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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 21, 2006

Will Japan's 'positive influence' persist as it didn't before?

Well, the news is out, and it's good news.
JAPAN
May 20, 2006

Tokyo: North moving long-range missile to pad but launch not in offing

Foreign Minister Taro Aso confirmed Friday the government has information indicating Pyongyang has moved a long-range ballistic missile closer to a launchpad at a military base in northeastern North Korea, in apparent preparation for launch.
COMMENTARY
May 19, 2006

Pride in a Yankee apology

LOS ANGELES -- In the sports-happy, internationally oblivious country of the United States, probably more people know who Hideki Matsui is than who Junichiro Koizumi is.
COMMENTARY
May 16, 2006

Pioneers turned paper into must-reads

LOS ANGELES -- It was a remarkably sad coincidence that within the span of a few days, two of the world's more influential newspaper figures died.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 9, 2006

Aiful halts lending as FSA punishment

Consumer lender Aiful Corp. suspended some operations at all of its nearly 1,900 outlets nationwide Monday in line with punishment meted out by the Financial Services Agency for illegal loan-collection tactics.
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
Apr 20, 2006

JCG best steer clear of Dokdo, Seoul warns

sovereignty over Dokdo," Yonhap News Agency reported. South Korea's coast guard said it has deployed more than 18 ships, including patrol vessels, near the isles to block the Japanese ships from entering South Korea's EEZ.
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2006

NHK hit by fresh embezzlement case

NHK was bombarded by about 600 complaints Wednesday as a new embezzlement case broke at a time when the government is talking about forcing viewers to pay the public broadcaster's subscription fees.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2006

Ozawa poised to bedevil the LDP

The election of political veteran Ichiro Ozawa as the new leader of the Democratic Party of Japan poses a threat to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, regardless of who the next prime minister will be, according to political observers.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 9, 2006

Bringing the lady-makes-tea debate to the boil

In the early 1990s I interviewed a representative of the vending machine industry who told me that one of the most revolutionary developments in his business was the installation of coffee and tea dispensers in new office buildings. "Think of it," he said excitedly, "women office workers will no longer...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2006

DPJ elects Ozawa as new president

The Democratic Party of Japan elected veteran lawmaker Ichiro Ozawa, 63, as its new president Friday, ending his head-to-head race with rival and two-time President Naoto Kan.
COMMENTARY
Apr 4, 2006

Hope dims for plebiscite bill

Now that the budget bills for fiscal 2006 have cleared both houses of the National Diet, one of the focal issues for the remainder of the current session will be how to reconcile conflicting views between the ruling and opposition parties over legislation on plebiscites, a process indispensable for amending...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 2, 2006

Tireless emcee comes up with "Mino Monta no Sashinomi" on Nihon TV and more

Apparently, being listed in the Guinness Book of Records isn't enough for tireless emcee Monta Mino. On Monday, at midnight, he launches yet another series with himself as host. That adds up to a whopping 10 programs a week for the 61-year-old presenter, who claims to only need three hours of sleep a...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 2, 2006

Buying U.S. out of Okinawa started a habit that is hard to kick

The bombshell that former Foreign Ministry official Bunroku Yoshino dropped last month hasn't had the explosive effect one might expect. Yoshino was in charge of the ministry's American Bureau at the time the United States handed Okinawa back to Japan in 1972, and in an exclusive interview in the Feb....
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2006

Foreign Ministry kept contracted studies secret

The Foreign Ministry has refrained from disclosing 58 percent of the research projects it commissioned from affiliated organizations or outside experts since 2002 due to confidentiality reasons, an internal ministry document showed Saturday.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2006

Unit 731 exhibit to grow into peace, protest park

BEIJING (Kyodo) A germ warfare exhibition in Harbin in northern China that showcases deadly medical experiments carried out by Japanese forces on live prisoners during the war will expand its area by three times and reopen as a peace park, the curator said Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2006

Futenma relocation plan may change, coalition execs hint

Executives of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and coalition partner New Komeito indicated Sunday that a minor change could be made to the Japanese-U.S. plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station within Okinawa Prefecture.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Mar 14, 2006

Minori Kitahara

Minori Kitahara, 35, is the owner of Love Piece Club, Japan's first sex-toy shop owned by a woman and catering exclusively to women. She believes that women deserve their sexual fun and games and she has just the right toys for them.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 12, 2006

Money laundering and global debt

CAPITALISM'S ACHILLES HEEL: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market System, by Raymond W. Baker. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley and Sons, 2005, 438 pp., $27.95 (cloth). Reviewed by JEFF KINGSTON The scandalous tolerance of massive money laundering by global financial institutions contributes to poverty...
BUSINESS
Mar 10, 2006

BOJ lifts ultraloose policy

The Bank of Japan on Thursday ended its five-year-old ultraloose monetary policy, brushing aside concerns in the Cabinet and the ruling coalition that the nation has not yet overcome years of deflation.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2006

Japan rejects China's Senkaku gas offer

Japan on Wednesday rejected a Chinese proposal to jointly develop two gas-rich areas in the East China Sea, one of which is on the Japanese side of the median boundary near the disputed Senkaku Islands.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2006

Another architect fakes design strength

Five Sapporo condominium complexes have been confirmed to have been built with faked earthquake-resistance data, the land ministry said Tuesday, and the city is investigating 28 more buildings the architect who compiled the data has said are not sufficiently quake-proof.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 8, 2006

New signals abound of our genetic evolution

Good news this week for believers in common sense, opponents of intelligent design, and, incidentally, for writers of columns about natural selection.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2006

Ailing radio broadcasters see promise in podcasts

Podcasting, a new type of Web broadcasting via digital music players like the Apple iPod, might prove a boon for businesses that are increasingly catching on to its novel commercial potential.
BUSINESS
Mar 4, 2006

CPI registers third increase in a row

In a move expected to push the Bank of Japan to start specific debate on ending its ultraeasy monetary policy next week, the government said Friday the January core consumer price index rose 0.5 percent from a year before, marking the third consecutive year-on-year increase and the biggest jump since...
JAPAN
Mar 2, 2006

DPJ figures e-mail fiasco is over; LDP begs to differ

The Democratic Party of Japan hopes to pick a new Diet affairs chief soon because it believes the uproar over the e-mail allegation has been settled with the apology by lawmaker Hisayasu Nagata and executives of the main opposition party, members said Wednesday.

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