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Japan Times
Features
Sep 12, 2004

Heights of cleanliness

What must it be like to stand on top of the world's highest mountain? To battle through driving snow and across deadly glaciers, to scale icy rock walls and risk falling thousands of meters while being hit full-on by raging, freezing winds -- aware that an avalanche could, at any moment, swat you into...
BUSINESS
Sep 11, 2004

Apathy said rife among jobless in 15-34 age bracket

Some 520,000 unemployed people between the ages of 15 and 34 were not trying to find work or receive higher educational training during 2003, up 8.3 percent from a year earlier.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2004

China takes no chances in Hong Kong poll

HONG KONG -- It is now clear that China is quietly tearing up the fine promises it made in 1984 that Hong Kong would be permitted a high degree of autonomy when China resumed sovereignty over the city after 150 years of British colonial rule. Beijing is going to great lengths to ensure that prodemocracy...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 20, 2004

On the path of poets

Utter silence, Piercing the stone walls, The cicada's cry
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Aug 20, 2004

The Gathering 2004 preview

After dozens of hours of copious, nail-biting research, I have deduced that there is absolutely no connection whatsoever between Respect for the Aged Day and the ending date for Gathering 2004, except that vigorous dancing has been medically proven to reverse the aging process.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2004

Broken promises a blot on Myanmar's regime

A s Myanmar's government prepares to take over the chairmanship of ASEAN for 1996, opposition groups have stepped up their campaign for reform in the country by appealing to the bloc's leaders, reminding them that the regime in Yangon has violated all its promises, including human rights reform, better...
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2004

Book puts war-contingency legislation to pictures

Adam Goodwin claimed it was purely by chance that he came across the Web site of a Japanese citizens' group publishing a picture booklet on Japan's war-contingency legislation and its perceived significance.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2004

Top parodist serves anti-Koizumi camp

People not in positions of authority might feel they can do little to change a political situation they disagree with, but for one of the nation's leading parodists, the answer is simple: ape those in positions of power in an unflattering way.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 14, 2004

Bon brings more than family back home

"Attention Shiraishi Island residents. This is an announcement from the Kasaoka city Environment Committee. This month's toilet cleaning will take place on Friday, Aug. 3 and Thursday, Aug. 26. Please register for toilet cleaning at least one day beforehand. And don't forget to buy your toilet tickets."...
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2004

Top parodist serves anti-Koizumi camp

People not in positions of authority might feel they can do little to change a political situation they disagree with, but for one of the nation's leading parodists, the answer is simple: ape those in positions of power in an unflattering way.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 5, 2004

Japanese in need of a break from summer break

Here's the real reason why the Japanese summer vacation is so short (for many, it's a matter of four or five days): the natsuyasumi (summer break) is essentially full of stress and if it were any longer, people up and down Japan would likely pop veins en masse.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 1, 2004

Koizumi: Robot? Dummy? Dictator? All three?

A comedy troupe called The Newspaper has recently been lampooning Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's performance at the last G-8 summit. According to the weekly magazine Aera, in one skit, a member dressed as Koizumi explains why he committed Japanese troops to a multinational force without first consulting...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 28, 2004

Director has whale of a time making experimental 'Mind Game'

Now an animation veteran, with 17 years in the business, Masaaki Yuasa still looks young enough, acts deferential enough and dresses down enough to be mistaken for a rank-and-filer. Instead, he is a rising industry star hailed for his work on the "Crayon Shinchan" franchise, the nearest Japanese animation...
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2004

Like NTT phone fee, line brokers face extinction

Kanji in the window of a three-story building near JR Okachimachi Station in central Tokyo advertise "denwa tokubai" (discounted telephone lines).
COMMENTARY
Jul 25, 2004

Gender imbalance exacting social costs

HONG KONG -- A quarter of a century ago, China decided to focus on economic development rather than Maoist class struggle. As part of that drive, it adopted a policy of limiting population growth with couples allowed to have only one child in the cities. Chinese officials say that as a result, 300 million...
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2004

Young delegates at symposium stress value of peace

Young people across the globe need to better appreciate the value of peace, which they so often take for granted, foreign students who are studying Japanese said during a symposium in Tokyo earlier this week.
EDITORIALS
Jul 15, 2004

AIDS can be beaten

AIDS has become the worst pandemic in human history, eclipsing even the Black Death of the 14th century. Unlike the plague, AIDS often kills the descendants of victims who have passed on. There is no excuse for the failure to tackle this scourge; there is ample evidence of effective ways to respond to...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2004

Forces pact should underscore Japanese lack of rights: lawyer

Attorney Annette Eddie-Callagain has had to defend people subjected to closed-door interrogations, limited access to lawyers and lengthy detention during which they are pressured to confess.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2004

SDF aid mission mars Japan's peace image, Arab interviewees say in film

The deployment of Self-Defense Forces troops to Iraq on a humanitarian mission puzzles Arabs because it runs counter to their long-held image of a peaceful Japan, according to a documentary film based on eight interviews with people in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 11, 2004

Believe it ... or not

Japan's vast hoard of war booty known as Yamashita's Gold was long thought to be buried in caves in the Philippines. But in their book 'Gold Warriors,' Sterling and Peggy Seagrave sensationally claim that the treasure trove was secretly recovered -- and continues to oil the wheels of politics in Japan...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 7, 2004

Our man on the street

Disclosure: I've been following Harvey Pekar's work for 24 years, ever since a mutual friend and former editor of the Cleveland Edition, a long-defunct alternative paper, sent me his fifth American Splendor comic to review in 1980. I compared Pekar's autobiographical stories of ordinary life in the city...
COMMENTARY
Jun 30, 2004

Iraq handover spells relief

LONDON -- Day One of modern Iraq. Never before have the people of Iraq had their political destiny in their own hands. There have been no celebrations. The sound of gunfire is of killing, not festivity.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 27, 2004

A feast of culture on Hokkaido menu

Modernization and industrialization have ensured that the traditional lifestyle of the Ainu has been destroyed as thoroughly as the traditional customs of their Japanese neighbours.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jun 22, 2004

What is behind Japan's human trafficking?

Natasha Ignatova Student, 19 The victims can't ask for help. The police will say "you don't have a visa so we'll deport you." People think victims can just quit if they don't like the conditions, but they can't.
COMMENTARY
Jun 13, 2004

Personality could crown Gordon Brown

LONDON -- Britain is governed by an unhappy couple -- a pair of men whose relationship excites more attention than any other aspect of British politics.
COMMUNITY
Jun 12, 2004

Natural Healing Center valuable online resource

There is a misleading blonde blue-eyed softness about Sascha Hewitt. Actually she is as strong as on ox, which she ably demonstrates by lugging three heavy bags from her home in Tokyo's Shimo-Meguro to where we meet in Shibuya.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 8, 2004

Hidden plight of detainees

'What did I do to the Japanese people," asks Merdem Yousif. "I came to Japan because I thought the people would be warm-hearted. It was my big mistake. I should have gone to another country."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jun 3, 2004

Our woodland's magic is a joy to behold

A very kind Japanese man who has served for more than 30 years in children's homes told me recently that 70 percent of the youngsters in his care nowadays have been abused or seriously neglected by their parents. Early in his career, he said, such abuse was very rare indeed. And, he assured me sadly,...
BUSINESS
May 29, 2004

Jobless rate still at three-year low of 4.7%

Japan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at a three-year low of 4.7 percent in April, the government said Friday.

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