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JAPAN
Apr 13, 2006

Victims of black lung sue government

A group of ex-coal miners suffering from black lung disease and relatives of several who have died filed a lawsuit in Ibaraki Prefecture on Wednesday seeking 505 million yen in state compensation.
EDITORIALS
Apr 12, 2006

A hazard named Winny

It seems not a day passes without news on leakage of confidential information from governmental and other entities onto the Internet. The types of information leaked are vast and the content is critical -- Self-Defense Forces-related documents, quake-resistance data for nuclear-power plants, access codes...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 9, 2006

Who out there cares about 'Cool Japan'?

These days the government is jumping on the bandwagon. The Foreign Ministry is singing in tune. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has hopped on, with a conductor's baton in his hand and a spring in his step that you don't even see when he's ascending the stairs to pay his public-private respects at Yasukuni...
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2006

Pickpockets mace station; 27 hurt

Tokyo commuters had a flashback to the March 1995 sarin attack on the subway system Thursday when four suspected pickpockets released what appeared to be mace at a railway station while trying to flee police, injuring 27 people.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 6, 2006

Soylent green is now money

Written in 2003 by German playwright Rene Pollesch, "Soylent Green ist Menschenfleisch, sagt es allen weiter! (Soylent Green is people, tell everybody!)" is like a great sand dune full of hidden diamonds. Four actors -- three anonymous women and a man -- speak in monologues to each other and the audience...
Japan Times
Features
Apr 2, 2006

Taking tanka to a new and timeless plane

Machi Tawara made a spectacular debut as a tanka poet at the age of 25 in 1987, and since then the Osaka-born artist has devoted her life to condensing her world into those neat, rhythmic but not rhyming, 31-syllable compositions.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 1, 2006

Josephine Branders

Belgium, a small European country with a beguiling medieval air, is beloved on many counts. With the ancient buildings, public squares and marketplaces common to many European countries, Belgium has also its own enduring distinctions. It is popularly known for its long history of specialist lace-making....
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2006

Bill to fingerprint, photograph arrivals clears Lower House

The House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday to require fingerprinting and photographing of foreigners entering Japan as a measure to prevent terrorism.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 31, 2006

Spring in their steps

As a crash course in the current state of African-American pop music, this weekend's Springroove festival being held on consecutive days in Osaka and Chiba Prefecture showcases an impressive range of artists. The headliners all represent major labels, and thus the mainstream: Since hip-hop and R&B are...
EDITORIALS
Mar 30, 2006

DPJ has dawdled long enough

With the Diet's passage of the fiscal 2006 budget, the Koizumi administration has cleared an important hurdle. But the Diet is in a sad state following the Democratic Party of Japan's blunder in its handling of an e-mail message presented by a DPJ lawmaker alleging shady financial ties between disgraced...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2006

Besieged DPJ unable to rise to debate

With the Monday approval of the fiscal 2006 budget by the Diet, lawmakers have turned their focus to bills up for deliberation during the remainder of the session, but the opposition camp's state of disarray may prevent serious debate on the role of government in society, critics say.
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2006

Beef ban has Japan eating out of Australia's hands

Kenji Miyoda, savoring a bowl of rice topped with beef from Australia, raw egg and spicy sauce, believes Australian beef is far safer than American beef.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2006

Abe against newspaper discounts

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said at an Upper House committee meeting Friday that the current newspaper delivery system with a nationwide uniform rate should be maintained.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2006

Ukraine's watershed election

KIEV -- Ukraine's politics are not those of the steppe. Our voters cannot stroll in one direction during one poll, and in the opposite direction the next time they vote, without worrying about falling over the edge. Ukrainians are people of the watershed: We live on either one side or the other of a...
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2006

Weather services compete in blossom forecasting

One would think Eishin Murakata has a pleasant, relaxing job. Every spring, he strolls each day to the same cherry tree in central Tokyo and gazes up at its boughs. When he spots a full bud on the verge of blossoming, he carefully snaps a photograph.
EDITORIALS
Mar 21, 2006

Court misses the big picture

Protecting a news source is the most important ethic of a reporter. But the Tokyo District Court has mounted a frontal attack on this principle, endangering freedom of press and the people's right to know. The court decided March 14 that when the possibility exists that a news source is a public servant,...
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2006

Asbestos-affected apply for relief

People suffering from asbestos-linked diseases and those who lost relatives to such illnesses began filing applications Monday for government financial aid prior to the coming into force next week of a relief law for victims.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2006

Colonization obstructs peace

PLAINS, Georgia -- For more than a quarter century, Israeli policy has been in conflict with that of the United States and the international community. Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory has obstructed a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land, regardless of whether Palestinians had...
EDITORIALS
Mar 19, 2006

Speaking clearly in the Diet

So, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has gone out on a limb and suggested that Japanese lawmakers engaging in debate in the Diet should speak in Japanese. Last week he reportedly chided an opposition member for asking a question sprinkled with English-language terms. On the one hand, that seems reasonable....
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2006

Protesters mark Iraq war anniversary

About 2,000 people rallied Saturday in a downtown Tokyo park to mark the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and demand that Japanese and other coalition troops pull out, a protest organizer said.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 19, 2006

Myths behind the rise of the mobile

PERSONAL, PORTABLE, PEDESTRIAN: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life, edited by Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe, and Misa Matsuda. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 357 pp., $39 (cloth). Consider the refrigerator. The changes this appliance brought in its wake are monumental. Thanks to that big humming machine in the kitchen,...
EDITORIALS
Mar 16, 2006

Justice for Milosevic's victims

In death as in life, former Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic was contemptuous of the world. The heart attack that claimed his life while being tried for war crimes may have kept a tribunal from declaring him guilty, but there was no doubt about the eventual outcome. Mr. Milosevic was wrong -- and on...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2006

30 A-bomb survivors apply for radiation illness benefits

Thirty Japanese who survived the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 applied at their local governments Tuesday to be recognized as suffering from radiation illness.
COMMENTARY
Mar 8, 2006

Can monarchical systems survive?

LONDON -- Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, has recently claimed that his copyright was infringed by a popular newspaper that printed extracts from his diary about the handover of power in Hong Kong in 1998. The diary revealed the prince' distaste for the Chinese leaders whom he described as...
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2006

Minorities call for strong antidiscrimination legislation

Representatives and supporters of minority groups issued a united call Tuesday for a robust antidiscrimination law.
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2006

Japan to be sued over bombings of Chongqing

Survivors and relatives of victims of Japan's 1938-1942 bombings of Chongqing, China, will file a damages suit against the Japanese government later this month, their lawyers said.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’