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Japan Times
JAPAN / THROUGH THE DOOR
Nov 26, 2002

Japan tries to reform refugee system

Japan has often been criticized for closing its doors to asylum seekers. Following the high-profile incident in May at the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang, China, in which Japanese officials let Chinese police take a family of North Korean asylum seekers out of the compound, the government has...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Nov 25, 2002

Gilded Age of excess returns to America

NEW YORK -- During a recent talk in this city on his lifelong subject, the Iwakura Embassy, businessman-scholar Saburo Izumi reminded those gathered that the Japanese group visited the United States during the Gilded Age. This appellation comes, of course, from American writer Mark Twain (and C.D. Warner)...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 24, 2002

Faking it

Fakes and copies -- the words conjure up images of brand-name goods that aren't; trademarks purloined; forged money and passports; pirated CDs, software and videos . . . and even archaeological finds that weren't as historic as they were purported to be.
COMMUNITY
Nov 24, 2002

A feast for the eyes

A man carefully slices a loaf of rye bread. He piles lettuce leaves and slices of ham and cheese onto one slice, then tops it with another slice. The tasty looking sandwich finished, he cuts it neatly in two.
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2002

Lawyers call for execution debate

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations agreed Friday to draft guidelines for legislation to place a moratorium on executions to provide an opportunity for public debate on the matter.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2002

Angolans starve as oil revenue vanishes

NEW YORK -- It is a sad paradox that one of the potentially richest developing countries in the world is going through one of its worst crises in history. It is a humanitarian crisis that is, to a large extent, the result of that country's corrupt leadership. While the threat of starvation rages throughout...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2002

Imperial family mourns for prince

Emperor Akihito, Empress Michiko and other Imperial family members paid their respects Friday morning at the residence of Prince Takamado, the Emperor's cousin, who died of heart failure the previous night. He was 47.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2002

More and more homes going with solar power

Solar panels on roofs and verandas are becoming a more familiar sight in Japan as people acquire the systems with help from subsidies amid government efforts to curb carbon dioxide emissions and combat global warming.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Nov 22, 2002

Oily cicada

* Japanese name: Abura zemi * Scientific name: Graptopsaltria nigrofuscata * Description: The body length of this large cicada is between 32-40 mm as an adult. Like any true bug, the wings are held over the body and form an upside-down V-shape. The mottled wings look like they have a coating of oil...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Nov 21, 2002

Beware of twists ... and shouts

One chestnut some claim to be the shortest complete piece of fiction goes like this: "The last man on earth sat in his room. There was a knock on the door."
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2002

Crimes set record high, arrests record low in '01

Last year saw a record 2.74 million Penal Code violations, excluding traffic offenses, up 12 percent from 2000, but the arrest rate fell to a postwar low of 19.8 percent, the government reported Tuesday, adding that although foreigners committed a small percentage of the crimes, their offenses were models...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 20, 2002

"Captain Trip Records Sampler Vol. 1"

The fact that major record labels in Japan fail to tap the wealth of excellent underground bands undoubtedly irks a lot of these groups who -- with live, recording and practice schedules to keep -- cannot take up salaried jobs and instead have to work arubaito on a permanent basis. They carry on with...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 20, 2002

Expos evoke memories of Japan's 'gypsies'

There's a lot of speculation about what will happen to the Montreal Expos and where the team will play its home games during the 2003 season.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 20, 2002

Sinead O'Connor: "Sean-Nos Nua"

Though she's done the occasional traditional Irish song as a guest on other people's records, Sinead O'Connor has never explored her country's musical heritage in depth. Now, after more than 10 years of trying to express her adolescent earth-mother iconoclasm, she gives up and goes the trad route with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 20, 2002

Playing for that extra reason

The Willem Breuker Kollektief is a 10-piece jazz ensemble of mad Dutch that will stop at nothing -- not even onstage nudity -- to entertain themselves and their audience.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Nov 19, 2002

Seeking spiritual succah in the Negev desert

The largest natural crater in the world has a past almost as awe-inspiring as its present.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 17, 2002

Move north paid off for Blue Jays' Hinske

Funny how things work out sometimes.
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2002

Prison guard held over killings

OSAKA -- An Osaka prison guard was arrested Saturday by prefectural police on suspicion of murdering his daughter-in-law and grandson in April, police said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 17, 2002

Skeletons in the academic closet

"Those who have put out the people's eyes reproach them of their blindness'' -- John Milton (1608-74)
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 17, 2002

Superiority met altruism when West advised East

TO CHANGE CHINA: Western Advisers in China, by Jonathan D. Spence. New York/London: Penguin Books, 2002, 336 pp., 21 b/w photographs, $15 (paper) This intelligent and entertaining book is a reprint of the original 1969 American edition, much missed and sought after, and now available again. In it, Jonathan...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Nov 17, 2002

Getting syrupy about music

When I first heard the term "self-cover," I thought it referred to errant politicians or bureaucrats making excuses for themselves when caught with their pants down, metaphorically speaking or otherwise.
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Nov 17, 2002

A guide in wine is a friend indeed

It's a story we've heard dozens of times before, in slightly varying versions. An acquaintance who does much corporate entertaining decided to treat a few office-mates to a late meal in Daikanyama. After an under-10,000 yen bottle of red, the sommelier suggested that they might like an unlisted Shafer...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 17, 2002

Conveying messages of unity

It is estimated that an average of 220 people "evaporate" every day in Japan. The reasons are many, but can mostly be reduced to debt, love affairs, personal tragedy and involvement in crimes. And with no end in sight for the recession, the number is increasing year by year. Last year, about 80,000 Japanese...
COMMENTARY
Nov 16, 2002

Dark days for Britain's Tories

LONDON -- The once-mighty Conservative Party, which dominated the British political scene for most of the 20th century, has now fallen on very bad times.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2002

Former Tokushima governor given suspended prison term

The Tokyo District Court sentenced former Tokushima Gov. Toshio Endo to a suspended three-year prison term Friday and fined him 8 million yen for bribery.
Japan Times
JAPAN / PREFECTURAL FARE
Nov 16, 2002

Fukushima tourist office gives natives taste of home

Kotaro Takamura's poem about a homesick woman in Tokyo pining for her native Fukushima Prefecture more than 60 years ago could just as easily have been written about many of the displaced locals living in the capital these days.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 16, 2002

A whole lot of shaking going on in my mind

Earthquakes are not laughable affairs. The breadth of the destruction and depth of the human tragedy demand only a solemn response.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 15, 2002

And you wonder why women don't want to have babies . . .

Rumiko, the 29-year-old president of her own computer-graphics company, says she has decided to become an achiragawa no ningen (person who has crossed over to the other side) by having a baby.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?