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JAPAN
Aug 15, 2006

Lions Club funds Iraq orphanage

The Lions Club of Saitama Prefecture, which raised money to bring a boy whose eye was injured in the Iraq war to Japan for treatment in December 2004, has used the excess funds to help pay for construction of an orphanage in the southern city of Samawah.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 13, 2006

Iwo Jima: 'A futile battle' fought without surrender

August 15 is the 61st anniversary of Emperor Hirohito's capitulation speech that ended World War II. Yet even in a world assailed ever since with ghastly images of conflicts, few rank with the ferocity both sides showed in the battle for a remote Pacific islet in the spring of 1945. That islet's name...
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2006

Terrorist scare not canceling summer holiday flights overseas

terrorist attacks, the successful halt to the terrorist plot has had (little impact) on the public's attitude." All Nippon Airways Co., which has seven flights a week between Tokyo and London, also saw no effects from the incident. Its Friday flight to London was almost fully booked, at 260 passengers....
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2006

Sailor in travel probe found hanged aboard ship

A second Maritime Self-Defense Force sailor suspected of wrongdoing was found hanged in the warehouse of the destroyer Asayuki at Sasebo base in Nagasaki Prefecture early Thursday morning, the Maritime Staff Office said.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 6, 2006

Many happy returns to my Tokyo village past and present

As readers of this column last week may recall, I wrote there about a period in the early 1980s when my wife and I lived in the western Tokyo suburb of Soshigaya in Setagaya Ward. Three of our four children were born in the local hospital, and we have only the fondest memories of the old neighborhood....
SOCCER
Aug 5, 2006

Celtic's Nakamura left with mixed feelings after return to former club

YOKOHAMA -- It was a bittersweet return to Yokohama for Shunsuke Nakamura on Thursday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 5, 2006

'Gimme Wings' raises singer-songwriter's profile

Sixteen years ago, Benjamin Franklin wrote a song entitled "Feel Like a Bird." The lead song and the title of his first album, released June 17, is "Gimme Wings." "I guess that suggests I haven't got very far," he jokes. In fact he's come quite a distance, but with still a way to go.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 1, 2006

Island travel and Mac help

Airport on Ogasawara? J and partner have heard that there is an air service to Ogasawara (the Bonin Islands) -- described in my book Insider's Tokyo (2001) as "Tokyo furthest flung outpost."
BUSINESS
Aug 1, 2006

ANA weathers fuel price storm; sales, profit soar

All Nippon Airways Co. shrugged off higher jet fuel prices, reporting Monday that sales and operating and net profit all hit record highs in the first quarter of 2006.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 29, 2006

Deven Arora

In his book "A Yen for Yen," Deven Arora from India describes his life in Japan as a "rupees-to-riches success story." He has always, he said, followed six rules: being committed to a dream; believing in self; daring to try unconventional ideas; being unafraid of making mistakes; persevering; and enjoying...
CULTURE / Music
Jul 20, 2006

Senegal is calling

Time and again Western journalists ask superstar Senegalese pop singer Youssou N'Dour, arguably the most successful African musician in history, the same question: Why, despite selling hundreds of thousands of records in the West and collaborating with artists such as Peter Gabriel, Sting, Wyclef Jean...
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2006

16 FCCJ members to visit islets

Sixteen members of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan have signed up to visit later this month a pair of South Korean-controlled islets claimed by Tokyo, according to sources.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 16, 2006

Umi no Hi special: NTV's "Seimei no Umi — Chi-kyu Judan and more

July 17 is a national holiday -- Umi no Hi, or Day of the Sea. Ostensibly, it commemorates a famous day when the Emperor Meiji returned from an extended sojourn in northern Japan to the Port of Yokohama, and is meant to instill appreciation for the sea's bounty. However, it was established as a national...
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2006

Horie's next feat: trans-Pacific trip via wave power

Adventurer Kenichi Horie said Thursday he will embark on a two-month voyage in March 2008 from Hawaii to the Kii Channel in southwestern Japan in what would be the first attempt in the world to sail a boat propelled by waves.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2006

Teacher may have hit with 'Japan' board game

OSAKA -- Today's video games can leave parents feeling frightened. Is it really a good idea to buy a game for your child in which bloodthirsty aliens beat up little old ladies or the hero shoots, stabs, bombs and judo chops all manner of opponents? Whatever happened to the nonviolent, intellectually...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 13, 2006

A stroll among the masterpieces

The Price exhibition at the Tokyo National Museum is divided into five sections, each devoted to a specific area of painting. The first sets the stage with examples of "mainline" painters -- members of the Kano school (which, from the late 16th century to the late 19th century, combined Chinese academic...
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2006

Koizumi off to Middle East amid Gaza conflict

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi left for a five-day visit to the Middle East on Tuesday amid ongoing fighting in the Palestinian territories where Israel has been carrying out a military offensive and concerns back home that North Korea might test-launch more missiles.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 29, 2006

Uribe raises hope for Colombia's future

PRAGUE -- A leftwing tide has supposedly been sweeping Latin America. But President Alvaro Uribe's re-election in Colombia may not only have begun the process of reversing that tide; it has perhaps also shown conservative and liberal parties across the continent a way forward -- one that may soon be...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 25, 2006

No end is an end in itself

Endurance riding on the Yamanote Line soon gives you a numb bum.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 24, 2006

Geta fliers and Bo(y) Derek on a jet ski

The Moooo! Bar season has started on Shiraishi Island and I have to admit that I am a little disappointed. Now into our third season, not one cow has come to the Moooo! Bar, even though I advertise that cows drink for free.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 24, 2006

Irrepressible force raising funds for 3,000 kids

It seems ironic to find 30-year-old Sylvia Charczuk worrying about her biological clock when already she has 3,000 children. But her energy is so prodigious, her determination so single-minded, that it would take a very special kind of partner to fit into the scheme of things. She knows this, of course,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 23, 2006

She sticks the boot into a male world

There aren't a whole lot of women filmmakers and even fewer of them who choose to depict fighting, mayhem and group violence.
BUSINESS
Jun 22, 2006

Fitch keeps Hankyu ratings intact

Fitch Ratings said Wednesday it has decided to keep the credit ratings of Hankyu Holdings Inc. unchanged because the burden stemming from the tender offer for Hanshin Electric Railway Co. shares has stayed within the anticipated level.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2006

The radicalization of Western Muslims

LONDON -- What is it that makes young Muslims in the West susceptible to radicalism? What is it about the experience of the West's rising generation of Muslims that leads a small minority to see violence as a solution to their economic and political dilemmas, and suicide as their reward and salvation?...
COMMENTARY
Jun 19, 2006

Tokyo's hard line slowing solution to abduction issue

Japan is understandably upset over past abductions of its citizens by North Korea. But rightwing pressure has made a solution almost impossible. It is a good example of how emotional nationalism and Tokyo's manipulations can damage sensible foreign policies.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 15, 2006

Fuji Rocking 10 years on

Fuji Rock Festival is the biggest event on the calendar for many Japanese and foreign residents alike. Sure, it costs a stack of cash to go, but the festival is not your typical commercial venture. Word on the street is that it has been anything but a money spinner for concert promoter Smash Japan. Instead,...
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2006

JAL hijacker's daughter in Japan

The 27-year-old daughter of one of the Japanese men who hijacked a Japan Airlines airplane and defected to North Korea in 1970 arrived in Osaka on Tuesday, a supporter who promoted her return said.

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