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JAPAN
Jul 23, 2006

North Korea government smuggled drugs: NPA chief

The commissioner general of the National Police Agency has said the North Korean government was involved in smuggling several hundred kilograms of amphetamines into Japan in 2002.
JAPAN
Jul 23, 2006

Three people die due to heavy rain in Kagoshima

Flooding and mudslides left three people dead Saturday after record rain hit Kyushu, sending the rain-related death toll over the last week to 23 in nine prefectures.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 23, 2006

Fear and loathing in Tokyo today

THINK GLOBAL, FEAR LOCAL: Sex, Violence and Anxiety in Contemporary Japan, by David Leheny. New York: Cornell University Press, 2006, 230 pp., $35 (cloth). Otto van Bismarck quipped that the crafting of laws, like sausage making, does not bear watching. Certainly both can be messy and disillusioning,...
COMMENTARY
Jul 23, 2006

Downhill path from fear to proliferation

Why have some of Japan's leaders been talking about the need to acquire the ability to attack North Korean missiles on the launchpads? It's because they know that the United States, despite its overwhelming air and maritime power, cannot credibly threaten North Korea. That is because North Korea holds...
EDITORIALS
Jul 23, 2006

Mr. Zidane and other 'demons'

Zinedine Zidane must be thanking the gods for FIFA, which in a welcome move Thursday did much to restore some of the lost glow to his image -- and some sanity to a debate in which sanctimonious nonsense had been gaining the upper hand.
JAPAN
Jul 23, 2006

Embezzlement fears beset sports body

An Olympic sports association headed by Foreign Minister Taro Aso is facing charges of fund embezzlement and opaque accounting, according to association sources.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 23, 2006

Faces of terrorism

The Richman's Cafe seemed an unlikely place to meet a terrorist, but at least it was well lit and public.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 23, 2006

Dark chronicler of a dubious Jewish uniqueness

Who are the Jews? What do Jewish writers have in common with each other? What, strictly speaking, is a "Jewish" writer . . . and, for that matter, what is meant by "strictly speaking"?
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 23, 2006

36th year of "Mito Komon" starts at TBS and more

Japan's longest-running TV drama series, 'Mito Komon' (TBS), will begin its 36th year Monday night at 8 p.m.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 23, 2006

Retired Yasukuni official recounts turmoil over war criminal question

in Kashihara, Nara Prefecture, in May 1981. KYODO FILE PHOTO
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 23, 2006

The many hazards -- especially for kids -- of living the high life

Some news stories make you laugh and some make you cringe. If you live in an apartment you may have done both while reading the July 13 story in this newspaper about an employee of Schindler Elevator K.K. getting trapped in a Schindler lift in the same Tokyo residential building where a teenager was...
JAPAN
Jul 23, 2006

Marubeni to buy IRCJ stake in Daiei within week

Trading house Marubeni Corp. will lead Daiei Inc.'s rehabilitation by acquiring a 33.4 percent stake in the struggling retailer now held by Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan, sources said Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 23, 2006

Ordinary is illuminated

OZU YASUJIRO: TWO POSTWAR FILMS -- Late Spring & Early Summer, translated, by D.A. Rajakaruna. Colombo (Sri Lanka): Godage International Publishers (PVT) Ltd., 178 pp., $15 (paper). In Japan, in distinction from other countries, film scripts are sometimes read as literature. Those written by Yasunari...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 23, 2006

Taking people out of the boxes

IDENTITY AND VIOLENCE: The Illusion of Destiny, by Amartya Sen. Allen Lane, 2006, 215 pp., $24.95 (cloth). Amartya Sen once had trouble getting a hotel operator to understand the spelling of his family name. So he spelled it out letter by letter in this form: "S for somebody; E for everybody; N for...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 23, 2006

Democracy falters as underworld forces flourish

Kyrgyzstan is referred to as a faltering state, meaning that it is not quite failing.
SOCCER / World cup
Jul 22, 2006

JFA ties up deal with JEF coach Osim for national team job

The Japan Football Association on Friday approved the appointment of former JEF United Chiba manager Ivica Osim as national team coach.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 22, 2006

PL making compromise on playoffs

The Pacific League has come up with a set of compromise proposals to reduce the number of interleague games and hold postseason playoffs involving teams from both the Central and Pacific leagues starting next year.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 22, 2006

Central League captures opener

Kyuji Fujikawa couldn't even get a save for his birthday.
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2006

Koizumi apologizes to emigrants

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi officially apologized Friday to Japanese who moved to the Dominican Republic with the promise of a Caribbean paradise and fertile farmland under a state-promoted emigration project between 1956 and 1959 and instead found sterile land and starvation.
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2006

President apologizes for Livedoor in court

Livedoor Co. President Kozo Hiramatsu, testifying in court Friday, apologized for his company's having misled the stock market by releasing false announcements and window-dressing for the business year to Sept. 30, 2004, before he assumed his position.

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