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December 22, 2024
 

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Masami Ito

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Masami Ito
Masami is a staff writer for the Life and Culture Division at The Japan Times. She is in charge of the weekly Sunday Timeout, covering various issues related to Japan, from alcohol/drug addiction and juvenile crime to female sushi chefs and kendama. Over her 15-year career, she has written extensively on Japanese politics, foreign policy and social issues.
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2004
Revised domestic violence law falls short
Sachiko Nakajima was 20 years old when she began what should have been an ordinary college romance.
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2004
For visa violators, it pays to come clean
In June 2000, Mohammad Mizanur Rahman was deported from Japan for overstaying his visa. Shortly after he was forced back to his native Bangladesh, his Japanese girlfriend joined him and they married.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2004
Photographer captures images of youths on death row in U.S.
The subjects of photographer Toshi Kazama -- all young boys and girls -- stare straight into the lens of his camera, some smiling shyly, others looking serious.
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2004
Takefuji chief's wiretaps net suspended term
Former Takefuji Corp. Chairman Yasuo Takei was sentenced Wednesday to a suspended three-year prison term for wiretapping and defamation of character.
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2004
Doctor hits immigration center health care
For more than three years, Dr. Junpei Yamamura has visited the Higashi-Nihon Immigration Center in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, once a month.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 9, 2004
Peru cash crop quest bears fruit
It was more than 20 years ago that Takayuki Suzuki packed his bags and moved to Peru.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2004
Public's sympathy for Koda tempered
The news that hostage Shosei Koda was found dead in Iraq was met with sympathy Sunday on the streets of Tokyo, but for many people interviewed by The Japan Times, the grief was tempered by the belief that the government was right in not succumbing to terrorists.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 6, 2004
Heart music in 'Big River'
It is a tale that many of us know, that of a young boy's adventures on the Mississippi River while helping a slave, named Jim, to escape. One of the greatest novels of American literature, Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is set in the 1840s, long before the Civil War, and is a touching...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2004
Justice chief's mandate: make Japan safe, refugee-friendly
Restoring Japan's image as one of the world's most crime-free nations is a key demand of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi -- and one newly appointed Justice Minister Chieko Noono hopes to meet.
Japan Times
Features
Sep 12, 2004
Heights of cleanliness
What must it be like to stand on top of the world's highest mountain? To battle through driving snow and across deadly glaciers, to scale icy rock walls and risk falling thousands of meters while being hit full-on by raging, freezing winds -- aware that an avalanche could, at any moment, swat you into...
Japan Times
Features
Aug 22, 2004
'Stray dogs' dig the dirt
"Bluebottle fly" was what he says he was called by the police. But freelance journalist Shunsuke Yamaoka is now getting a buzz from watching the law deal with wrongdoers he exposed.
COMMUNITY
Aug 15, 2004
A towering test for the tongue
Tall, cool, slim and graceful: Meet Millecre's Tokyo Tower 333, the gorgeous new face on the ice-cream block.
Japan Times
Features
Aug 15, 2004
A towering test for the tongue
Tall, cool, slim and graceful: Meet Millecre's Tokyo Tower 333, the gorgeous new face on the ice-cream block.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 25, 2004
Cashing in on ideas
Thomas Edison's electricity, Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, the Wright Brothers' creaky biplane, H.G. Wells' time machine (OK, that last one hasn't happened yet), but through these world-changing discoveries, our daily lives have been made easier. Flick a switch and light banishes the darkness, pick...
Japan Times
Features
Jul 25, 2004
Brolly good notion out of the blue
One evening in March, Daryn Peterson was stretched out on his sofa at home. After a hard day's work, he was totally relaxed and just watching TV. Then, when the weather forecast came on, he sat up suddenly. It was as if lightning had struck his brain; an idea had suddenly flashed into his mind.
Japan Times
Features
Jul 25, 2004
Japan's inventor supreme shares the secret of 3,218 successes
Who is Japan's most famous inventor? No doubt about it, it's Yoshiro Nakamatsu -- or Dr. NakaMats as he styles himself. The doc says he has 3,218 inventions to his credit, including the floppy disk and the compact disc. Although his childhood dream was to become Finance Minister, from the age of 5, Nakamatsu...
Japan Times
Features
Jul 18, 2004
Rural revelations and a sake to go
Japan Times
Features
Jun 13, 2004
Front-line fighters
Squeezed between stacks of files and computer equipment in a two-room apartment in Tokyo's Takadanobaba area, Chizuko Ikegami and several volunteers are manning the phones. Round the clock, day in, day out, PLACE Tokyo receives calls from people desperately seeking advice after being diagnosed with...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 11, 2004
Serendipity in the sticks
I noticed a young boy staring at me from afar as I stood alone at the bus stop, poring over my tourist map. Then, with a shy smile and a face full of curiosity, he walked toward me. And when he got close enough for me to hear him, he opened his mouth and spoke.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jun 6, 2004
Shinya Tasaki: Sommelier supreme
Shinya Tasaki was a teenager when he made his first solo trip to France in 1977. Even back then, he was so eager to learn about French food and wine that he visited as many wineries as he could -- only to be turned away from most. But his determination kept him from giving up -- and now nobody will turn...
Nippon Steel alleges undue White House influence on doomed deal review
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Dec. 10.
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Police raided suspect's home to arrest him after fatal Kitakyushu stabbing
Broken window glass is seen at Masanori Hirabaru's house in Kitakyushu's Kokuraminami Ward.
Taiwan lawmakers brawl over bills that would 'damage democracy'
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party and opposition party Kuomintang brawl in parliament in Taipei on Friday.
Mother hopes for reunion with daughter ensnared by Tokyo host clubs
The Kabukicho district in Tokyo, where the daughter of a woman in her 60s fell deeply into the host club culture.
Casual workouts, cool living, ‘complete’ food: Japan’s health trends of 2024
In 2024, efficiency trumped effort among Japan's fitness-focused aspirants.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.
Curiosity didn’t kill the meme: Why cats still rule Japanese YouTube
A screen shot from YouTube user @lagelda shows the simplicity of going viral in Japan in 2024: A cat dancing to EDM in front of a green screen.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
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