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SOCCER / J. League
Mar 3, 2002

FC Tokyo stuns Antlers in season opener

FC Tokyo midfielder Masamitsu Kobayashi scored twice and set up two goals as FC Tokyo stunned J. League champions the Kashima Antlers 4-2 in the opening match of the J. League Division One first stage on Saturday at Tokyo Stadium.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2002

ASEAN moves toward antiterror policy

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- The just concluded meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, was an important landmark in efforts to give new impetus to this regional organization, particularly in the post-Sept. 11 atmosphere. Several points about the meeting are worth...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2002

Who will limit the U.S. defense budget?

WASHINGTON -- Earlier last month, the Bush administration requested a $46 billion defense budget increase for 2003. That would come on top of a combined $45 billion increase in the annual budget from 2000 to 2002, and be followed by a further increase of $75 billion after 2003. Even factoring out the...
EDITORIALS
Mar 3, 2002

Cutting workers some slack

You have to give Britain credit. It may be a tired shadow of its former muscular imperial self, but it still has the energy to invent a way to put that very tiredness on the map. Last week, Britons observed their second annual National Slacker Day. (That is, they were urged to observe it; figures on...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2002

Apologies to Seoul and Beijing

SAN DIEGO -- When it comes to the histories and cultures of the countries of the Pacific, the U.S. president either received a lousy education at Andover and Yale or else failed to study.
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2002

Tobishima set to request more help

Tobishima Corp., yet another general contractor struggling in Japan's troubled construction industry, is considering calling on its main creditor, Fuji Bank, for additional financial assistance, company sources said Saturday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 3, 2002

Ken Noguchi: Climb (and clean) every mountain

When Ken Noguchi reached the summit of Mount Everest in 1999, at the age of 25 he became the youngest person to have scaled the highest peaks on all seven continents. Born to a Japanese father and Egyptian mother, he grew up moving around the globe. His love affair with the dizzy heights of high-altitude...
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2002

Sato Kogyo to commence bankruptcy proceedings

Sato Kogyo Co., a midsize construction contractor with group liabilities estimated at more than 500 billion yen, has given up efforts to rehabilitate itself and will resort to legal bankruptcy proceedings, company sources said Saturday.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 3, 2002

The complete angler

Although casting a line in a perfect midair loop may take a few years to master, you don't need to be a magician to catch the first trout of your life. All you need is a few 10,000 yen bills to spare for a starter kit.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Mar 3, 2002

Wolves in wolves' clothing

How Guitar Wolf is still going after 15 years of unadulterated sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll madness is a miracle. It's not like they're cashed-up like Keith Richards and can hit an exclusive Swiss clinic to have their blood replaced with that of fresh virgins every other week.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 3, 2002

Nasty, brutish, and flawed

A SUDDEN RAMPAGE: The Japanese Occupation of Southeast Asia, 1941-1945, by Nicholas Tarling. London: Hurst & Company, 2001, 286 pp., $36 (paper) As a rule, there are few positive accounts in Western literature of Japan's occupation of Southeast Asia during World War II, and this book by Nicholas Tarling...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 3, 2002

Gone fishing

Fly-fishing is like pachinko. You know how some people get a rush from watching things go into little holes? Well, replace the smoke, noise and flashing lights with tumbling brooks, mountains and fresh air and you've got fly-fishing.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 3, 2002

It takes a lot of work to fool a fish

One late summer afternoon, in the village of Oshino, Yamanashi Prefecture, I was sitting by a stream against the backdrop of Mount Fuji, my fly-fishing rod at my side. On a gentle breeze, a large mayfly came along and started fluttering on the water. It soon fell, getting its wings wet while trying to...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 3, 2002

Who's killing the great athletes of Japan?

Japanese television coverage of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics amounted to 820 hours of total airtime on all the various terrestrial and satellite stations. This compares to about 500 hours for the Nagano Games. The main reason for the sizable increase is the growth of digital satellite channels...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 3, 2002

Where to go to get hooked

So now you're kitted out with all your brand-new fly-fishing gear. But don't get too excited just yet. Before taking the plunge for the first time at some idyllic lakeside spot, or by a glittering river you're told is teeming with prime specimens, take time to visit a kanri-tsuriba (a pond or stretch...
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 3, 2002

Hard realities and total fabrications

Ten years ago, Chikako Kaku was the most popular actress in trendy dramas. Though not classically beautiful, she was good at conveying the type of well-bred charm that's considered a paramount virtue in Japanese wives, while at the same time possessing a formidable capacity to exhibit nail-biting fear....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 3, 2002

Substance with style on the side

Any fashion boutique worth its salt has a cafe attached these days. Offering cappuccinos and cheesecake is, after all, a good way to draw reluctant window-shoppers through the doors. Too often, though, style wins out over substance. The requisite ambience is installed along with the espresso machine,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 3, 2002

Together, they made magic

THE EMPEROR AND THE WOLF: The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune, by Stuart Galbraith IV. Faber & Faber, 2002, 848 pp. 32 pp. of b/w photos, $40 (cloth) Many directors have favorite actors and many actors have favorite directors. One thinks of John Ford and John Wayne, Ingmar Bergman...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Mar 3, 2002

A simple, elegant mix to celebrate girl power

I first encountered the Hina Matsuri (Girls' Day, or Doll Festival) as a youngster in Washington, D.C., when my father and I attended an event hosted by future Prime Minister Yoshio Mori at the then new Japanese Embassy. As we entered the grand foyer of the modern concrete building, we saw a stadium...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Mar 3, 2002

With foam, brewers call it like they see it

Long before the days of thermometers, hydrometers and barometers, brewers relied entirely on their senses to gauge the progress of a fermenting tank of sake. They might not have known the scientific causes, but experience and intuition told them how to interpret what they saw, tasted and smelled.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 3, 2002

Fish-friendly angling may not be the answer

Since Japan's first catch-and-release area opened on Yamagata Prefecture's Sagae River in July 1997, the number of such areas has grown to more than 30 across the country. In these areas, anglers generally report bigger, more satisfying catches, as by releasing the fish they are being allowed to live...
EDITORIALS
Mar 2, 2002

Launching a human rights board

The Justice Ministry is preparing legislation to create a powerful human rights commission that would recommend corrective measures, assist in lawsuits and take other steps to help victims of discrimination, abuse and other human rights violations. The government, which plans to send a related bill to...
SOCCER / World cup
Mar 2, 2002

Belgian boss praises Japan

Robert Waseige, manager of the Belgian team that will face Japan in the World Cup finals, kept his cards very close to his chest as he met the Japanese media on Monday.
COMMENTARY
Mar 2, 2002

Trans-Atlantic rift widening

PARIS -- U.S. President George W. Bush's recent State of the Union speech referring to an " 'axis of evil' arming to threaten the peace of the world" appears to have polarized the feelings of doubt and reluctance many Europeans now harbor toward the sole superpower.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 2, 2002

Shimizu receives special award

Olympic silver medalist Hiroyasu Shimizu received a special award from his employer, NEC Corp., and announced that he would not undergo surgery for a sore lower back that may have cost him the gold medal at the just-concluded Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 2, 2002

Bush puts U.S.-China ties back on track

U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Beijing on Feb. 21-22 signals clearly that Sino-U.S. relations are back on track toward a constructive, cooperative relationship. Bush met Chinese President Jiang Zemin and his successor, Vice President Hu Jintao. Bush re-assured China on the Taiwan issue. He...
BUSINESS
Mar 2, 2002

Household spending up 0.2%

Spending by wage-earning households increased by an inflation-adjusted 0.2 percent in January from a year earlier, following a 4.4 percent decline in December, the government said Friday.
BUSINESS
Mar 2, 2002

NTT seeks more ADSL circuits

NTT Corp. and its two regional carriers have announced a business plan for fiscal 2002 that calls for an increase in the number of circuits available for B Flet's fiber-optic broadband service to 620,000, up from the current 20,000.

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’