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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 11, 2004

Andy Bey: "American Song"

The best vocal jazz release yet this year, Andy Bey's "American Song" reconceives jazz standards in passionate new forms. Reinventing classics is no easy business, but Bey knows how to deliver a song with unadorned sincerity and a savvy sense of vocal improvisation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 11, 2004

Yasuaki Shimizu

While most ambient music evokes a place or an ambience figuratively, (Brian Eno's "Music for Airports" was, after all, not composed for a departure lounge), Yasuaki Shimizu's latest musical challenge was to create music that worked on both a literal and metaphoric level. His current release, "Seventh...
COMMENTARY
Jul 11, 2004

Japan can't compete with a burning Iraq

LOS ANGELES -- Before too long, Asia might get weary of being declared by self-appointed Occidental experts as the new center of the political universe. For one thing, the notion is hardly novel in Asia. But, then again, it might as well enjoy the limelight so long denied this most pivotal region on...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 11, 2004

Bedroom poetry beckons

EROTIC HAIKU (bilingual), edited and translated by Hiroaki Sato, illustrated by Emi Suzuki. Tokyo: IBC Publishing, 2004, 114 pp., 1200 yen (paper). Since Eros was the god of love, in the sense of sexual desire, so "erotic," the dictionary explains, means "arousing or concerned with this." The cover of...
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 10, 2004

Giants owner eyes new competition to replace Japan Series

Yomiuri Giants owner Tsuneo Watanabe on Friday unveiled an idea for a competition that would replace the Japan Series championship if Japanese professional baseball is realigned into a one-league system through mergers between teams.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 10, 2004

Benten: goddess of luck and watercolors

It's summertime, the festival season in Japan. On Shiraishi Island, the festival season is already in full force, with a number of Shinto festivals and celebrations to start off the summer. These are traditions from hundreds of years ago.
BUSINESS
Jul 10, 2004

Gyukaku operator to buy controlling stake in am/pm

Restaurant-chain operator Reins International Inc. said Friday it will buy a controlling 62.6-percent stake in convenience-store operator am/pm Japan Co. through a third-party share allotment scheme.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2004

Fuso admits mistakes in defect report

Scandal-tainted Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp. said Friday that a vehicle-recall progress report released a day earlier contained incorrect information on the size of a truck defect.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2004

Japan may go Dutch with pension plan

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The high-profile battle over pension reform during the last Diet session was a rude awakening for the public, which had largely been oblivious to how precariously close the system was to collapse.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2004

Softbank leak extortionist won't serve time

The Tokyo District Court sentenced a former Softbank BB Corp. employee to a suspended three-year prison term Friday for stealing client data and trying to extort money from the company.
BUSINESS
Jul 10, 2004

Skymark to use Zero's cash reserves

Skymark Airlines Co. said Friday it will merge with Internet service company Zero Inc. on Nov. 1 to boost the discount carrier's financial base.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2004

Heat wave continues to stifle Japan

Oppressive heat continued to blanket the Japanese archipelago Friday as the mercury rose above 35 in some parts of the country during what is normally the height of rainy season, the Meteorological Agency said.
BUSINESS
Jul 10, 2004

Mutton slipped by meat import ban

Japan imported 73 tons of mutton from Ireland between August and December last year despite a mad cow-related ban on imports, because an animal quarantine official mistakenly issued import certificates, the agriculture ministry said Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2004

Crown Princess' health still in doubt

Crown Princess Masako played tennis and attended a lecture with her husband, Crown Prince Naruhito, in the past week, but her ailing health has not improved, the Imperial Household Agency said Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2004

Hunger-striker returns to cell after hospital visit

IBARAKI, Osaka Pref. -- A 37-year-old Iranian who has been held at the West Japan Immigration Center here since February 2003 and has been on a hunger strike for over a month, was briefly hospitalized Friday, according to his supporters.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2004

JICA to tutor Iraq's new diplomat corps

The Foreign Ministry plans to invite about 20 Iraqi diplomats to Tokyo for training, possibly in September.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2004

Is Pyongyang trying to win the election for the coalition?

North Korea's surprise live broadcast Friday of Hitomi Soga's kin at Pyongyang airport may constitute another indication that the country is apparently trying to back Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration ahead of Sunday's House of Councilors election, government officials claimed.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2004

The whys and wherefores of House of Councilors elections

Following a rocky Diet session, Sunday's House of Councilors election represents a de facto litmus test that will measure public support for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 10, 2004

Jewelry shops ready for foreign onslaught

Facing intense competition from foreign rivals selling brand-name products, Japanese jewelry stores are countering with their own initiatives.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 10, 2004

Firms grope for enticing product names

Nissan Motor Co.'s popular March compact becomes the Micra in Europe, while Toyota's Vitz is known as the Echo in the U.S. and the Yaris in Europe.
EDITORIALS
Jul 10, 2004

Assessing Mr. Koizumi's reforms

It has been three years since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi launched a "no reform, no growth" program for economic revival. What has changed, or has not changed, under his administration? Simply put, are people better off now than they were three years ago? Voters will give their answers in Sunday's...
BUSINESS
Jul 10, 2004

Sumitomo, UFJ aim to merge in fall

Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co. and UFJ Trust Bank are in the final stages of negotiations aimed at moving up the completion of their business integration to the fall, sources close to the deal said Friday.

Longform

Juzo Itami’s “Tampopo” was released Nov. 23, 1985, and though it wasn’t a hit at the time, it has gained a cult following in the years since.
Eat, slurp, love: 'Tampopo' turns 40