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COMMUNITY
Nov 26, 2004

Chichibu lights up

Chichibu Yomatsuri Night Festival, one of Japan's three biggest festivals featuring festival floats, will run Dec. 1-6 in the city of Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture. Each float weighs between 12 and 20 tons and is pulled by several hundred people. The festival highlight is on Dec. 3, when six floats will...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 26, 2004

Into Nagoya and onto Inuyama

As a destination, Nagoya is not the biggest tourist magnet, yet there is reason enough for dawdling here instead of just whisking through on the Shinkansen.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Nov 25, 2004

Commissioner Stern stands firm in bid to restore image

NEW YORK -- Unlike David Stern, who's clever enough to sift through and digest the countless number of confrontations, machinations, nuances and interrogations relevant to the scariest NBA scene he confesses to have ever witnessed and impart a ground-breaking decision within 36 hours, my investigation...
EDITORIALS
Nov 24, 2004

Yasukuni's shadow darkens summit

Sunday's meeting between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao -- the first in more than a year -- proved once again that history remains the biggest thorn in the side of Japan-China relations. Unless historical disputes are resolved from a broad perspective, mistrust between...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Nov 24, 2004

A view through the looking-glass

The stories of her terrible childhood and of haunting hallucinations have created the widely accepted view that Yayoi Kusama's art emerges from unimaginable suffering. It is difficult to find anything said about Kusama that does not dwell on her mental illness and she herself does little to dispel this...
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2004

Suspended term for royal nuptial scam

The Tokyo District Court sentenced a 43-year-old man on Monday to a suspended 18-month prison term for his role in a fake Imperial wedding reception in which some 6.87 million yen in cash and a valuable painting were collected from guests.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 23, 2004

Class action

What would you do if you were sacked for "clicking your pen too much in class," or for "talking to yourself during your break" . . . or how about for "only eating the topping on your rice during lunch?"
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Nov 23, 2004

Do Japanese unions have much power?

Colette McGarry Teacher, 40 I think it's important that they're there to voice the opinions of the teachers who have difficulty in their jobs, but I wish they had more influence.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2004

DNA tests may not work in abductee case

Experts are still examining the purported remains of abductee Megumi Yokota, but DNA tests may not work because of their poor condition, according to government sources.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 22, 2004

Kids of 'illegals' deserve their dream

SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- A student of mine was upset because children of illegal immigrants qualified for lower resident fees to attend college in California.
COMMENTARY
Nov 22, 2004

Liberals should stand proud

LONDON -- U.S. President George W. Bush's favorite accusation in the election campaign is reported to have been that Sen. John Kerry was a "liberal." The president seems to have used the label as a term of abuse meaning a "leftwing" radical and a supporter of the appeasement of terrorists.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2004

Wife of GSDF sergeant found dead in her home

The wife of a Ground Self-Defense Force sergeant was found dead at their house in late September while he was stationed in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 21, 2004

Yoriko Ganeko

The incredible longevity of Okinawans results from the islanders' traditional diet, sociability, exercise and general stress-free living, but it might also be helped along by the island's lovely, passionate folk music. With strong dance beats, sinuous melody lines and earthy lyrics, Okinawa's music sounds...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Nov 21, 2004

Taking on the Kalahari's wilderness of wonder

Khaudum National Park has a reputation for being tough stuff. Even the name has a slightly ominous ring to it. Pronounced "Kowdoom," it sounds like a bad neighborhood in Mordor. The park's deep Kalahari sand tracks are contenders for Top 10 listing in "The Worst Roads in Southern Africa Atlas." Accommodation...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Nov 21, 2004

Walking back to happiness

Ever since the 1970s, when "jazzercise" and jogging became a national craze, America has trotted out a long list of health gurus, with Richard "Sweatin' to the Oldies" Simmons, Jane Fonda, Cindy Crawford and Paula Abdul among those going gold with their exercise videos.
EDITORIALS
Nov 21, 2004

Leave it to the beavers

You have to admire the spirit of some beavers in Louisiana who were found last week to have woven thousands of dollars worth of stolen currency into a dam they were building out of the more usual boring sticks and brush. It was certainly a whole new twist on the idea of putting money into property.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 21, 2004

A boy detective of Old Edo

THE GHOST IN THE TOKAIDO INN, by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler. New York: Puffin Books, 2001, 214 pp., $6.99 (paper). Other books by same authors:
Features / WEEK 3
Nov 21, 2004

Discordant notes...

Bacteriologist Hideyo Noguchi (1876-1928), who became a star researcher with the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York, was a great man. He was so great that he is now the face on the new 1,000 yen bill issued Nov. 1.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 21, 2004

Daring to break the rules: Japan's first modern novelists

TWO JAPANESE NOVELISTS: SOSEKI & TOSON, by Edwin McClellan. Tuttle, 2004, 166 pp., 1,500 yen (paper). Even if they do recognize the man, Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) for many non-Japanese is no more than the prim blue gent in the mustache that once peered out from the 1,000 yen bill. Yet Soseki is the...
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2004

DPJ again floats bill to consolidate pension plans

The Democratic Party of Japan submitted a pension reform bill Friday to the Diet aimed at integrating the National Pension System and the pension programs covering salaried workers and public servants into an all-in-one system in fiscal 2008.
BUSINESS
Nov 20, 2004

Converted offices now used as trendy housing

Construction companies are busy these days in cities nationwide converting old office buildings with high vacancy rates into housing complexes.
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2004

Metro government plans 300-inmate jail near Harajuku

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced Friday that it plans to build a new police station near JR Harajuku Station that will have a jail capable of holding 300 people.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 20, 2004

Kazuko Siazon

Kudan, the official residence of the Philippine ambassador to Japan, is said to be one of the most beautiful Philippine ambassadorial residences in the world. Kazuko Siazon certainly thought so when she first visited it in 1960. When she came to live in it in 1993, she faced a huge restoration project....

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’