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JAPAN
Sep 17, 2006

Cult facilities raided across the nation

The Public Security Intelligence Agency inspected 25 Aum Shinrikyo facilities nationwide Saturday morning after the death sentence for its founder, Shoko Asahara, was finalized the day before.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 17, 2006

Bizarre bouts of self-expression

Nearly 300 spectators cheered wildly as disco music blared. A spotlight picked out two fighters approaching the ring to kick off a puroresu (prowrestling) event held recently in a Tokyo town hall.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 17, 2006

Self-censorship conjures ominous echoes of the past

These days a simple but potent Japanese word is appearing in the media with inordinate frequency. It is hannichi, which means "anti-Japanese." An incident last month brought to mind an earlier era, when the word hannichi was also in common currency. Some words skip decades, returning to haunt the national...
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2006

Asahara's execution finalized

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a special appeal by lawyers for Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara, finalizing the death sentence for the man who masterminded the cult's horrific nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2006

Sarin gas victims greet execution news with relief, sadness

The news that Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara would be executed, was met Friday with relief and sadness from victims of the sarin gas attacks and their families Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2006

Decision on further North Korea sanctions may come Tuesday

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe suggested Friday the Cabinet may decide to impose financial sanctions against North Korea next Tuesday under a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Pyongyang's July missile launches.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2006

Afghan man is refugee: high court

The Tokyo High Court has upheld a lower court ruling repealing the government's rejection of an Afghan man's refugee status and its decision to deport him.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2006

Koizumi vague on retirement, but pundits see LDP calling on him again

As the term of Junichiro Koizumi, the nation's third-longest-serving postwar prime minister, comes to a close, political pundits are speculating on his future.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2006

Aso, Nakagawa eyed for No. 2 LDP post

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe is considering Foreign Minister Taro Aso and senior party colleague Hidenao Nakagawa as candidates for secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party if he becomes its next president, LDP sources have said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 15, 2006

Bossa nova forever young

The music may be ageless, but bossa nova's founding generation are aging. Forthcoming tours to Japan this month and next by Joao Gilberto, who, along with Antonio Carlos Jobim, was credited with creating bossa nova in the late 1950s, and Sergio Mendes, bossa nova's great popularizer, may well be their...
BUSINESS
Sep 15, 2006

Mixi skyrockets in stock market debut

Shares of Mixi Inc., Japan's most popular social networking site, shot up during the company's stock market debut Thursday as buy orders swamped sell orders and more than doubled its initially offered price.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2006

Blood battle is about the past and future

KELLY DUDA
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2006

Ozawa rallies DPJ with calls for change

The leader of a nation must have ambition above all else, and if he doesn't have it he should quit immediately, said Ichiro Ozawa, who started his new term as president of the Democratic Party of Japan on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 14, 2006

Twins wreak havoc in Poland

LONDON -- "I am afraid that with Jaroslaw Kaczynski as prime minister, Poland will become more extreme, more anti-European and a more xenophobic country," warned Bronislaw Komorowski, a member of the opposition Civic Platform party, when the second Kaczynski twin was made prime minister by his brother,...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2006

Donor pledges to Gaza not good enough

NEW YORK -- Although several governments have recently pledged $500 million to help the Palestinian people, the response is late, incomplete and likely to be ineffective unless the aid is accompanied by political measures to alleviate a situation in which Palestinians, particularly in Gaza, have become...
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2006

Three candidates vie for the top job

The following are profiles of the three candidates running in the Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2006

No more convalescences abroad planned for Crown Princess

The top aide to Crown Prince Naruhito said Friday there are no plans for Crown Prince Naruhito and his wife, Crown Princess Masako, to take more trips abroad to help her recuperate.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2006

Abe, Aso, Tanigaki file for LDP election

to build Japan into a country which (we) can be proud of. The president of the LDP is chosen by a vote among LDP members -- LDP Diet lawmakers and more than 1 million party members who have a paid party membership for two consecutive years.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2006

Aomori governor slams MSDF's live-fire volley

Aomori Gov. Shingo Mimura lodged a protest Thursday with Defense Agency Director General Fukushiro Nukaga over Tuesday's accidental firing of live ammunition toward land by a Maritime Self-Defense Force ship docked in the prefecture.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2006

Royal families send congratulations

Royal families and governments around the world sent congratulations to Japan on Wednesday over the birth of a baby to Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 8, 2006

Hyde Park

When and where: Saitama is really part of Tokyo, except when you get far enough out and places like Inariyama Park in Sayama feel a bit like Woodstock. That's even more the case on Sept. 9 and 10 (noon to 8:30 p.m.), when more than 20 bands perform at the Hyde Park Music Festival.
COMMENTARY
Sep 8, 2006

Recovery from failed policy

LONDON -- Some U.S. and British politicians argue that to tackle terrorism effectively human rights must be subject to increasing limitations. In wartime Britain (1939-45), human rights were curtailed and some innocent people were locked up. The British accepted this at the time as necessary to combat...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2006

New prince becomes the third in line to assume Chrysanthemum Throne

The birth of a son on Wednesday morning to Prince Akishino, Emperor Akihito's second son, and Princess Kiko has changed the order of succession in the Imperial family.

Longform

Construction equipment sits idle in a park near Shiba Toshogu shrine in Tokyo's Minato Ward. While Japan has a history of treating its trees with reverence, green coverage is said to be lacking in most of the major cities.
Do Japan's trees no longer occupy the sacred space they used to?