Hiroshi Matsubara - The Japan Times

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Hiroshi Matsubara

JAPAN

Jun 24, 2000

Cops look away in domestic violence

Anne van Pletsen, a Tokyo resident for 13 years, was lying in a bed in Akasaka Hospital in Minato Ward last year when she decided to end her three-year marriage.

JAPAN

May 9, 2000

Takashimaya enters Nagoya on quest for piece of the pie

NAGOYA -- For 20 years, the city with the nation's highest private savings rate had only four major department stores.

JAPAN

May 9, 2000

Osu survives with blend of old and new

NAGOYA -- Young people browse through the shirts and jeans at a used clothes store, while an elderly woman picks up some tea at a shop around back. On the street, a young couple eating ice cream pass a man with a computer.

JAPAN

May 9, 2000

City strives to school foreign youth

TOYOTA, Aichi Pref. -- When the bell signals the end of the day at Homi Junior High School here, students run out of the building to play on the grounds.

JAPAN

May 2, 2000

Kin connect with long-lost mariner

When 94-year-old Californian John Ramsay was asked by his daughter-in-law if there was anything he wanted to do before he died, he said yes.

COMMUNITY

Mar 31, 2000

Party offers gays more than just fun

Dancers in flamboyant costumes and heavy makeup performed for around 400 students at a small night club in Tokyo on Wednesday night as part of an event to raise money for HIV education and provide a supportive social network for young gays.

JAPAN

Mar 22, 2000

Leprosy victims demand compensation for injustices

For the past 60 years, 76-year-old Koji Suzuki's life has been contained within a sanitarium for sufferers of leprosy in Kusatsu, Gunma Prefecture.

JAPAN

Feb 24, 2000

'Restrant' cooks up new jobs for castaway workers

Staff writer Starting a new business in the midst of a protracted recession would seem a brave -- if not reckless -- move to most. But in the case of a restaurant that opened Thursday in Tokyo's Uguisudani district, the recession is its very raison d'etre. Restrant Genki Kosaten, a Japanese-style tavern,...

JAPAN

Feb 22, 2000

Allergy-prone get jump on hay fever

Staff writer For the past 10 years, spring has been tough on Mari Koi, with her seasonal allergy leaving her with itchy, watery eyes and a runny nose from February through March. But this year, the 30-year-old Tokyo woman has been well so far -- possibly due to early preparation. "I have been taking...

JAPAN

Feb 21, 2000

Standards needed for granting residence status: rights activist

Staff writer An advocate of foreigners' rights says he has seen indications that Japanese authorities are beginning to regard those who overstay their visas as human beings -- not as mere laborers or scofflaws. However, Katsuo Yoshinari, head of the Asian People's Friendship Society, said there is a...

JAPAN

Feb 10, 2000

Patriot 'Mariko' asks populace to develop global mind-set

Staff writer True patriotism does not equal narrow-minded nationalism, said Mariko Terasaki Miller, the first female honorary consul general of Japan, as she called on the Japanese to develop a sense of internationalism and pacifism at the core of their identity. "To develop an international or cosmopolitan...

JAPAN

Jan 21, 2000

Workers bullied out amid restructuring

Staff writer For a 32-year-old company employee in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward, the past two years have been a nightmare. And still, he does not know how to end it. Ever since he rejected his employer's request two years ago to voluntarily quit, he has been constantly harassed by bosses and colleagues. "The...

JAPAN

Jan 3, 2000

Another Century: Slump, aging Japan skew debate on foreigners

Staff writer One sector of Japan's immigrant community comes into view every Friday at around noon, when people wearing white caps walk into a single story prefabricated building in the city of Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture. This is Isesaki Jame-e Mosque -- a sanctuary since 1995 for about 500 Muslims living...

JAPAN

Dec 30, 1999

Gay magazine Fabulous targets lifestyles of 'matured' community

Staff writer Five years working as supervisor of a mainly pornographic gay magazine convinced Toh Ogura, 38, that gays in Japan need a lifestyle magazine. Although a handful of pornographic magazines have been available, no lifestyle magazine targeted gays before Ogura started Fabulous in November. He...

JAPAN

Dec 13, 1999

New travel agency serves Tokyo's gays

Staff writer During his trip to the west coast of Australia in January, Shigenobu Umeki, a 40-year-old magazine editor, stayed at so-called gay accommodations, run by gay owners and staffed by gay workers. "I am always conscious of my sexual orientation when talking to people out of fear that they are...

JAPAN

Dec 7, 1999

Chinese family exposes Japanese detention treatment

Staff writer The Immigration Bureau's Tokyo facility for holding foreigners who have overstayed their visas violates basic human rights, especially those of children, claims a Chinese family released last week after 40 days of detention there. Ling Xi Rang, 43, her second daughter, Xu Xiou Ri, 17, and...

JAPAN

Nov 3, 1999

Visaless group urges more flexible rights policy

JAPAN

Sep 1, 1999

Product-trashing consumer book enjoys sizzling sales

JAPAN

Jul 7, 1999

Japan an eavesdropping paradise

COMMUNITY

May 16, 1999

Yokota base gives Fussa its multicultural charm

Living next to a foreign military base may not seem like an ideal situation, given the antibase rallies in Okinawa, antinoise lawsuits elsewhere and new Tokyo Gov. Ishihara's calls for the return of Yokota Air Base.

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.

Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.

The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'

By Tomoko Otake

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