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COMMENTARY / World
Sep 27, 2004

The sky should be the limit for Kashmir

India and Pakistan are still holding on to their own rigid positions. India keeps harping that Kashmir can only be one of a list of subjects to be discussed. Pakistan disagrees and argues that Kashmir is a central issue that has to be tackled first.
COMMENTARY
Sep 27, 2004

Global weather warnings

Weather in Japan this year has shown unusual patterns. In fact, what has happened in various parts of the country defies our common knowledge. Take typhoons. Aside from a record number that hit this summer, one of them -- No. 18, or Songda -- continued unabated. After landing Kyushu, it traveled northeast...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 27, 2004

Debating the life of a long-deceased poet

NEW YORK -- Inuhiko Yomota, one of the most well-read and prolific writers I know, was in town, and when I said I am working on a new book on the poet Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933), he told me that his friend, Masahiko Nishi, has written a book arguing that Miyazawa expressed strong anticolonialism through...
SUMO
Sep 27, 2004

Kaio takes fifth title in style

Ozeki Kaio captured his fifth Emperor's Cup on Sunday, even before a hard-fought victory over grand champion Asashoryu on the final day of the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament.
COMMENTARY
Sep 27, 2004

Reforming the United Nations

LONDON -- The Japanese government is understandably frustrated by the delay in reaching agreement on enlargement of the Security Council. Japan makes the largest contribution to the running of the United Nations, but still has to take its turn as an elected member of the Security Council.
EDITORIALS
Sep 26, 2004

Google: mirror or lamp?

Google, the world's most popular search engine, hasn't even been around for a decade -- it was founded in 1998 -- yet it is already hard to remember life without it. It has its rivals, notably Yahoo, Microsoft, Ask Jeeves, which launched a test version in Japan last month, and now Amazon, whose fancy...
EDITORIALS
Sep 26, 2004

A memo to the weather gods

It's late September, the season of equinoctial change and harvest moons, and we would like to remind the weather gods that this is supposed to mean something. It is not supposed to portend more and more days of July-like heat, but cooler temperatures, crisper air and a hint of color in the leaves --...
MORE SPORTS
Sep 26, 2004

Kokudo wins first Asia League game

Tomohiko Uchiyama scored late in the third period Saturday as Kokudo edged Russian team Golden Amur in the inaugural game of ice hockey's newly formed Asia League.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 26, 2004

Flying Rhythms

Flying Rhythms, in keeping with the current taste in progressive minimalism, is a band stripped down to the core. You've got drums, percussion and . . . well, that's pretty much it, except for Dry & Heavy/Little Tempo member Naoyuki Uchida dubbing things out on the mixing desk. As evidenced in tracks...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 26, 2004

Mourinho's method wins many games, not many friends

LONDON -- Returning from Chelsea's 3-0 Champions League win over Paris Saint-Germain in France last week this correspondent was the last passenger to leave the team's plane. A police officer at Gatwick Airport asked: "Did they win?"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 26, 2004

"Studio One Funk"

American influences in Jamaican music have always been unmistakable -- the R&B and jazz backdrop to ska, the soul influences in rocksteady and reggae, and today the hip-hop gangsta posturing in contemporary ragga. In this collection, drawn from the vaults of the prolific Studio One label, attention is...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 26, 2004

Howl of Los Lobos stronger than ever

For 30 years, East L.A.'s Los Lobos has made a habit of crossing borders. One look through their discography reveals the Latin rock quintet's frequent movement between Mexican folk and American R&B, with regular stops along the Mississippi for funk and blues. Recent albums have even showed a moody, experimental...
Japan Times
Features
Sep 26, 2004

Disillusioned bard of a bygone Japan

In the century that has passed since the death of Lafcadio Hearn on Sept. 26, 1904, the Japanese people have studiously formulated and maintained a myth -- and they have done it with all the tools and vigor of nostalgia at their disposal.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 26, 2004

Short and deep: Matsuo Basho's parallels of poetry

BASHO'S HAIKU: Selected Poems of Matsuo Basho, translated and with an Introduction by David Landis Barnhill. Albany: State University of New York Press, 232 pp., $23.95 (paper). Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) raised the haiku from a transient pastime to an enduring literary genre. He was among the first to...
SUMO
Sep 26, 2004

Kaio closes in on Emperor's Cup

Ozeki Kaio took a major step toward the Emperor's Cup on Saturday with a convincing win over Wakanosato, while Asashoryu was handed his third straight loss on the next-to-last last day of the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 26, 2004

The Black Keys: "Rubber Factory"

Though The Black Keys have been pegged as being part of the current garage-blues revival, they consider themselves a rock act, and Dan Auerbach has more in common with Jimi Hendrix than with any other past-master singer-guitarist. Of course, Hendrix was primarily a bluesman, too, but his flashy vocal-instrumental...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 26, 2004

Who knows if it is teaching or torture?

I WOULDN'T WANT ANYBODY TO KNOW: Native English Teaching in Japan, edited by Eva P. Bueno & Terry Caesar. JPGS Press, 2004, 252 pp., 2,500 yen, $25.00 (paper). Tall stories are clearly better than short ones, at least in the world of publishing. A whole industry has grown out of the perceived, often...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 26, 2004

Japan's abandoned kids live with the label

The murders of 4-year-old Kazuto Hayashi and his 3-year-old brother Hayato by an acquaintance of their father two weeks ago in Tochigi Prefecture has sparked outrage over Japan's insufficient child-welfare system. Though local police and child-welfare officials were aware the two boys were being beaten,...
COMMENTARY
Sep 26, 2004

Blame supply-side policies

Toyoo Gyohten was the senior Ministry of Finance (MOF) official handling international affairs back in the early '70s, and a source of wisdom to those of us trying to understand Japan's financial maze. He now heads Japan's Institute for International Monetary Affairs. In a recent address to the Aspen...
Japan Times
Features
Sep 26, 2004

Glimpsing the essence of Hearn's Kamakura

Apropos Hearn's "Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan," Basil Hall Chamberlain, the Meiji Era Japanologist, wrote: "Never perhaps was scientific accuracy of detail married to such tender and exquisite brilliancy of style."
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 26, 2004

"Sunday Present" on TV Asahi and more

Lately, a lot of attention has been focused on the problem of waste left behind on mountains by alpinists and hikers. Mount Everest is said to be almost a dump and Mount Fuji a national disgrace. However, the problem of trash and environmental pollution afflicts even smaller peaks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 26, 2004

Kora Jazz Trio: "Kora Jazz Trio"

This trio of kora (African harp), piano and percussion must rank as the most unusual in jazz, African jazz and even African music. It's made up of three West African virtuosos who have each led successful careers of their own for several decades. Senegalese pianist Abdoulaye Diabate played with Salif...
Japan Times
Features
Sep 26, 2004

Abandoned misfit who found peace in prose and his new land

In the West, Lafcadio Hearn is largely unknown outside of small circles of Japanophiles and aficionados of Gaelic writers.
COMMENTARY
Sep 26, 2004

Curtain falls on China's 'strongman' era

HONG KONG -- The decision by 78-year-old former President Jiang Zemin to step down as head of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Military Commission in favor of 61-year-old Hu Jintao, his successor as party and state leader, is a milestone in China's political development, marking as it does the completion...
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2004

SMFG extends validity period for UFJ merger proposal

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. said Friday it has extended to June 30 the period in which its proposal to UFJ Holdings Inc. that the firms merge via a one-to-one share exchange ratio will remain valid.
EDITORIALS
Sep 25, 2004

Iran should clear nuclear doubts

I ran has two months to prove that it has nothing to hide about its nuclear programs. Last weekend, the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency passed a resolution calling for an immediate halt to the country's uranium enrichment-related activities. The unanimous resolution said Tehran...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2004

New PlayStation enjoys limelight

CHIBA -- The country's largest video game show kicked off its three-day annual run here Friday, with a record 117 firms showcasing their latest products and nearly 500 new game titles unveiled.

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