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BUSINESS
Sep 14, 2005

July mobile-phone shipments down

Domestic shipments of mobile phones, including personal handy-phone system devices, fell 11.4 percent in July from a year earlier to 3.66 million units due to a decline in mobile- and car-phone shipments, an industrial body said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2005

GDP for April-June sharply revised to 0.8% on strong capital spending

The economy expanded a real 0.8 percent in the April-June period from the previous quarter for the third straight quarterly growth, revised upward from a 0.3 percent increase in the initial report, the government said Monday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 12, 2005

Spare us a DVD war

DVD discs are as popular as VHS videotapes at video shops. A Cabinet Office survey shows that about half the households in Japan now have DVD-capable machines. DVD discs are also used in game and car-navigation consoles. Thus DVDs can truly be called a success story that has taken root in our daily life....
EDITORIALS
Sep 11, 2005

The unfriendly skies

A s the vacation season fades into fall, travelers have wended their weary way home from far-flung destinations such as Hawaii, Queensland, Europe and beyond. The problem is, the farther-flung the destination, the wearier the returnees are likely to be -- and the angrier. Not because they didn't enjoy...
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2005

Predict election winners and get a reward

An Internet site has been offering rewards of up to 100,000 yen for predicting the winners in Sunday's House of Representatives election.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 11, 2005

The curious Mr. Longfellow

LONGFELLOW'S TATTOOS: Tourism, Collecting, and Japan, by Christine M.E. Guth. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004, 256 pp., 123 illustrations, $29.95 (paper). After the new Japanese government was officially installed in 1868, only a decade or so after the country had been, more or less, forcibly...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Sep 11, 2005

Assemblywoman puts sex on the agenda

In April 2003, 28-year-old Kanako Otsuji became the youngest person ever elected to the Osaka prefectural assembly when she won the seat for Sakai City. It was a distinction made more special by the fact that there were only six other women in the 110-member assembly at the time. However, another distinction...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 11, 2005

Desperate drones are content to be 'conned' into buying a condo

As long as I've lived in Tokyo I've received phone calls from condominium salespeople. In the past, these solicitations seemed accidental, as if the salespeople had dialed my number at random. But in the last five years the calls have been more deliberate. The salespeople know where I live -- not just...
Japan Times
Features
Sep 11, 2005

What's the Point?

Fabrice Blocteur may not be as well known as Marco Polo, Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan or Sir Francis Drake. But like explorers of old, this French-Canadian resident of a rural Kyoto village is on a quest to rewrite the maps through new discoveries.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2005

Tokyo Fire Department taps taxis for not-so-emergency calls

The Tokyo Fire Department started using cabs Friday to transport people to the hospital if they are not in critical condition so more ambulances can be used for emergency cases, department officials said.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2005

Family-bred politicians fan out

KURASHIKI, Okayama Pref. -- Japanese politics is often a family affair, with the offspring of Diet members winning seats originally held by their fathers, and in some cases, grandfathers.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2005

Chinese warships make show of force at protested gas rig

Five Chinese naval ships, including a guided-missile destroyer, were spotted Friday morning near the Chunxiao gas field in the East China Sea, where Japan and China have a dispute over demarcation, the Maritime Self-Defense Force said.
BUSINESS
Sep 10, 2005

Japanese firms stronger, S&P says

Japanese companies are now in a much better position than in 2001, although some have shown slowing profit growth, Standard & Poor's Ratings Service said Friday.
BUSINESS
Sep 9, 2005

BOJ upgrades economy for third consecutive month

The Bank of Japan on Thursday upgraded its assessment of the economy in its September report for the third straight month.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Sep 9, 2005

Hail Vouvray, Aristocrat of the wine world

Just as The Aristocrats is the dirty joke that comedians tell each other after the punters have gone home, Vouvray is the tipple of choice among sommeliers once the ties have come off at the end of the evening.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2005

Downsizing government sounds great

Downsizing the public sector has been high on the agenda of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government, and both his Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Japan are promising this campaign season to reduce the number of people on the government payroll.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 8, 2005

Could chimp genome answer Plato's question?

In the 1960s, Toshisada Nishida, of Kyoto University, set up a long-term research project in the Mahale Mountains of Tanzania. His aim was to study our closest relatives in the wild. His work, and that of Jane Goodall, whose field site was some 170 km north, in Gombe, transformed the way we view chimps....
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2005

Jan. 1 to see a 'leap second' added

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology said Wednesday it will add a so-called leap second on Jan. 1 to bring the super accurate atomic clock into sync with the Earth's rotation.
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2005

Loyalties to party, candidates put to test

Politics are about making decisions, and some of the most difficult ones are those based on where loyalties lie.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 6, 2005

The empire strikes back

Venerated by militarists and marinated in over a century of militarism and war, Yasukuni Shrine may well be Japan's least friendly venue for a demonstration by pacifists.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2005

Small shops wake up and smell the coffee to fend off big chains

As self-service coffee shop chains saturate the market, their small-scale, often pricey predecessors are feeling the squeeze, and those in Tokyo and Osaka are struggling to survive by focusing on their uniqueness.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 4, 2005

How to beat the high price of Japanese pro baseball tickets

Have you ever thought about going to a Japanese baseball game but, upon checking prices, thought the tickets are rather expensive?
EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 2005

A light on senile dementia

In April the Welfare and Labor Ministry began a nationwide one-year campaign to help others better understand senile dementia. The campaign targets the mental disorder as a top-priority issue to tackle as the graying of the nation's population progresses. The core organization established for the campaign...
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2005

METI vice minister dealt pay cut

Shoichi Nakagawa, minister of economy, trade and industry, announced Monday a 20 percent pay cut for two months for his vice minister, Hideji Sugiyama, over a series of public fund misuse scandals involving officials at METI.
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2005

Airlines to get 14 new slots at Haneda; JAL snubbed

The government will boost the flight capacity of Haneda airport on Oct. 1 by giving domestic carriers 14 daily departure and arrival slots to meet increasing demand, the transport ministry said Monday.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2005

Despite secrecy, 'Yon-sama' met by 600 fans

Popular South Korean actor Bae Yong Joon flew to Japan on Monday to promote his new movie "April Snow."
COMMENTARY
Aug 29, 2005

Japan's green economic edge

There are two meanings to the axiom that the 21st century is the century of the environment: (1) Global environmental problems will become more serious, and (2) environmental problems will be the driving force of economic development.

Longform

It's back to the classroom for some residents as municipal governments across the country conduct lessons to learn how to use new technologies.
Can aging Japan go digital without leaving anyone behind?