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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Nov 22, 2005

Do you think it's necessary to fingerprint foreigners?

Mike Trees Director, 43 I disagree. I did my masters on discrimination against foreigners and fingerprinting Koreans was a big issue. I agree with the ID cards, but fingerprinting is for criminals, unless they're going to fingerprint everyone, Japanese included.
EDITORIALS
Nov 20, 2005

Myanmar goes deep

Capitals have moved before, but rarely so mysteriously. When Myanmar's military government began streaming out of the country's longtime capital city of Yangon on the morning of Nov. 6, headed for a fortified but unfinished compound in jungle-clad mountains 400 km to the north, people scratched their...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 20, 2005

Words of war, peace and the future

THE THOUGHT WAR: Japanese Imperial Propaganda, by Barak Kushner. Honolulu: The University of Hawai'i Press, 2006, 244 pp., $45.00 (cloth). This completely individual and very interesting account of the uses of propaganda in Japan concludes with the observation that it would be historically naive to pretend...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 2005

Chaff rains on Aussie trade

SYDNEY -- An international scandal revealing Australia's role in the Iraq food-for-oil coverup is costing good will in Washington and could affect agricultural exports to the key Japanese market.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 19, 2005

Autumn colors: purple, pink

It is said that on Shiraishi Island we don't have much "koyo," or autumn colors. But this is always said by people who don't know the island very well, and who only see the pine trees and evergreens that make up 98 percent of the vegetation on the island.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2005

Kids around world chat in pictures

Children who speak different languages can be friends if they can find a way to communicate.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 17, 2005

Passion for kabuki

After working for the Tokyo National Theater for almost 35 years, Koji Orita became director of its Department of Performing Arts in 2003.
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2005

Ministry, cops go after ex-cons who skip town

The Justice Ministry and police agreed Tuesday to team up next month to look for more than 1,500 convicts who have disappeared while on parole or probation, officials said.
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2005

Princess Nori ties knot, now Mrs. Kuroda

After a year of traditional preparations and rites, Princess Nori married Tokyo Metropolitan Government employee Yoshiki Kuroda on Tuesday morning as Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko observed their only daughter's last moment as a member of the royal family.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2005

Tower exhibit adds weight to public debt

If you were to stack up 10,000 yen bills equal to the value of the country's estimated public debt in 2005 of 773 trillion yen, the pile would easily reach the stratosphere, according to a government-sponsored exhibit set to open at the Tokyo Tower.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2005

Students hope play will defeat nukes on subcontinent

University students have been performing an antinuclear drama in Tokyo in the Urdu language that they hope will persuade people in India and Pakistan to urge their governments to abandon nuclear arms.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 15, 2005

Aussies preparing for worst

SYDNEY -- Tough new antiterrorist laws will soon give troops shoot-to-kill authority when patrolling Australian streets in anticipation of a terrorist attack. But the change will come only after the Australian public has agonized over a claimed loss of civil liberties.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Nov 15, 2005

What's your approach to starting a cross-cultural romance?

Krystle Hara Exchange student, 20 I don't have a line. But I've got, "Do you like anime?" a few times. Something that tends to work for me is when a guy says "I speak English," because it makes choosing which language you are going to speak in less awkward.
EDITORIALS
Nov 13, 2005

The pop-word culture

The dictionary frowns on words it snootily labels "informal." Teachers and newspaper copy editors carry a grudge against slang. Nearly everyone recoils from jargon. But according to a new book irresistibly titled "Slam Dunks and No-Brainers: Language in Your Life, the Media, Business, Politics, and,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 12, 2005

Christine Ishikawa

Within the first month of her arrival in Japan in 1989, Chris Ishikawa joined the Yokohama International Women's Club. She was a foreign bride then, living in a Japanese neighborhood, and feeling lonely. She said: "I read a writeup in a local newspaper about YIWC's outing to an antiques dealer. I went...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2005

North Americans to get 'manga' in Sunday comics

Charlie Brown, Garfield and other longtime favorite cartoon stars will soon be sharing space in North American newspapers with doe-eyed women in frilly outfits, effeminate long-haired heroes and cute fuzzy animals.
JAPAN
Nov 8, 2005

Data on SDF hospital patients leaked

Personal data on 59 people who received treatment at hospitals run by the Ground Self-Defense Force have been leaked on the Internet and remain publicly available, Defense Agency officials said Monday.
BUSINESS
Nov 8, 2005

Poverty fight using wristband sales finds skeptics

The "whiteband" movement in Japan to eradicate poverty in developing countries, using celebrities in a tieup with a public relations company, has had some unexpected results, with misunderstandings and allegations about how the money raised is being used.
COMMENTARY
Nov 6, 2005

Slow relief adds to the peril

LONDON -- In the past year the world has suffered a series of natural disasters that have caused the deaths of some 200,000 people, serious injuries to many more, and enormous damage to property and infrastructure. Relief efforts by governments have often been too little and too late. Nongovernment organizations...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 5, 2005

Beverly Nakamura

"Although Japan gives the impression of being a rich country, there is still need out there. Everything cannot be covered. The International Ladies Benevolent Society tries to fill the cracks that get overlooked. ILBS still means a great deal to a lot of people and institutions. I am proud to be part...
COMMENTARY
Nov 3, 2005

Curtain falling on Chirac?

PARIS -- For decades it was widely assumed that Europe needed an engine to go forward, and that France and Germany were best qualified to play that role. For the time being, however, this has ceased to be true. If any member aims to lead the European Union, it's Britain, which holds the EU presidency...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 30, 2005

The freedom found in anominity

A MAN WITH NO TALENTS: Memoirs of a Tokyo Day Laborer, by Shiro Oyama, translated by Edward Fowler. Ithica/London: Cornell University Press, 2005, 140 pp., $21.00 (cloth). Toward the end of his account of what life is like at the bottom of Japan's social structure, Shiro Oyama (a pseudonym) observes...
EDITORIALS
Oct 29, 2005

Charter gives Iraq a new chance

Iraq has a new constitution. Iraqis approved the national charter by a narrow margin, prompting allegations of fraud by dissenters. While the outcome produced a document that is more democratic and representative than any other in Iraq's history, the referendum results highlighted the country's sharp...
BUSINESS
Oct 29, 2005

Jobless rate slides as recovery widens

Japan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at a preliminary 4.2 percent in September, down 0.1 point from August, as the ongoing economic recovery generated jobs in a wide range of industrial sectors, the government said Friday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 28, 2005

Journey to the end of the world

The name in Ainu means "the end of the Earth." And the bleakness and ruggedness of this lonely peninsula jutting out into the Sea of Okhotsk are such that little imagination is required as to how the Ainu -- the indigenous people of Hokkaido -- happened by the name of Shiretoko.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2005

Court splits on Hansen's compensation

Judges were split Tuesday on two lawsuits filed by former Hansen's disease patients from South Korea and Taiwan -- the South Korean patients were denied compensation while the Taiwanese were awarded it.

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’