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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 22, 2005

Teaching the world to sing in perfect harmony

When Kazufumi Miyazawa, vocalist of the Japanese rock band The Boom wrote the song titled "Shima-uta" about 15 years ago, no one imagined the path it would take, starting as a huge domestic hit and then gaining a life of its own abroad.
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2005

10% of bureaucrats quit after subsidized sabbaticals

Out of 576 young career-track bureaucrats who studied abroad at government expense from fiscal 1997 through 2002, 56 quit within five years after returning home, according to a study by the National Personnel Authority.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2005

Ethnic Myanmar refugee pleads for policy change

A refugee from Myanmar belonging to an ethnic minority urged Japan on Monday to grant asylum to more of his compatriots, saying they face serious persecution back home.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2005

Swindler Inagaki found guilty, avoids prison

Jitsuo Inagaki, a former state minister for Hokkaido and Okinawa development, was sentenced Monday to a suspended two-year prison term for illegally selling investment products that promised high returns and guaranteed the principal.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 19, 2005

Life and times of a Heian-Period crime sleuth

Scrolling back in history THE DRAGON SCROLL, by I.J. Parker. New York: Penguin, 2005, 432 pp., $13.00 (paper). Now beginning a new series with Penguin, Parker has just released "The Dragon Scroll." While the third full-length novel to be published, it is the first, chronologically, in her series and...
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2005

A-bomb survivors will be able to apply for benefits in S. Korea

Atomic-bomb survivors living in South Korea will be able to apply at Japanese diplomatic offices for medical allowances under a new government plan.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2005

Cambodia school intrusion raises security scrutiny here anew

Thursday's deadly hostage-taking by four intruders at an international school in Cambodia has further driven home the need for schools in Japan to assess whether they have taken adequate security measures.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2005

Koizumi nixes Yasukuni replacement

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday rejected a suggestion that the government set up a new war memorial as a substitute for Tokyo's war-related Yasukuni Shrine.
BUSINESS
Jun 18, 2005

Toyota, Honda fuel-cell cars certified

Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. said Friday their fuel-cell cars have become the first to receive motor-vehicle type certification from the government.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jun 17, 2005

Alcohol continues to fuel Best's free fall toward tragic ending

LONDON -- When George Best was having problems with his first wife, Angie, I shared a flight back to England with him from Miami -- he was playing for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the North American Soccer League at the time.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2005

Journalist did not defame expert in tainted blood fiasco: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court overturned a high court decision Thursday, ruling that noted journalist Yoshiko Sakurai did not defame a late hemophilia expert in her writings about the infection of hemophiliacs with HIV from tainted blood products.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2005

NPO chief, cohorts held over investment swindle

Police arrested the former head of a Tokyo nonprofit organization Thursday on suspicion of swindling group members through an investment scheme.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2005

Suspended sentence of racy comics publisher switched to fine

The Tokyo High Court on Thursday reduced the sentence imposed by a lower court on a comic book publisher who was convicted of distributing obscene comic books featuring graphic sex scenes.
SOCCER / J. League
Jun 16, 2005

Barcelona's supporting cast coast past Reds in friendly

SAITAMA -- Barcelona proved too strong for Urawa Reds in a friendly match at Saitama Stadium 2002 on Wednesday as the Spanish champion coasted to a 3-0 win.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jun 15, 2005

The art that rocks the boat of war in Iraq

If you don't like U.S. President George W. Bush -- particularly if you don't support his war in Iraq -- then there is a new gallery exhibition in Tokyo that you will relish.
BUSINESS
Jun 15, 2005

Regional banks turn profit, cut bad-loan ratios

Regional banks swung back to the black in fiscal 2004 as a whole for the first time since fiscal 1999 with a combined net profit of 800 billion yen, the Financial Services Agency said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 14, 2005

Japan's beneficent potential

During my 7 1/2 years of service in the 1990s as deputy secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, I initiated a research project that produced, in 1997, a report titled "The World in 2020: Toward a New Global Age." In the course of this research I assumed that the...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jun 12, 2005

Johnson gives his backing to Japan's bid

The Japan Rugby Football Union's bid to host Rugby World Cup 2011 received the backing and support of rugby legend Martin Johnson on Friday.
COMMENTARY
Jun 12, 2005

Harmful to Japan's interest

Should he continue his custom of making annual visits to Yasukuni Shrine, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi could seriously harm Japan's national interest. His persistence in visiting the Tokyo memorial to the nation's war dead has intensified the firestorm of anti-Japanese criticism in China and South...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jun 12, 2005

A stage-dive back into the mayhem

Illnesses. Broken bones. Arrests. Bereavements. Just a few reasons why Fuzzy Logic has been on a six-month sabbatical. You don't need to know the details. So here's a rather straightforward comeback column in which I round up a few things and then, in future columns, I'll get back to introducing you...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2005

Gaps dog history study with South Korea

Japan and South Korea released a full-scale report on their joint history research Friday, detailing huge gaps in perception on key events that have repeatedly caused friction between the two nations.
COMMENTARY
Jun 11, 2005

Poor losers fan Filipino disenchantment

MANILA -- To characterize the public mood in the Philippines as depressed is no exaggeration. According to recent surveys, pessimism about economic prospects is on the rise, and a majority of Filipinos believe their quality of life has deteriorated in the past year. A recent Asian Development Bank survey...
BUSINESS
Jun 11, 2005

End of an era as TSE bell tolls for disgraced Kanebo

Kanebo Ltd., one of the oldest listed companies in Japan, traded for the last time Friday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
BUSINESS
Jun 11, 2005

China, H.K., Taiwan yield 708,000 pirated goods: CODA

A group representing the Japanese content industry said Friday that joint antipiracy measures resulted in the seizure of 707,709 items of pirated Japanese goods in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan between January and April.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2005

Jenkins due to fly to U.S. to visit mom next week

Charles Jenkins, the former U.S. Army sergeant who deserted to North Korea during the Cold War and now lives in Japan, will visit the United States with his family, a government spokesman said Wednesday.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat