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BUSINESS
Oct 5, 2006

Toshiba's Westinghouse takeover is nearly done

Toshiba Corp. said Wednesday it expected to complete its takeover of Westinghouse Electric Co., the U.S. producer of atomic power plant equipment, by the end of the month.
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...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2006

May the least undesirable candidate win

WARSAW -- The late British Prime Minister Harold Wilson used to quip that "a week is a long time in politics." In the 30 or so weeks between now and the next French presidential election, any prediction made today could be reversed, and reversed again, before the vote.
EDITORIALS
Oct 1, 2006

Mr. Abe takes the stage

I n his first Diet policy speech, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe emphasized opening the economy further, building a healthy, safe and "energized" society, carrying out financial reconstruction decisively, "resuscitating education" and switching to an assertive diplomacy.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 1, 2006

Salarymen: a dying breed of worker?

21ST-CENTURY JAPANESE MANAGEMENT: New Systems, Lasting Values, by James C. Abegglen. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, 194 pp., $80 (cloth). Japan is back and its companies are leading the charge. The process of reinventing corporate Japan continues apace, but does not mean a repudiation of core values....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2006

Abe makes reform pitch

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged Friday in his first Diet policy speech that the government will step up structural reforms, promote technological innovation to foster growth in the economy, and instill a nationalist mind-set.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 29, 2006

Omi defends shelving sales tax hike talk

The new finance minister's statement Wednesday that discussion to raise the consumption tax will only begin next fall has sparked speculation that he will not carry out the last administration's long-term plans to cut the debt and that it's a ploy for his party to fare well in next summer's Upper House...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2006

Street spirits plug in and out

In Japan these days, music and politics don't generally sit well together. On the face of it, a group who seem to have bucked the system is Osaka's Soul Flower Union, who released a new best of album on Sept. 20 and are now on a nationwide tour.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2006

Abe made prime minister

Newly elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe named his Cabinet on Tuesday, giving most of the posts to his close aides and the people who actively supported him during the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election.
SUMO
Sep 26, 2006

Stop thief -- he took my limelight!

Push came to shove, slap turned into frontal force out and both Hakuho (8-7) and Miyabiyama (9-6) flopped big time. Former sanyaku man Takanowaka took the Juryo title 11-4 after a fierce play-off with Toyozakura and Sawaii took the Makushita title 7-0; albeit securing his final win with a rather distasteful...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2006

Abe may be Ozawa's target of opportunity

The battle is officially on -- Liberal Democratic Party President Shinzo Abe vs. Democratic Party of Japan leader Ichiro Ozawa.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2006

Ethnic minorities hope for better life post-Koizumi

Members of ethnic communities have expressed hope that the new administration, slated to be launched Tuesday by Shinzo Abe, will help improve their living conditions.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 26, 2006

Foreigners make leap from classroom to club

While it appears that only the most basic of artistic demands are placed upon the "gaijin tarento" that pop up periodically on Japanese TV screens, it would be a mistake to assume that Japan fetishizes foreigners in the entertainment business.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 26, 2006

Hanshin soars on final trading day

Hanshin Electric Railway Co. ended its last trading day on the Tokyo Stock Exchange sharply higher Monday, reflecting expectations of favorable business effects from its Oct. 1 merger with Hankyu Holdings Inc.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 26, 2006

Latin America struts into the fashion spotlight

Ever since Gisele Bundchen attained supermodel status, Brazil has been going catwalk crazy. Now the country is hoping that the fashion world will recognize it as not only an exporter of top models but also as a center for the creation of designer clothing.
COMMENTARY
Sep 25, 2006

Sticky bureaucratic fingers

It used to be said that Japanese bureaucrats were first rate while politicians were third rate. That's no longer true, as evidenced by an appalling spate of scandals involving slush funds in the central and local governments.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 25, 2006

Supreme Court ruling doesn't hold water

NEW YORK -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia can't be serious. In a recent decision he penned, he quoted "a famous exchange" in the 1942 movie "Casablanca" and a tale about "an Eastern guru" exclaiming, "Ah, after that it is turtles all the way down." The first quote was intended to deride the...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 24, 2006

Dark tales of a neglected Tokyo underclass

ABANDON THE OLD IN TOKYO by Yoshihiro Tatsumi, edited and designed by Adrian Tomine, introduction by Koji Suzuki. Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly, 200 pp., $19.95 (cloth). An old man is reduced by the debt that has ruined him to performing like a dog ("Why don't you spin around three times and bark?")....
BUSINESS
Sep 24, 2006

Common economic statistics sought

The government has decided to introduce common standards to determine economic statistics in cooperation with other Asia-Pacific nations as well as the United States for easier mutual comparison, officials said Saturday.
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 24, 2006

Koizumi's Shake, Rattle & Roll

Elvis impersonator? Japan's Thatcher? Faction buster? Nah, as the curtain falls on the Koizumi show, he will be remembered above all for his missed opportunities and self-indulgent gestures at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo -- that, and steamrollering the Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 into oblivion....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 24, 2006

Monkey business can be serious literature

MONKEY by Wu Cheng-en, translated by Arthur Waley. London: Penguin Books, 2006, 352 pp., £9.99 (paper). After many years out of print, this famous translation, originally published in 1942, is this autumn back in the bookstores. It is a partial rendering of a 16th-century Chinese classic text, otherwise...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 23, 2006

Weak 'expose' on bungs proof issue is becoming passe

LONDON -- Panorama promised to "rock the foundations of football" but in the end we were neither shaken nor stirred by a program in which the so-called whistle-blowers proved to be the unscrupulous characters rather than the bung-taking managers they were supposedly "exposing."
BUSINESS
Sep 23, 2006

Sapporo, Fukuoka bourses told to improve standards

The Financial Services Agency on Friday issued business improvement orders to the Sapporo Securities Exchange and the Fukuoka Stock Exchange, saying they don't have proper internal standards to monitor stock transactions.
BUSINESS
Sep 23, 2006

JAL Hotels discussing plans to go public in fiscal 2008

JAL Hotels Co., a unit of financially distressed Japan Airlines Corp., is planning to list its shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's second section in fiscal 2008, according to sources.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2006

Nobel winners to coach for science

Nobel prize laureates, business leaders and others agreed Friday to set up a committee in January to coach junior and senior high school students for the "science Olympics."

Longform

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