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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Dec 10, 2004

Six sure-fire gift ideas for fellow wine-lovers

There appears to be an entire cottage industry dedicated to making the kind of wine-themed gifts that imbibers everywhere are hoping not to receive this season -- our favorite of which is the doormat which says, "We love good wine. Did you bring any?"
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Dec 9, 2004

Long-tailed tit

* Japanese name: Enaga * Scientific name: Aegithalos caudatus * Description:The long-tailed tit is a small, fluffy, pinkish bird; it would be the Bridget Jones of the bird world if only it were better fed. The flanks and shoulders are pink-brown; the eyes red; the wings black; and the tail, which is...
EDITORIALS
Dec 9, 2004

Closing the curtain on a hard life

Mr. Charles Jenkins on Tuesday arrived in Sado, Niigata Prefecture, together with his wife Ms. Hitomi Soga, a former abductee to North Korea, and their two daughters after serving a short sentence for desertion from the U.S. Army. Sado is Ms. Soga's hometown. Procedures for Mr. Jenkins' dishonorable...
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2004

Safety line on Samawah repeated

The secretaries general of the Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, New Komeito, said Wednesday that the security situation in Samawah, southern Iraq, is safe enough for Japanese troops there to stay beyond Tuesday's deadline.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2004

'Sesame Street' making waves -- in Japanese

Rena Mizushiro sits in a cramped position with other puppeteers as she works her character, Teena, to sing in a scene about Elmo's birthday in "Sesame Street."
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2004

Koizumi's ministers endorse SDF extension

Key members of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet effectively agreed Tuesday to keep ground troops in Iraq for another year, and are preparing to make a formal decision possibly Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2004

Tax and spend no better than borrow and spend

UBUD, Bali -- For most politicians and bureaucrats, so-called tax reform is a cover for them to raise taxes. And so it is not surprising that Japan's Tax Commission insists it is impossible to avoid tax increases to sort out Tokyo's fiscal problems. But it turns out that this assertion is based on logic...
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 7, 2004

Golden Eagles to play Giants on opening day of interleague play

The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Pacific League will meet the Yomiuri Giants of the Central League at Miyagi Stadium next spring on the opening day of interleague play, which will be introduced from next season.
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2004

Defense Agency chief leaves for Iraq to visit SDF troops

Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono left Saturday for Iraq to visit the troops deployed in the southern city of Samawah -- just as the government prepares to extend the troops' mission, which started in January.
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2004

Trafficking victims to be given better treatment

As part of efforts to combat human trafficking, Japan plans to revise immigration legislation next year to exempt trafficking victims from being deported in the same way as foreigners who overstay their visas or illegally enter Japan, it was learned Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2004

Kitano to teach filmmaking course

Award-winning director Takeshi Kitano will teach filmmaking at a graduate school of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music beginning in April, university sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2004

Suzuki claims he got millions from firm via LDP -- all legit

Convicted former House of Representatives member Muneo Suzuki said Thursday he received millions of yen in the late 1990s from a major company that was diverted through the Liberal Democratic Party.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2004

Ruling bloc pair's plan to visit Samawah riles ministry

The Foreign Ministry is baffled by the reported plans by New Komeito Secretary General Tetsuzo Fuyushiba -- and possibly his Liberal Democratic Party counterpart, Tsutomu Takebe -- to visit the area in southern Iraq where Ground Self-Defense Force troops are deployed.
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2004

Vocational-tech schools face visa-violator action

As part of efforts to crack down on visa violators, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government will issue directives to ensure vocational schools in the capital that accept foreign students do not allow their charges to run astray.
EDITORIALS
Dec 2, 2004

First step to an 'open door'

In another milestone move aimed at expanding economic ties with fast-growing East Asian nations, Japan and the Philippines agreed this week to sign a free-trade agreement (FTA). Increased trade and investment in this region is especially welcome at a time when multilateral trade talks under the auspices...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 1, 2004

Dodgers coach Colborn feels right at home in Japan

Thrilled to be back in Japan last month as the pitching coach on the 2004 Major League Baseball All-Star Japan Tour was Jim Colborn, former pitching instructor for the Orix BlueWave and currently mentor to the mound staff of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2004

For visa violators, it pays to come clean

In June 2000, Mohammad Mizanur Rahman was deported from Japan for overstaying his visa. Shortly after he was forced back to his native Bangladesh, his Japanese girlfriend joined him and they married.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 30, 2004

Chinese sub highlights underseas rivalries

HONOLULU -- The incursion of a Chinese nuclear-powered submarine into Japanese territorial waters Nov. 10 has illuminated the mounting competition under the surface of the Pacific and Indian oceans and their adjacent seas.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2004

Japan and Philippines sign basic agreement on FTA

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed a basic accord for a free-trade agreement Monday but left tough talks on stickier issues for the months ahead.
EDITORIALS
Nov 28, 2004

Found in translation

I n the field of law, Japan certainly cannot yet be said to be sufficiently open vis-a-vis other countries. In order to improve this situation, a law-and-ordinance translation group set up within the government's Office for Promotion of Justice System Reform has unveiled a project to translate legislation...
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2004

MMC, Merrill Lynch eye car-loan business

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Saturday it is considering setting up a joint venture with Merrill Lynch & Co. to engage in North American financing operations as part of the struggling automaker's rehabilitation efforts.
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2004

NHK voluntarily airs correction to wife's story

NHK TV aired a correction Friday to a program broadcast in 1996 -- one day after the Supreme Court rejected a demand for the correction by a woman who had won redress for defamation committed by the broadcaster on a program that referred to her marriage.
EDITORIALS
Nov 27, 2004

A revealing melee in Chile

It seemed like a sideshow at the time, but the incident in Santiago last weekend in which U.S. President George W. Bush intervened to "rescue" one of his Secret Service agents from a scuffle with Chilean police has been mushrooming all week. In retrospect, that melee -- and a dispute last Sunday involving...
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2004

NHK can skip correction, but not redress

Although it upheld a redress award against NHK for defamation, the Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a 58-year-old woman's claim against the broadcaster, reversing a lower court ruling that had ordered it to air a correction to a 1996 program that referred to her divorce.
BUSINESS
Nov 26, 2004

As bad-loan worries finally recede, banks turn attention to weak profits

Major Japanese banks are finally set to bid farewell to the bad-loan problems that have dragged down the country's financial sector, not to mention the economy as a whole.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Nov 25, 2004

Spoonbill

* Japanese name: Herasagi * Scientific name: Platalea leucorodia * Description: Spoonbills are tall white birds with long legs, similar to egrets, but fatter. The legs vary from pink-gray to black. They have a defining characteristic: a long black bill that forms a spoon shape at the end. The body...

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan