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BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 18, 2001

Japan remains undefeated in baseball World Cup

TAIPEI -- Nippon Ham Fighters right hander Hayato Nakamura pitched a two-hitter over six innings and Lotte Marines southpaw Kosuke Kato held the rest scoreless as Japan defeated South Korea 3-1 in the quarterfinals of the championship bracket of World Cup baseball Friday.
EDITORIALS
Nov 18, 2001

A turning point for Afghan art

Most Afghans have good reason to be celebrating the Taliban's departure from Kabul and Jalalabad last week. Chief among them, of course, are Afghanistan's brutally subjugated women, but there are others, too -- not least those who cherish the country's cultural treasures and have mourned their destruction...
COMMUNITY
Nov 18, 2001

Universal fashion: One design fits all

Everyone knows how hard it is to find clothes that fit, but imagine how much harder it would be if you had special needs. If you were a wheelchair-user looking for pants with gathers at the knees, or a frail senior looking for a blouse with easy-to-detach buttons, chances are you wouldn't find them easily...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 18, 2001

Hell on four wheels

It is a bad, humiliating start to the day. Usually, I can get from my office to the platform of JR Tamachi Station in about 10 minutes. Today it has taken just under 50 minutes.
COMMENTARY
Nov 18, 2001

War's stakes lost on critics

LONDON -- The murmurings against the bombing of Afghanistan are growing louder. Opponents argue that the bombing is cruel, unjustified and pointless. Its only effect, they say, is to exacerbate the humanitarian crisis caused by famine and the huge exodus of refugees. The raids should at the very least...
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2001

Report calls for kids to use life jackets

The government should oblige children of elementary school age and younger to wear life jackets while aboard small boats such as yachts and motorboats, according to an interim report on a bill being drafted by the transport ministry to regulate the operation of small vessels.
COMMUNITY
Nov 18, 2001

Life on the yellow brick road

Minoru Maeda dreads going outside alone. For him, one wrong step could be fatal.
SOCCER / J. League
Nov 18, 2001

Antlers clinch J.League second stage

KASHIMA, Ibaraki Pref. -- The Kashima Antlers captured the J. League Divison One second-stage title for the second year in a row with a 4-0 triumph over Tokyo Verdy 1969 on Saturday, setting up a playoff showcase with the first-stage winner Jubilo Iwata.
COMMUNITY
Nov 18, 2001

Charting a route through the obstacle course

Whoever said "It's a jungle out there" must have been talking about Tokyo. Or perhaps it's more of a gigantic maze, with buildings squashed together, and stations with stairs and escalators going in every direction -- all filled with crowds of irritated people.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 18, 2001

Competition winners featured in free screening

There will be a free screening of the winners of the 45th Competition for Films and Videos on Japan at Tokuma Hall in Higashi-Shinbashi, Tokyo, on Dec. 5, starting at 10:30 a.m.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Nov 18, 2001

Seriously, where are you?

Lately, I've found myself worrying about you. Yes, you -- my vicarious companions; my invisible tagalongs. You, who follow my adventures by remote control. You, whose presence is most notable by your absence. But that's not what's bothering me. It seems that your absence has also been noted in my absence,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 18, 2001

Judgment day falls on celebrity panelists

On Nov. 9, one of the long-discussed judicial reform laws was finally enacted. Next month a committee task force will be set up under the Cabinet to discuss its implementation. How should committee members start such a huge, long overdue task?
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2001

Ministry still alert for mad cow cases

Despite a rise in beef consumption in Japan, the health ministry remains on alert over the deadly mad cow disease one month after a screening program began for all cows in Japan, according to ministry officials.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 18, 2001

Next stop . . . the Twilight Zone

I've heard that the greatest challenge facing linguists today lies not in understanding how the brain encodes language, nor in mapping the lexicons of the world's vanishing dialects, nor in any other such grinding academic chore.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 18, 2001

Dismal outlook for Sri Lanka's president

The political crisis is Sri Lanka appears to be worsening, and in the latest government's call for a ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam -- fighting a long and bloody battle for the independence of the island's minority Tamil-speaking population -- one can sense a state of near panic,...
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Nov 18, 2001

The rich legacy of the biwa

The pear-shaped biwa lute has enchanted listeners in Japan for centuries. Played with a large wooden plectrum, the instrument has four or five strings of twisted silk stretched over four or more deep frets positioned on the neck. Along with the rich, percussive sounds of the wood striking these silk...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 18, 2001

Revealing the soul of an ancient land

MOTHER'S BELOVED: Stories from Laos, by Outhine Bounyavong. Hong Kong University Press, 1999, 163 pp., $14.95 (paper) It's unlikely that even the most generous evaluation of Lao literature would rank it among the world's great cultural legacies. Part of the problem has been a lack of visibility: Buddhist...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Nov 18, 2001

Kawatare : a fleeting taste of twilight

What's in a name? Often, for a restaurant, a lot rides on the naming of dishes. There is a science — and a whole consulting industry — devoted to food-item names and their placement on menus. Cooks everywhere, even before it became a science, have labored to find names suitable for their latest creations....
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 18, 2001

New breed of bookstore born out of cafe

...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 18, 2001

The long road to a barrier-free Japan

Compact size. Lightweight. High-speed. Extra new features. Appealing design. Competitive price. Manufacturers have long focused on criteria like these in their quest for successful product lines. In the single-minded pursuit of profits, though, consumers unable to adapt themselves to standardized products...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 18, 2001

Booksellers looking for competitive edge online

E-commerce ventures have been flourishing in Japan, and they are expected to bring dramatic changes to the nation's traditional book distribution business.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 18, 2001

A story that just doesn't translate

DRUNK AS A LORD: Samurai Stories, by Ryotaro Shiba; translated by Eileen Kato. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2001, 253 pp., 3,500 yen (cloth) Ryotaro Shiba (1923-1996), a distinguished historical writer, brought Japan's past alive by examining many of its important historical figures and the personal...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 18, 2001

Aiming for the heart

ONE FOOT IN LAOS, by Dervla Murphy. Overlook Press, 2001, 284 pp., $27.95 (cloth) Dervla Murphy's journeys as a travel writer, usually in the remoter, poorer parts of the world, are made, appropriately enough, in the old manner -- on foot, by donkey or mule, or on decrepit trucks or buses on their last...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 18, 2001

Book translations breaking language barriers

While the book publishing industry is feeling the pinch of Japan's economic recession, shelves in major bookstores that sell foreign publications are still filled with best-selling titles.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 18, 2001

Too much of a good thing

YAKUZA PERFUME, by Akahige Namban. New York: Blue Moon Books, 2001, 206 pp., $7.95 (paper). This curious book is an American-published pornographic novel that purports to be written by a Japanese. Though its main aim is to excite, its interest lies in the cultural assumptions it makes, these rendered...
JAPAN / Media / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 18, 2001

Saddle up for the mystery tour

Monday night at 8 and 9:15, NHK-G will broadcast the first two parts of a six-part drama series by best-selling mystery novelist Keigo Tono, who is famous for his elaborate plot twists. Tono himself was quite surprised that NHK had picked up his novel, "Akui (Malice)," for serialization, since, according...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Nov 18, 2001

You might think it's crazy, but this upstart is serious

With all the cultural treasures that Kyoto offers, perhaps few people would have wine in mind when planning their itinerary. After all, in a city with such richness of tradition, wine is a mere arriviste.

Longform

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