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JAPAN
Dec 20, 2004

Public opinion of China hits record low, national poll shows

Only 37.6 percent of Japanese feel friendship toward China, down 10.3 percentage points from a year earlier, according to a Cabinet Office survey.
COMMENTARY
Dec 20, 2004

Weigh antiterror measures

LONDON -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Home Secretary David Blunkett (who resigned last week) have been doing their utmost to alert the British people to the terrorist threat. This is seen by some as a cynical attempt to divert criticism of government support for the Americans in Iraq and to...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 2004

NGO builds bridges between Japan, U.S.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Most Americans still think of Japan as having a "weak" economy. Japan's reputation in the United States from an economic standpoint has not fully recovered from the bursting of the 1980s' "bubble."
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 2004

Aiming for Earth-friendly development

PARIS -- This is a season of renewed hope and concern for the fate of the Earth's climates. Five thousand delegates from government and civil society gathered last week at the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Climate Convention in Buenos Aires, only weeks after Russia ratified the Kyoto Protocol....
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Dec 20, 2004

Consumption tax, reforms, incentives key to future growth

The Keidanren in September released a simulation of the medium- to longer-term prospects for Japan's fiscal policies and social security programs. The simulation made itclear that unless the fiscal structure of the Japanese government is reformed, Japan's outstanding public debt will likely expand to...
EDITORIALS
Dec 19, 2004

Happiness is a warm TV set

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
SUMO
Dec 19, 2004

Injury-prone Tochiazuma targets New Year return

Injury-prone ozeki Tochiazuma, who pulled out of the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament last month with a fractured shoulder, said Saturday he is targeting a comeback at the upcoming New Year meet in Tokyo.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 19, 2004

TBS's "The Plan to Rescue Santa Claus" and more

Ryoko Yonekura returns to the airwaves as Arisa, the housewife-witch patterned after Samantha of the old U.S. sitcom "Bewitched," for a special Christmas show. In "The Plan to Rescue Santa Claus" (TBS, Tue., 9 p.m.), Arisa and her daughter, Tsubasa, return to the world of mortals and husband Joji after...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 19, 2004

Revealing 'The Japanese Sensibility': Iconoclasm

In many senses the Japanese people have been in denial since the end of World War II.
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Dec 19, 2004

PM's barber keeps 'Beethoven' top of the locks

Tadashi Muragi is a 46-year-old Tokyo hairdresser with a 22-year career of scissor wielding already behind him. Clad in a clean white barber suit at his classically styled, five-seat shop, Muragi may look little different from others of his professional ilk -- though the fact that he is tonsorially responsible...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Dec 19, 2004

Dixieland duo's Wonderful World

Take a stroll down Royal Street in the Adventureland area of Tokyo Disneyland any weekend and you'll likely hear the heart-tugging sounds of Dixieland jazz. What's most surprising, perhaps, is the sheer authenticity of the New Orleanian music re-created by 62-year-old trumpet player Yoshio Toyama and...
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2004

Funding deal reached for new Kansai runway

The finance and transport ministries agreed Saturday to construct a second runway at debt-ridden Kansai International Airport to be operational by 2007, transport minister Kazuo Kitagawa said.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 19, 2004

Fredrik Lundin Overdrive: "Belly-up"

Combining the gutsiness of blues with the sophistication of modern European jazz, Danish saxophonist Fredrik Lundin's "Belly-up" is a fitting tribute to the toughest bluesman of them all: Leadbelly. The CD's seven tunes, plus one original, slather the raw melodies of Leadbelly (whose real name was Huddie...
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2004

Five bird-flu cases pose no risk: ministry

The heath ministry said Saturday that five people who tested positive for an antibody to the bird flu virus after an outbreak of the disease hit poultry in February in Kyoto Prefecture have no possibility of developing the disease or infecting others.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2004

Seibu Rail shirked board meetings

Seibu Railway Co. did not hold a board of directors meeting for about seven years until this spring in violation of the Commercial Code, officials of the railway operator said Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 19, 2004

Wheeler-dealers can always go home if the going gets dicey

UGLY AMERICANS: The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions, by Ben Mezrich. William Morrow, 2004, $24.95 (cloth). The financial tycoons depicted in "Ugly Americans" were once dubbed Masters of the Universe, but they emerge here as hedonistic clowns. Their story...
CULTURE / Music
Dec 19, 2004

Gang of Four

The news that Gang of Four is reuniting has been acknowledged happily by folks who grew up with the lads from Leeds back in 1979. Younger folks who love the band but want them to remain in the history books seem less pleased. Fans of The Futureheads, one of the many new British bands that shamelessly...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 19, 2004

Final warning: The horror of horrors medical TV show

The medical industry has become as scary as the diseases it treats. On Dec. 10, the government released a list of 7,000 medical institutions nationwide that handled tainted blood products before 1994, and on the same day a judge ordered the Tokyo Medical University Hospital to preserve evidence related...

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo