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A sit-in by visa violators and their families entered its second day Tuesday in front of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau with protesters seeking government good will. The action at the bureau in Minato Ward is being organized by the Asian People’s Friendship Society, ...
Kazuhiro Shiraishi, 66, is a guest-house manager in the Izu-kogen Highlands, a famous resort area on the Izu Peninsula of Shizuoka Prefecture. Looking out onto the Pacific Ocean, and just 90 minutes by train from Tokyo, Izu has a warm climate all year round ...
“I was stopped by two men in a government-registered vehicle, blindfolded and dragged off the street. They took me away to a house in a place I did not know. I was forced into a room with blood all over the walls and floor, ...
Takashi Miike's blood-soaked vengeance tale, one of two Japanese films being shown in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, draws the biggest boos so far, with critics savaging it as overacted and cliched.
Have you ever given your best effort while striving to achieve something but felt like what you were doing was futile? That’s the feeling I’m getting about Tokyo’s bid to host the 2020 Olympics. With just over three months to go until the IOC ...
The Canadian Embassy called on Japanese schools and students Friday to apply for education-related programs it will launch to celebrate the 80th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Japan this year. As part of its Youth and Innovation venture, the embassy said Friday it is ...
In a sign of the times, major electronics firm Fujitsu Ltd. is allowing some of its factory workers to hold second jobs to compensate for shorter working hours and lower wages amid the deepening recession, the company said Wednesday. The majority of 5,000 full-time ...
NTT DoCoMo Inc. on Friday became the first mobile phone company to automatically ban customers under 18 from accessing suspicious Internet dating sites as the government attempts to crack down on “deaikei” (encounter) crimes. The move, to be followed by the other major cell ...
NHK will launch Japan’s first 24-hour international broadcasting service on Feb. 2. NHK World TV will provide international news in English, with a focus on Japan and Asia. It will be available in some 70 countries and regions via satellite, cable TV and the ...
Ever since Haruki Imaoka watched the popular American TV series “Beverly Hills, 90210,” he had dreamed of marrying a good-looking Western girl. When he went to Los Angeles for college, he met local resident Laura Beltz in May 2004, and they hit it off ...
The Tsukiji fish market, one of Tokyo’s most popular tourist attractions, reopened its early morning tuna auctions to the public Monday after a monthlong ban. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which runs the gigantic wholesale market in Chuo Ward, temporarily banned onlookers, 90 percent of ...
For bank manager Miki Yoshida, her desire to do volunteer work in rural India started from an unlikely inspiration on an American expressway. “It was a defining moment in my life, when I realized that I wanted to help people,” says Yoshida who, while ...
Many singles may prefer to leave it up to fate to find their significant other, but experts are saying those who elect to wait for “the one” may never make it to the altar. Two sociologists recently coined the phrase “kon-katsu” (marriage hunting) in ...
Nearly a third of married men would not mind being househusbands, according to a recent survey by the Housework Aptitude Test executive committee. Among the 2,080 married men and women in their 20s to 50s who were polled in Tokyo, Osaka, Aichi, Hokkaido and ...
Each year, the cherry blossoms of April are accompanied by the nervous march of over 400,000 fresh-faced graduates on their way to their new jobs. Many of these new graduates, or “shin-sotsu,” will have gone through more than 18 months of job hunting, called ...
Some 500 jobless people, many of them laid-off temp workers, who spent the New Year’s period encamped in Hibiya Park were relocated Monday to four other sites arranged by the welfare ministry after volunteers closed the temporary shelter in the heart of Tokyo. “This ...
Almost a quarter of the Indian community in eastern Tokyo, adults and children alike, shared a lively countdown party with Japanese locals on Dec. 31. “Chak de India Countdown Party 2009,” held at a venue in Nishi Kasai in east Tokyo’s Edogawa Ward, was ...