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SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 23, 2004

Saha saga just goes to show what a funny old game soccer is

LONDON -- "Read my lips -- Louis Saha is not for sale" -- Fulham owner and chairman Mohamed Fayed.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2004

Risky North Korea rescue left unfinished

Desperate to save his sons and other relatives, a 56-year-old escapee from North Korea hatched a bold plan to free them by smuggling himself back into the country.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 23, 2004

Izu reveals its 'silver lining'

For most Japanese, mention of the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture conjures up an image of a coast lined with onsen (hot-spring) resorts and blessed with good seafood, drawing hordes of visitors from the Tokyo area.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2004

Group urges landlords to accept foreign tenants

Finding a place to live is one of the biggest difficulties foreign residents of Japan face, and one of the main reasons is that landlords are reluctant to accept them as tenants.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2004

199 drunk-driving verdicts linked to faulty breathalyzer

The National Police Agency said Thursday it will re-examine 199 drunken driving cases due to concerns that faulty breathalyzers may have been used as a basis for convictions.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2004

Book to immortalize slain envoy

A series of reports on Iraq written by a Japanese diplomat killed in an ambush there last year will go on sale in book form Friday, a Tokyo-based publisher said Wednesday.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 22, 2004

The 'shitagidorobo': from criminal to fashion critic

It's not something that's widely advertised, but Japan is home to a massive shitagi-bunka (underwear culture). The most demure and modest of women will often be the owners of a collection that would put Frederick's of Hollywood to abject shame. And it's no secret that lan-pabu ("lingerie pubs," in which...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 21, 2004

Hong Kong action ends up on the wrong flight

Bulletproof Monk Rating: * * (out of 5) Director: Paul Hunter Running time: 104 minutes Language: English Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Hollywood takes a shot at B-grade Hong Kong action in "Bulletproof Monk." The difference between this picture and the hundreds...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 21, 2004

Fiction made real

I met with Kazuo Kuroki following the premiere of "Utsukushii Natsu Kirishima (Kirishima 1945)" at the Fukuoka International Film Festival in 2002. A native of Ebino, Miyazaki Prefecture, where the film was shot, Kuroki looked content with the warm response he had received from the Kyushu audience. Smartly...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2004

Koizumi seeks support for dispatch

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called on the nation to support his decision to send Self-Defense Forces units to Iraq as he kicked off the 150-day ordinary Diet session Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2004

Highway privatization panelists face off

Monday's start of the ordinary Diet session renews Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's scrum with vested-interest Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers and bureaucrats as he pushes through a watered-down plan to privatize four heavily indebted expressway firms.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2004

Blackhawks eyed for dispatch

The Defense Agency is considering dispatching UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters of the Ground Self-Defense Force to Iraq, agency sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2004

Schoolgirls' used panties may be banned from sale

Visitors to Tokyo sex shops may soon find it difficult to buy schoolgirls' used underwear.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jan 20, 2004

Planning for your financial future in Japan

I am looking for some pension and retirement information in Japan. Even though I am only 34, I am thinking about the financial situation in the future. I am Swiss, but have spent the past few years abroad, so I have to count on foreign retirement support.
EDITORIALS
Jan 19, 2004

Cracking down on crime groups

The National Police Agency is going all out to crack down on organized crime groups, or yakuza. The latest drive calls for legislative changes to allow victims who have gotten caught up in a yakuza conflict to sue for damages against yakuza leaders rather than the gangsters directly involved.
JAPAN
Jan 19, 2004

Pyongyang trip yields no progress on abduction issue

Japan and North Korea remained at odds over the abductions issue when a group of Japanese diplomats visited Pyongyang last week for the first official contact between the two countries in several months, the Foreign Ministry says.
JAPAN
Jan 19, 2004

Six miss out on kidney transplants due to error in software

Six people who should have been higher on a recipient list for kidney transplants were not selected because of a computer programming error, the Japan Organ Transplant Network said Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 19, 2004

Foreign affairs top U.S. political debate

HONOLULU -- For the first time since the divisive Vietnam era, foreign policy and national security will most likely dominate the U.S. presidential election campaign this year, especially since the line between issues abroad and politics at home has become more blurred than ever.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jan 19, 2004

Japan must preserve upswing by allaying public fear with reform

Expectations are growing that Japan will finally achieve a full-scale economic recovery this year.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2004

Nearly 590,000 begin university tests

Nearly 590,000 university applicants on Saturday began sitting two-day national entrance exams across the country.
EDITORIALS
Jan 18, 2004

Europe's tower of Babel

A funny thing happened on the linguistic fringes of the European Union earlier this month. A group of demonstrators had gathered outside Dublin Castle in Ireland, where talks on an EU constitution were being held, to demand that the EU officially recognize the Irish language. Then Ireland's minister...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 18, 2004

It takes a demon to bring out the saint

LONELY WOMAN, by Takako Takahashi, translated by Maryellen Toman Mori. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004, 192 pp., $24.50, (paper). "A female demon is no mere fanciful creature," writes Takako Takahashi in this newly translated work. "An ordinary woman can turn into a demon in an instant. She...
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2004

Nine-to-five ATMs passe as banks jump on 24-hour bandwagon

Round-the-clock automated-teller machines are expected to become commonplace in Japan in the near future.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jan 17, 2004

Robert Tsonos

The magnetism of theater pulled in Robert Tsonos at an early age, and kept him captive. He cannot account for the passion with which he responded to performance art, which still holds him in thrall. Robert says he is the only one in his immediate family, and in his extended family of several cousins,...
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2004

Koizumi pitches Iraq, reforms to LDP

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday reiterated the importance of dispatching Self-Defense Forces units to Iraq to help its postwar rehabilitation, in collaboration with the United States and the international community.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 17, 2004

Float to travel without moving to find deep self

There are only two known isolation tanks in Japan. One is in Kyoto, for private use. The other is in Kazuo Miyabe's first-floor apartment in one of the fast-disappearing enclaves of Shirokane in downtown Tokyo, where he makes it his business to help people float away the stresses and strains of modern...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji