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Hiroshi Matsubara

Japan Times

JAPAN

Apr 15, 2003

Confession-based convictions questioned

For more than a month after his arrest, Kazuo Ishikawa staunchly denied police allegations that he had raped and killed a high school girl in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, in May 1963.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Apr 11, 2003

Futility felt by journalist drives him to show war's true face

Hearing U.S. bombs find their targets and feeling the ground shake under his Baghdad hotel, Kosuke Tsuneoka was struck by the futility of his plan to serve as a "human shield" and stop the war.

JAPAN

Apr 8, 2003

Asylum seekers want answers from minister

About 30 Kurdish asylum seekers submitted a letter of inquiry Monday to Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama, demanding an explanation over the ministry's rejection of all refugee applications by Kurds.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Apr 5, 2003

Victim of prison guards angry at being ignored

After witnessing guards at Nagoya Prison frequently bullying inmates -- particularly the elderly or physically disabled -- a male prisoner sent a written complaint in October 2000 to then Justice Minister Okiharu Yasuoka.

JAPAN

Apr 1, 2003

New correctional reform panel launched

Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama announced Monday the inauguration of a special panel tasked with discussing correctional reform.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Apr 1, 2003

Miura case came to define sensationalism

In January 1984, more than two years after his wife was gunned down in a Los Angeles parking lot, a major weekly newsmagazine began a series of articles titled "Bullet of suspicion," suggesting Kazuyoshi Miura arranged his wife's murder for the insurance money.

JAPAN

Apr 1, 2003

'Structural' woes behind prison deaths

The Justice Ministry on Monday said that "organizational and structural problems" at the nation's correctional facilities are behind recent cases of fatal abuse at Nagoya Prison.

JAPAN

Mar 29, 2003

Record 5.77 million visitors in '02

The number of foreigners entering Japan hit a record 5.77 million in 2002, up 9.2 percent from the previous year, the Immigration Bureau said Friday.

JAPAN

Mar 27, 2003

25,296 without homes: survey

The number of homeless people in Japan stood at 25,296 earlier this year, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.

JAPAN

Mar 19, 2003

Prison chief defends withholding inmates' death records

The head of the Justice Ministry's Correctional Bureau apologized Tuesday for failing to inform Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama that "shibo-cho," or prisoner death records, have been kept at each of the nation's prisons for the past decade.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Mar 15, 2003

'Muen botoke' rite held in Tokyo

An annual Buddhist rite for "muen botoke" -- people who died and left behind no known relatives -- was held Friday at a temple in eastern Tokyo, a grim reminder of the soaring number of remains in recent years that are buried under these circumstances.

JAPAN

Mar 8, 2003

Miura wants district court to look into assault rap

Encouraged by the recent Supreme Court acquittal over the death of his wife in 1982, Kazuyoshi Miura said Friday he will file a request with the Tokyo District Court to re-examine a separate charge of assaulting her earlier that year.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Mar 2, 2003

Transsexual out to change family registry law

Last month, several transsexuals petitioned some 20 Diet members for legal changes that would allow people who have undergone sex-change operations to switch their gender on official registries.

JAPAN

Feb 28, 2003

Foreigners locked up despite acquittal

Roberto Tokunaga was freed in May 2001. The 26-year-old Brazilian was acquitted by a district court in Nagano Prefecture of fatally abusing his 3-year-old daughter.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Feb 23, 2003

Foreigners seek same rights as seal

YOKOHAMA -- A group of foreign residents and their supporters demonstrated in Yokohama's Nishi Ward on Saturday, demanding the same rights as a stray seal known as Tama-chan.

JAPAN

Feb 22, 2003

Needy find welfare elusive, demeaning

After living homeless in Tokyo's Katsushika Ward for seven years, a 53-year-old former leather tanner was finally helped off the street last year with public livelihood assistance.

JAPAN

Feb 12, 2003

Nepal man balks at murder rap pinned on brother

The Tokyo High Court in 2000 convicted Govinda Prasad Mainali for the 1997 robbery and murder of a Tokyo woman, but his brother believes he is innocent and is pushing to have him acquitted -- again.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Feb 5, 2003

No welcome mat for North Korea escapees

On a rainy night in fall 1996, a Japan-born tractor driver in North Korea dived into the fast and muddy current of the Yalu River on the border with China in a last-ditch attempt to escape the hunger and poverty that had plagued his family for decades.

Japan Times

JAPAN / PREFECTURAL FARE

Feb 1, 2003

Hiroshima's long-neglected cuisine brought to the fore at Shinjuku store

Hiroshima Prefecture's natural beauty and abundance of marine life are almost always upstaged by the tragedy that befell its capital in 1945.

JAPAN

Jan 21, 2003

Christian-nuptial fad calls on fake pastors

Seeing a job ad placed by a Tokyo wedding company two years ago in an English daily, a 32-year-old Australian man applied for a position performing Christian-style nuptials at hotels and wedding halls on weekends.

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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