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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 11, 2006

Mary Ishin Sung Katayama

Educated in Japan and the U.S., and each year making frequent official trips to Europe, Mary Ishin Sung Katayama says that she thinks of herself as borderless. "I love to travel and feel a need to be on the go every month or two," she said.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Nov 3, 2006

A wave to Setagaya

Home to approximately one tenth of the total citizenry of all of Tokyo's 23 wards, Setagaya houses 800,000 people, the same figure as the population for the entire island of Oahu, Hawaii. At both places, people seem to have come in waves.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 22, 2006

Something 'beautiful' that leaders may not see from on high

Sometimes a very significant event in the life of a country passes largely unnoticed, particularly if it occurs away from the center of power. Just such a thing happened on the 11th of this month.
BUSINESS
Oct 21, 2006

Daiei operating profit up, net profit down

Daiei Inc. said Friday its operating profit for its March-August half was 25.45 billion yen, up 41.9 percent from the previous year, on sales of 672.1 billion yen, due to strong sales in its credit card subsidiary OMC Card Inc.
EDITORIALS
Oct 18, 2006

A more user-friendly legal system

A nationwide system now offers people easy access to legal advice and services. On Oct. 2, the services of Nihon Shiho Shien Senta (Japan Legal Support Center) or Ho Terasu (Law Terrace) became available to anyone, including those involved in civil cases or those who have been arrested on suspicion of...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2006

Foley makes a Democratic victory likely

The Rev. Elmer Gantry was reading an illustrated pink periodical devoted to prize-fighters and chorus girls in his room at Elizabeth J. Schmutz Hall late of an afternoon when two large men walked in without knocking.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 5, 2006

Departing director created a new platform for contemporary art in Tokyo

It would have been difficult to find a more dramatic backdrop for last week's press conference announcing that Mori Art Museum's British-born director David Elliott will be leaving after October, and that his second-in-command, Fumio Nanjo, will take over the helm of Japan's largest privately endowed...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 3, 2006

Divorce and tenant troubles

Divorce Reader SJ and his wife were married nearly 40 years ago in the United States. At that time, SJ agreed to list her as half-owner of our home. For various reasons, the couple now do not get along and are on the way to separation or divorce.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2006

Young and tech-savvy, India's market remains largely untapped

Japanese companies increasingly look to India for business opportunities, but they have yet to fully tap the potential of one of the world's fastest-growing economies with its vast pool of skilled human resources, said participants in a recent symposium in Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Sep 29, 2006

Megalopolis land prices rise at last

A survey by the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry shows that, as of July 1, average land prices in the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya megalopolis areas rose from the previous year for the first time since 1990 -- 3.6 percent for commercial areas and 0.4 percent for residential areas. In contrast,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 28, 2006

Fumio Nanjo to replace David Elliott

The Mori Art Museum's director, David Elliott, will leave his post at the end of October to take a position as the new director of the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art in Turkey. The news was announced Wednesday at a press conference at Roppongi Hills, where Elliott spoke of his five years in Tokyo working...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 5, 2006

Nuptials and moldy tatami

B&B Angelie asks what kind of business licenses are needed to open a Bed & Breakfast here in Japan. "I went to the local city office and walked away with tons of information on opening a ryokan . . . which is not what I had in mind at all."
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2006

Toho Housing buys back Aneha-tainted condos

Toho Housing Co. has bought back all 32 units of a Tokyo condominium complex constructed with data fabricated by disgraced architect Hidetsugu Aneha and started razing the structure with a plan to rebuild it, company sources said Thursday.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 27, 2006

TBS's "Message," TV Tokyo's "Dawn of Gaia" and more

Aug. 28 marks the 53rd anniversary of the very first broadcast of a television commercial in Japan, and as a way of commemorating the event TBS has produced a special two-hour drama, "Message" (Monday, 9 p.m.), about Toshi Sugiyama, who is considered the most innovative TV commercial director in the...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 23, 2006

Bottled water and problems that flow

Having just spent several weeks in the United States, I can report with confidence that, more than ever before, Americans have their hands full.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2006

Osaka rights funds, 'buraku' kingpin, mob enjoy shady ties

OSAKA -- Calls for fundamental changes in how Osaka funds human rights activities are mounting following new allegations of fraud and discoveries of further links involving a disgraced former official representing the "burakumin" community and underworld figures.
BUSINESS
Aug 15, 2006

July bankruptcies up but total debt is on decline

July saw 1,051 corporate bankruptcies, up 2.6 percent from 1,024 a year earlier, a private research institute said Monday.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 6, 2006

Many happy returns to my Tokyo village past and present

As readers of this column last week may recall, I wrote there about a period in the early 1980s when my wife and I lived in the western Tokyo suburb of Soshigaya in Setagaya Ward. Three of our four children were born in the local hospital, and we have only the fondest memories of the old neighborhood....
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2006

Land prices log first rise in 14 years

The average price of land along selected key thoroughfares nationwide rose for the first time in 14 years, standing at 114,000 yen per sq. meter as of Jan. 1, up 0.9 percent, or 1,000 yen, over a year earlier, the National Tax Agency said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 30, 2006

Time-capsule Tokyo along a street where I lived

In the early 1980s, my wife and I lived in a tiny flat in Soshigaya on the Odakyu Line in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward. The eldest three of our four children were born then, and I have only the fondest memories of pushing a pram up and down the kilometer-long shotengai (shopping street) between the station...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / U.S. BUSINESS SCHOOL SYMPOSIUM
Jul 27, 2006

U.S. experts urge Japan to embrace transition to postindustrial economy

See related story: Is Japan about to ride an M&A wave, or flounder in just a ripple?
EDITORIALS
Jul 17, 2006

A guy, a paper clip and the Internet

It's tempting to forget about finding a larger meaning in the story of Kyle MacDonald and to just sit back and enjoy it. Mr. MacDonald is the 26-year-old Canadian blogger who has rocketed from Internet cult figure to mainstream news item since he pulled off a remarkable bartering feat recently, trading...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 9, 2006

Looking at Westerners' accounts of the salaryman blues

THE BLUE-EYED SALARYMAN by Niall Murtagh. Profile Books, 2006, 228 pp., £7.99 (paper). The phenomenon didn't start with Lafcadio Hearn, but in his day he became best known for it -- the foreigner who comes to Japan and writes a book about his experiences. His female contemporary, Isabella Bird, was...
EDITORIALS
Jul 8, 2006

Payback time after merging

The drama triggered when the Murakami fund, managed by maverick investor Mr. Yoshiaki Murakami, purchased a large chunk of Hanshin Electric Railway Co. shares came to an end last week as shareholders of both Hanshin and Hankyu Holdings Inc. voted for a merger. It is the first merger of major railway...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 25, 2006

Tokyo's ring of steel

Who would have thought that something that chases its tail all day for a living could be so incredibly important to the workings of a major metropolis?
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2006

Ah, no kids afoot: Empty trains, work till you die

There has been a great deal of hand-wringing in the media and government about Japan's population implosion. A breakdown in the pension system, soaring health-care costs, slower economic growth and a looming labor shortage are just a few of the dark clouds on the horizon.

Longform

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