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JAPAN
Feb 25, 2006

Number of official refugees up threefold in 2005

The government recognized 46 people as refugees in 2005, more than three times the figure for the previous year, the Justice Ministry said Friday.
COMMENTARY
Feb 24, 2006

Insults reserved for Islam

Recently, when a Danish newspaper published cartoons offensive to Muslims, Muslim protests met claims that our Western democracies had to uphold the sacred principle of free speech. Under no circumstances could we Westerners be expected to give up that important right simply because others objected to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 23, 2006

The real Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The genius, the divinely inspired child, the idiot savant, the skilled populist craftsman, the underappreciated artist in his time who died tragically young in anonymous penury. Every generation makes of him what they will; the legends abound. And 250 years after his birth in...
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2006

Champion chef spreads Naples pizza culture here

Makoto Onishi, the winner of the title of best pizza maker at the annual Naples pizza festival in 2003, busied himself kneading dough and topping pizzas with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Feb 20, 2006

Japan's falling savings rate reflects a global competition for funds

The national savings rate dropped to as low as 2.8 percent in 2004, according to a report released by the Cabinet Office last month. This is incredibly low, given the figure had been above 10 percent until as recently as 1999.
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2006

Critics cry white elephant while backers hunker down and hope

KOBE -- It was the airport nobody except the Kobe Municipal Government and a few local business leaders originally wanted.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Feb 14, 2006

Is there a nationalist resurgence in the air?

Gwen Loubes Architect, 24 I live in China and from over there, Japan doesn't seem so nationalistic. The Chinese all support the Chinese government and follow all the rules. They're very nationalistic. I think China is a bit envious of Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Feb 14, 2006

Nobuko Mitsumori

Nobuko Mitsumori, 37, works with her mother in their small accounting office in Tokyo's Chuo Ward. With one assistant and myriad clients, the three are always happily overworked. Nobuko studied classical literature and didn't think that math was her strength, but thanks to her talent, the numbers somehow...
Japan Times
Features
Feb 12, 2006

Refuge of Last Resort

It is 9 o'clock on a freezing winter's morning in Sanya, eastern Tokyo, a blighted downtown district that was once famed as a day laborers' mecca. Now, it is home to thousands of aging men on welfare.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2006

Adopted bills add more pain to elderly health care

The government adopted a package of bills Friday to limit its health-care costs as part of an overall medical reform plan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 11, 2006

Michiko Kohga

Ask Michiko Kohga what she wanted when she was a little girl, and she answers promptly, "I wanted to eat." She was a child during the early postwar years, when all Japan was hungry. She remembers her family receiving a food package from relatives in Sao Paulo. "The candy in it was like jewelry to me,"...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 7, 2006

Twisted legal logic deals rights blow to foreigners

Steve McGowan, an African-American resident of Kyoto, sued an eyeglass shop in Daito City, Osaka Prefecture, for refusing him entry in 2004 on the basis of the color of his skin.
EDITORIALS
Feb 3, 2006

A way of looking at profits

Mr. Takafumi Horie, the 33-year-old maverick businessman who built the Livedoor Co. empire from scratch, has entered the most difficult phase of his life, confined to sleep in an unheated, three-mat cell in the Tokyo Detention House -- a world apart from his posh Roppongi Hills residence. The criminal...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 29, 2006

With Horie's downfall, who can young Japan look up to?

The media has had a field day with Takafumi Horie, the 33-year-old founder of the communications firm Livedoor.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 25, 2006

Saving our environment one step at a time

Having ended 2005 with a rant (see below), let me begin 2006 on a more positive note by introducing some valuable environmental education resources.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 24, 2006

Can Japan absorb foreign influx?

When discussing the recent ethnic riots in France, The Economist newsmagazine ("Minority Reports," Nov. 10, 2005) posed an important question: How come some countries assimilate immigrants more peacefully than others?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 22, 2006

Flag-makers aren't the only beneficiaries of patriotism in sport

Tabloids utilize a clever kind of shorthand for their headlines in order to fix the attention of people as they pass by news-stands. My favorite one recently was a Nikkan Gendai header announcing "Ichiro's abnormal enthusiasm for WBC."
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 22, 2006

Yokohama: model city for the nation?

'Change Japan -- from Yokohama."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 20, 2006

'Latin America's Woody Allen'on Jewish life in Argentina

At 33, Daniel Burman already has five feature films to his name and he was a co-producer of the much-acclaimed "Motorcycle Diaries."
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2006

Aneha scam making buyers wary, for now

To buy or not to buy a condominium? That is the question people are asking, fearing the slipshod construction borne out in the widening scandal over the falsification of quake-proofing data might be industrywide.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 13, 2006

Fed up with chanson

At a performance early in December at Tokyo's L'Institut Francais, two French singers -- Francoiz Breut and Jeanne Cherhal -- demonstrated different approaches to French pop for the new millennium.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jan 10, 2006

Kazuhiko Hachiya

Artist Kazuhiko Hachiya, 39, is president of PetWORKs, a small company with nine employees. According to him, they "do big things in a funny and cute way." His company is behind the popular mail software PostPet, in which animated characters deliver the mail; the hit doll Momoko; and it is now venturing...
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2006

Condo scandal shakes engineering industry

As people begin to feel that they can no longer trust their streets to be safe, they have discovered that even the roofs over their heads may also not be secure.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Jan 6, 2006

Tokyo's 'Toontown' is game for a laugh

Outsiders often associate Adachi, Tokyo's northernmost ward, with the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult (still in residence), the recent Tobu Railway Co.'s Takenotsuka crossing accident that cost two women their lives, or the fact that the ward's alluvial ground makes it especially vulnerable if an earthquake...

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear