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BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 11, 2005

CL may hold playoffs sooner than you think

The Central League has decided to consider instituting a playoff system beginning in 2007, but we may be seeing postseason play between two CL teams a lot sooner.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 11, 2005

What price social equality since the ventriloquists' putsch?

On the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 atrocity, is it too early to talk of a Bush legacy? What vision has the administration of President George W. Bush bestowed on the United States as a result of the terrorist attacks that day?
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 11, 2005

The curious Mr. Longfellow

LONGFELLOW'S TATTOOS: Tourism, Collecting, and Japan, by Christine M.E. Guth. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004, 256 pp., 123 illustrations, $29.95 (paper). After the new Japanese government was officially installed in 1868, only a decade or so after the country had been, more or less, forcibly...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Sep 11, 2005

Assemblywoman puts sex on the agenda

In April 2003, 28-year-old Kanako Otsuji became the youngest person ever elected to the Osaka prefectural assembly when she won the seat for Sakai City. It was a distinction made more special by the fact that there were only six other women in the 110-member assembly at the time. However, another distinction...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2005

Has risk of nuclear proliferation risen?

HONOLULU -- The nuclear cooperation agreement announced between U.S. President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 18 marked a major shift in U.S. policies aimed at stopping and reversing proliferation. If implemented, it would result in new rules of global nuclear commerce...
SUMO
Sep 10, 2005

Asashoryu shoots for sixth straight

In the final analysis, sumo is a sport determined by a wrestler's desire to achieve greatness. Though enemies lurk, the fight with oneself becomes the real challenge.
BUSINESS
Sep 10, 2005

Resona plans bond issue to repay funds

Resona Holdings Inc. announced Friday it will raise about 250 billion yen by issuing subordinate bonds to U.S., European and Asian institutional investors this month to return part of the 3.1 trillion yen in public funds it owes to the government.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2005

Bureaucrats fear not the loss of pull on politics if they join in

The road from bureaucrat to politician is well-paved.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2005

Curbs planned on exposure to cosmic radiation

The government plans to ask Japanese airlines to take steps to protect their cockpit and cabin crews from exposure to cosmic radiation during high-altitude flight, it was learned Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2005

Claims from Kanto quake would outdo Katrina: S&P

If a huge temblor like the one in 1923 hits the Kanto region, insurance claims will rocket to nearly 7 trillion, yen topping the cost of any past natural disaster to date, U.S. credit rating agency Standard & Poor's said Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2005

Seiko Noda and Yukari Sato in desperate battle in Gifu

GIFU -- A showdown between two female candidates has all eyes fixed on this sleepy conservative city in the Chubu region.
COMMENTARY
Sep 8, 2005

Bush's response to disaster all too typical

WASHINGTON -- Is George W. Bush a serious person? It's not a question to ask lightly of a decent man who holds the U.S. presidency, an office worthy of respect. But it must be asked.
COMMENTARY
Sep 8, 2005

'Third World' chaos hits home

HONOLULU -- The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in the United States is proving difficult for Americans to comprehend. Casualties currently number in the scores, but the body count is expected to swell in the days and weeks ahead -- when the survivors can stop merely trying to survive and can...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2005

Downsizing government sounds great

Downsizing the public sector has been high on the agenda of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government, and both his Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Japan are promising this campaign season to reduce the number of people on the government payroll.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2005

Jan. 1 to see a 'leap second' added

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology said Wednesday it will add a so-called leap second on Jan. 1 to bring the super accurate atomic clock into sync with the Earth's rotation.
SOCCER / World cup
Sep 7, 2005

Japan opens final auditions for World Cup against Honduras

SENDAI -- The countdown starts here.
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2005

Flooring firms in price-fixing probe

The Fair Trade Commission searched five floor material makers Tuesday on suspicion of being involved in a price-fixing cartel.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2005

Loyalties to party, candidates put to test

Politics are about making decisions, and some of the most difficult ones are those based on where loyalties lie.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2005

Rubik's Cube fills niche hands-off computer can't

The three-dimensional puzzle Rubik's Cube that was explosively popular in the early 1980s is staging a big comeback.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 5, 2005

Rich-poor divide poses unrelenting threat

NEW YORK -- According to the just released U.N. report "The Inequality Predicament," increasing poverty and the growing gap between the rich and poor will be major threats to developing coun- tries' peace and stability. The report, prepared by the United Nations' Economic and Social Affairs Department,...
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2005

Politician's gripe sparks sales of Mimolette cheese

Mimolette, a French cheese criticized as "hard and shriveled" by former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori in a hot fray over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's threat to dissolve the House of Representatives, is catching on with curious consumers.
EDITORIALS
Sep 4, 2005

Asia's ever expanding arms market

A sia's economic growth has many effects, not least of which is providing more money for governments to buy arms. So it should come as no surprise that the most authoritative assessment of the world's conventional arms market puts Asian nations at the top of the list of arms purchasers.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 4, 2005

Selective thinking devalues the V-word's worth

There is a six-letter word so abused and perverted these days that I wouldn't blame the media for banning it altogether. It is the V-word and, I must confess, I hesitated to write this column about it myself. But journalists must not be daunted by trends that pollute . . . and so, here we go. The word,...
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2005

Women-only salons offer refuge after last trains

There is good news for weary women in Tokyo who stay out late and miss their last trains after working long hours or hanging out with friends.
COMMENTARY
Sep 3, 2005

Europeans sing the blues

PARIS -- According to the latest Eurobarometer, a regular survey published by Harris, less than a third of European Union residents are "very satisfied" with their lives, and only 44 percent expect things to improve in coming months.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 3, 2005

So you think you're busy? Well, that's nothing!

For many Japanese, one word sums up their entire lives: "busy."

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