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JAPAN
Nov 24, 2004

Tougher visa requirements planned for entertainers

The government plans to impose stricter work-visa requirements on foreign entertainers to fight human trafficking, according to the outline of a draft action plan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2004

More effort urged to curb youth drug use

The man was 17 when he took speed for the first time, experimenting with a high school friend by inhaling the amphetamine in smoke form.
COMMENTARY
Nov 22, 2004

Limits of education control

The proposed trilogy of tax and fiscal reforms, aimed at giving more fiscal independence to local governments, is troubled by disputes over whether the state should continue paying for compulsory education. At issue is whether the education ministry or the local autonomies should be responsible.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 21, 2004

Yoriko Ganeko

The incredible longevity of Okinawans results from the islanders' traditional diet, sociability, exercise and general stress-free living, but it might also be helped along by the island's lovely, passionate folk music. With strong dance beats, sinuous melody lines and earthy lyrics, Okinawa's music sounds...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Nov 21, 2004

Toilet humor in the Tokyo underground

"Tell Franck he's an asshole," barks David Pallash down the phone to me. "And that he is just tooooo French."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 20, 2004

Kazuko Siazon

Kudan, the official residence of the Philippine ambassador to Japan, is said to be one of the most beautiful Philippine ambassadorial residences in the world. Kazuko Siazon certainly thought so when she first visited it in 1960. When she came to live in it in 1993, she faced a huge restoration project....
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2004

Japan to continue supplying food aid to North

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday that North Korea will receive from the government the remainder of the food aid it was promised.
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Nov 18, 2004

The right way to teach values in school

How do you teach a child right from wrong? I certainly don't have all the answers. In our home, we're still working on why you can't hit your brother, even when he's being deliberately annoying -- as he has been all this week, answering any direct question with nonsense ("What do you want for dinner?"...
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2004

Yokota medical records 'highly credible'

The medical records that Pyongyang provided for Megumi Yokota, a Japanese national abducted to North Korea who the Stalinist state claims is dead, are "highly credible," the head of a delegation investigating the North's abductions said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2004

Lower House panel debates foreign suffrage bill

A House of Representatives committee on Tuesday began deliberating a bill to enable permanent foreign residents of Japan to vote in local elections.
EDITORIALS
Nov 16, 2004

Steps for the Palestinians

The death of Palestine Authority President Yasser Arafat opens the door to new possibilities in the troubled Middle East. While Mr. Arafat was the embodiment of Palestinian aspirations, he had also become an obstacle to peace. His most important interlocutors -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and...
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2004

Doctor hits immigration center health care

For more than three years, Dr. Junpei Yamamura has visited the Higashi-Nihon Immigration Center in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, once a month.
EDITORIALS
Nov 15, 2004

Auditors, don't be shy

Every annual report from the Board of Audit (BOA), an independent government body, makes dismal reading -- until you get to the bottom line. The latest says that 43 billion yen in taxpayer money was wasted and misused in fiscal 2003. That is the largest amount in 20 years. The report gives appalling...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 14, 2004

LDP crew want credit where credit isn't due

It's easy to believe that once a person becomes a politician, he tends to lose touch with everyday reality as it's lived by the majority of citizens since he's usually too busy looking after his own interests. Nevertheless, a recent remark by Tsutomu Takebe, the secretary general of the Liberal Democratic...
Japan Times
Features
Nov 14, 2004

A marathon of motley collections

After Paris, London, New York and the rest of the fashion world has heaved a sigh of relief and headed home to ruminate on another season's offerings, Japan's style-setters tardily gird their loins to endure the farcically fragmented nonevent that is Tokyo Fashion Week.
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2004

Aum monitoring should continue: justice minister

The law allowing surveillance of Aum Shinrikyo, the cult responsible for the deadly 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system and other heinous crimes, should be extended, Justice Minister Chieko Noono said Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 13, 2004

How mum juggles racing, soccer, K1, Portugal

Last Tuesday, Sonia Ito is busy with household chores in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture. Early evening she leaves husband Yuta with 2-year old daughter Julia and catches the train for Tokyo. By 7:30 p.m. she's seated on a purple "zabuton" in Fuji TV's headquarters at O-Daiba, recording the soccer program...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Nov 12, 2004

Shinjuku blossoms in many ways

Modern Shinjuku claims to be the new heart of Tokyo. With futuristic skyscrapers emerging as early as the 1970s, the town has been at the vanguard of Tokyo's urban renewal. City Hall has moved in and new hotels and new office buildings have mushroomed to accommodate the needs of businessmen from all...
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2004

Opposition bill aims to get SDF out of Iraq

In a bid to have the Ground Self-Defense Force troops withdrawn from Iraq, opposition parties jointly submitted a bill Thursday to the Diet to scrap the special law allowing the deployment in the war-torn country.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 12, 2004

Top coach Bollettieri backhands rule changes

The last time I spent $1,500 in one hour, the scenario involved chips, cards, a green velvet table and blurred vision. $1,500 is also the fee for a one-hour, private lesson with unquestionably the world's most renowned tennis coach, Nick Bollettieri. Returns on investments of this nature can be significant...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Nov 12, 2004

Great red hope found at Coco

Can quality wine be made in Japan?
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Nov 12, 2004

D'Antoni has Phoenix on move

NEW YORK -- Coaches love to blame the rules for the godforsaken plunge in scoring over the last decade while the league (and the rest of us) likes to blame the control freaks on the sidelines who don't seem to care or comprehend that basketball is an instinctive game not a rehearsed ritual.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2004

Okinawans feel state leaving them in limbo

Near the northeastern Okinawa Island fishing port of Nago, some 50 men and women in their 60s through their 90s have been staging a daytime sit-in at a makeshift camp for more than 200 days.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Nov 11, 2004

Mute swan

* Japanese name: Aosagi * Scientific name: Ardea cinerea * Description: Gray herons, the largest of herons, grow to be almost 1 meter tall, with a wingspan of 2 meters. Despite their Japanese name (which means "blue heron"), these birds are more gray than blue, with a white neck and a black underside....
COMMENTARY
Nov 11, 2004

China pushes for new order

LONDON -- A new Chinese diplomacy is emerging from Beijing. Traditionally reactive to global events, China now sees itself forced to take on a proactive role in world affairs. The revolutionary phase of Chinese foreign policy is dead; now pragmatism has taken center-stage.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2004

Suffrage for foreigners gains momentum

After nearly a decade on the back burner, the issue of granting suffrage to foreigners in local-level elections has gained renewed interest due to recent moves by lawmakers.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2004

Koizumi backs U.S.-led offensive against Fallujah insurgents

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Tuesday threw his weight behind the U.S.-led offensive in Iraq against insurgents in Fallujah.

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