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Reader Mail
Aug 1, 2007

Stellar conviction rate is suspect

My early experience with the police here was positive. Officers manning police boxes were kind, giving directions when I lost my way. Since then, what I have read and heard has spun my view 180 degrees. Japanese police are a danger to law-abiding foreigners and Japanese citizens alike.
BUSINESS
Aug 1, 2007

HMV sells Japanese store chain

HMV Group PLC, Britain's largest music retailer, said Tuesday it agreed to sell its Japanese store chain to Daiwa Securities Group Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. for ¥17 billion in cash.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 1, 2007

E-cash silencing the jingle of change

Since major electronic money services emerged in 2001, it has become common in Tokyo for people to go through ticket gates by just touching a smart card to electronic readers at train stations and to make small purchases without pulling out their wallets at convenience stores. Japan's cash-based tradition...
BUSINESS
Aug 1, 2007

Sharp plans ¥380 billion LCD plant

Sharp Corp., Japan's largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, said Tuesday it will invest ¥380 billion on the industry's most advanced manufacturing factory to catch up to Samsung Electronics Co.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2007

Abe looks to shake up Cabinet

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday he will change his Cabinet lineup sometime after an extraordinary Diet session next week, as the ruling bloc licked its wounds from its drubbing in the House of Councilors election.
SOCCER
Jul 30, 2007

Osim admits mistakes after disappointing finish in Asian Cup

HANOI — Ivica Osim felt he had "dropped his trousers" for the second straight game as Japan's Asian Cup campaign ended with an embarrassing penalty shootout defeat to 10-man South Korea in Saturday's third-place playoff.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jul 30, 2007

How a woman portrayed Hitler as human

NEW YORK — What kind of courage, or audacity even, is required to stage, in Washington, a play featuring Adolf Hitler — one provocatively titled "My Friend Hitler" and written no less than by Yukio Mishima? After all, not just Hitler, but anything associated with Hitler is condemned here. And Mishima...
EDITORIALS
Jul 28, 2007

Quake shakes nuclear power industry

News reports continue to shed light on the damage inflicted on Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant by the magnitude-6.8 earthquake that struck Niigata and Nagano prefectures July 16. Most worrying is a report that the tremors were more than double the quake-design benchmark...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 28, 2007

Giants southpaw hurler Utsumi steals spotlight, tosses two-hit shutout on 'Nioka Day'

The Yomiuri Giants may have been planning to honor nine-year veteran Tomohiro Nioka on Friday night, but it was pitcher Tetsuya Utsumi who stole the show.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 28, 2007

Marine Day sets off startling new theory on global terrorism

As you know, the national holiday on July 16, called Marine Day, has come and gone. Or, to be more correct, it came in on the typhoon and left on the typhoon.
JAPAN / History
Jul 27, 2007

Is blunt-speaking Aso next act after Abe?

Foreign Minister Taro Aso looked satisfied on the evening of Sept. 20, 2006 — right after the results of the Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election came in.
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2007

BOJ yet to decide timing of rate increase, Noda says

The Bank of Japan has yet to decide when it will next raise interest rates, BOJ Policy Board member Tadao Noda said Thursday, declining to be drawn into speculating on whether the bank will increase borrowing costs next month.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2007

Do faults run deeper than Tepco safety vows?

technical matters as well as the aspect of management." Right after the temblor hit, water started leaking from the spent fuel pool at the No. 6 reactor and a transformer fire started at the No. 3 reactor that burned for about two hours. Tepco eventually reported 63 problems at the complex, including...
EDITORIALS
Jul 26, 2007

Time to pass judgment

As the Upper House election campaign enters its final phase, polls suggest that the Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito are facing a tough battle. But as Democratic Party of Japan leader Ichiro Ozawa has said, the results will not be known until the ballot boxes are opened. In...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 25, 2007

Homers power 'Stars past Giants

Kimiyasu Kudo and the Yokohama BayStars did everything they could in the first five innings to build a big lead against the Yomiuri Giants Tuesday night at Tokyo Dome. Though in the last three, it took everything they had just to hold on.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat