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SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Aug 25, 2005

Hit piece on Valentine, Marines another black eye for journalism in Japan

Is it just me, or has the level of media assaults on prominent foreign sports figures in Japan increased markedly in the past few months?
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2005

Teacher hopes flag badges gladden forlorn foreigners

Yoko Hijikata, a Japanese-language teacher, often hears students complain how Japanese tend to turn a blind eye to foreigners they see experiencing trouble on the streets.
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2005

JAXA optical test satellites reach orbit from Kazakstan

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency successfully launched an optical communications test satellite and a piggyback satellite from a launch site in Kazakstan early Wednesday Japan time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Aug 24, 2005

The best from a bygone era

I was recently tempted to term the handsome old Bridgestone Museum as "the last of a dying breed." But that hardly seems appropriate any more, considering the Nihonbashi art space's ongoing evolution. Instead, the Bridgestone might be better described as "a survivor" -- and one of the best -- from a...
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2005

Ishihara to produce movie on kamikaze

Toei Co. will begin shooting a film next year on the lives of young kamikaze suicide pilots in World War II with Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara as the executive producer and scriptwriter, the film producer said Monday.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2005

NTT tests fiber-optic link with U.S. for fetal therapy

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. succeeded in a test use of its 2.4-gigabit-per-second fiber-optic line for long-distance fetal diagnosis and therapy by linking medical specialists in Tokyo and San Francisco, according to NTT officials.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 23, 2005

Press freedom

Earlier this year, journalists from the Okinawa Times and the Ryukyu Shimpo were stunned to learn that they would not be allowed to cover the return of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit from Iraq.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2005

Chiba man couldn't settle for just piece of pi

Akira Haraguchi says he was never a genius in school. But at 59, the Chiba man recited pi -- the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter -- from memory to 83,431 decimal places.
EDITORIALS
Aug 22, 2005

For safer travel over 65

The National Police Agency chose "Striving for the World's Safest Road Traffic" as the main theme of its 2005 white paper made public recently. This is the first time in about a quarter-century that traffic safety has been the main feature of the annual report, thus denoting the agency's enthusiasm for...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 21, 2005

Zuco 103: "Whaa!"

Brazilian singer Lilian Vieira met drummer Stafan Kruger and keyboardist Stefan Schmid at the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music in 1989. After that, they worked together in a fusion outfit, and while Vieira's Tropicalismo pedigree livened up the group's sound, fusion is fusion.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 21, 2005

All together now, as yesterday's no-no becomes the status quo

When I first arrived in Japan in the 1960s, I was friends with a Western sociologist who was genuinely frustrated. When he went around surveying public opinion, he said that he found Japanese people to be stubbornly reserved and conservative. Apparently, those who responded to his questions about social...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2005

Lost Mishima film foretelling suicide found

The negative of a film Yukio Mishima wrote, directed and starred in has been discovered at the late writer's house in Tokyo's Ota Ward, it was learned Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2005

Foreign Ministry turns to Net PR to counter Japan-bashing

The Foreign Ministry is seeking to counter anti-Japan sentiment in China and South Korea by bolstering its Internet-based public relations operations.
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2005

Postal reform bills still top LDP agenda

The Liberal Democratic Party pledged Friday to resubmit Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's defeated postal privatization bills for passage in the next Diet session.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Aug 20, 2005

Sindhura Gadde

When jewelry designer Kazuo Ogawa conceptualized "Wings of Love," he said, "In all cultures and civilizations, birds have always been significant in mythology and philosophy, literature and poetry, dance and music, art and crafts, fashion and jewelry." The third annual "Wings of Love" charity event,...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 20, 2005

Lessons learned over the rainbow

Late August marks the anniversary of my arrival in Japan, this time totaling 28 years. So the question would seem to be, "What have you learned, Dorothy, in your long stay over the rainbow?"
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2005

Wakamaru heads for assembly line

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. plans to commercialize Wakamaru, its humanoid secretarial guard robot, by the end of the year.
BUSINESS
Aug 19, 2005

Overseas buying of Japan stocks sets high for year

Overseas investors are ramping up purchases of Japanese equities on expectations of a recovery in the world's second-largest economy, and their buying volume on a net basis is at a record high for the year, according to data released Thursday by the Finance Ministry and the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
BUSINESS
Aug 19, 2005

Wal-Mart revolution for Seiyu leaves shoppers cold

Supermarket chain Seiyu Ltd. said Thursday its first-half net loss widened to 10.59 billion yen, following a 2.88 billion yen loss a year earlier, as drastic changes in store operations caused confusion among staff.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 19, 2005

Shimauta Paradise, Phuket Aroyna Tabeta: Urban oases for summertime dining

Trapped in Tokyo through another steamy summer and, not surprisingly, we are dreaming of south-sea islands. Sun-dappled beaches of pure white sand lapped by the calm, azure ocean; the wind soughing through fields of sugar cane; and a plate of stewed pigs' ears and goat sashimi washed down with high-octane...
COMMENTARY
Aug 19, 2005

Tolerance can't be coerced

WASHINGTON -- For some, the Iraq constitution-writing process has called to mind the founding of America or other democracies. But whether the Iraqi doc ument -- for which the original Aug. 15 deadline has been extended a week -- will deliver liberty remains tragically uncertain.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Aug 19, 2005

Weekend trance party picks 08.19

Full Moon parties on Saturday, Aug. 20:
SOCCER / World cup
Aug 18, 2005

Japan gets revenge

YOKOHAMA -- Akira Kaji scored his first goal for Japan and Masashi Oguro capped a fine forward display with a second-half header to give Japan a 2-1 victory over Iran in their final Group B 2006 World Cup qualifying match at International Stadium Yokohama on Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2005

New lodgings let parents be near sick kids

YOKOHAMA -- Naomi Toyama didn't hesitate when she agreed to take her 16-month-old son, Keisuke, from Okinawa to Yokohama for a month to receive an advanced operation to cure a congenital disease.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2005

Postal rebels try to regroup via new party

Four Liberal Democratic Party foes of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's postal reform push and a defector from the main opposition force announced Wednesday they will form a new party and run on its ticket in the Sept. 11 poll.
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2005

China to swoop on Iran oil field if Tokyo pulls support: firms

On the brink of tapping into one of the world's largest known oil reserves, Japanese companies are fretting over the possibility of further rivalry with China.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Aug 18, 2005

What a curious wonder the walrus is

The walrus is a peculiar, even comical, creature -- and not only in Lewis Carroll's 1872 poem, "The Walrus and the Carpenter."

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight