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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jun 1, 2003

You gotta walk the walk, talk the talk

DJ Seen does have tales to tell. After I get all five members of Pico System to play a game in which they have to decide what kind of animal each of the others is most like (this does, believe me, occasionally yield some illuminating responses), Seen is voted a cheetah. Maybe it's got something to do...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 1, 2003

The flowered margin

TATTOOS OF THE FLOATING WORLD, by Takahiro Kitamura; foreword by Donald Richie. Hotei Publishing, 2003, 120 pp., 2,600 yen (cloth). In an age excessively concerned with outward appearances, official disapproval of tattoos in Japan is perhaps understandable. The Japanese are less seriously spooked by...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 1, 2003

Contradictory U.S. triumph

An unusual, and thus intriguing, feature of the Iraq war is how both proponents and opponents feel passionately vindicated by what happened. The switch in justification -- from finding and destroying Iraqi weapons of mass destruction before the war to the humanitarian liberation of Iraqis from a murderous...
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2003

Medicines for colds linked to potentially deadly pneumonia

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has identified 28 cases of pneumonia since 1996 that it suspects were side effects of nonprescription drugs for common colds, it was learned Saturday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 1, 2003

Prodigy foiled in U.S. quest

A U.S. Navy officer was strolling down a deserted street in the town of Shimoda, late on the evening of April 24, 1854, when he ran into two well-dressed young Japanese who handed him a letter in Japanese. The previous month, Commodore Matthew Perry had completed his mission to have Japan sign a treaty...
Events
Jun 1, 2003

KANSAI: Who & What

Japan films screened free every Wednesday: The Japan Foundation Kyoto Office is inviting foreign residents to its free weekly showings of Japanese films, starting at 2 p.m. each Wednesday this month at its facility in Kyoto's Nakagyo Ward.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2003

Ministry protests refugee newspaper story

The Justice Ministry has protested against an article run by the Yomiuri Shimbun on Thursday that said the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau is recommending that a former North Korean agent be granted refugee status, according to ministry officials.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jun 1, 2003

Tigers toy with Giants in ninth

Tomoaki Kanemoto singled home two runs to tie the game and George Arias hit a bases-clearing double for the go-ahead runs as Hanshin erupted for 11 runs in the top of the ninth to down Yomiuri 13-5 at Tokyo Dome on Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 1, 2003

Plagued by military politics

MILITARY POLITICS AND DEMOCRATIZATION IN INDONESIA, by Jun Honna. London: RoutedgeCurzon, 2003, 300 pp., $904 (cloth). With the collapse of a fragile ceasefire in Aceh, the Indonesian government has decided on a military solution to this long-festering problem. The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has fought...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2003

Tokyo rejects Pyongyang offer to return abductee relatives

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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / CLOSE-UP
Jun 1, 2003

Looking back on a 'rudderless' land

In the four years since Howard French took the helm as The New York Times' Tokyo bureau chief, he has witnessed -- and covered -- the rise of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the fall of his former foreign minister, Makiko Tanaka, the scandalous accident at the uranium-processing facility in the village...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 1, 2003

Travel or reality show? A bit of both and neither

The TV Tokyo series, "Inaka ni Tomaro" ("Let's Spend the Night in the Countryside"; Sunday 7 p.m.), which started several months ago, is categorized as a travel show, but its appeal is similar to that which characterizes reality shows, namely the spectacle of people placed in real-life situations that...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 1, 2003

Black Ships of 'shock and awe'

Whatever Washington would have the world think, many people will only ever believe that the recent U.S. invasion of Iraq was for oil. However, U.S. power diplomacy of the Bush administration's "neoconservative" type is neither a new phenomenon, nor one confined to the Muslim Middle East.
EDITORIALS
Jun 1, 2003

In the hands of the language police

A nyone interested in the health of either the English language or American education might already have caught wind of a book that caused a stir when it was published in the United States in April. For those who haven't, "The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn," by Professor...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jun 1, 2003

Cool just around the corner

I held out no great hope for a positive outcome to a recent visit to the Ginza. Dante, the chef who some of you may remember from Tokyo Salon in the Vision Network complex in Omotesando, wanted me to come and taste his new Italian set dinner, which he has added to the menu at NB Club, a restaurant featuring...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 1, 2003

Shipwrecked Russians lived to tell an epic tale

With the Crimean War brewing in the eastern Mediterranean between Russia and an alliance of Turkey, Britain and France, a small Russian fleet of four ships commanded by Rear-Admiral Efimi Vasilievich Putiatin sailed into Nagasaki just a few weeks after U.S. Commadore Matthew Perry's "Black Ships" left...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 1, 2003

A cut above

After 15 years as one of the most successful and popular rikishi in the history of sumo, Takanohana called it quits Jan. 20. In his usual unflappable manner, the yokozuna (grand champion) commented at the press conference that he felt "it was a good time to retire," and though a lot of his peers have...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jun 1, 2003

The desert domain where the rhinos rule

Last of two parts We are in the Kunene wilderness region of northwest Namibia, with former F-1 star Ukyo Katayama, an NHK documentary team, a bunch of bloody-minded camels, several battered off-road vehicles, about 50 local tribesmen and Namibian wildlife artist Blythe Loutit, founder of The Save the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 1, 2003

Shame and the pious pioneer

Commodore Matthew Perry pried open the door to Japan, and the first American to pass through it was Townsend Harris.
EDITORIALS
May 31, 2003

Benefits of closer Japan-U.S ties

After Iraq, the most destabilizing factor affecting Japan today is nuclear-arms development by North Korea. While aiming for a peaceful solution of the problem through dialogue, the leaders of Japan and the United States have affirmed that if North Korea escalates the situation they are ready to adopt...
BASEBALL / MLB
May 31, 2003

Takahashi snares Tigers

Lefty Hisanori Takahashi pitched eight scoreless innings before giving up two runs in the ninth in going the distance and Takayuki Shimizu smashed a grand slam to cap a five-run fourth as the Yomiuri Giants downed the Hanshin Tigers 8-2 on Friday at Tokyo Dome.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2003

Shiokawa seeking 3% cut in public works spending

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Friday he hopes to cut public works spending by about 3 percent in the fiscal 2004 budget as part of efforts to reduce the size of the overall budget.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2003

Shiokawa claims yen overvalued

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa on Friday tried to talk down the value of the yen, saying he believes it is slightly overvalued.
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2003

Roh's summit of deferral

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COMMENTARY
May 31, 2003

No place for N. Korea in postwar order?

MANILA -- Peaceful conflict resolution has ceased to be a dominant paradigm of international relations. On the contrary, with the sole remaining superpower declaring preemptive strikes to be a strategic prerogative, and Washington's military supremacy virtually unopposed, political modesty has disappeared...
BUSINESS
May 31, 2003

Core Tokyo consumer prices for May sank 0.4% on year

The key gauge of consumer prices in Tokyo fell 0.4 percent in May from a year earlier, a record 44th consecutive month of decrease, the government said in a preliminary report Friday.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2003

Fujitsu sells part of stake in Fanuc

Fujitsu Ltd. said Friday it has sold part of its shareholdings in industrial robot manufacturer Fanuc Ltd. to raise funds to repay interest-bearing debts, although it still the biggest shareholder.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 31, 2003

Resona applies for 1.96 trillion yen

Resona Holdings Inc. formally applied Friday for an injection of 1.96 trillion yen in public funds and presented a restructuring program to the government that featured cuts in personnel and expenses as a condition for the bailout.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2003

Government sees 'freeters' as early warning sign

The government said Friday that the swelling ranks of young people forced into part-time work could dent Japan's economic competitiveness as these workers have less opportunity to hone a particular skill.

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