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Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
May 16, 2006

Kishagasa

Dear Alice,
LIFE / Language
May 16, 2006

Baseball scoreless in language bout with sumo

When describing efforts by foreigners to gain a foothold in Japan, author/commentator and former president of ASI Market Research (Japan), Inc., George Fields, liked to apply the analogy of pro baseball players and sumo wrestlers. The former, for reasons we shall see, were held up as outsiders who forever...
EDITORIALS
May 15, 2006

Apolitical support to Africa

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi recently visited Ethiopia and Ghana to underscore Japan's continuing efforts to help Africa fight AIDS and other diseases, eliminate poverty and solve conflicts. His visit to sub-Saharan Africa was the first by a Japanese leader since Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori went...
JAPAN
May 15, 2006

Asian nations to get help saving energy

The Natural Resources and Energy Agency will formulate a plan to offer Japan's energy saving technologies and methods to rapidly growing Asian economies, agency officials said.
COMMENTARY
May 15, 2006

The post-Koizumi gauntlet

Japan's political future hinges on the successor to Junichiro Koizumi, whose tenure as president of the governing Liberal Democratic Party and, hence, prime minister will end in four months. Opinion polls show Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe is by far the most popular potential contender for the premiership,...
BUSINESS
May 14, 2006

Softbank, Apple to join cell phones with iPods

Softbank Corp. and Apple Computer Inc. are planning to develop mobile phones equipped with Apple's popular iPod music players, sources said Saturday.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 14, 2006

Fuji TV's "Attention Please," Nihon TV's "Kin no A-sama X Gin no B-sama" and more

In the 1960s the most coveted job for women in Japan was that of a Japan Airlines flight attendant, which was considered both prestigious and a sure way of meeting rich and famous marriage prospects. Though more and more prestigious occupations have opened up for Japanese women since then, a certain...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 14, 2006

Bewitching tales of when a foreign woman takes a Japanese man

Though it boasts one of the highest living standards in the world and a crime rate that is low compared to other developed countries, many of its citizens believe that Japan is a very difficult place to live for non-Japanese. The most commonly held reason for this belief is that the language and social...
BUSINESS
May 13, 2006

Softbank plans online university

Softbank Corp. said Friday the education ministry has accepted its application to set up a four-year, all-online college.
JAPAN
May 13, 2006

Ailing waterfront redevelopers set for rehabilitation

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government filed Friday for court protection under the fast-track civil rehabilitation law for three public-private joint ventures set up in the 1980s for redeveloping a waterfront area along Tokyo Bay.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 13, 2006

Retired volunteer is a pioneer in world blind golf

Toshitake Hirose is tickled pink to think he is the only Japanese-Aussie in the world to be helping blind golfers play the game they love at the local and international levels.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / COUNTER CULTURE
May 12, 2006

Kitting out the kids in the finest gear

It might seem safe to assume that with a rapidly dwindling number of kids being brought into the world here in Japan, the market for kids' clothes and toys would be shrinking fast. Not so: with fewer children around, more and more money is being spent on them, and a host of top-class kiddie stores are...
BUSINESS
May 12, 2006

DoCoMo, Microsoft eye music mart

NTT DoCoMo and Microsoft are teaming up to provide music services for mobile telephones in Japan, the companies said Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 12, 2006

NEC reports 84% plunge in profit

NEC Corp. on Thursday reported an 84 percent plunge in profit for fiscal 2005 due to a drop in prices for computer chips, computers and mobile phones.
COMMENTARY / World
May 11, 2006

Seeing Europe as a museum

WARSAW -- In the late 19th century, Europe viewed Asia mainly as either a source of inspiration for its artists or a focus of imperial ambition. Asians, for their part, viewed Europe as either a model of modernity, as in Meiji Japan, or a barometer of decay, as in China.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 11, 2006

Horie to plead not guilty, lawyers say

Former Livedoor Co. President Takafumi Horie will plead not guilty to securities law violations, his lawyers told the Tokyo District Court during pretrial proceedings Wednesday.
BUSINESS
May 11, 2006

ChuoAoyama handed suspension order, heads roll

The chairman of the ChuoAoyama PricewaterhouseCoopers board said Wednesday that both he and the deputy chairman will resign to take the responsibility for the firm's failure to prevent three of its accountants from conspiring in the earnings falsification at Kanebo Ltd., just hours after the auditor...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 9, 2006

Universal access -- if you speak Japanese

Despite 2 million foreign residents and calls for internationalization from within, Japan has a long way to go before becoming a multilingual society. The current state of health care is no exception. Be it university hospitals with cutting-edge research facilities or your neighborhood dental clinic,...
BUSINESS
May 9, 2006

Hanshin board fight seen heating up

The tug of war between Hanshin Electric Railway Co. and its largest shareholder, the Murakami fund, is expected to heat up this week over the selection of Hanshin board members, with a Murakami candidate for the board demanding an explanation from Hanshin for its objection to his candidacy.
BUSINESS
May 9, 2006

EU to enforce chemical safety rules next spring

In a move expected to hit Japan's exporters in the pocketbook, the European Union is likely to begin enforcing a new environmental directive next spring that requires manufacturers and importers to ensure the safety of the chemicals they use and to assess their environmental effects, an EU official said...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
May 9, 2006

Kae Wakita

Kae Wakita, 35, is a dermatologist and owner of Skin Solution Clinic in Shintomicho, not far from Tokyo's Ginza area. A confessed workaholic, she is perfectly happy with her life but not with the state of the Japanese medical system. She does, however, have a few good ideas about how to treat this ailing...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 7, 2006

Japanese being ensnared in ill-suited U.S. trappings

Back in the 1960s and '70s, the Japanese people were being raked over the coals from West Virginia to the Ruhr Valley and beyond for, chiefly, two things.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 5, 2006

Program develops Dutch dropouts' vocational, social skills

AMSTERDAM -- As Japan gropes for ways to motivate undereducated youths to look for jobs, other developed nations facing similar challenges are experimenting with steps to integrate them into the working population.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 5, 2006

Man from Wareika returns

During a break in a Tokyo recording session, Rico Rodriguez puts down his trombone to lark around on the roof with the teenage members of Oreskaband, the all-girl ska band he's been working with. That, at 72 years old, he is now old enough to be their grandfather doesn't even faze him.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 4, 2006

Bridgestone museum celebrates 50th anniversary

During the past 130 years or so following the Meiji Restoration, many industrialists are remembered not only for having made huge fortunes, but also for using part of their riches to amass collections of art.
SPORTS / E-LIST
May 3, 2006

Konishiki, Kiyohara and a collared shirt

The E-List digs fancy threads, and for a sharp-dressed man, look no further than Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters outfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo.
BUSINESS
May 3, 2006

P&G, Shiseido head top 10 list as women-friendly

The Japan unit of U.S. consumer products giant Procter & Gamble Co. and Shiseido Co., the market leader in Japan's cosmetics industry, ranked first and second in terms of the work environment they offer female employees, according to a magazine survey published Monday.

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