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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...
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.

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’