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Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2005

Ex-SMBC chief tapped to lead key postal firm

The government said Friday it has selected former Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. President Yoshifumi Nishikawa to run the holding company that will oversee the privatization of the postal system.
BUSINESS
Nov 9, 2005

Koizumi unlocks auto taxes

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has ordered the government to use revenue from some auto-related taxes for purposes other than road-related projects, infrastructure minister Kazuo Kitagawa said Tuesday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 9, 2005

Study finds broccoli combats gastritis

As futurists get excited by the prospect of engineering ourselves to have longer lives, it's easy to forget that, as well as the high-tech ways, there are very simple ways to live longer.
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2005

NHK head apologizes for arrest

ponders a question during a news conference at the public broadcaster's headquarters in Tokyo.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 6, 2005

The dangerous liaisons of ambassadors to China

AMBASSADORS FROM THE ISLANDS OF IMMORTALS: China-Japan Relations in the Han-Tang Period, by Wang Zhenping. Honolulu: Association for Asian Studies/University of Hawai'i Press, 2005, 388 pp., with illustrations, $53.00 (cloth). Relations between Japan and China may be troubled right now, but then they...
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2005

Heads roll at Meiji Yasuda as severity of scandal sinks in

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. said Friday that 11 executives, including President Ryotaro Kaneko, will step down Nov. 30 to take responsibility for the company's repeated failure to pay legitimate insurance claims.
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2005

FSA to make all bourses check systems

Trading on the Nagoya Stock Exchange was suspended Friday morning due to a system malfunction, prompting the Financial Services Agency to say it will order all six of the nation's stock exchanges to submit reports on their computer systems.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 3, 2005

And the winner, by a nose, is . . .

Speaking at the news conference following the closing ceremony of this year's Tokyo International Film Festival, lead actor Koichi Sato said that while working on "Yuki ni Negau Koto (What the Snow Brings)" he "never imagined that this film would go on to receive the top prize at an international event."...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2005

Abe deflects politicians' responsibility on judging Yasukuni war criminals

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe argued Tuesday that only historians -- and not contemporary politicians -- will eventually make the correct call on how Japanese Class-A war criminals should be judged.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2005

Suzuki gets manual, mocks ministry 'secrets'

House of Representatives member Muneo Suzuki said Tuesday he has received a copy of the so-called Muneo manual drafted by the Foreign Ministry to instruct its officials on how to deal with the lawmaker who once wielded enormous influence with the ministry.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2005

Takebe reappointed secretary general of LDP; Nakagawa gets policy affairs

Prime Minister and Liberal Democratic Party President Junichiro Koizumi reappointed Tsutomu Takebe, 64, to the party's No. 2 post of secretary general, while switching LDP Diet affairs chief Hidenao Nakagawa to the post of policy affairs chief.
BUSINESS
Nov 1, 2005

Tsutsumi brothers seek Seibu

Two brothers of disgraced Seibu group patriarch Yoshiaki Tsutsumi proposed Monday buying Seibu Railway Co., casting a pall over a group reorganization plan drawn up by the firm's management.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2005

FSA punishes Meiji Yasuda once again for unpaid claims

The Financial Services Agency on Friday ordered Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. to suspend part of its operations following the insurer's repeated failure to pay legitimate insurance claims.
BUSINESS
Oct 29, 2005

Reform of state lenders in works

A Liberal Democratic Party panel studying reforms to eight government-backed financial institutions agreed Friday that Shoko Chukin Bank should be privatized.
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2005

Japan, U.S. agree on new Futenma site

relocation (plan) because of a lot of opposition," Koizumi said. "We need to carry out (the new plan) as soon as possible." The defense chief called for cooperation from Okinawans, saying Japan had done its best to protect the environment.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2005

Key panel in favor of females on throne

can be expanded to a maternal line," panel Chairman Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, a former president of University of Tokyo, told a news conference after Tuesday's panel session. "It's almost certain that the (tradition of) paternal-line-only succession can't continue to exist," he added.
EDITORIALS
Oct 23, 2005

No winners in the noodle wars

A recent scientific report appeared to reassure the world that not everyone in China is dwelling on that country's muscle-flexing space program or the intractability of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Some Chinese, it suggested, are focused on less tendentious things. Take archaeologists, the subject...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 23, 2005

It's about time for Japan to take its foot off the gas . . . and think

What do the following recent news items have in common? 1) An automobile driven by a 23-year-old man in Yokohama accidentally runs into a line of high-school students returning home from school, killing two and injuring seven. 2) The United States Senate votes to open the Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil...
Features
Oct 23, 2005

Japan's take on the issue of diagnosis

Cancer diagnosis has long been a divisive issue in Japan.
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2005

Blue Planet winners urge more CO2-cutting efforts

and Gordon Hisashi Sato, winners of the 2005 Blue Planet Prize, congratulate each other Wednesday at a news conference in Tokyo.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 15, 2005

Commissioner to look at ownership

Japanese baseball commissioner Yasuchika Negoro said Friday he sees a need to create rules regarding the ownership of the parent companies that control professional baseball clubs in Japan. "I think it's necessary to establish something similar to the baseball bylaws on this matter," Negoro said of the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 14, 2005

Rakuten, Murakami grab stakes in TBS

Top e-commerce firm Rakuten Inc. has acquired a 15.46 percent equity stake in Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. and proposed integrating management of the two firms under a holding company, Rakuten's president said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 10, 2005

Shock over aid worker's death

Relatives of a Japanese aid worker and his son killed in Saturday's massive earthquake in Pakistan have departed their home in Fukuoka to identify the bodies as people close to them expressed shock and disbelief.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 9, 2005

Roll up! Roll up! For a freak show starring 'Koizumi's children'

Adding salt to its wounds, it was reported recently that the Democratic Party of Japan paid 129 million yen to the American public relations firm Fleischmann-Hillard to buff its image in 2004. Though it might have helped in last year's Upper House election, the company's strategy didn't seem to work...
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2005

Wal-Mart takes control

Seiyu Ltd. said Friday that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of the United States will raise its stake in the retailer from 42 percent to over 50 percent by the end of the year, making it a subsidiary of the U.S. retailing giant.
BUSINESS
Sep 29, 2005

MTFG, Merrill Lynch in joint venture

Competition in the private banking business got tougher Wednesday after Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. announced they will set up a joint-venture brokerage targeting wealthy customers.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2005

LDP rookie serves self high-class dish of crow

Taizo Sugimura, the youngest of the 83 new Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers elected earlier this month to the House of Representatives, apologized Tuesday for stating he hoped to dine at high-class restaurants during his new career as a Diet politician.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
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