Masami Ito - The Japan Times

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

Masami Ito

Meta

Masami Ito

Masami is a staff writer for the Life and Culture Division at The Japan Times. She is in charge of the weekly Sunday Timeout, covering various issues related to Japan, from alcohol/drug addiction and juvenile crime to female sushi chefs and kendama. Over her 15-year career, she has written extensively on Japanese politics, foreign policy and social issues.

JAPAN

Dec 4, 2004

Revised domestic violence law falls short

Sachiko Nakajima was 20 years old when she began what should have been an ordinary college romance.

JAPAN

Dec 1, 2004

For visa violators, it pays to come clean

In June 2000, Mohammad Mizanur Rahman was deported from Japan for overstaying his visa. Shortly after he was forced back to his native Bangladesh, his Japanese girlfriend joined him and they married.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Nov 26, 2004

Photographer captures images of youths on death row in U.S.

The subjects of photographer Toshi Kazama -- all young boys and girls -- stare straight into the lens of his camera, some smiling shyly, others looking serious.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Nov 18, 2004

Takefuji chief's wiretaps net suspended term

Former Takefuji Corp. Chairman Yasuo Takei was sentenced Wednesday to a suspended three-year prison term for wiretapping and defamation of character.

JAPAN

Nov 16, 2004

Doctor hits immigration center health care

For more than three years, Dr. Junpei Yamamura has visited the Higashi-Nihon Immigration Center in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, once a month.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Nov 9, 2004

Peru cash crop quest bears fruit

It was more than 20 years ago that Takayuki Suzuki packed his bags and moved to Peru.

JAPAN

Nov 1, 2004

Public's sympathy for Koda tempered

The news that hostage Shosei Koda was found dead in Iraq was met with sympathy Sunday on the streets of Tokyo, but for many people interviewed by The Japan Times, the grief was tempered by the belief that the government was right in not succumbing to terrorists.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Stage

Oct 6, 2004

Heart music in 'Big River'

It is a tale that many of us know, that of a young boy's adventures on the Mississippi River while helping a slave, named Jim, to escape. One of the greatest novels of American literature, Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is set in the 1840s, long before the Civil War, and is a touching...

Japan Times

JAPAN

Oct 2, 2004

Justice chief's mandate: make Japan safe, refugee-friendly

Restoring Japan's image as one of the world's most crime-free nations is a key demand of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi -- and one newly appointed Justice Minister Chieko Noono hopes to meet.

Japan Times

Features

Sep 12, 2004

Heights of cleanliness

What must it be like to stand on top of the world's highest mountain? To battle through driving snow and across deadly glaciers, to scale icy rock walls and risk falling thousands of meters while being hit full-on by raging, freezing winds -- aware that an avalanche could, at any moment, swat you into...

Japan Times

Features

Aug 22, 2004

'Stray dogs' dig the dirt

"Bluebottle fly" was what he says he was called by the police. But freelance journalist Shunsuke Yamaoka is now getting a buzz from watching the law deal with wrongdoers he exposed.

COMMUNITY

Aug 15, 2004

A towering test for the tongue

Tall, cool, slim and graceful: Meet Millecre's Tokyo Tower 333, the gorgeous new face on the ice-cream block.

Japan Times

Features

Aug 15, 2004

A towering test for the tongue

Tall, cool, slim and graceful: Meet Millecre's Tokyo Tower 333, the gorgeous new face on the ice-cream block.

Japan Times

LIFE / Lifestyle

Jul 25, 2004

Cashing in on ideas

Thomas Edison's electricity, Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, the Wright Brothers' creaky biplane, H.G. Wells' time machine (OK, that last one hasn't happened yet), but through these world-changing discoveries, our daily lives have been made easier. Flick a switch and light banishes the darkness, pick...

Japan Times

Features

Jul 25, 2004

Brolly good notion out of the blue

One evening in March, Daryn Peterson was stretched out on his sofa at home. After a hard day's work, he was totally relaxed and just watching TV. Then, when the weather forecast came on, he sat up suddenly. It was as if lightning had struck his brain; an idea had suddenly flashed into his mind.

Japan Times

Features

Jul 25, 2004

Japan's inventor supreme shares the secret of 3,218 successes

Who is Japan's most famous inventor? No doubt about it, it's Yoshiro Nakamatsu -- or Dr. NakaMats as he styles himself. The doc says he has 3,218 inventions to his credit, including the floppy disk and the compact disc. Although his childhood dream was to become Finance Minister, from the age of 5, Nakamatsu...

Japan Times

Features

Jul 18, 2004

Rural revelations and a sake to go

Japan Times

Features

Jun 13, 2004

Front-line fighters

Squeezed between stacks of files and computer equipment in a two-room apartment in Tokyo's Takadanobaba area, Chizuko Ikegami and several volunteers are manning the phones. Round the clock, day in, day out, PLACE Tokyo receives calls from people desperately seeking advice after being diagnosed with...

Japan Times

LIFE / Travel

Jun 11, 2004

Serendipity in the sticks

I noticed a young boy staring at me from afar as I stood alone at the bus stop, poring over my tourist map. Then, with a shy smile and a face full of curiosity, he walked toward me. And when he got close enough for me to hear him, he opened his mouth and spoke.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP

Jun 6, 2004

Shinya Tasaki: Sommelier supreme

Shinya Tasaki was a teenager when he made his first solo trip to France in 1977. Even back then, he was so eager to learn about French food and wine that he visited as many wineries as he could -- only to be turned away from most. But his determination kept him from giving up -- and now nobody will turn...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.

As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.8: Omron Corp.Omron helping firms achieve carbon neutrality

mission sustainability vol.8: Omron Corp.Omron helping firms achieve carbon neutrality

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports