man arrested over writer's death

Tokyo police arrested on Sunday a third man over the death of freelance journalist Satoru Someya, whose body was found in Tokyo Bay in September, according to investigative sources.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 24, 2003

East Asia needs a stable yuan: banker

Despite mounting international pressure for revaluating the yuan, a sharp fluctuation in the currency would only destabilize the Chinese economy, whose rapid expansion has aided not only Asian growth but global growth as well, a Chinese banker told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2003

Japan, China to conduct tests on broadband mobile phones

Japan and China are planning a joint experiment on a new generation of Internet-capable mobile phones for high-speed data transmissions between the two countries, telecommunications officials said Sunday.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Nov 24, 2003

End in sight for campaign-finance limits

WASHINGTON -- The experts are calling it the end of the road for the public-finance system that has propped up our presidential nominating system for 30 years. Candidate George W. Bush started the ball rolling by declining the opportunity to take federal money in his race in 2000 -- opting instead for...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Nov 24, 2003

Navigating the deep Internet

MOSCOW -- There could hardly be a tougher opponent for a struggling college professor than the Internet. You ask your students to write an essay about Moscow, and you end up with the papers based on sources like www.moscow-taxi.ripoff.com and www.moscow-hotels.dump.ru. When, fuming with rage, you inform...
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 2003

Milestone for an iconic mouse

An old mouse turned 75 last week, briefly distracting the world from wars, suicide bombings, elections and other momentous matters. It wasn't just any old mouse, you see; it was the white-gloved, bulbous-eared rodent Mickey Mouse, better known here as Miki Kuchi. This peculiar creature actually goes...
SPORTS
Nov 23, 2003

England wins Rugby World Cup

SYDNEY - The unerring boot of Jonny Wilkinson had been the talk of the 2003 Rugby World Cup to date and in a fitting end to an epic final it was his magical right-footed drop goal that won England the William Webb Ellis Trophy for the first time in Sydney on Saturday night.
Japan Times
Events / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Nov 23, 2003

Kobe German school to host Christmas market

Deutsche Schule Kobe, a German school in the city's Nada Ward, is hosting a Christmas market between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Nov. 29.
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2003

Three held over killing of journalist

Police on Saturday arrested a man on suspicion of abandoning the body of freelance journalist Satoru Someya, who was well-known for his stories about the activities of Chinese crime gangs in the capital's Kabukicho district and was found murdered in Tokyo Bay in September.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 23, 2003

Artistic survivors of a cultural revolution

MEMOIRS FROM THE BEIJING FILM ACADEMY: The Genesis of China's Fifth Generation, by Ni Zhen, translated by Chris Berry. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2002, 234 pp., £14.94 (paper). Ni Zhen taught film theory at the Beijing Film Academy where in the 20 years between 1980 and 2000 he instructed...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 23, 2003

State gambles with the future of 'discarded' kids

Last month there were two news stories about legal complications arising from the conception of children through special medical procedures. In one, a surrogate mother in California gave birth to twins who were the product of a Japanese man's sperm and the egg of a third-party Asian-American woman. In...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 23, 2003

Talk to her

The earliest chatterbot programs ever written say more about the human condition than they do about the nature of computer intelligence. The first, ELIZA -- or Dr. Eliza, as "she" was known -- had the persona of a Rogerian psychotherapist. Her successor, perhaps the inspiration for Marvin, the "paranoid...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 23, 2003

Listening post: Recorded

Dino Saluzzi "Responsorium" (ECM)
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 23, 2003

U.S. takes first step away from S. Korea

HONOLULU -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's visit to South Korea this past week should be seen for what it really was, an early step in a long, gradual disengagement of U.S. land forces from South Korea and a greater reliance on sea power to maintain an American security posture in Asia.
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2003

Japan to reply in kind to U.S. steel curbs

30% HIKE IN IMPORT TARIFFS
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2003

Seven bank groups slash 1.4 trillion off deferred tax assets

Japan's seven major banking groups slashed their combined deferred tax assets, a major component of core capital, by 1.4 trillion in closing their books for the six months to Sept. 30, down from 7.8 trillion as of March 31, according to banking industry sources.
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2003

Oil firm exec held over tax evasion

The president of a Tokyo-based oil importing company and eight others have been arrested for allegedly evading more than 400 million in taxes on a large volume of diesel fuel imported from South Korea via dummy companies, police said Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 23, 2003

N. Korea: where NGOs fear to go

PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS: The NGO Experience in North Korea, edited by L. Gordon Flake and Scott Snyder. Praeger Publishers, 2003, 176 pp., $45 (cloth). Pity the poor nongovernmental organizations trying to work in North Korea. They face a monumental challenge -- aiding a society that is starving and...
COMMUNITY
Nov 23, 2003

The Enigma

The theory behind the Turing Test is at the center of this fine print (right) by the American artist Jin Wicked. The looping tape, inscribed with binary 0s and 1s, represents Alan Turing's model of the computer he formulated in 1936.

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