Word: nishi
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...dangerous development," but Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi downplayed it, saying his government would respond "in a cool-headed manner." Unimpressed, last Friday Korea's Foreign Ministry rebuffed Koizumi's suggestion that he and Roh hold a summit meeting to help heal the rift. Japanese papers like the Nishi Nihon Shimbun have attributed Roh's pugnacity to his domestic political concerns, suggesting that Japan need not take his speech too seriously: "An uncompromising stance against Japan plays well into the anti-Japan nationalist sentiment of the people, which could improve his low approval ratings." One columnist openly doubted that...
...outside and, commanded by the senior boys, jogged in formation about two kilometers to the school. They jogged across the Shin Koi Bridge over the Ota River spillway, across a slim space of land to another bridge, which spanned the Tenma River, across another strip of land and the Nishi Heiwa Bridge over the Honkawa, finally crossing the Heiwa Bridge over the Motoyasu River. About 100 meters from the school gate, Kawamoto and his classmates were ordered to halt and march regimentally the rest...
...wasn't alone. In a sweep that jolted the nation, police last week raided about 10 locations (including two homes in Nishi-Kawaguchi) and arrested five foreign men suspected to have been in contact with Lionel Dumont, a 33-year-old Frenchman believed to have ties to al-Qaeda. Dumont was arrested in Germany in December and extradited to France last month for crimes he was convicted of committing there in the 1990s while a member of a radical Islamist group known as the Roubaix gang. For now, four of the men-two from Bangladesh, one from Mali and another...
...approximately 70,000 Muslims living in Japan, the widening probe is worrying for a different reason. At the Medina masjid one town over from Nishi-Kawaguchi, mosque chairman Raees Siddiqui, a 53-year-old Pakistani, is happy to chat about a possible backlash against Muslims due to the arrests, but he only has a few minutes: the 30-year resident of Japan, who runs a million-dollar used-car export business, says he has to be at the police station soon. No, he's not wanted for anything, or even questioning, he replies, simultaneously offended and amused at the suggestion...
...with a rapidly aging population, a major influx of foreign labor may well be the only way the nation can stay economically competitive. Yet many Japanese believe the immigration barriers aren't stringent enough, especially in the wake of the arrests. Tsuneo Taya is a tofu-shop owner in Nishi-Kawaguchi who often saw one of the recently detained men on the street, usually well-dressed and talking on his cell phone. He says the arrests have made him think twice about the delicate balance between immigration and security. "You don't want to discriminate," he says...