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COMMENTARY
May 26, 2003

Megawati deserves greater U.S. support

LOS ANGELES -- What country has the largest population while probably remaining the least known among Americans? It's Indonesia -- an awesome archipelago of maybe 13,000 islands and some 220 million people. Most of them are moderate Muslims, and there are more of those in Indonesia than anywhere.
COMMENTARY
May 26, 2003

French reforms under fire

PARIS -- Six weeks ago, his strong opposition to the war in Iraq won French President Jacques Chirac overwhelming support in the polls. Today he has been forced to turn away from the international scene and face a rapidly developing social crisis centered on pension and education reforms.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 26, 2003

Fighters rip Lotte

D.T. Cromer and Tomochika Tsuboi both hit three-run homers on Sunday to lead the Nippon Ham Fighters to a 19-1 drubbing of the Lotte Marines at Tokyo Dome.
SUMO
May 26, 2003

Asashoryu wins Summer Basho

Mongolian Asashoryu wrapped up his first Emperor's Cup as a yokozuna on Sunday after Musoyama slapped down Kaio on the final day of the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament.
MORE SPORTS
May 26, 2003

Still in Love wins second jewel

Okasho champion Still in Love (Sunday Silence-Bradamante, by Roberto) captured her second crown in the filly classics as she easily topped the field in Sunday's Oaks by a length and a quarter.
COMMENTARY
May 26, 2003

High cost of the farm lobby

The outlook for the World Trade Organization's new round of trade negotiations is uncertain after member nations failed to agree on farm-trade "modality" before the March 31 deadline. The U.S.-European split over the Iraq war has slowed the momentum for talks. The initial goal of reaching a comprehensive...
EDITORIALS
May 26, 2003

Talking down the dollar

The United States has apparently changed its dollar policy. At the weekend before last, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow pointedly excluded the traditional measure of strength -- the dollar's value against other currencies -- when asked to define what "strong" meant. While a spokesman added that there...
MORE SPORTS
May 26, 2003

Russians hand Japan 43-34 defeat

Japan's build up toward the 2003 Rugby World Cup suffered yet another setback on Sunday with a 43-34 loss to Russia in a Super Powers Cup game at Tokyo's Chichibunomiya Stadium.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
May 26, 2003

Casualties soar in America's war on words

NEW YORK -- During war, news manipulation comes to the fore; so does language manipulation. In the latest war against Iraq, as in the Persian Gulf War, the Pentagon sold a "Star Wars" depiction of U.S. technological prowess, blithely hiding the carnage it created. And many American news organizations...
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2003

Imagine there's convergence of religion

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- In these turbulent times, when the term "religion" is so often hijacked by the proponents of its very antithesis -- namely, conflict and strife -- an academic initiative to discuss religious topics in the framework of globalization feels like a refreshing breeze. This welcome...
COMMENTARY
May 25, 2003

Clouds over Blair's parade

LONDON -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair is riding high these days. His popularity ratings have never been better, and he is about to receive U.S. government honors unparalleled by any non-American since British statesman Winston Churchill. World leaders flock to see him, and he moves among the people...
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
May 25, 2003

Late Fukunishi strike keeps Jubilo top of J. League

Japan midfielder Takashi Fukunishi struck a late equalizer to salvage a point for leaders Jubilo Iwata in a tense 1-1 draw with Nagoya Grampus Eight in the J. League first division on Saturday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 25, 2003

Still stomping up a storm

Who needs drums when you've got a bucket and a broom? Who needs maracas when you've got a box of matches? Who needs cymbals when you've got garbage-can lids?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 25, 2003

Getting into hot water for health

In the hot-spring heaven that is Japan, there are a countless number of onsen from Hokkaido to Okinawa, from those of luxurious spas in nondescript concrete buildings to rotenburo set in pristine natural surroundings.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 25, 2003

Kansai rides the onsen wave

It's a sunny Saturday afternoon, and Spa World in Osaka's Naniwa Ward is crowded with people of all ages drawn to its 16 different kinds of baths. True to its name, it's an onsen theme park with a global approach.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ARCHIPELA-GO
May 25, 2003

Take the first step toward heaven

NAGANO -- Here's one way to assure yourself a place in heaven. Get to Nagano City's noted Zenko-ji Temple by June 1 and catch a glimpse of its most sacred icon -- the Maedachi Honzon. According to tradition, making the arduous pilgrimage to this temple to pray to Amida Nyorai, the Buddha of Gokuraku...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 25, 2003

A blow to Russo-Japanese relations

When, in 1891, Tsarevich Nicholas reached the age of 23, his father Czar Alexander III sent him on a tour of the Far East to "round out his political development," recalled Russian politician Count Sergei Witte some years later.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
May 25, 2003

Classic country without the hair spray

Neko (pronounced like Nico) Case certainly has the tresses to make it in Nashville. Her long luxurious auburn locks would need only a little coaxing and a lot of hair spray for a Loretta Lynn do.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 25, 2003

Art that's sweet enough to eat

In early summer, they might evoke dewy irises and swirling water. In autumn, plume grass trembling in the wind. Quite obviously, Japanese sweets are more than a mouthful of sweetness: They evoke the poetry and beauty of life itself.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 25, 2003

Vietnamese cuisine in a Parisian scene

The Book of Salt, by Monique Truong. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003, 261 pp., $24 (cloth). It's Paris, 1929. You're young, Vietnamese and gay. You don't speak much French, but you can cook a mean omelet. You see an ad in the paper: "Two American Ladies Wish to Retain a Cook." You answer the ad. You get...
SUMO
May 25, 2003

Asashoryu's hopes put on hold

Mongolian Asashoryu will have to wait another day for a chance to win his first title as grand champion.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 25, 2003

Soaked in the city

Though you may not have seen Hayao Miyazaki's Oscar-winning animated film "Spirited Away," which is set in an opulent bathhouse for the gods, even the most fleeting acquaintance with Japan will have made it clear that soaking in a hot tub is an almost celestial experience for the inhabitants of these...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 25, 2003

Time to examine different approaches toward education

The eradication of illiteracy throughout the world is an ongoing endeavor and a noble one. However, in countries where the vast majority of the population can now read and write, those populations did not, as the German poet-essayist Hans Magnus Enzensberger once said, learn to do so "because they felt...
BASEBALL / MLB
May 25, 2003

Tuffy's replacement powers charging Buffaloes over Orix

Daisuke Masuda went 2-for-2 at the plate and connected for a solo homer in the seventh inning Saturday to lead the Kintetsu Buffaloes to a 9-1 win over the Orix BlueWave in Kobe.
EDITORIALS
May 25, 2003

Auguries in a coffee cup

Eight years ago, there was no such thing as a Starbucks coffee shop in Japan. Now they are part of the landscape; in the big cities, you can often find two or three of the ubiquitous stores with the round green logo within a couple of blocks of each other. That might sound like the ultimate definition...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 25, 2003

Anthropology through the lens

GUNMA: Life and People. by Greg Davis. Tokyo: IPJ, 2002, 107 pp., 5,000 yen (cloth). Greg Davis had lived in Japan since 1970, working as a photojournalist throughout Asia. His sudden death on May 4 of liver cancer at the age of 54 is a major loss to his profession and those whose lives he touched all...

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