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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 19, 2004

Chaos theory you can dance to

Things are looking good for Grandadbob. The quirky house music duo of Dave Johnson and Vanessa Robinson released their debut album, "Waltzes for Weirdos," on Fatboy Slim's Southern Fried label to rave reviews in Britain last year and are about to tour Japan with the wild and crazy DJ himself. Now that...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 19, 2004

TV Tokyo's "Umi o Koeta Kazoku Ai #5" and more

On Monday at 8 p.m., TV Tokyo presents a special program that ranks "The 10 Best Villages in Japan Where You Can Live Comfortably on 100,000 yen a Month."
Japan Times
Features
Sep 19, 2004

Just picture that!

The overthrow of the feudal Tokugawa Shogunate in 1867 and the restoration of imperial rule in 1868 was preceded by 15 years of intense change in news reporting.
COMMENTARY
Sep 19, 2004

Indo-Pakistani relations: the next phase

ISLAMABAD -- The upcoming meeting between Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh marks another important phase in the nine-month-old peace process between South Asia's two nuclear-armed neighbors.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 19, 2004

Cubist on the turntables

A cacophony of electronic bleeps and disjointed drum rolls kick off the second and latest CD "Sensation" by Ryo Kato, aka DJ Klock. What follows is a series of drill-like drum riffs that start, stop then start again several times before settling into a jerky hip-hop-like beat. Later, this transient groove...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 19, 2004

Chechen-Arab connection goes far back

CHICAGO -- As gunmen seized a school full of hostages in southern Russia last week, President Vladimir Putin had held a meeting that might have seemed to some like a distraction.
COMMENTARY
Sep 19, 2004

Removing the thorn from Japan-China ties

HONG KONG -- Last month, when Japanese and Chinese teams faced each other in the Asian Games soccer final in Beijing, Chinese fans booed so loudly that they drowned out the strains of the Japanese national anthem. And when Japan won, the spectators pelted the Japanese players' bus with soda bottles and...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 19, 2004

9/11 conspiracy theories enthrall Japanese audiences

Only three years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, American mainstream media are providing scant coverage of ceremonies to mark the tragedy, according to Japanese reporter Akihiko Reizei on the Internet news service Japan Mail Media. A resident of New Jersey, Reizei said that unlike the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 19, 2004

Katia Guerreiro

Fado is the sad, slow music of Portugal, whose achingly beautiful songs overflow with the anguish of love, supplication and desire. Like American blues, fado holds out the promise of transcending love's pain, and like flamenco ballads, it offers a joyousness that eases the suffering. The most recent...
MORE SPORTS
Sep 18, 2004

Injured Suetsugu pulls out of meet

Shingo Suetsugu, the 200-meter bronze medalist at last year's World Championships, has withdrawn from the upcoming Seiko Super Meet 2004 Yokohama, organizers said Friday.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 18, 2004

Referees an easy target of blame for managers, players, media

LONDON -- Last weekend was such a bad one for referees that the man from the Daily Mirror was desperately searching for someone to speak up on behalf of the off-form officials.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2004

Uniqlo chain plans to enter U.S. market in 2006

Fast Retailing Co., a casual-clothing store chain known for its Uniqlo brand, will try to enter the U.S. market as early as 2006, company President Genichi Tamatsuka said in a recent interview.
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2004

NTT firms set to enter price war

Two firms in the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. group will probably lower charges for their fixed-line phone service in the face of discount campaigns by rival carriers, including KDDI Corp. and the Softbank Corp. group, sources said Friday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2004

Summit not expected to see beef ban's end

Japan and the United States will probably not make major progress toward lifting Japan's ban on U.S. beef imports during next week's bilateral summit, farm minister Yoshiyuki Kamei indicated Friday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 18, 2004

Players strike

Japanese baseball players elected to stage the first strike in the history of the sport in Japan on Friday after extended negotiations with team officials failed to reach an agreement.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 18, 2004

Shakespeare goes Gothic at New National Theater

As a law unto himself, Dwayne Lawler is well named. Tense -- intense is the better word -- and charismatic, he is driven by powerful forces to make his mark on Japan, his native Australia and the world at large. At the same time he is incredibly nervous, and so polite and desperate to please that I want...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 18, 2004

Ian Nish

LONDON -- Forward-thinking programs drawn up during World War II gave opportunity to many non-Japanese young people to become specialists in Japanese studies. An undergraduate at that time, Ian Nish joined the ranks of those who embarked upon sterling work that turned them into Japan experts. He speaks...
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2004

Road tolls to get cheaper -- for some

The government plans to cut expressway tolls nationwide by 30 percent between midnight and 4 a.m. for cars equipped with an electronic toll collection system, transport minister Nobuteru Ishihara said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 18, 2004

Strengthen monitoring in Sudan

The dispute that is continuing in the western part of Sudan is threatening the stability of the surrounding region. Peace negotiations mediated by the African Union have run into difficulties and there are no signs of an imminent settlement. The United Nations is reportedly considering imposing economic...
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2004

San-Ai Oil to buy Exxon Mobil unit Kygnus Sekiyu

Oil retailer San-Ai Oil Co. said Friday it will purchase Kygnus Sekiyu K.K., an oil distributor affiliated with Exxon Mobil Corp., in December.
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2004

MTFG jumps gun on UFJ capital boost

Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. said Friday it has injected 700 billion yen into UFJ Bank, two weeks ahead of schedule, apparently to block a hostile takeover bid for UFJ Holdings Inc. by Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc.
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2004

Environment tax plan flatly opposed by top biz lobby

The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) said Friday a proposed environment tax carries the danger of undercutting firms' international competitiveness.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 18, 2004

The perfect touch for fall: Christmas

Every eight years, our neighborhood has "matsuri toban," or festival duty, which means we are in charge of all the island festivals for the year. One house within that neighborhood volunteers to set up decorations, receive guests at festival times and host the Shinto gods for the year.

Longform

The byzantine process for converting a foreign driver’s license into a Japanese one entails mountains of paperwork and significant stamina — unless you're a lucky license holder from a country or region where these requirements are waived.
Driving in Japan isn’t hard. Getting the license is.