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Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2003

LDP bags three new Diet seats; DPJ one

The ruling bloc was sailing to victory in three of the four Diet by-elections held Sunday, while the Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition force, was assured of winning in the House of Representatives by-election in Tokyo, early returns showed.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 27, 2003

Horse power helps handicapped surmount life's daily obstacles

Yukie Yamaguchi stands at the edge of the ring, intently watching the man being led around on horseback at the Yokohama Riding Club. He is clasping a bright-yellow Pikachu to his chest with both hands. Slowly he takes one hand off the stuffed toy and lightly slaps the horse's neck.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2003

Missile defense system debate heats up

As concerns mount over the threat posed by North Korea, the debate over Japan introducing missile defense systems is heating up.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2003

Obituary: Hidefumi Minorikawa

Hidefumi Minorikawa, a House of Representatives member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, died Thursday of liver failure at a hospital in Omagari, Akita Prefecture, his family said. He was 67.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 26, 2003

Jiro Hirano

When he was poised between high school and university in the late 1950s, Jiro Hirano had a vague idea that in life he wanted to do "something international." He knew he didn't want to study at the University of Tokyo, as his father and brother and cousins had before him. "I wanted to have a way of my...
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2003

New envoy

The government appointed Yasuaki Ono as ambassador to Tunisia on Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2003

Death demanded for Asahara

Exactly seven years after the trial began, prosecutors Thursday demanded the death penalty for Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara, accused of masterminding two sarin attacks in the mid-1990s as well as other heinous crimes.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2003

Marathon trial could have gone on longer

The trial of Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara is unprecedented both in the nature of the crimes involved and the way the court proceedings have progressed.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2003

LDP wants to legalize SDF by amending Constitution

The dominant Liberal Democratic Party aims to amend the Constitution to state in explicit terms the legitimacy of the Self-Defense Forces, party lawmakers said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Apr 25, 2003

China seen as 'second engine' of growth for ASEAN nations

The rise of China as an economic power has been greeted with a mixture of fear and hope by member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, according to Chia Siow Yue, a senior research fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2003

Arsonist appeals death sentence

A man sentenced to death for the murder of six people in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, by setting fire to a jewelry shop and stealing 140 million yen worth of jewels filed an appeal against the ruling with the Supreme Court on Thursday, his lawyers said.
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Apr 25, 2003

When necrophilia isn't best

One of the perennial debates among wine lovers is whether wine is best drunk straight on release, after five or 10 years, or decades down the road. Even collectors and winemakers can't agree, leading to understandable confusion among the rest of us. And cultural differences also come into play, spawning...
BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2003

Shinsei Bank slashes bad loans 80%

Shinsei Bank said Wednesday that its outstanding bad loans as of March 31 will likely come to 233.2 billion yen, down 880.4 billion yen -- or nearly 80 percent -- from a year earlier.
Japan Times
JAPAN / IN WITH THE NEW
Apr 24, 2003

DPJ's Noda intent on pursuing noble cause in Diet

Before Yoshihiko Noda took over as Diet affairs chief of the Democratic Party of Japan in December, his early morning weekday schedule was set in stone.
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Apr 24, 2003

Challenging English at 65

April is traditionally the time of new beginnings in Japan, at school and at work. Novelist Sae Shuichi, however, makes it a practice to embark on a new project every five years. At 55, for example, he took up kendo. And at 65, as detailed in his latest book, "65-sai Ojisan no Eikaiwa Benkyo ga Tanoshiku...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2003

Europe-based executive MBA program pitched at Japanese

European business school INSEAD has recently begun offering an exclusive executive MBA program -- and is hoping to attract some Japanese students.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2003

Governor urges more talks on dam plan

Thorough and open discussions are the most important way of approaching a controversial dam project on the Kawabe River in Kumamoto Prefecture, Gov. Yoshiko Shiotani said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2003

Japan's whale meat exceeds mercury density safety limits

Mercury levels in whales caught in Japan's coastal waters increase the further south the creatures are caught, with one specimen from Okinawa's Nago registering a mercury density more than 57 times the nation's provisional safety limit, according to a group of experts.
BUSINESS
Apr 22, 2003

Job-creation policy sought by ministry

Economy minister Takeo Hiranuma asked the leaders of two major business lobbies Monday to propose ways to boost employment, particularly for young people.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 22, 2003

Group seeks care for socially withdrawn

An alarming number of young people are cutting off contact with society and shutting themselves in their rooms for years on end. More than a few turn into violent tyrants at home.
MORE SPORTS
Apr 21, 2003

Sky's the limit for broadcaster in search of sporting excellence

A recent survey of 1,000 Japanese sports viewers who subscribe to JSky Sports showed that 25-30 percent enjoyed watching or wanted to watch baseball, sumo and soccer, 19 percent favored domestic rugby, 13 percent enjoyed cycling and 12 percent preferred international rugby, NBA and NHL.
COMMENTARY
Apr 21, 2003

Peacemaker for Sri Lanka

Japan plans to play a leading role in rebuilding strife-torn Sri Lanka. Peace talks are under way to end more than 20 years of ethnic conflict between the Sinhalese (Buddhist) majority and the Tamil (Hindu) minority. An international conference on Sri Lankan reconstruction and development is scheduled...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2003

EU troubles will also expand

LONDON -- The symbolism could hardly have been better. Against a background of the columns of ancient Athens, the birthplace of democracy, 25 government leaders signed documents that will bring into the European Union countries that spent much of their postwar existence under communist dictatorship....
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Apr 20, 2003

Football Association hypocritical and arrogant over racism issue

LONDON -- "We are very disappointed that UEFA have felt it necessary to bring the charges against us." -- Paul Barber, director of marketing and communications, the Football Association.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2003

68 evacuees from Miyake Island return for four-day visit

Sixty-eight former residents of Miyake Island returned Saturday morning for a four-day visit, their first overnight stay since the entire population of about 3,800 people was evacuated when the island's volcano rumbled into life in September 2000.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 20, 2003

Changing narratives of Korean history

COLONIAL MODERNITY IN KOREA, edited by Gi Wook Shin and Michael Robinson. Harvard University Press, 2000, 466 pp., $49.50 (cloth) Until very recently most English-language general histories of Korea treated Japanese colonial rule or "Japanese occupation" as a rupture or distortion of the "natural development"...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 20, 2003

Comics on the telly

The spring lineup of drama series contains more than the usual share of comic-book adaptations, which is good news since comics tend to have more interesting story-lines than do dramas written directly for the screen.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 20, 2003

Dancing detectives

A LOYAL CHARACTER DANCER, by Qiu Xiaolong. New York, SOHO Press, 2002, 351 pp., $25 (cloth) Popular fiction can be a fairly reliable indicator of changing public sentiments. One harbinger that the Cold War was beginning to wind down was the appearance of the now-famous police procedural novel. Such novels...
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2003

Rumsfeld barb on Pyongyang aid earns angry rebuke from Fukuda

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda voiced displeasure Friday over a suggestion by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that money and goods sent by Japan, South Korea and China are helping to sustain North Korea's dictatorship.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
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