American Buddhist Net

Tokyo - The Japanese government has come under fire for a tuition-fee-waiver programme approved Friday, which critics say would discriminate against Korean students if North Korean schools in the country are excluded. A House of Representatives committee approved the bill to waive educational fees at public high schools. The bill would also allow private schools to be granted 120,000 yen to 240,000 yen (1,330 to 2,660 dollars) per student depending on the student's household income.

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by Gavan McCormack

For a country in which ultra-nationalism was for so long a problem, the weakness of nationalism in contemporary Japan is puzzling. Six and a half decades after the war ended, Japan still clings to the apron of its former conqueror. Government and opinion leaders want Japan to remain occupied, and are determined at all costs to avoid offence to the occupiers. US forces still occupy lands they then took by force, especially in Okinawa, while the Government of Japan insists they stay and pays them generously to do so. Furthermore, despite successive revelations of the deception and lies (the secret agreements) that have characterized the Ampo relationship, one does not hear any public voice calling for a public inquiry into it.2 Instead, on all sides one hears only talk of "deepening" it. In particular, the US insists the Futenma Marine Air Station on Okinawa must be replaced by a new military complex at Henoko, and with few exceptions politicians and pundits throughout the country nod their heads.

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Japan's representative for this year's Miss Universe contest has been selected. On Tuesday, the 2010 Miss Universe Japan finals were held in Tokyo, and 25-year-old Maiko Itai was crowned as the winner.

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An activist from New Zealand has been arrested by Japan's coastguard after he boarded a Japanese whaling ship in the Southern Ocean last month.

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LUANG PRABANG, Laos--More than 10 percent of the Buddha statues in Luang Prabang, an ancient city in Laos whose urban district is designated as a World Heritage Site, have gone missing in the past few years, according to Minobusan University in Minobucho, Yamanashi Prefecture.

According to the Buddhist university, whose students help restore statues in Luang Prabang, 120 Buddha statues are missing. As historical legacies related to the world's heritage are being lost, the Laotian government has begun conservation efforts with support from the university.

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Jan 11, 2010

TOKYO — A Japanese woman who drove home with the body of an 80-year-old pedestrian lodged in her windscreen has been arrested on charges of causing a deadly traffic accident and fleeing the scene, police said Monday.

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Loud, obnoxious, and naughty children are the bane of many parents’ existence. Thankfully for the parents in Japan’s Oga Peninsula, Akita Prefecture in northern Honshu, Japan, there is a solution: the infamous Namahage.

Namahage is an annual ritual in which dozens of young hotshots dressed like Namahage demons descend upon a village in the hope of scaring its prepubescent residents into total parental submission. It’s basically a Scared Straight program for naughty Japanese children.

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TOKYO — Japan ended decades of denials on Tuesday by confirming the existence of secret cold war-era agreements with Washington that, among other things, had allowed American nuclear-armed warships to sail into Japanese ports in violation of Japan’s non-nuclear policies.

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HIGASHI-CHICHIBU, Saitama -- A Buddhist monk has been arrested for allegedly setting fire to his temple and property after insuring them for about 300 million yen, police said.

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Reporting from Tokyo and Seoul - As a former South Korean intelligence agent, Kim Young-kwang knows all about subterfuge, secret documents and international intrigue.

But that's just soulless spy craft compared with what he considers the most engaging case of his life. It's a 100-year-old riddle that involves heroes from two nations, a Chinese prison, a Buddhist monk, a dose of Seoul politics -- and a voice from the grave.

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MITO, Ibaraki Pref. (Kyodo) The annual "natto" fermented soybean speed-eating contest was held Saturday in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, drawing 72 contestants including competitive eating regulars from various parts of Japan and eight people from overseas countries such as Australia.

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The US and Japan are set to see the biggest rise in distressed property sales in the first quarter of 2010, says RICS research.

Real estate professionals expect the number of distressed properties coming onto the market to increase across 18 out of 25 countries surveyed.

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China has asked Japan to offer an appropriate resolution to the plight of eight Chinese victims forced into serving as "comfort women" for Japanese soldiers during World War II.

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Japanese designers Nendo have completed the interior of a mental health clinic in Akasaka, Tokyo, where none of the doors open and patients and staff instead move around the building by opening sections of the walls.

...By providing alternate perspectives for viewing the world, and avoiding being trapped by pre-existing perceptions, the interior allows visitors–and staff members–to experience opening new doors in their hearts, one after the other.

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By Peter J Brown

Japan's Okinotori Island, which has a Tokyo postal address even though it lies roughly 1,770 kilometers south of the capital and it is actually a pair of tiny islets, has become a bone of contention for China.

Among other things, China refuses to grant it island status, and refers to it instead as an atoll, reef or simply a rock. By doing so, China hopes to throttle back Japan's plan to create an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) there. The dispute over Okinotori, which Japan calls Okinotorishima, persists because it involves strategic concerns and rights to undersea resources over an area that is roughly equivalent to the entire land mass of the four main Japanese islands.

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When a baby is stillborn in Japan, it’s supposedly common practice to have a ceremony called “Mizuko kuyo”. The statues in these photographs are representative of the Buddhist diety “Jizo”, often seen as the guardian of children and travelers.

The statues are used by parents of stillborn children and dedicated to the spirit of the child. As a result, most of them are dressed up in some type of children’s clothing, and laden with toys and trinkets.

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The uniforms of Japan Airlines flight attendants are being sold to the local sex industry after they became highly sought after by fetishists, it has emerged.

While several shops have created credible imitations, uniforms worn by air stewardesses have become worth their weight in gold for customers keen on role-playing fantasies, reports News.com.au.

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Researchers in Japan have created the first superconducting material based on a molecule of carbon and hydrogen atoms. Although the superconducting transition occurs at a chilly 18K, the simplicity of the molecule, which consists of just five benzene rings, suggests that it will open the door to other molecules that have higher transition temperatures.

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NARA--Six-meter torches appearing one after another in the Nigatsudo hall of Todaiji temple marked a dramatic start Monday night to Shuni-e, a Buddhist ceremony that celebrates the coming of spring.

The torches used in the Omizutori (water drawing) procession are placed to light the footpath for priests, called Rengyoshu, who are bound for the hall.

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Japan's top Internet forum 2channel was offline Tuesday after an apparent mass hacker attack from South Korea over slanderous comments on their Olympic figure skating queen Kim Yu-Na.

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OTA CITY, Japan (Reuters Life!) - Tired of an unsatisfying relationship, the sluggish economy or just your own bad habits? Now you really can flush it all down the toilet.

The Mantokuji temple in Japan's central Gumma prefecture was once an asylum for women who wanted to cut marital ties with their husbands, a function now made obsolete by modern divorce laws and family courts.

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TOKYO: Japan pushed Tuesday to lift a 24-year-old ban on commercial whaling, setting up a clash at talks in Florida with implacable foes opposed to its pursuit of the giant mammals.

Tokyo’s position against the International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium risked new tensions with environmental campaigners and Australia, which has slapped Japan with a legal ultimatum unless it stops whaling.

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TOKYO — Next time your girlfriend wants to go see a statue of Buddha, be aware that she might have an ideal man on her mind. No, not you. Buddha.

The Japanese media is famous for creating categories to describe people and trends, like “soshoku danshi” (herbivore boys), who are more interested in hobbies than the opposite sex. Now, we have the “bosatsu danshi,” or Buddha boy.

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No reports of serious damage after magnitude-6.9 temblor

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Poverty is not first thing that comes to mind when you think of Japan. After all, there are no children begging on the streets in major cities here. You do not often see Japanese citizens publicly venting their frustrations over the country's economic decline. But senior government researcher Aya Abe says Japan has the fourth-highest rate of poverty among developed countries.

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As the Uzbek-Japanese symposiums titled "Ancient Civilizations and Religions in Uzbekistan: In Search of Origins of Japanese Culture" in Japan have concluded, Uzbek and Japanese scientists have resolved to set up a scientific society.

The symposiums were organized at the initiative of the Fund Forum and took place on 15-18 February at Toyo University in Tokyo and Nara University in Japan's Kansai Region.

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Squirrel Fishing: The New Catch And Release Sport That Grabs Squirrels By The Nuts!

...No South Korean figure skater has won an Olympic medal, much less gold, as is expected from the willowy Kim, 19. So not only does she have to shoulder enormous athletic expectations, but also Kim’s main rivals, Mao Asada and Miki Ando, are from Japan, which occupied the Korean peninsula for 35 years through the end of World War II.

More than a half-century later, South Korea’s nationalistic fervor and sense of victimhood still inform sporting rivalries between the two nations.

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East meets West meets Kirsten Dunst as Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami collaborates with Hollywood director McG for a short film

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See the video just below. ABN

turning japanese