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Natsuko Fukue

Japan Times

JAPAN / READERS' FUND

Dec 13, 2008

NGO helps improve Afghan females' lives

Second in a series

JAPAN

Dec 10, 2008

Hong Kong exports boost farmers

Japan's agriculture has long had a global reputation for protectionism and weak price competition for rice grown in its rural areas.

Japan Times

BUSINESS

Dec 3, 2008

Temps in manufacturing feel full brunt of slump

The deepening recession is worrying workers nationwide, particularly temporary employees in the manufacturing industry.

JAPAN

Nov 28, 2008

Airing of test scores opposed

About 95 percent of municipal boards of education do not want to disclose how well — or how badly — public school students in their jurisdiction do on nationwide achievement tests, according to an education ministry survey released Wednesday.

JAPAN

Nov 26, 2008

Was wrong bureaucracy targeted?

Double-murder suspect Takeshi Koizumi may have held a grudge against Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry bureaucrats because the system had euthanized a pet of his 34 years ago, but actually the Environment Ministry is responsible for destroying unwanted animals.

JAPAN / Q&A

Nov 26, 2008

Import food: Do inspections allay fears?

Public concern over imported food is on the rise, especially produce from China.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Nov 21, 2008

Salaryman-turned-activist keeps island nation Tuvalu in the picture

Tanned and relaxed, 42-year-old Shuichi Endo has set himself a monumental task: Photograph 10,000 residents of the tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu, nearly the entire population.

JAPAN

Nov 14, 2008

TV comedian turns hero with burning-building rescue

Braving smoke and explosions, Iranian entertainer Rahim Arvanaghi, 40, better known as Randy Muscle, made another name for himself Wednesday when he ran into a burning building in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, and rescued its injured owner, Shinichi Yokoyama.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Nov 11, 2008

Exec finds room to grow in NGO

Microsoft executive John Wood has made a name for himself as the founder of nongovernmental organization Room to Read, which has built more than 5,600 libraries in developing countries. Less well known is his right-hand woman, Erin Keown Ganju, who has been flying around, working closely with local staff...

Japan Times

JAPAN / EXPLAINER

Nov 11, 2008

It's fall, when kids in kimono fete 7-5-3 rituals

From October to November, Japanese parents take their young offspring to shrines as part of the traditional "shichigosan" (7-5-3) ceremony of presenting the children to Ujigami, the Shinto guardian god of good health.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Nov 9, 2008

Parents of girl with sick heart seek public help

The parents of a 16-year-old girl suffering from a serious heart disease sought public donations Friday so she can afford a heart transplant.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Nov 8, 2008

'Freeter' marchers get leg up online

Thwarted in the real world in their attempt to glimpse Prime Minister Taro Aso's famously grand Tokyo mansion, a group of young people is finding better success at getting their message out in cyberspace.

JAPAN

Oct 20, 2008

'Parasite singles' no longer can afford to live on their own

In sharp contrast with a decade ago, when working women who lived with their family were called "parasite singles" because they wanted to enjoy an affluent lifestyle, young women now stay at home because they don't have a choice.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Oct 17, 2008

Temps: Product of a broken labor system

Natsumi Maeda, a 26-year-old day laborer, says she worked at more than 50 companies in the last year and a half.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Oct 7, 2008

Yes, we have no bananas, as dieters peel away stocks

Dieting appears to be a nationwide trend. Spurred on by TV shows, people have taken various approaches, including upping their intake of "natto" fermented soybeans, which later proved fruitless, to adding agar to food.

Japan Times

JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES

Oct 4, 2008

Brought together by fate — and a whim

Rajesh and Kayo Prasad have no doubt they were destined to marry.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Oct 3, 2008

It's a cakewalk for Tokyo's newest doughnut maker

Yoshihisa Yamada, at 44 a holder of an MBA from Harvard, quit his job as president of Rakuten Travel Inc. and established Neyn, a handmade doughnut shop in Tokyo's Akasaka district last month.

JAPAN

Sep 30, 2008

Gagloev says he threw sumo bouts

Former sumo wrestler Soslan Aleksandrovich Gagloev, who was fired by the Japan Sumo Association for possessing marijuana in August, said he was forced to take bribes to throw matches during competition.

JAPAN

Sep 23, 2008

Aso's win greeted in low-key fashion

When Taro Aso was elected president of the Liberal Democratic Party on Monday, he got a low-key welcome from his supporters outside LDP headquarters in the Nagata-cho political quarter of Tokyo.

JAPAN

Sep 19, 2008

Japan must address suicide's social angle to stop it, experts say

Suicide should be recognized as a social rather than individual problem, and the government and society need to take proactive measures to prevent it, panelists at a suicide symposium in Tokyo recently said.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

The sun shines from behind a waving Philippine flag at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.

Eighty years after the Battle of Manila, old foes forge new ties

By Anton L. Delgado

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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