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Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / COUNTER CULTURE
Dec 17, 2004

Delicatessens delight Tokyo

Everyone hankers after a little luxury in their life and in food-fixated Japan the latest in retail therapy is splashing out on fancy imported snacks or take-home dishes prepared by expert chefs.
EDITORIALS
Dec 17, 2004

Better ways to share tax money

Local governments in Japan, like the central government, are heavily in debt. The deficit problem is adding to difficulties in budget talks between the Finance and Internal Affairs ministries. The key question is how much national tax revenue should be transferred to local administrations in fiscal 2005....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 17, 2004

Raising a glass to the Food File's faves

The goose is getting fat and so too is your humble correspondent, after another year of gobbling his way through some of the best dining that Tokyo has to offer -- not to mention a sizable dollop of the mediocre and worse. But it's not just gluttony that keeps the Food File going, nor merely devotion...
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Dec 16, 2004

Reflections on rich learnings we all shared

When I began writing this column, I thought it would be a one-year gig. My editors thought so too. But things went well, and for nearly four years now I've reported in this space about my children's experiences in Japanese school.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 15, 2004

Director falters and then triumphs

Few names resonate more powerfully in the world of theater than that of Hamlet, Shakespeare's youthful Prince of Denmark. In whatever language, somewhere in the world right now, an actor is likely embarking on that famously challenging soliloquy beginning "To be or not to be . . ."
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 15, 2004

Nagashima's son named adviser

The Yomiuri Giants said Tuesday they have named Kazushige Nagashima, son of former manager and star player Shigeo Nagashima, as a special adviser for the team.
JAPAN
Dec 14, 2004

Disaster broadcasts via cell phone eyed

More than a year has passed since terrestrial digital broadcasting services began a new TV era in Japan, with the services spreading to rural prefectures.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 14, 2004

Right side of the law

Sacked without notice I was working for an English-language school in Tokyo and got fired without any notice at all. My one-year contract doesn't expire for four more months. Can they do that?
LIFE / Travel
Dec 14, 2004

Mongolia: Land of yesterday and tomorrow

ULAN BATOR Mongolia has been called "one of the last unspoiled travel destinations in Asia," and, indeed, the traveler feels not only in another country but in another century.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 12, 2004

Nihon TV's "Sekai wo Kakeru Hiro-tachi" and more

The aura surrounding people who become successful abroad is perhaps more pronounced in Japan than in other countries. There's a sense that the cultural gulf separating Japan from the rest of the world is deeper and more difficult to cross, so when someone does it successfully it seems more impressive....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 12, 2004

Lord Shrimp gets deep-fried over New Year's special

While surfing for coverage of the most recent NHK scandal on commercial television, I naturally had my radar tuned for expressions of schadenfreude, especially on the wide shows, where commentators enjoy a little more freedom to be critical. But there hasn't been much gloating. Last Monday, the host...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

Kenyan marathoner struck blind turns disability into gold medals

Winner of three gold medals at the Sydney and Athens Paralympics, Henry Wanyoike also broke the world record at the marathon for the visually disabled held in Boston this year, completing the race in 2 hours, 33 minutes and 20 seconds.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

SDF set to shed its 'nonmilitary' shell

Since their establishment in 1954, the Self-Defense Forces have never had to be mobilized to defend Japan from attack.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

Yokota furor spells end to food aid for North Korea, Machimura says

North Korea will not receive the remaining half of its food aid package from Japan, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Friday.
BUSINESS
Dec 11, 2004

Tax hikes could be recipe for recession, analysts say

Books and Web sites devoted to the art of economizing describe the savings per month from "recycling" leftovers by putting them in stews and tempura (2,600 yen), taking shorter showers (540 yen) and flushing toilets at low-intensity (720 yen).
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 11, 2004

Controversial Hoddle given one more chance by Wolves

LONDON -- "You and I have been physically been given two hands and two legs and a half-decent brain. Some people have not been born like that for a reason.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2004

Extended Iraq tour a given from get-go

Although media opinion polls showed most respondents opposed extending the Self-Defense Forces deployment to Iraq, the government never seriously discussed a pullout of the Japanese troops from the war-torn country at the Dec. 14 end of their one-year mission.
EDITORIALS
Dec 10, 2004

Challenges for Mr. Karzai

Afghanistan's three-year drive for stability reached a milestone when Mr. Hamid Karzai was sworn in Tuesday as its first popularly elected president. But the road is strewn with obstacles. Ethnic and tribal divisions are clouding prospects for national unity. As yet, there is no end in sight to terrorist...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Dec 10, 2004

Six sure-fire gift ideas for fellow wine-lovers

There appears to be an entire cottage industry dedicated to making the kind of wine-themed gifts that imbibers everywhere are hoping not to receive this season -- our favorite of which is the doormat which says, "We love good wine. Did you bring any?"
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Dec 9, 2004

Long-tailed tit

* Japanese name: Enaga * Scientific name: Aegithalos caudatus * Description:The long-tailed tit is a small, fluffy, pinkish bird; it would be the Bridget Jones of the bird world if only it were better fed. The flanks and shoulders are pink-brown; the eyes red; the wings black; and the tail, which is...
EDITORIALS
Dec 9, 2004

Closing the curtain on a hard life

Mr. Charles Jenkins on Tuesday arrived in Sado, Niigata Prefecture, together with his wife Ms. Hitomi Soga, a former abductee to North Korea, and their two daughters after serving a short sentence for desertion from the U.S. Army. Sado is Ms. Soga's hometown. Procedures for Mr. Jenkins' dishonorable...
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2004

Safety line on Samawah repeated

The secretaries general of the Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, New Komeito, said Wednesday that the security situation in Samawah, southern Iraq, is safe enough for Japanese troops there to stay beyond Tuesday's deadline.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2004

'Sesame Street' making waves -- in Japanese

Rena Mizushiro sits in a cramped position with other puppeteers as she works her character, Teena, to sing in a scene about Elmo's birthday in "Sesame Street."
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2004

Koizumi's ministers endorse SDF extension

Key members of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet effectively agreed Tuesday to keep ground troops in Iraq for another year, and are preparing to make a formal decision possibly Thursday.

Longform

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