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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 11, 2006

A way forward?

Last month, Diet member and Senior Vice Minister of Justice Taro Kono publicized a new action plan for immigration.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 7, 2006

Foreign carmakers cash in as the rich get richer

One Sunday in June, a man in his 30s visited the spacious BMW showroom in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 29, 2006

Clay captures the motion of organic forms

Seeming to peer out the window of the gallery is a brightly colored red and blue polka-dot blob. For a moment the amorphous shape looks like it is slowly crawling up the wall, till further inspection suggests that the piece is actually still -- or is it? Such is the work of Japanese ceramic artist Chiho...
EDITORIALS
Jun 21, 2006

Medical reforms need work

The laws passed last week by the Diet to curb the growth in the nation's medical spending testify to the government's determination to solve the problem. While the laws include positive elements, they are not problem-free. The government needs to continuously review the nation's medical system. Rationalizing...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 16, 2006

Old tipple with new spirit

KAGOSHIMA -- Some Japanese traditions are best left alone. Those who would attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Kyoto's ancient temples by placing soft-drink machines and loudspeakers inside them deserve the severest form of punishment a society can devise, like being forced to watch a TV program...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 13, 2006

The beautiful game inspires sartorial sins

Soccer might be known as the beautiful game, but it has never inspired beautiful design. As the World Cup in Germany gets into full swing, patriotic fervor will move millions of fans to purchase their team's jersey, resulting in innumerable crimes against good taste.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 11, 2006

Stick-thin, gay, or preferably both -- a television career awaits

Truth in advertising has never been strictly enforced in Japan, especially with regard to health-related claims. Breweries can get away with promoting "low-calorie" beers as weight-loss aids, while pharmaceutical makers sell vitamin supplements that claim to do everything from clear up your skin to help...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jun 3, 2006

Abe's three-run homer off Matsuzaka lifts Giants over Lions

Shinnosuke Abe hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the sixth inning as the Yomiuri Giants rallied to beat the Seibu Lions 4-2 for their third straight win.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 2, 2006

Human dramas revisited

Sky Perfect TV's Japanese movie channel and select cable television stations will celebrate the career of director Shoichiro Sasaki starting on June 16. Sasaki, a former NHK TV drama director, is highly rated not only by TV viewers but also by directors such as Hirokazu Koreeda, Shinya Tsukamoto and...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
May 23, 2006

Hanabi light, Kai series of pots and kettles, 60VISION bags, Sharp cordless phones

Anyone who follows this column regularly might accuse me of being a slave to all that is white -- and with a name like "Snow," that criticism does seem justified. So in order to get it all out of my system (at least for a few months), this month I'm covering all things white. There is a zen-like satisfaction...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 20, 2006

How sweet it is -- or isn't

My wife bakes in flurries and when the storm hits hardest, our kitchen becomes a virtual hurricane of flour and dough, not to mention Category 5 aromas.
JAPAN
May 19, 2006

Incidents reports drop nearly 20%

The number of incidents reported to police by members of the public dropped 19.5 percent in 2005 on the year to 1.4 million, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2006

Beer wannabes' share up before tax

Shipments of beer from the country's five top brewers in April made up less than half the market for beer and beerlike drinks for the first time ever, due partly to stronger demand for cheaper nonmalt drinks, called "third-category beer," industry figures showed Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
May 16, 2006

HIV toll rising in Japan

In the 23 years since the HIV virus was discovered, AIDS has become recognized as a "disease of the poor," one that is "incurable" but "100 percent preventable," in the words of its co-discoverer, Professor Luc Montagnier, president of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention. While over...
JAPAN
May 2, 2006

Female, elderly entrepreneurs on the rise as society grays

The number of women and elderly people preparing to start new businesses has been rising amid the aging of the population and consequent decrease in the number of small and midsize companies as their owners retire, a recent government report says.
BUSINESS
May 2, 2006

New Corporate Law sets stage for LLCs, M&As

The new Corporate Law took effect Monday, setting a legal basis for business activities. The law eases restrictions on company management, aiming to give them a freer hand in decision-making and encouraging entrepreneurialism.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2006

For Golden Week this year, go to a spa and stay close to home

Golden Week may have arrived, but that doesn't mean everyone has elaborate travel plans -- some may be too busy, while others hate the crowds and shun the absurdly expensive air tickets during the holiday season.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Apr 25, 2006

Amadana appliances, Metaphys' Cyclone Cleaner, Jurgen Lehl furniture, Yukimasa Matsuda/Groovisions for Kokuyo

This month we go freestyle, working with our gut instinct about what we like right now. So whether it's adding a dash of design spice to the kitchen, or taking care of your basic cleaning needs, we guarantee that you'll be keeping house in style.
MORE SPORTS
Apr 24, 2006

Tsukada notches fifth straight title

Olympic gold medalist Maki Tsukada won her fifth consecutive title with an ippon victory over Mai Tateyama at the women's national judo championship on Sunday.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2006

Enhanced H5N1 response planned

The health ministry has decided to designate the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza as an infectious disease, officials said.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 9, 2006

Looking at the big picture of Kyoto

CAPITALSCAPES: Folding Screens and Political Imagination in Late Medieval Kyoto, by Matthew Philip McKelway. Honolulu, University of Hawai'i Press, 2006, 282 pp., 24 color plates, numerous b/w illustrations, $56.00 (cloth). One of the major formats in the history of Japanese painting are the byobu-e,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2006

Foreign students' goal of career proves elusive

In line with the government's campaign launched in 1983 to boost the number of foreign students in Japan to the 100,000 mark, the figure came to some 117,000 in 2004.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 31, 2006

Metamorphosis through butoh

Like most butoh troupes, Sankai Juku shave their heads and paint themselves a ghostly white. But unlike their contemporaries, this second-generation butoh unit, founded by Artistic Director Ushio Amagatsu in 1975, has spent almost as much time abroad (especially with their many coproductions at the Thea^tre...
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2006

New rules to doom used electrical goods shops?

The phones at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry have been ringing off the hook since early February when it suddenly and quietly changed its enforcement of a 2001 law on electrical appliance safety.
BUSINESS
Mar 25, 2006

Rain factor hit February store sales

Sales at supermarkets fell 1.7 percent in February from the year before on a same-store basis for a second straight monthly decline, while department store sales rebounded 0.5 percent following a marginal fall in January, industry groups said Friday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 24, 2006

The Ornette Coleman Quartet

One of the most controversial and innovative musicians in jazz, Ornette Coleman virtually defined the avant-garde, along with Cecil Taylor and John Coltrane. Their work in the 1960s found ways forward when jazz started to languish and left little musical territory unexplored. Among the many jazz radicals...
EDITORIALS
Mar 20, 2006

Unfinished business for women

Twenty years after the much heralded gender-equality law went into effect in Japan, women still face discrimination in the workplace -- in ways less apparent but just as effective in limiting their promotional opportunities and so also widening the wage gap with male colleagues.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2006

Ministry fights court disclosure order

The Foreign Ministry filed an appeal Monday with the Tokyo High Court over a lower court ruling that rescinded a 2001 ministry rejection of a citizen group's request for the disclosure of documents on discretionary diplomatic funds, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 15, 2006

How will delisting impact Livedoor?

The Tokyo Stock Exchange will delist Livedoor Co. on April 14, depriving the Internet company of the ability to raise capital on the market. How will the move affect Livedoor? Here are some questions and answers that address the firm's possible fate:

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?