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Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2010

Tsuneoka says captors grew tired of holding him, failing to get ransom

Fresh from his release in Afghanistan, freelance journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka said Tuesday in Tokyo he was probably freed after five months in captivity because his abductors' demands for ransom failed.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2010

When a baby can't come naturally

Seiko Noda, a Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker, surprised the public late last month by revealing in a magazine article that she got pregnant at age 49 through artificial insemination using a donated egg from a third person.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 8, 2010

Despite the big spender image, Japanese actually love to save

There's this image that the Japanese are drop-dead, go-all-out kaimono-chūdokusho (買い物中毒症, shopaholics), despite whatever the latest dreary news bulletin on the global recession says. While that may be true, it's also a fact of our collective lives that the Japanese hate spending, with every...
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2010

Greenpeace pair guilty; no prison

The Aomori District Court sentenced two Greenpeace Japan activists Monday to suspended one-year prison terms for trespassing and stealing whale meat from a transport company branch in Aomori Prefecture in April 2008.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 7, 2010

Anime makes Japan a cultural superpower

Japan may be on a slow decline as far as being a global economic force, but the "soft power" of its modern entertainment genres, from manga to "anime," has global appeal, especially among young people.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 5, 2010

Scully set to carry on for 62nd season with Dodgers

Baseball news reports last week indicated Los Angeles Dodgers legendary play-by-play announcer Vin Scully has decided to return for another year behind the microphone in 2011. The 82-year-old Hall of Famer will be in his 62nd season calling Dodgers games in a career that goes back to seven years before...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 5, 2010

Fertility issue pregnant with discord

In 2004, Diet lawmaker Seiko Noda wrote a book titled "Watashi wa Umitai" ("I Want to Give Birth"), which chronicled her years of infertility treatments and the subsequent pregnancy that ended in miscarriage. Two years later she ended her six-year relationship with fellow politician Yosuke Tsuruho, who...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2010

Judgment draws near in whale-meat trial

In 2008, two officials of Greenpeace Japan presented to prosecutors what they described as evidence of a Japanese whaler's embezzlement of whale meat and asked them to investigate.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2010

New Iran sanctions put freeze on assets

Tokyo announced additional sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programs Friday, including freezing assets of individuals and organizations related to the work, and suspending new Japanese investment in oil and gas development there.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2010

Actor's trial to test lay judges' neutrality

A test case for the nascent lay judge system got under way Friday at the Tokyo District Court as a celebrity defendant already crucified in the public realm now faces citizen judges, raising questions of whether they can render a judgment free of media influence.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 4, 2010

Campaigning to save the languages of Okinawa

Two stops on Naha's monorail from the tourist trinket shops of Kokusai-dori lies Sakaemachi, a tightly packed warren of tiny stalls and drinking dens. For outsiders like 40-year-old Byron Fija, it takes a measure of confidence to venture to this part of Okinawa, but as he passes the open-air tables of...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Sep 3, 2010

Hill, Apache set to open training camp in Texas

Before a single shot is taken in the season's first game, every team knows the following:
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2010

Futenma plan OK: Ozawa

Democratic Party of Japan heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa on Thursday backpedaled from his claim the previous day that he had a new, specific plan for relocating U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma and basically said the pact reached in May to move the base to Nago, Okinawa, stands.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 3, 2010

From 'Dawn of the Dead' to the live-and-kicking golden 'oldies'

Shu Matsui's innocent smile is familiar. He's always beaming on TV ads, whether he's plugging a washing softener, playing a gentle new father or promoting mobile phones in the guise of a young doctor. But if you were to see any production by Sample, the theater company Matsui founded in 2007, you'd be...
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2010

Kan, Ozawa kick off DPJ poll race

Campaigning officially kicked off Wednesday for the Sept. 14 Democratic Party of Japan presidential election, with Prime Minister Naoto Kan trying to keep the helm and DPJ kingpin Ichiro Ozawa seeking to wrest it from him.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2010

'Rakugo' pro crosses borders with humor

Humor, it is said, rarely crosses borders. Culture-specific references and ingrained social norms often mean jokes that leave audiences rolling in the aisles in the country of origin are greeted with puzzlement, incomprehension and even hostility when translated for foreign audiences.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2010

Four fathers picked as role models for child-rearing leave

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has picked four fathers from 131 applicants to serve as standard bearers for the participation of dads in child-rearing.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2010

Race is on: Ozawa to challenge Kan

Democratic Party of Japan heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa confirmed Tuesday he will run for DPJ president and thus prime minister, dashing party hopes that an internal power struggle can be avoided before the Sept. 14 election.
SOCCER
Sep 1, 2010

Teenager Miyaichi to join Arsenal

NAGOYA (Kyodo) Seventeen-year-old striker Ryo Miyaichi is set to join Arsenal after catching the eye in a trial with the Premier League giants this month, Kyodo News learned Tuesday.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person