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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 30, 2007

'Brick'

A woman with fur around her neck and her hair decorated by a huge corsage has her profile tilted toward a man. Her rouged lips are slightly parted and her lashes cast a seductive shadow on her cheek. This is it: a perfect 1930s film-noir moment. She could be Lauren Bacall; he could be Humphrey Bogart....
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Mar 28, 2007

Tree sparrow

* Japanese name: Suzume * Scientific name: Passer montanus * Description: A small bird, some 12.5- to 14-cm long, it has a rich brown-colored head, with a hint of copper. There is a black patch on the cheeks and a double white bar across the brown wings. Males and females are almost identical in size...
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2007

Budget victory moves Abe a step closer to real goal

Reeling from scandals and falling public approval ratings, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Cabinet cleared a key hurdle in the Diet Monday by winning passage of the fiscal 2007 budget.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Mar 27, 2007

KOKUYO, MUJI, PILOT and MONO for spring

Spring is in the air, and that means two things: a city draped in the pink of cherry blossoms -- hey, pink is the new black, so get with it; and the start of a new school year. So I'll concentrate this month's picks on a few items that will make you more productive with a touch of a style.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Mar 27, 2007

Masahiro Murata

Masahiro Murata, 35, is a hair and makeup artist whose salon, MaQueen, just behind the Kabuki-za theater in Ginza, is a sanctuary for both his loyal clients and staff. Murata loves people, and especially beauty in them, which he believes manifests itself in the way one treats others. As one of Japan's...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Mar 27, 2007

Fingerprint law furor revisited

Thomas in Tokyo wrote to Lifelines in response to my Jan. 9 answer to an inquiry from reader Nick on the new law requiring the photographing and fingerprinting of foreigners on their entry into this country. I wrote that Japan Helpline is coordinating a response to the measure.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Mar 25, 2007

Zuleta slugs slam; opener ends in tie

CHIBA -- They had already created a special chant and nickname for him (Samurai Julie, go Julio), but Chiba Lotte fans may have to start calling the newest Marine, Julio Zuleta, by a new name: The Rainmaker.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 25, 2007

NHK upholds freedom of the press so long as it doesn't annoy anyone with its content

It has been two months since the Tokyo High Court ruled in favor of the Violence Against Women in War Network in its lawsuit against NHK regarding coverage of a December 2000 international people's tribunal, and while the verdict did not receive much press when it was first announced, it continues to...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2007

Court upholds family's deportation order

The Tokyo District Court dismissed a lawsuit Friday by a Turkish Kurd, his Filipino wife and their 6-year-old daughter seeking to reverse a deportation order for overstaying their visas.
EDITORIALS
Mar 24, 2007

Government should get the message

The Tokyo District Court ruled Thursday that 21 of 30 plaintiffs are suffering from illnesses caused by radiation from the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It overturned prior government decisions not to certify the 21 people as sufferers. The ruling said the state's criteria for...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 22, 2007

Why Musharraf survives

ISLAMABAD -- Recent threats by the Bush administration to cut off billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan have sparked panic in government circles. Likewise, according to the Pakistani ambassador in Washington, military strikes by the United States aimed at al-Qaida and Taliban havens inside Pakistan's...
MORE SPORTS
Mar 21, 2007

Chinese champions steal on-ice spotlight

China's two-times world champions Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao stole the show in the second-to-last skate to lead after the pairs' short program on the opening day of the World Figure Skating Championships.
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Mar 21, 2007

Healthy living: A computer mouse to stimulate your muscles and a kitty to purify the air

Computers might be the greatest tool since the stone ax but unlike that early technological breakthrough they have done nothing for improving the human physique. Adding injury to declining muscles, contorting our body to allow us to chain ourselves to the desk leaves us with a lot of dull aches. The...
EDITORIALS
Mar 20, 2007

Care for unwanted babies

In November, a Catholic hospital in Kumamoto disclosed a plan to create a "baby hatch," where women or parents could anonymously leave newborn babies for any reason. But the plan has faced opposition from the Abe administration. Before passing a moral judgment on people who might drop off their babies,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 20, 2007

Demise of crime magazine historic

Making headlines worldwide last month was the publication of a magazine entitled "Kyogaku no Gaijin Hanzai Ura Fairu ("Shocking Foreigner crime: the Underground File"). On sale at major Japanese bookstores and convenience stores nationwide, Gaijin Hanzai (GH) attributed criminality to nationality, and...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Mar 18, 2007

Thousands in grip of new exam fever

Whether because they are bored, driven to absorb as much of life's wonder as they can, or because they regard certificates as legups on the career pole, many Japanese of all ages are flocking to fonts of knowledge on everything from kanji (Chinese written characters), to shochu (low-class distilled spirits)...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 18, 2007

Joking aside, the recovery offers a lifetime opportunity

The Japanese Money Tree: How Investors Can Prosper from Japan's Economic Rebirth, by Andrew Shipley. Pearson Education, 2006, 245 pp., $24.99 (cloth) Derided during the 1990s by foreign fund managers as "the sick man of Asia," Japan's weak growth performance after the economic bubble burst made it the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 17, 2007

Blues band does its bit for Internet freedom

It's early for Mac (Makoto) "The Knife" Okuyama and Mark "The Spark" Schwarz to be up and about, especially since both have the day off from filling their rice bowls.
BASKETBALL
Mar 16, 2007

Veteran sharpshooter Orimo hopes to fire Japan into Olympics

YOKOHAMA -- No matter how many years have gone by and how many young talents have appeared, one fact has not changed a bit since 14 years ago: swingman Takehiko Orimo can shoot a basketball better than any one in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2007

Let economic cooperation break the fall

NEW YORK -- According to estimates by the United Nations, the global economy expanded by 3.8 percent last year, continuing the strong performance recorded since 2003. Led by China and India, developing countries were prominent among the best performing economies, expanding by 6.5 percent on average in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 16, 2007

'A positive impostor'

Israeli filmmaker Radu Mihaileanu has only three feature films to his name, but is known for a solid international reputation, the kind of director whose works are eagerly awaited for in film festivals from Toronto to Berlin. Even so, he was surprised by the interest and enthusiasm over his latest, "Va,...
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2007

Foreign labor need exposes dearth of rights

OSAKA -- As the debate intensifies over allowing more foreign workers into Japan to make up for the coming labor shortage, human rights groups have recently stepped up efforts to push for a law against discrimination.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’