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COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2004

New coalitions of the willing seek change

While I was in London in January, The Guardian newspaper ran a front-page story about an independent evaluation of some of Britain's leading international charities that tried to help southern Africa avoid a food crisis in 2002-2003. The evaluation concluded that the charities had overstated the seriousness...
MORE SPORTS
Mar 21, 2004

Fighters whip Giants in Sapporo

Fernando Seguignol hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning Saturday to lead the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters to a 10-4 win over the Yomiuri Giants in a preseason game at Sapporo Dome. Playing before a crowd of 41,000, the Fighters also got homers from Angel Echevarria, Michihiro Ogasawara, Makoto...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 21, 2004

Nothing lost in translation of mum music

It's important to say the band's name correctly: mum, which is always written without an initial capital letter, is pronounced "moom." The band itself is from Iceland, and the name has no meaning.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 21, 2004

Junior Senior

Danish duo Junior Senior may be difficult to describe, but their message is unmistakably clear: Get on the freaking dance floor. Their debut, "D-D-Don't Don't Stop the Beat," was last year's best party album, brimming with tracks that read like cheerleading chants: "Move Your Feet," "C'Mon," "Dynamite,"...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Mar 21, 2004

Little reason to gush about showy Sun King's fountains and gardens

King Louis XIV's finance superintendent, Nicholas Fouquet, decided to build himself a cha^teau on a grand scale. No expense was spared. The finest architects of the day were summoned and put to work. Landscape designers, too. And when the Cha^teau Vaux-le-Vicomte was finally complete, well, it was only...
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 21, 2004

Gral's double lifts Jubilo

Brazilian striker Rodrigo Gral scored his first league goals of the season as Jubilo Iwata came from behind to beat Nagoya Grampus Eight 3-1 away in the J. League first division on Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 21, 2004

Wrong ways to a Shanghai potboiler thriller

SHANGHAI, by Donald G. Moore. Lincoln, Nebraska: iUniverse Inc., 2003, 218 pp., $24.95 (cloth). ROBERT LUDLUM'S THE ALTMAN CODE, by Robert Ludlum and Gayle Lynds. New York: St. Martin's Paperback, 2004, 496 pp., $7.99 (paper). Brand-name thriller "Robert Ludlum's The Altman Code" is part of a growing...
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2004

Avian flu genes match South Korea's

The genes of Japan's avian flu virus are almost identical to those of South Korea's, the farm ministry said Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2004

Injunction upheld against latest issue of Shukan Bunshun

The Tokyo District Court on Friday upheld a temporary injunction banning publication of the latest edition of the weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun, judging that one of its stories violates the privacy of former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka's daughter.
SOCCER / World cup
Mar 20, 2004

Curfew-breaking Japan players dropped from World Cup squad

Eight Japan players who indulged in a drinking binge and acted improperly during a training camp in Kashima last month were dropped Friday by coach Zico for the national team's 2006 World Cup Asian zone Group 3 qualifier away to Singapore on March 31.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2004

Koizumi, Fukuda repeat Iraq resolve

One year after the start of the U.S.-led war against Iraq, top Japanese officials are determined to keep ground troops in Iraq despite growing fears of terrorist attacks both at home and abroad.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 20, 2004

Ito elected to Hall of Fame

Japan's Midori Ito, the first female to land a triple axel in competition, was among three skaters who will be inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame, the United States Figure Skating Association said on its Web site Wednesday.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2004

More medical aid sought for sarin attack survivors

A group acting on behalf of surviving victims of Aum Shinrikyo's nerve gas attacks petitioned the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry on Friday, asking it to expand medical aid programs so that they cover all sufferers.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2004

Bulgarian envoy pushes bilateral trade

Bulgarian Ambassador to Japan Blagovest Sendov said Friday that reinvigorating economic and trade relations with Japan is his current priority.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2004

10% of wealthy households don't pay pension premiums

Around 10 percent of households of self-employed people with an annual income of at least 10 million yen have not paid premiums for the national pension system, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2004

Kawaguchi to visit China in April

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Friday she will make a two-day visit to China beginning April 3 to discuss bilateral relations and the North Korean nuclear standoff with her Chinese counterpart, Li Zhaoxing.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 20, 2004

Shigeko Misaki

Interest in whaling was handed down to Shigeko Misaki at first remove. Her father was minister for agriculture, forestry and fisheries when Shigeru Yoshida was prime minister and Gen. Douglas MacArthur was supreme commander of the Occupation forces. "The International Whaling Commission was the first...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 20, 2004

Landmark hosts second intensive ballet seminar

From March 30 to April 1, Landmark Hall in Yokohama's Landmark Tower will echo to the sound of classical ballet instruction in English to a Japanese piano accompaniment. Since lots of nice things were said about the first Yokohama Ballet Intensive in 2003, YBI Director Helen Price is confident this year's...
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2004

Citibank data on 123,690 clients vanished Feb. 21

A magnetic tape kept in Singapore that contains information on 123,690 customer accounts at Citibank's Japan unit has been missing since last month, officials at the Japan arm of the U.S. bank said Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2004

Takefuji bugging fallout continues

Tokyo prosecutors on Friday charged the former chairman of consumer loan firm Takefuji Corp. with defaming a freelance journalist who wrote an article about the firm's wiretapping of his phone line.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2004

Changing a regime beats regime change

BRUSSELS -- North Korea is changing, embracing the market. Colorful stalls that sell all manner of mundane goods, from food to flowers, are blossoming along Pyongyang's streets. The local Tong-Il market is thronged with customers haggling and buying a cornucopia of products. Another new market in central...
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2004

Ishiba sorry for 'autistic forces' jibe

Defense Agency Director General Shigeru Ishiba apologized Friday for saying earlier this week that the Self-Defense Forces are sometimes referred to as "the autistic forces."
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2004

Firms eye acid venture in China

Mitsubishi Chemical Corp., Mitsubishi Corp. and Itochu Corp. said Friday they have asked the Chinese government for approval to create a joint venture in China that will produce high-purity terephthalic acid.

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