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Eric Johnston

JAPAN

Feb 16, 2006

Critics cry white elephant while backers hunker down and hope

KOBE -- It was the airport nobody except the Kobe Municipal Government and a few local business leaders originally wanted.

JAPAN

Feb 16, 2006

Human rights groups applaud U.N. discrimination report

OSAKA -- Human rights groups in Japan on Wednesday welcomed a recently released United Nations report detailing racial discrimination and xenophobia toward minorities, including Korean, Chinese and other foreign residents in this country, and called for legislation to remedy the problem.

JAPAN

Feb 11, 2006

Kansai business leaders get political

KYOTO -- A key annual gathering of senior business leaders in the Kansai region ended Friday with calls to improve relations with China and South Korea and to create an East Asian economic bloc.

JAPAN

Feb 10, 2006

Politics loom at Kansai business meet

KYOTO -- The 44th annual Kansai Economic Seminar began in Kyoto Thursday, but in the opening speeches and plenary sessions, social and political concerns instead of economic issues received the lion's share of attention.

JAPAN

Feb 9, 2006

Schieffer asks Iwakuni voters to consider the big picture

OSAKA — The U.S. ambassador to Japan on Wednesday urged voters in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture, opposed to the realignment of the U.S. forces to put national and regional needs ahead of local concerns.

JAPAN

Jan 31, 2006

Man loses racial discrimination suit against shop

OSAKA -- In a case that human rights lawyers and activists worry could condone racial discrimination against foreigners by Japanese businesses, the Osaka District Court rejected a lawsuit Monday that was filed by a black American man who was denied entry to a store apparently due to his color.

JAPAN

Jan 31, 2006

Homeless forced out of parks after standoff with Osaka cops

OSAKA -- Osaka forcibly ejected homeless men from two city parks early Monday, six days after they were given final notice to vacate to pave the way for upcoming events.

JAPAN

Jan 23, 2006

Base moderate elected Nago mayor

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. -- Voters here chose continuity Sunday over change and placed promises of economic prosperity over concerns about a new U.S. military base as Yoshikazu Shimabukuro, a ruling coalition-backed candidate and the handpicked successor of former Mayor Tateo Kishimoto, headed for victory...

JAPAN

Jan 23, 2006

Nago election about more than base issue

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. -- Voters went to the polls Sunday to choose a new mayor in an election with implications not only for the city of Nago but also the realignment of U.S. military bases in Japan.

JAPAN

Jan 6, 2006

Rokkasho tests break plutonium pledge, activists tell IAEA

OSAKA -- Antinuclear activists in Japan warned in a letter sent Thursday to the International Atomic Energy Agency that tests at the Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, reprocessing plant scheduled for early next month will violate the government's policy of holding no surplus plutonium.

JAPAN

Dec 23, 2005

Media reports on China, South Korea hit

turns toward South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun as Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao looks away after a group photo at the East Asia Summit on Dec. 14.

JAPAN

Dec 15, 2005

Osaka mayor's reforms may spark new battles

OSAKA -- Osaka Mayor Junichi Seki has unveiled his detailed proposal for reforming the city government.

JAPAN

Dec 9, 2005

Over decade after accident, Monju may be reborn

channel 9 and through 26 public address towers set up inside the city limits," said Fumiyoshi Kato, an official in the municipal nuclear power safety section. The evacuation areas are mostly elementary schools and public halls. However, Kato said they do not contain much in the way of emergency supplies....

JAPAN

Nov 28, 2005

Seki returns as mayor of Osaka

OSAKA -- Junichi Seki was returned to office in Sunday's Osaka mayoral election after he resigned amid clashes with the city assembly and bureaucrats over reform.

JAPAN

Nov 17, 2005

Beleaguered Bush receives warm reception from ally in Asia

KYOTO -- U.S. President George W. Bush doesn't get many warm welcomes when he leaves the White House these days.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Nov 17, 2005

Koizumi, Bush stress strong ties

KYOTO -- U.S. President George W. Bush, in reaffirming his close personal ties Wednesday with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, praised the latter's recent election win as a model for democracy and underscored that the close Japan-U.S. relationship is important for all of Asia and beyond.

JAPAN

Nov 16, 2005

Iraq, beef, bases, bird flu on agenda for Bush-Koizumi meeting

KYOTO -- U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in Japan on Tuesday evening for a two-day visit that will include a summit with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on trade and regional security.

JAPAN

Nov 15, 2005

Rokkasho drawing proliferation flak

OSAKA -- As Japan moves forward with plans to conduct further uranium tests in the near future at the Rokkasho nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Aomori Prefecture in preparation for full operations in 2007, it faces growing pressure from the international community to give up some control of the process....

JAPAN

Nov 14, 2005

Osaka mayor race begins with promises of reform

OSAKA -- The Osaka mayoral campaign kicked off Sunday with all four candidates promising financial reform and a cleansing of a city bureaucracy racked by a year of scandals.

JAPAN

Nov 6, 2005

1905 treaty paving way to annexing Korea illegal: scholars

OSAKA -- While much of the world has been thinking of 2005 as the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, this year for Japan's Korean community has more relevance as the 100th anniversary of a treaty that made Korea a protectorate of Japan and paved the way for eventual annexation and colonization....

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.

Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow It

By Alex K.T. Martin

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