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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 12, 2004

Lord Shrimp gets deep-fried over New Year's special

While surfing for coverage of the most recent NHK scandal on commercial television, I naturally had my radar tuned for expressions of schadenfreude, especially on the wide shows, where commentators enjoy a little more freedom to be critical. But there hasn't been much gloating. Last Monday, the host...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 12, 2004

Revealing 'The Japanese Sensibility': Innocence

How can innocence and worldliness coexist in a people? Does not the black whip of cynicism, with its burr and sting, send naivete sailing for more gentle and accommodating shores?
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 12, 2004

Give Japan's royal diplomacy a chance

Something is amiss within Japan's Imperial household. For nearly a year now, the Crown Princess Masako has suspended her official functions for "health reasons." The public knew next to nothing about the details of her disposition or the effectiveness of treatment, for reasons that included the extreme...
Features
Dec 12, 2004

'Betrayal' in bed began after happy family was complete

As he was growing up, Shinsuke Horiuchi assumed marriage and physical affection went hand-in-hand. Then wedlock showed him how wrong he was.
Dec 12, 2004

North Korea may get deadline to fully explain Yokota's fate

Japan will set a deadline for North Korea to give a full and honest account of the fate of abductee Megumi Yokota if it does not respond sincerely to a protest Japan filed over the matter, government sources said Saturday.
Features
Dec 12, 2004

Cold comfort feeling warmth

Hiroko Kataoka is a cosmopolitan 35-year-old who has lived abroad and was working at a prestigious investment bank in Tokyo when she met Masaki, 36, at a corporate party.
EDITORIALS
Dec 12, 2004

Shift in security policy

Japan's security policy is likely to change significantly under the new National Defense Program Outline, which lays out guidelines for improving the nation's defense capabilities over the next 10 years. The main feature of the outline, approved by the Cabinet on Friday, is that it is aimed at meeting...
MORE SPORTS
Dec 12, 2004

Noguchi shuns JOC plan

Athens Olympic women's marathon champion Mizuki Noguchi is joining a growing list of gold medalists who have shunned the new marketing program being promoted by the Japanese Olympic Committee, her coach said Saturday.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

U.S. to return rights to Okinawa

The United States agreed Friday to return to Japan air traffic control rights over Okinawa Island and its vicinity in about three years, the U.S. Forces in Japan said.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

Hotline flooded with calls over tainted blood fears

A health ministry hotline has been flooded with calls from people nationwide worried about whether they have hepatitis C, after the government announced Thursday that it has a list of nearly 7,000 medical institutions that handled the tainted blood coagulant fibrinogen before 1994.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

Defense policy overhauled to meet new global threats

The government announced Friday plans to conduct a sweeping overhaul of its defense policy, adjusting Japan's armed forces to better handle new threats such as terrorism and giving them a greater global role.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

South Korea asks Japan to extradite Chinese murder suspect

Seoul has asked Tokyo to extradite a Chinese man currently being detained in Japan, alleging he committed a murder in South Korea in 2002, officials of the Japanese judicial authority said Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

'Send 'em off to war' quip puts Takebe in the hot seat

Tsutomu Takebe, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, drew flak Friday over his remark the previous day that Japanese youths should serve in the Self-Defense Forces as part of educational reform efforts.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

Ishihara eyes fishermen as pawns in spat over EEZ

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government will subsidize fishing around Okinotorishima Island to emphasize that the area is within Japan's exclusive economic zone, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

Petition supports Kurdish refugees

A petition with more than 60,000 signatures supporting asylum for two Kurdish families from Turkey who staged a 72-day sit-in outside the United Nations University this summer was handed to the Justice Ministry on Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

Kenyan marathoner struck blind turns disability into gold medals

Winner of three gold medals at the Sydney and Athens Paralympics, Henry Wanyoike also broke the world record at the marathon for the visually disabled held in Boston this year, completing the race in 2 hours, 33 minutes and 20 seconds.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

SDF set to shed its 'nonmilitary' shell

Since their establishment in 1954, the Self-Defense Forces have never had to be mobilized to defend Japan from attack.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 11, 2004

Happy Ogasawara remains a Fighter

Nippon Ham Fighters infielder Michihiro Ogasawara re-signed Friday for an unchanged annual salary of 400 million yen, officials of the Pacific League club said.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

Yokota furor spells end to food aid for North Korea, Machimura says

North Korea will not receive the remaining half of its food aid package from Japan, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

Majority want SDF brought home: survey

Sixty-one percent of respondents to a Kyodo News poll oppose the government's decision to extend the Self-Defense Forces troops' mission in Iraq, according to the results released Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

Obituary: Sayoko Arai

Sayoko Arai, a pioneer in the field of simultaneous interpretation, died Wednesday of the cirrhosis of the liver in Tokyo, her family said Thursday. She was 75.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

Government approves new bullet train initiatives

The government and ruling coalition gave the go-ahead Friday for new bullet train projects in Hokkaido, Kyushu and the Hokuriku region.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Dec 11, 2004

Bill Hemmer

CNN claims that "American Morning," its flagship news program, is seen in more than 86 million households in the U.S. Here in Japan through CNNj, a partnership between CNN and Japan Cable Television, it may be seen in over 5 million households. This year marks the 20th anniversary of CNN's first live...
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

Film depicts Japan's gender equality strife

A documentary film about an American woman's struggle to achieve gender equality in postwar Japan, sponsored and made by Japanese women, is set to be released next April.
BUSINESS
Dec 11, 2004

Seibu Railway listing hopes dashed

Seibu Railway Co. said Friday it has abandoned efforts to get its shares listed on the Jasdaq over-the-counter market by the end of the current fiscal year.
BUSINESS
Dec 11, 2004

Wholesale prices up 2% in November

Spikes in commodity prices helped lift wholesale prices by 2.0 percent in November from a year earlier, up for the ninth month in a row, the Bank of Japan said Friday.

Longform

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