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Eric Johnston

Japan Times

JAPAN

Mar 30, 2006

Marines find hope in new diplomatic tool: English

URUMA, Okinawa Pref. -- At first glance, it looks like the typical English conversation school found throughout Japan -- students armed with pencils and notebooks listening to a Western instructor drill them in grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Mar 29, 2006

Okinawa base opponents make a stand at Henoko

HENOKO, Okinawa Pref. -- To understand just how determined the opposition in Henoko, Okinawa, is to Tokyo's plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station here, just go to the turquoise waters off Camp Schwab.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Mar 28, 2006

Okinawa base issue not cut and dried with locals

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. -- It's a chilly, rainy evening in late January, but more than 1,000 people pack the center of town to hear a speech by Yoshikazu Shimabukuro, the head of the Nago Municipal Assembly.

JAPAN

Mar 14, 2006

Net boards venue for faceless rightists

OSAKA -- They are called "Net uyoku," or Internet rightwingers.

JAPAN

Mar 13, 2006

Iwakuni voters reject realignment plan

IWAKUNI, Yamaguchi Pref. -- A majority of Iwakuni residents voted "no" in a closely watched plebiscite Sunday, rejecting the central government's plan to move 57 U.S. warplanes and 1,600 additional marines to the area, according to partial vote counts and exit polls.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Mar 10, 2006

Osaka seeks to stub out pesky public smoking

OSAKA -- For reasons of health and public relations, the Osaka Municipal Government is moving forward with plans to adopt an ordinance that would outlaw smoking on its most crowded streets.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Mar 10, 2006

Trial opens in Nishimura lawyer scandal

OSAKA -- Shingo Nishimura, the ultraconservative Diet member arrested last year for allowing a nonlawyer employee to illegally represent clients in his name, formally owned up to the charges as his Osaka District Court trial opened Thursday.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Feb 23, 2006

'Takeshima Day,' rhetoric just Shimane affair

MATSUE, Shimane Pref. -- Shimane Prefecture on Wednesday celebrated its first "Takeshima Day" by declaring that the tiny islets controlled by South Korea are part of Japan and calling on the government to pressure Seoul to hand them over.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Feb 17, 2006

Kobe airport opens amid hope

KOBE -- In what its supporters hope is not an ill omen, Kobe's new airport opened in fog early Thursday morning.

Japan Times

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 Times

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 Times

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 Times

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.

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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