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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 3, 2006

Japanese beauty doesn't come easily

BEAUTY UP: Exploring Contemporary Japanese Body Aesthetics, by Laura Miller. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006, 256 pp., $21.95 (paper). Beauty is big business. In Japan there are more people working in the beauty business than there are in wedding and funeral services, auto repair and software...
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2006

Truck theft exposes Nike customers

Sports gear maker Nike Japan Corp. has lost magnetic tapes containing personal data on its customers in the theft of a truckload of its products in Tokyo in August, police sources said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 2, 2006

Pyongyang taking it to the brink?

There is a growing concern that North Korea might be preparing to test a nuclear bomb. On July 5, the country test-fired seven missiles into the Sea of Japan, prompting a United Nations Security Council resolution, which condemned the country and banned U.N. member states from transferring missile-related...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 2, 2006

Quiet on the set. Ready . . . Action!

"All I need is the backing," says the man. "Then I've got a surefire hit."
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2006

Government conducts disaster drills nationwide

The government staged earthquake drills Friday involving about 800,000 people across the country in a bid to improve disaster preparedness, and the U.S. frigate USS Gary also took part.
BUSINESS
Sep 2, 2006

Philippine FTA includes nurse quota

Japan and the Philippines have agreed on a quota of Filipino nurses and caregivers that Japan will accept under a bilateral free-trade agreement to be signed by leaders of the two countries on Sept. 9, government sources said Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Sep 1, 2006

Fun for all the family

Looking at all the music festivals this summer, Rock In Japan is a trip to detox heaven. It arrives in early August, a week after my favorite fest -- Fuji Rock -- but, unlike the mud, mountains and madness of Fuji, it's a place where you can take your kids, your mum and grandad, too. Everybody laps up...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2006

New tours with military theme score direct hit for Hato Bus

Travel agents are always looking for new ways to entice the fickle Japanese customer, and Hato Bus Co. has landed a direct hit with a set of new military-themed tours.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2006

New EC envoy targets air, beef issues

Relations between European countries and Japan, once dominated by trade friction, have "immensely improved" and matured, but problems involving air services and beef imports still need to be resolved, the new European Commission ambassador said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2006

Rightist exits hospital, held in Kato arson

Police arrested a rightist Tuesday upon his discharge from a Yamagata Prefecture hospital in connection with the arson blaze that gutted the family home of Liberal Democratic Party heavyweight Koichi Kato hours after he criticized Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Aug. 15 visit to Yasukuni Shrine.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2006

Some LDP freshmen decide to support Abe

would like to entrust (the post of) party president to Abe, to be the leader of a new LDP, and a new Japan." Abe, who attended the meeting, expressed his appreciation for the support and said he looks forward to the election.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2006

Second Kansai runway no cure

OSAKA -- Kansai International Airport has earned international praise for its clean lavatories and other services, but its goal of being a major Asian hub appears to be sinking and the controversial, costly, hard-fought second runway set to open in less than a year appears unlikely to turn things around....
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 29, 2006

A word of advice on guarantors

Pay-for-guarantor Reader Harold has some comments on a past query in the Lifelines column.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2006

Abe mulling harder line against North Korea

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe is considering tougher measures against North Korea than those adopted by Junichiro Koizumi if he becomes prime minister next month, hoping to help settle the issue of Japanese abductions, government sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2006

S. Korea plans survey in disputed area

South Korea plans to conduct another maritime survey in October in waters near disputed islets in the Sea of Japan, government sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2006

Barbecue chain to serve U.S. beef

A restaurant chain plans to resume serving U.S. beef at dozens of its branches nationwide, company officials said Saturday.
Japan Times
LIFE / DISABILITY IN JAPAN
Aug 27, 2006

Unseen sufferers take self-help route

This story is part of a package on "Disability in Japan". The introduction is here.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 27, 2006

Picturing North Korean propaganda

Japan's comic craze was first documented for the West with the publication of Frederick Schodt's "Manga Manga, The World of Japanese Comics" (1983). Since then, the production and consumption of manga and anime -- its moving picture equivalent -- have spread to China and the Republic of Korea. More recently,...
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2006

Abe wants permanent law for SDF missions abroad, collective defense

can respond more promptly (to crises)," Abe said. The SDF's recent missions to Iraq and the Indian Ocean are taking place under temporary laws. Abe also said a lesson from the just-completed deployment of ground troops to Iraq is that Japan needs to seriously consider how its troops should respond in...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 26, 2006

EmmazMarket: for instruments from Mideast

As part of July's weekend Zushi Festival, Minoru Fushimi took the live stage in front of the station and, after introducing his instrument, began to play.
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2006

Sandstorm drop belies west China desertification

is a problem that needs to be treated," Diallo told reporters. "If it is not treated, it spreads." The adverse effects of desertification in western China have been visible in Japan. Sandstorms that carry the Gobi desert's "kousa" yellow sand eastward increased substantially since 2000.
COMMENTARY
Aug 25, 2006

Softening northern borders

MARIEHAMN, Finland -- It was cruel irony that the Aug. 16 killing of a Japanese fisherman by Russian security forces in the Northern Territories took place just as a group of Japanese and Russian scholars and former government officials were meeting with a group of Alanders to discuss possible creative...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Aug 25, 2006

Hot slabs of jazz

While summer rock festivals are as numerous as fireworks, outdoor jazz concerts have recently become as rare as a non-humid day. Just five years ago, Japan had so many jazz festivals all over the country that musicians had trouble making the tightly scheduled gigs. Then, sadly, economics caught up, distance...
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2006

Pyongyang bureau for Kyodo News

Kyodo News, Japan's major news agency, said Thursday it will open a bureau in Pyongyang on Sept. 1, the first Japanese news organization to establish a bureau in North Korea.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past