Racy Japan ritual defies critics in hairy chest row
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TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - Dozens of half-naked men rolled around in the snow in a ritualized brawl at a temple in northern Japan, as one of the country's raciest festivals defied a row over posters featuring a hairy, bare-chested reveler.
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KYOTO, Japan -- His fingers muscled from almost a century of weaving, Yasujiro Yamaguchi worked the humming loom in his private workshop. Patiently lacing golden threads through a warp of auburn silk, he fashioned a bolt of kimono fabric blooming with an autumn garden in shades of tea green, ginger, and plum.
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MOUNT OMINE, Japan -- At 5 a.m. on a summer day already sticky with humidity, three dozen ascetic priests known as ''yamabushi&quot; -- ''those who lie down in the mountains&quot; -- have gathered at the foot of this mountain in southern Japan to pray before climbing its sacred slopes.
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Many Japanese fans - including the prime minister - are proud to see Daisuke Matsuzaka don a Red Sox uniform.
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Thousands of Japanese fans rocked  to the rhythm of a virtual techno beat act as a global concert  aimed at persuading millions of fans to go green for the  environment moved onto a venue near Tokyo on Saturday.
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Japan's new imperial baby has been named Hisahito in a traditional ceremony in hospital in the capital, Tokyo.
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Will Japanese PM stir controversy with his New Year's day visit to a shrine honoring war criminals?
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Japanese love hotels offer privacy to paramours wishing to copulate in peace, as they have for decades. A new book by photographer Misty Keasler documents their high-tech makeover -- game consoles, karaoke boxes, sex machines and more. By Lisa Katayama.
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World's largest mammal is regarded as a delicacy in Japan, but seen as a cause in the West.
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Tycho:  Otherwise engaged on Wednesday, Tokyo had a head start on us - its powerful newsings daring to accrue, even as we were being sodomized at the border crossing.  Much of this content was indecipherable.  But we can still point and shriek, like when a monolith descends.
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The birth of a male heir ends for now the debate over whether women should be allowed to ascend JapanÂs throne.
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A raven-haired Miss Japan, Riyo Mori, was crowned Miss Universe 2007 on Monday in a contest marked by protests, a banned dress and the withdrawal of one beauty queen on the grounds the pageant degrades women.
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Furor over the issue of war-era sex slaves highlighted yet again Japanâs unresolved history in the region.
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In Japan there are night schools for everything, including how to pick up women on the streets. Lisa Katayama reports from Tokyo.
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Condemnations rang out from several corners in Japan today after a 38-year-old U.S. Marine was accused of raping a 14-year-old local girl in Okinawa. Police also released more details of the alleged crime, saying the Marine had offered to take the girl home on his motorcycle.
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An animated movie based on a British children's tale of magic and wizardry has cast a spell over Japanese moviegoers.
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Japan's democracy may work smoothly, but its politics are still dominated by change-resistant dynasties that limit voter choice