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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 15, 2004

Still waiting for the final whistle in this Japan vs. China 'game'

A war of words is always preferable to any other kind of war, and for what it's worth the recent controversy over the behavior of Chinese soccer fans toward the Japanese national team at the Asian Cup tournament did offer an opportunity for the governments of the countries involved to express their views...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 4, 2004

Imaginative filmmakers shed light on dark side of humanity

At the end of May the Cine Pathos movie theater in Ginza was scheduled to run "Concrete," which is based on a "nonfiction novel" that itself is patterned after an incident that took place in Tokyo's Adachi Ward in 1989. Four teenage boys abducted a high-school girl and kept her prisoner for 40 days,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 16, 2004

A sea monkey and a gentleman

Umizaru Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Eiichiro Hazumi Running time: 120 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Japanese studios used to grind out contemporary action movies by the dozen, with one company, Nikkatsu, specializing in them from...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 16, 2004

Shooting politicians in a barrel more fun than addressing pension problem

In the past two weeks the pension scandal that has touched so many lawmakers has progressed from a political embarrassment to pure farce. The offered reason for regret is that the people's "trust in politics" has been damaged, a suggestion that's risible even under normal circumstances.
JAPAN
May 8, 2004

Fukuda resigns from Cabinet

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda shocked the political arena Friday by stepping down for mishandling the issue of public pension premiums that some Cabinet members -- including himself -- failed to pay.
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2004

Tanaka's daughter won't appeal

The daughter of former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka has decided not to appeal a high court ruling that rescinded an earlier injunction banning sale of a weekly magazine that featured an article about her divorce, her lawyers said Saturday.
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2004

Contentious magazine to remain unsold

Publisher Bungeishunju Ltd. said Friday it will not sell the remaining copies of a controversial edition of a weekly magazine, after the Tokyo High Court on Wednesday overruled a lower court's injunction barring publication of an article in the edition.
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2004

High court rescinds weekly's injunction

The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday revoked a lower court injunction against the publication of a magazine that carried a story on the divorce of former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka's daughter, citing freedom of expression and the public's right to know.
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2004

Pension role model a shirker herself

While reproaching the nation's youth last year in a government-sponsored TV commercial for not paying into the financially pinched mandatory National Pension System, popular actress Makiko Esumi was keeping her own dark secret.
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2004

Publisher appeals injunction order

Tokyo publisher Bungeishunju Ltd. filed an appeal Saturday with the Tokyo High Court against a lower court's ban on the publication of a weekly magazine aimed at addressing concerns over privacy violation.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 21, 2004

'Mister' is a god, but he's not immortal

Former Village Voice media critic Tom Carson once wrote an essay in which he blasted the style imperative subscribed to by American men's magazines. These publications had invested so heavily in a certain male image that they couldn't imagine anything else. "You want to strike terror in the hearts of...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2004

Tanaka's daughter seeks fines for publisher

The daughter of Diet lawmaker Makiko Tanaka has sought a court order forcing a publisher to pay fines of 30 million yen for every day that a weekly magazine featuring an article about her private life remains on store shelves, it was learned Thursday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 7, 2004

Levitation, drug claims and, er, melons blur reality in Asahara trial

The sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system that the religious cult Aum Shinrikyo carried out exactly nine years ago this month is often cited as the first mass terrorist strike against civilians, and like al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Aum's former guru Shoko Asahara is accepted as the mastermind...
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Mar 4, 2004

New Akutagawa winners offer hope

It's been amazing to experience all the excitement surrounding the latest winners of the Akutagawa Prize, a famous literary prize awarded twice a year to promising, new authors. While TV cameras and photographers crammed Tokyo Kaikan, newspapers and magazines wrote breathless descriptions of what the...
SOCCER / World cup
Mar 3, 2004

Japan players to receive reprimands for conduct

Seven players from the Japanese national team are set to be reprimanded for violating team regulations by indulging in a drinking binge and acting improperly during a training camp in Kashima last month.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 1, 2004

Entertaining the idea of surrogate mums

Last week, the health ministry decided not to recommend revisions to current guidelines regarding fertility treatments. This disappointed the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which has been advocating the legalization of such controversial procedures as the use of surrogate mothers because they say they...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 18, 2004

Wacky potions can be crocks of gold

The doorbell rang. It was my neighbor, Mrs. S., asking if the lady of the house (a Taiwanese) could help her by translating the Chinese-language instructions for a "miracle" baldness remedy that someone had brought back from China and presented to her husband.
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2003

Rape allegation heaps misery on SDP

The Social Democratic Party found itself in further turmoil Thursday as a former state-paid secretary to party lawmaker Tomoko Abe was accused of raping a woman on several occasions last year.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2003

LDP's Yamasaki appeals libel ruling

Taku Yamasaki, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, on Thursday appealed a lower court decision rejecting his defamation suit against a magazine.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2003

LDP's No. 2 man loses defamation suit

Taku Yamasaki, the Liberal Democratic Party's No. 2 man, lost a defamation suit Monday when the Tokyo District Court rejected his demands that a magazine pay him damages for writing a report about his alleged mistress.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 7, 2003

North Korea unveils secret weapon: It's an attack of the clones

This year's World University Games, held in the South Korean city of Taegu from Aug. 21 to 30, drew a record 7,000 young athletes from 174 countries. The Games also drew daily Japanese media coverage, with some news shows running lengthy special reports on all the excitement in Taegu.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 31, 2003

Reform is required to untangle pension system

A woman I know recently went to her local Social Insurance Agency office to find out about her pension. Since she is 68, she is past the age when she should have started collecting benefits, but she was never sure what she was supposed to do because the SIA never contacted her.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 24, 2003

Keeping abreast of the boob tube's favorite idols

Can we talk about breasts? Specifically, the large kind, which in the United States are affectionately (or not) called "knockers" or "hooters." In Japan, the slang is more clinical : kyonyu (giant breasts), honyu (rich breasts), and even bakunyu (explosive breasts). These words are clinical because nyu...
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2003

Loose talk in chat room costs operator

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday ordered the operator of an Internet chat room to pay a total of 4 million yen to a cosmetics firm and its head because content on one of its message boards defamed them.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 13, 2003

Misogynistic politicians get away with the gaffes

The recent series of verbal gaffes committed by Japanese politicians has whet the media's appetite for high-calorie, low-nutrition "gotcha" quotes.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2003

Alleged rape comments draw flak

The Democratic Party of Japan will pursue alleged remarks by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, the gender equality minister, suggesting scantily clad women are partially to blame for rapes, senior DPJ lawmaker Yoshihiko Noda said Friday.

Longform

Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
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