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	<title>The Japan Times &#187; LIGHT GIST</title>
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	<link>http://www.japantimes.co.jp</link>
	<description>News on Japan, Business News, Opinion, Sports, Entertainment and More</description>
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		<item>
		<title>The year in quotes: 25 windows on the way things were in 2012</title>
		<link>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/12/25/issues/the-year-in-quotes-25-windows-on-the-way-things-were-in-2012/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-year-in-quotes-25-windows-on-the-way-things-were-in-2012</link>
		<comments>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/12/25/issues/the-year-in-quotes-25-windows-on-the-way-things-were-in-2012/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Dec 2012 00:01:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Mcneill</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[3/11]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Election 2012]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fukushima]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nanjing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Naoto Kan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuclear power]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[press freedom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[S]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Senkaku Islands]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shintaro Ishihara]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Takashi Kawamura]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Takeshi Kitano. Nadeshiko Japan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tepco]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Toru Hashimoto]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[It was a year dominated by Japan&#8217;s spats with its most powerful neighbors, China and South Korea, over tiny specks in the sea, and by national soul-searching over nuclear power and the calamity that struck Japan in March 2011. It ended with the stunning political resurrection of the Liberal Democratic Party. In between, there were [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>I have a dream: a &#8216;young first&#8217; Japan that works for all</title>
		<link>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/11/27/%community_category%/i-have-a-dream-a-young-first-japan-that-works-for-all/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=i-have-a-dream-a-young-first-japan-that-works-for-all</link>
		<comments>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/11/27/%community_category%/i-have-a-dream-a-young-first-japan-that-works-for-all/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Nov 2012 00:00:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Glenn Newman</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[It is a political season. Barack Obama was recently re-elected president of the United States, China has anointed Xi Jinping as its new leader, and Japanese politicians are jockeying for position in advance of a general election to be held on Dec. 16. In January, President Obama will give an inaugural address, accompanied by all [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/11/27/%community_category%/i-have-a-dream-a-young-first-japan-that-works-for-all/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The world according to Toru Hashimoto</title>
		<link>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/10/30/%community_category%/the-world-according-to-toru-hashimoto/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-world-according-to-toru-hashimoto</link>
		<comments>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/10/30/%community_category%/the-world-according-to-toru-hashimoto/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Oct 2012 00:00:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eric Johnston</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[Loved by his supporters for his fiery rhetoric &#8212; which often involves bashing the Tokyo-centric status quo, overpaid local bureaucrats, utility executives, teachers&#8217; unions or, indeed, anybody who disagrees with him &#8212; Hashimoto&#8217;s critics charge that he&#8217;s a dangerous rightwing demagogue seeking a fascist dictatorship, and a political amateur who will destroy the country. Listening [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Grab your bentō, mat and a prime spot: It&#8217;s undōkai</title>
		<link>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/09/25/our-lives/grab-your-bent-mat-and-a-prime-spot-its-undkai/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=grab-your-bent-mat-and-a-prime-spot-its-undkai</link>
		<comments>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/09/25/our-lives/grab-your-bent-mat-and-a-prime-spot-its-undkai/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:00:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Louise George Kittaka</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[undokai]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[For the next few weekends all over Japan, mothers will be up at dawn preparing elaborate bentō, while fathers toting plastic mats will set off to school to claim a prime spot (or perhaps vice versa in some households). It&#8217;s undōkai season! Undōkai is sometimes described as a &#8220;field day&#8221; or even &#8220;athletic meet&#8221; in [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How did we end up here, in &#8216;Hashimotopia,&#8217; 2022?</title>
		<link>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/08/28/%community_category%/how-did-we-end-up-here-in-hashimotopia-2022/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=how-did-we-end-up-here-in-hashimotopia-2022</link>
		<comments>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/08/28/%community_category%/how-did-we-end-up-here-in-hashimotopia-2022/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 28 Aug 2012 00:01:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Christopher Robinson  and Ben Stubbings</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[Walking home the other night, I glanced furtively over my shoulder and clocked the notorious tattoo-enforcement police heading in my direction. I ducked into a nearby konbini and cursed that bad decision inked onto my forearm in the 1990s. Ah, the &#8217;90s, when all we had to worry about was a stagnant economy and bad [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/08/28/%community_category%/how-did-we-end-up-here-in-hashimotopia-2022/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Green-fingered gaijin reaps alien harvest in Tokyo</title>
		<link>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/07/31/%community_category%/green-fingered-gaijin-reaps-alien-harvest-in-tokyo/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=green-fingered-gaijin-reaps-alien-harvest-in-tokyo</link>
		<comments>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/07/31/%community_category%/green-fingered-gaijin-reaps-alien-harvest-in-tokyo/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:01:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Hassett</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[Dazed and drenched within Tokyo&#8217;s oppressive summer furnace, I peered up from my squat through the prism of perspiration in my eyelids to see a figure I had gradually come to know as the grumpy ol&#8217; garden drunk. &#8220;When &#8216;ja plant &#8216;dem cucumbers?&#8221; he slurred, fingering a tall can of tepid happ&#333;shu in his rustic [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Manjiro, patron saint of eikaiwa, watches over English teachers</title>
		<link>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/05/29/%community_category%/manjiro-patron-saint-of-eikaiwa-watches-over-english-teachers/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=manjiro-patron-saint-of-eikaiwa-watches-over-english-teachers</link>
		<comments>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/05/29/%community_category%/manjiro-patron-saint-of-eikaiwa-watches-over-english-teachers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 29 May 2012 00:00:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Charles Lewis</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[It can be tough teaching English in Japan. The chain school grind of late hours, noisy kids and boring middle-aged office workers takes its toll. Uppity teachers at public schools treat ALTs with contempt and all English instructors feel the humiliation of being looked down upon by their foreigner brethren who don&#8217;t teach. The money [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/05/29/%community_category%/manjiro-patron-saint-of-eikaiwa-watches-over-english-teachers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Poetic, but maybe not justice: Japan demystified in haiku</title>
		<link>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/04/24/%community_category%/poetic-but-maybe-not-justice-japan-demystified-in-haiku/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=poetic-but-maybe-not-justice-japan-demystified-in-haiku</link>
		<comments>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/04/24/%community_category%/poetic-but-maybe-not-justice-japan-demystified-in-haiku/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:02:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Colin P.A. Jones</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[One of my goals in writing for The Japan Times over the years has been to try to render the seemingly arcane functioning of the Japanese legal system a bit more comprehensible to non-Japanese, non-legal types. This involves a big assumption that I understand it myself, but I have at least tried to offer up [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>2011: a year of disaster in quotes</title>
		<link>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2011/12/27/general/2011-a-year-of-disaster-in-quotes/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=2011-a-year-of-disaster-in-quotes</link>
		<comments>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2011/12/27/general/2011-a-year-of-disaster-in-quotes/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Dec 2011 00:01:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Schilling</dc:creator>
		
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://awsadmin.japantimes.co.jp/community/2011/12/27/%community_category%/2011-a-year-of-disaster-in-quotes/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This year produced more than its share of memorable quotes, many of which were inspired by the March 11 disaster and its aftermath. But figures from other fields, from sports to entertainment, also said things worth repeating. Here is a sampling, in chronological order: Bouts of soul-searching &#8220;Professional sumo is not a show or an [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2011/12/27/general/2011-a-year-of-disaster-in-quotes/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The ridiculously frightening world of Japanese spooks</title>
		<link>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2011/10/25/general/the-ridiculously-frightening-world-of-japanese-spooks/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-ridiculously-frightening-world-of-japanese-spooks</link>
		<comments>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2011/10/25/general/the-ridiculously-frightening-world-of-japanese-spooks/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:02:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Gianni Simone</dc:creator>
		
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://awsadmin.japantimes.co.jp/community/2011/10/25/%community_category%/the-ridiculously-frightening-world-of-japanese-spooks/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Halloween is that time of the year when the occult, macabre and humorous come together to create a festival of fear and fun for all the family. A celebration of death and demons with its roots in pre-Christian Europe, the summer&#8217;s-end spook-fest has morphed over the centuries into a highly commercialized &#8212; and arguably sanitized [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2011/10/25/general/the-ridiculously-frightening-world-of-japanese-spooks/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>No-nos for Noda: Japan&#8217;s top 10 most useless PMs</title>
		<link>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2011/09/27/general/no-nos-for-noda-japans-top-10-most-useless-pms/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=no-nos-for-noda-japans-top-10-most-useless-pms</link>
		<comments>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2011/09/27/general/no-nos-for-noda-japans-top-10-most-useless-pms/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:00:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator></dc:creator>
		
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://awsadmin.japantimes.co.jp/community/2011/09/27/%community_category%/no-nos-for-noda-japans-top-10-most-useless-pms/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On Sept. 2, Yoshihiko Noda was appointed the 95th prime minister of Japan, the sixth man (and they have all been men) to hold the job in five years. To mark this occasion and offer lessons to the new Democratic Party of Japan chief on how not to lead the country, the Community Page asked [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2011/09/27/general/no-nos-for-noda-japans-top-10-most-useless-pms/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Mascots on a mission to explain the mundane</title>
		<link>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2011/08/30/general/mascots-on-a-mission-to-explain-the-mundane/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=mascots-on-a-mission-to-explain-the-mundane</link>
		<comments>http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2011/08/30/general/mascots-on-a-mission-to-explain-the-mundane/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:02:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Colin P. A. Jones</dc:creator>
		
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		<description><![CDATA[It is often said that the Japanese have a unique attitude towards law. Many explanations have been offered for why this is so, and in what circumstances: &#8226;Japan is a civilization that respects human life more than Europe (former Minister of Justice Kunio Hatoyama explaining why Japan still has the death penalty &#8212; yes, you [...]]]></description>
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