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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 7, 2006

So what did Yokota's trip to the United States really achieve?

National interest is in the eye of the beholder. For example, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi traveled to Ethiopia and Ghana last week to offer aid, but also to reinvigorate the African Union's support for reform of the U.N. Security Council, of which Japan still hopes to become a permanent member....
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 29, 2006

EU-Japan ties have big potential to move on to a new dimension

Japan and the European Union need to expand cooperation on multiple fronts, including security, energy and technological innovations, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said at a recent seminar in Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Apr 22, 2006

Trust and the Food Safety Commission

The trustworthiness of the Food Safety Commission appears to be in jeopardy. Half of the 12-member panel under the commission that was tasked with assessing the safety of North American beef resigned as of March 31. The six who quit were regarded by consumer groups as being cautious about the idea of...
BUSINESS
Apr 18, 2006

METI's Asia-Oceania FTA pitch surprises but is predictable

Trade minister Toshihiro Nikai's announcement earlier this month that Japan plans to start talks with 15 other nations in 2008 to create an Asia-Oceania free-trade zone took many by surprise -- not only experts but also those within government -- sparking speculation about the ministry's true intentions....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 15, 2006

Maureen Tan

When Mutsuko Miki, widow of former Prime Minister Takeo Miki, set up the Asian Ladies Friendship Society in 1968, she could not have projected how the society would rate in 2006. To her gratification, ALFS today, expanded to the Asia-Pacific Ladies Friendship Society, has 24 member countries and a general...
EDITORIALS
Apr 9, 2006

Mr. Ozawa takes the DPJ's helm

The Democratic Party of Japan -- which has plunged into a crisis following the resignation of its young leader Seiji Maehara over a bogus e-mail fiasco -- chose Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, a heavyweight veteran politician, as its new leader. As leader of the No. 1 opposition party, the tasks facing Mr. Ozawa are...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 4, 2006

Students bring school to book

It was payday, and Shawn Hannold's bank account was empty. A phone call from a coworker alerted Hannold the paychecks hadn't shown up in the accounts that morning.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 1, 2006

Josephine Branders

Belgium, a small European country with a beguiling medieval air, is beloved on many counts. With the ancient buildings, public squares and marketplaces common to many European countries, Belgium has also its own enduring distinctions. It is popularly known for its long history of specialist lace-making....
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 27, 2006

Which management strategies raise corporate value?

Window-dressing and other fraudulent acts aimed at boosting share prices have led many Japanese to doubt whether it is really all that important to "maximize corporate value."
BUSINESS
Mar 25, 2006

Rain factor hit February store sales

Sales at supermarkets fell 1.7 percent in February from the year before on a same-store basis for a second straight monthly decline, while department store sales rebounded 0.5 percent following a marginal fall in January, industry groups said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2006

Nagata regrets false allegations

House of Representatives member Hisayasu Nagata apologized Wednesday to the Lower House Disciplinary Committee over false allegations he made last month, based on a faked e-mail that suggested shady financial links between Livedoor Co. founder Takafumi Horie and a son of Liberal Democratic Party Secretary...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2006

Visit Japan, sure, but info centers closing

Ah, the friendly tourist information center -- often the first place travelers visit when trying to acquaint themselves with an unfamiliar city.
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2006

Local hire pocketed visa overcharges at Indonesian Embassy

JAKARTA (Kyodo) A Japanese employee at the Indonesian Embassy in Tokyo allegedly skimmed nearly $1.2 million from applications made to the mission's visa section in Japan, an Indonesian Foreign Ministry official said Monday.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Mar 19, 2006

Is this really just good fun?

You couldn't miss him if you tried: The guy in the skintight black vest and hotpants is popping up wherever you look in Japan these days, thrusting his pelvis on television, striking his signature "Y" pose on magazine covers and boasting about his beefy workouts in subway ads.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 16, 2006

Firms on a roll OK first raises since '01

Production workers at major automakers and electronics companies won increases in basic monthly pay Wednesday for the first time in five years, with Toyota Motor Corp. agreeing to the 1,000 yen raise demanded by its union.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2006

Horie, four colleagues dealt new charges

Former Livedoor Co. President Takafumi Horie and four others, as well as the company itself, were charged Tuesday with falsifying the company's financial statements for the business year through September 2004.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Mar 15, 2006

What's making a noise in the woods?

The cherry blossom wave has begun its annual northward sweep through the country, island-hopping up the archipelago from Okinawa in the wake of the delicately blossoming plum.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2006

Wanted: Pilot to pull DPJ out of dive

The decade-old Democratic Party of Japan is facing what members describe as its biggest crises ever.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2006

Trial opens in Nishimura lawyer scandal

OSAKA -- Shingo Nishimura, the ultraconservative Diet member arrested last year for allowing a nonlawyer employee to illegally represent clients in his name, formally owned up to the charges as his Osaka District Court trial opened Thursday.
COMMENTARY
Mar 7, 2006

Party to a lack of maturity

In a statement issued last week, the Democratic Party of Japan acknowledged that a fellow lawmaker used a fake e-mail to cook up a scandal implicating a senior official of the governing Liberal Democratic Party with the disgraced former president of Internet startup Livedoor Co.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 3, 2006

DJ gatecrashes VIP party

One of the biggest names in Japanese dance music, Mondo Grosso, returns to Club Yellow in Roppongi, Tokyo, on March 3 as a guest DJ for "Cyberjapan presents VIP Club."
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2006

58% see no need for DPJ chief to quit over e-mail fuss

More than half of respondents to a recent poll said Democratic Party of Japan leader Seiji Maehara does not need to step down over the turmoil surrounding an e-mail claimed to be evidence of a shady money transfer involving a senior ruling party official.
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2006

DPJ hopes to settle e-mail issue this week

The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan hopes to settle questions surrounding an e-mail that one of its lawmakers has claimed shows a shady money transfer involving ruling Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe without anyone having to resign, DPJ members said Saturday.
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2006

LDP planning policy to legalize gaming casinos

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is expected to formulate a basic policy around June to legalize casinos in an effort to attract more tourists from abroad, lawmakers said Saturday.

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