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BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 17, 2001

Hawks top Lions

Nobuhiko Matsunaka hit a sacrifice fly, and Koji Akiyama and Noriyoshi Omichi hit consecutive RBI singles in the sixth inning as the Daiei Hawks downed the Pacific League leading Seibu Lions 6-1 on Sunday afternoon at the Seibu Dome.
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 17, 2001

Fans seek distraction at Fighters-M's game

Sunday was supposed to be Yankees Day at the Tokyo Dome. The American national anthem was supposed to be played by a U.S. military band. Public address announcements were supposed to be made in English. One fan was even supposed to win a round-trip airline ticket to New York. Out of respect to those...
BUSINESS
Sep 17, 2001

Vodafone ready to make grab for Japan Telecom

British mobile phone giant Vodafone Group PLC has begun final preparations to conduct a takeover bid of Japan Telecom Co. so it can establish management control over the Japanese telecommunications firm, industry officials said Sunday.
BUSINESS
Sep 17, 2001

Mizuho changes profit forecast into 260 billion yen loss on Mycal

Mizuho Holdings Inc., the largest banking group in Japan, has announced that it will plunge deeply into the red in the first half of fiscal 2001 on losses incurred by the collapse of Mycal Corp. and losses at one of its subsidiaries.
LIFE / Travel
Sep 17, 2001

Riding the Silk Road up to the sky

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan -- Throughout the former Soviet Union, the architectural barbarities of communist civilization have inflicted a dreadful sameness on disparate lands and peoples.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2001

12 Japanese nationals flee Afghanistan

Twelve of the 15 Japanese in Afghanistan have left the country, the Foreign Ministry said Sunday, as fears mounted of an imminent U.S. military campaign in the country in retaliation for Tuesday's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2001

Postal execs served fresh warrants

OSAKA -- Fresh arrest warrants were served Sunday for the head of the Kinki Postal Administration Office and the postmaster at Kyoto Chuo Post Office in connection with a vote-soliciting scandal involving more than a dozen senior postal officials.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVE
Sep 17, 2001

Inflation targets no substitute for needed structural reform

The 0.8 percent contraction in the second quarter gross domestic product, coupled with dive in Tokyo share prices, has increased pressure on the Bank of Japan to further ease its already loose monetary grip by setting inflation targets. Tuesday's terrorist attacks in the United States and the ensuing...
MORE SPORTS
Sep 17, 2001

Top stars pull out of Tokyo Tourney

Defending champion Serena Williams and newly resurgent Jennifer Capriati have pulled out of the upcoming Toyota Princess Cup tournament in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the United States, organizers said Saturday. Williams and Capriati told the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) that they are not...
SOCCER / J. League
Sep 16, 2001

Unbeaten Antlers stay in first place

Unbeaten Kashima Antlers kept their hopes of a back-to-back domestic treble alive with a 3-1 win over JEF United Ichihara on Saturday to preserve their lead at the top of the second-stage standings in the J. League first division.
COMMUNITY
Sep 16, 2001

Your future dished up at fortunetelling pub

If this taste for new uranai has left you hungry for more, then izakaya uranai may be just the thing. A virtual Japanese pub found on the Web not only defines your personality type, but also your drinking habits and even your "lucky izakaya dish" -- all on the basis of your selections from an izakaya...
COMMUNITY
Sep 16, 2001

Can blood type determine character?

If you're a recent arrival to Japan, don't worry if a new friend asks "What's your blood type?" Your inquisitor is unlikely to be a vampire. Here, blood type is believed to tell a lot about a person in just a letter or two: A, B, O or AB.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2001

Japan vows full support, except military action, for any U.S. retaliation

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has pledged maximum support to the United States if it retaliates against the organizers of Tuesday's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, but ruled out Japan joining a possible multinational force against them.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Sep 16, 2001

Nothin' but the big city blues

Kiki's Pub is a tiny blues bar tucked in behind Exit 1 of Toranomon Station. For 16 years, it has hugged the edge of a small cluster of nomiya (drinking spots) stranded between big streets and surrounded by homogenous rows of office blocks. When I called for directions, I was told to find the #10 Mori...
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2001

Japan reiterates resolve to support Washington

Senior officials from all the government's ministries and agencies met Saturday to renew their resolve to cooperate closely with each other and support the United States following Tuesday's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, government officials said.
LIFE
Sep 16, 2001

In touch with your inner squid

Aquarium uranai (book; Magazine House) uses your birth date and blood type to determine your token "sea creature" from a list of 16, including sea bream, blowfish and jellyfish. Your personality type and behavioral patterns are defined, as is your compatibility with other sea creatures.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 16, 2001

A theory in need of updating

THE ANATOMY OF SELF: The Individual Versus Society, by Takeo Doi. Translated by Mark A. Harbison. Forward by Edward Hall. Tokyo: Kodansha, Int., 2001 (1986), 168 pp., 1,800 yen. Takeo Doi, the man who made "amae" a household word, later wrote this book about "omote" and "ura" and their extensions,...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 16, 2001

The ideology of Japanese identity

MULTIETHNIC JAPAN, by John Lie. Harvard University Press, Cambridge University Press, 2001, 248 pp. $35 Japan and many of its observers have avoided the confusion and contention associated with diversity by assuming, asserting and elaborating a monolithic, monoethnic Japan that jostles uncomfortably...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 16, 2001

Come together, right now

"East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet," Rudyard Kipling once wrote.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 16, 2001

Pick a fate, any fate: it's all in the tarot

It is often said that all human life is contained within the tarot -- from shady business prospects and secret admirers to unexpected adventures and marriage plans. But can a tarot spread really contain so much meaning, or is it pure chance?
CULTURE / Music / HOGAKU TODAY
Sep 16, 2001

Good things come in simpler packages

A Ministry of Education and Science directive that takes effect next spring will require public schools to teach a Japanese instrument in junior-high-school music classes; up to now the focus has been entirely on Western music.
BUSINESS
Sep 16, 2001

KDDI corporate lines linked again

KDDI Corp. said Saturday that its dedicated international lines for corporate communications and international data communications lines were restored by 12:45 p.m. Saturday, 36 hours after being suspended in the wake of Tuesday's terrorist attacks on New York.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Sep 16, 2001

Help heal the spirit with comfort food

After watching live the two towers of the World Trade Center come down — the blessing and the curse of modern technology and communications — and spending a very sleepless night filling my head with the horrific images of the aftermath, I slipped away to the otherworldliness of a quiet Zen temple...
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2001

Travelers return from U.S.

OSAKA -- Planes from Guam and Saipan began arriving at Kansai International Airport on Saturday following the resumption of flights to and from the United States.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 16, 2001

Wreaking revenge by living well

SO CAN YOU, by Mitsuyo Ohira. Translated by John Brennan. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2000, 223 pp., 1,300 yen When I first set eyes on "So Can You," I wasn't sure what kind of book to expect. On the cover was a photo of a kind-faced, bespectacled woman in a plaid blazer who could easily pass for...
COMMUNITY
Sep 16, 2001

Fortunetelling traditions thrive on indecision

Runes, tea leaves and chicken innards. A strange group, perhaps, but all have a place in fortunetelling tradition as aids to seeking insight and resolving indecision. Now, though, soothsaying aids are growing even more motley, with recent additions including Shinjuku Station, koalas, eggplants and squid...

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’