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Eric Johnston

JAPAN

Jul 7, 2004

Experts mull security issues at informal Kyoto meeting

KYOTO -- Nearly two dozen former political leaders and policy experts from around the world met in Kyoto on Tuesday for informal discussions on how to make the United Nations more effective in responding to international security threats.

Japan Times

JAPAN / ELECTION '04

Jul 3, 2004

Convict Tsujimoto seeks mercy of voters

OSAKA -- Kiyomi Tsujimoto likes to call herself the "wasabi of Japanese politics," whose job is to add some zest to the blandness of debate.

JAPAN

Jul 2, 2004

Kin of kidnapped fret lack of focus on Pyongyang in Upper House poll

KOBE -- Seven months ago, on the eve of the House of Representatives election, North Korea's abductions of Japanese was one of the main campaign topics.

JAPAN

May 25, 2004

Wrangling over new Kobe airport rumbles on

OSAKA -- Tension over the future of airports in the Kansai region boiled over recently, with politicians and business leaders in Kobe and Osaka engaging in public skirmishes with the central government and with each other.

Japan Times

LIFE / Travel

May 21, 2004

Osaka's west side story

In the cult-film classic "Death Ride to Osaka," there is a scene in which tough Tokyo yakuza drag a Western hostess kicking and screaming out the door. The hostess has just been banished from the bright lights of Tokyo's Ginza to the foul backwater of Osaka.

JAPAN

May 20, 2004

Never in Japan, can kin 'return' here?

OSAKA -- Many Japanese newspapers, magazines and TV stations are reporting that the offspring of five Japanese who were abducted to North Korea in 1978 and repatriated in October 2002 will be "returning" to Japan if North Korea lets them leave.

JAPAN

May 20, 2004

Never in Japan, can kin 'return' here?

OSAKA -- Many Japanese newspapers, magazines and TV stations are reporting that the offspring of five Japanese who were abducted to North Korea in 1978 and repatriated in October 2002 will be "returning" to Japan if North Korea lets them leave.

JAPAN

May 14, 2004

COMJAN 'abduction' list grows -- despite lack of evidence

OSAKA -- On the afternoon of Feb. 1, 2003, 42-year-old Naruki Okita, operator of a small marine transport company in Taisho Ward here, showed up near the docks of Izumi Kita with his luggage in tow.

JAPAN

May 14, 2004

COMJAN 'abduction' list grows -- despite lack of evidence

OSAKA -- On the afternoon of Feb. 1, 2003, 42-year-old Naruki Okita, operator of a small marine transport company in Taisho Ward here, showed up near the docks of Izumi Kita with his luggage in tow.

JAPAN

May 2, 2004

U.S. looks to expand Japan's military role

OSAKA -- On Nov. 19, 1953, then U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon mounted the podium at a special meeting of the Japan-America Society in Tokyo.

JAPAN / History

May 2, 2004

U.S. looks to expand Japan's military role

OSAKA -- On Nov. 19, 1953, then U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon mounted the podium at a special meeting of the Japan-America Society in Tokyo.

JAPAN

Apr 29, 2004

U.S. seeks reconstruction aid from SDF in Afghanistan

OSAKA -- With the security situation in Afghanistan worsening, the U.S. State Department's coordinator for the country voiced hope for increased Japanese participation, including military assistance for reconstruction efforts at the local level.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Apr 23, 2004

Ohta quizzed over ties with arrested meat exec

OSAKA -- The arrest of Mitsuru Asada, vice chairman of the Osaka Prefecture Meat Cooperative Association, has sent shock waves through Osaka's political community and has put Osaka Gov. Fusae Ohta, who admits having met Asada on several occasions, on the defensive.

JAPAN

Apr 18, 2004

Scrap rat-on-foreigners Web site: Hyogo

KOBE -- Hyogo Prefecture has become the first local government to call on the Justice Ministry to abolish a contentious Web site that asks Japanese to report via e-mail any foreigners they suspect to be illegal aliens.

JAPAN

Apr 13, 2004

Osaka to keep funding pro-Pyongyang schools

OSAKA -- Osaka municipal officials said Monday that the city will continue to provide financial support for schools affiliated with the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryun), despite calls for the policy to be reconsidered.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Apr 8, 2004

Volunteer offers consultation to women trafficked to Japan

KOBE -- A volunteer probation officer and court interpreter in Kobe has begun a telephone consultation service for foreign women trafficked to Japan and forced into prostitution.

JAPAN

Mar 27, 2004

Kepco inks accord with COGEMA on MOX supply

OSAKA -- Kansai Electric Power Co. reached an agreement Friday with COGEMA, France's state-owned nuclear fuel reprocessing company, to sign a contract possibly this summer for manufacturing mixed oxide-uranium fuel.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Mar 27, 2004

Ex-North Korean spy wants hand in collapse of Kim's empire

KITAKYUSHU -- On Aug. 30, 1993, four North Korean agents slipped over the 38th parallel into South Korea. Disguised as South Korean soldiers, their mission was to spy on U.S. and South Korean forces near Panmunjun.

JAPAN

Mar 17, 2004

Net, Kansai hotlines offer precautions

OSAKA -- Municipalities in the Kansai region have set up telephone hotlines and are providing information via the Internet on precautions against the bird flu virus, which infected six crows in Kyoto and Osaka prefectures.

JAPAN

Mar 13, 2004

Kin of abductees spooked by specter of Kerry in White House

OSAKA -- November's U.S. presidential election will be watched with great interest and concern by relatives and other supporters of Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea, who wonder what implications a Democratic victory might have for their cause.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.

The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan

By Johan Brooks

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