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JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 10, 2010

Weeklies, tabloids hawkish over China

On Saturday, Oct. 2, over 2,670 demonstrators carrying Hinomaru Japanese flags marched in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park to protest the Kan government's soft handling of a long-running territorial dispute with China over the Senkaku Islands (known in Chinese as Diaoyutai), which was rekindled on Sept. 7 when the...
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2010

Four Fujita employees held in Hebei Province

China has detained four Japanese employees of construction company Fujita Corp., reportedly for entering a military zone in Hebei Province without authorization and videotaping military targets, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2010

Lay judges handle pressure of Oshio trial

The recent court case of actor Manabu Oshio shows that ordinary people can do a good job judging a high-profile trial despite wall-to-wall media coverage and intense pressure to understand technical evidence, according to legal experts and the lay judges themselves.
JAPAN / THE TROUBLE AT TOYOTA
Sep 3, 2010

Reportage seems source-biased

U.S. and Japanese media gave widespread but contrasting coverage of the sudden-acceleration accidents involving Toyota Motor Co. vehicles, mainly in North America, with accounts by victims and allegations of safety flaws getting greater play on the other side of the Pacific compared with a muted approach...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 16, 2010

Former band members unite to help cancer-stricken Karn

It was a piece of news that passed unnoticed by much of the music world, but for fans of 1980s music, and in particular for a small group of Japanese musicians, the news that former Japan bass player Mick Karn was suffering from cancer came as a terrible shock.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2010

Japan's economic fantasy

HONG KONG — Belatedly, Japan's leading politicians are waking from their coma and realizing that the country's economy is in a massive mess hit by a triple whammy of low growth, heavy debts and an increasingly aging population.
BUSINESS
Feb 10, 2010

Toyota recalls Prius, three other hybrids

Struggling to keep its reputation for quality from being tarnished further, Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday issued a recall of 223,068 of its hybrid cars in Japan, including the latest Prius model, to fix a brake system problem.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 20, 2010

'New' hope, anxiety in Japan's Kanji of the Year

As the first decade of the 21st century drew to a close, the Japanese Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation conducted its 15th annual Kanji of the Year poll, inviting the nation to decide which single kanji best symbolized 2009.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2009

HRW chief working to change diplomacy

Kanae Doi, a 34-year-old lawyer, has always wanted to be on the side of the weak. As a director of the Tokyo bureau of Human Rights Watch, a position she has held since 2008, she is trying to change Japanese politics to protect human rights.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 29, 2009

Cute kittens out to kill you

Cats are easy targets, which is why Shukan Asahi took such a cheap shot at them in the banner headline of its print ads for the Dec. 4 issue: "New-type influenza being spread by cats!?" In the subhead, cat cafes were cited as "hotbeds of infection."
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 21, 2009

Globalization: a culture killer

SEATTLE — A Muslim family sits across from me in a cafe, in a largely Muslim Asian country. An older woman shyly hunches over, desperately trying to avoid eye contact with the giant-screen TV blazing loud music on MTV. The scantily dressed presenter introduces her "top song" for the week. Beyonce,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 15, 2009

Movie JAL doesn't want you to see snubbed by media

Big-budget movies need all the help they can get recovering their production and promotional costs at the box office, so advertisements stating that the 3 1/2-hour epic "Shizumanu Taiyo" ("The Sun That Doesn't Set") is a "big hit" should be taken with a grain of salt. First of all, every movie released...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Aug 4, 2009

Spontaneous Japanese TV keeps Dave Spector on his toes

Michael Jackson's death meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For Japanese television celebrity Dave Spector, it meant being woken on the morning of June 26 at 6 a.m. and spending most of the next two weeks either studying or commenting on the performer for the benefit of Japanese...
COMMENTARY
Jun 5, 2009

Suspect in stabbing death a national hero

HONG KONG — A public outcry in China over the case of a woman arrested for stabbing to death a local official who assaulted her after she refused to provide sexual services reflects the widespread distrust of officials and sympathy for the underdog — even someone who may face murder charges.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 19, 2009

Weight of Imperial world on Princess Masako

Observers often liken Crown Princess Masako to Britain's Princess Diana. They both embody the fairy tale gone tragically wrong — women outside the royal circle wooed by the heir to the throne, only to end up clashing with the establishment and surrounded by controversy and speculation that has made...
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2009

A story line to push the economy

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Since hitting bottom in early March, the world's major stock markets have all risen dramatically. Some, notably in China and Brazil, reached lows last fall and again in March, before rebounding sharply, with Brazil's Bovespa up 75 percent in May compared to late October 2008, and...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2009

Water, water everywhere but . . .

ISTANBUL, CITIZEN NEWS SERVICE — Water constitutes about three-fourths of Earth's surface, but only less than 1 percent of it can be used by its inhabitants. Most of it consists of saltwater oceans (about 97 percent), and 2 percent of that is contained in glaciers. With every country seeking to satisfy...
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2009

Ozawa denies wrongdoing, vows to stay on

Despite rising public pressure to resign as president of the Democratic Party of Japan over the scandal involving alleged illicit donations from Nishimatsu Construction Co., Ichiro Ozawa said Tuesday he will stay at his post and denied any wrongdoing on his part.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2009

New game pokes fun at Nakagawa

A game developer is cashing in on former Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, who resigned following an allegedly drunken appearance at a news conference at the end of the Group of Seven meeting in Rome earlier this month.
BUSINESS
Feb 18, 2009

Nakagawa resigns after G7 disgrace

Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa abruptly resigned Tuesday evening amid rapidly growing calls to quit over his sloppy and allegedly drunken appearance at a Group of Seven press briefing in Rome on Saturday.
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2009

Aso won't fire 'drunk' Nakagawa

Prime Minister Taro Aso refused Monday to fire Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa for his unusual behavior Saturday after a Group of Seven meeting which has led opposition parties to call for his dismissal.
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2008

Lower House opens debate on MSDF bill

The Lower House on Friday began deliberating the government's special antiterrorism bill for extending the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean.
COMMENTARY
Oct 10, 2008

Distressed Chinese dairy companies get help

HONG KONG — At a time when the United States — and now Europe — is acting to rescue financial institutions such as Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch and AIG, it is interesting to note that Chinese authorities are offering a hand to distressed companies caught in the contaminated milk scandal.
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2008

Gaffe-prone Nakayama quits Cabinet

Prime Minister Taro Aso's Cabinet suffered a serious blow Sunday with the resignation of transport minister Nariaki Nakayama, who was under fire for several gaffes, including saying Japan is "ethnically homogenous."
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2008

Ishihara fifth to enter race for LDP presidency

Nobuteru Ishihara on Tuesday became the fifth Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker to throw his hat in the ring for the LDP presidency in the wake of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's abrupt resignation announcement last week.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami