Takuya Asakura - The Japan Times

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Takuya Asakura

For Takuya Asakura's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Japan Times

JAPAN

Dec 13, 2001

Asylum seekers' fates hang in balance

Refugees in danger of persecution, or migrants seeking work and wealth?

JAPAN

Nov 24, 2001

Is safety net failing kids in legal trouble?

A 19-year-old who fled the Kurihama Juvenile Training School last year was literally running out of options.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Nov 23, 2001

Juvenile correction system feeling strain

Teenagers in uniform tank tops and shorts, their hair all cropped in the same manner, march in lines at an athletic field. It looks like a military boot camp, but in actuality is an athletic festival at a juvenile reformatory in Hachioji, western Tokyo.

JAPAN

Nov 17, 2001

Public seen in step with boosted SDF role

The Self-Defense Forces are finally crossing the line to participate in a real war for the first time in their history, even though their role will be limited to logistic support.

JAPAN

Nov 17, 2001

Public seen in step with boosted SDF role

The Self-Defense Forces are finally crossing the line to participate in a real war for the first time in their history, even though their role will be limited to logistic support.

JAPAN

Oct 30, 2001

SDF bill passage by no means ends constitutional debate

Diet debate on allowing the Self-Defense Forces to provide logistic support to U.S.-led retaliation against the Sept. 11 attacks has highlighted unanswered questions on the constitutionality of the planned move.

JAPAN

Oct 27, 2001

Technology aids creation of new peace activism

Helmets, chanted slogans and clashes with police -- a common scene in Japan during demonstrations against the Vietnam War. Those days may be long gone, but after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States a new style of peace activism using the Internet and other technology has quietly been created.

JAPAN

Oct 17, 2001

Opinions clash over SDF role in war on terror

Two days after U.S.-led forces launched a bombing campaign on Afghanistan, six Air Self-Defense Force C-130 cargo planes arrived in Islamabad with relief supplies for refugees.

JAPAN

Oct 16, 2001

Asylum-seekers face tough time in Japan

Gol Ahmad Bahador does not want to go back to Afghanistan.

JAPAN

Oct 8, 2001

Children's center provides haven for teenagers

Teenage boys with long dyed hair and guitar cases saunter into the lounge, passing a group of high school students playing mah-jongg. By 5 p.m., teenagers have taken over this "jidokan," or children's center, in Suginami Ward, Tokyo.

JAPAN

Oct 6, 2001

Press info access first casualty of war

As the U.S. prepares to launch retaliatory strikes on those believed to be behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the media's frustration over the tight control of information by the U.S. authorities is reportedly on the rise.

JAPAN

Sep 28, 2001

Backing of U.S. revives debate on SDF

A senior Defense Agency official looked excited as the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk prepared for its Sept. 21 departure from the Yokosuka Naval Base in Kanagawa Prefecture with an escort of Maritime Self-Defense Force ships.

JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS

Sep 24, 2001

Baseball still the stuff of boys' dreams

The eyes of the boys from Okachimachi Junior High School in Tokyo light up as they grip the bats of professional Japanese baseball stars.

JAPAN

Sep 11, 2001

Memorial erected for downed B-29 crew

INA, Ibaraki Pref. -- Before dawn on March 10, 1945, a U.S. B-29 bomber crashed into the woods outside a rural village some 45 km northeast of Tokyo.

JAPAN

Sep 8, 2001

Tokyo fails to stem suspected oil exploration

After two hours of nothing but the vast expanse of the East China Sea, a steel structure topped by a streak of flame and a helicopter pad appears on the horizon, growing rapidly in the window of a Maritime Self-Defense Force P-3C patrol plane.

JAPAN

Aug 24, 2001

Security alliance redefined after end of Cold War

Staff writer In August 1990, when then Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu telephoned U.S. President George Bush to offer a $1 billion contribution to the U.S.-led multinational forces in the Persian Gulf, Bush offered a disappointed-sounding "Thank you" before hanging up.

JAPAN / OF SOUND MIND

Jun 23, 2001

Crime suspects' mental state rarely checked deeply

Whenever people with psychological problems are arrested for brutal crimes, public attention focuses on whether they can be held criminally liable.

JAPAN

Jun 23, 2001

Multinational historians address East Asia

A group of historians from Japan, China and South Korea has been seeking a common stance on the region's history in the wake of controversy over recently approved Japanese history textbooks that some say justify Japan's wartime aggression.

JAPAN / OF SOUND MIND

Jun 22, 2001

Ikeda massacre puts judicial psychiatry in spotlight

The June 8 killing of eight children by a knife-wielding man at an Osaka elementary school has inevitably rekindled the old debate about whether — and how much — judicial authorities should be able to intervene when dealing with mental patients accused of committing serious crimes.

JAPAN

Jun 21, 2001

SDF ranks open to reservists with no military experience

Need a part-time job? Ever considered the Self-Defense Forces? Spending holidays in boot camp could earn you 7,900 yen a day.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.

The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Leading Japan’s sustainability from Tokyo

Leading Japan’s sustainability from Tokyo

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