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COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2006

Japan needs a Willy Brandt

BERLIN -- Junichiro Koizumi will resign as the Japanese prime minister at the end of this month and be replaced by Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe. Koizumi became prime minister in April 2001. After more than five years as prime minister, Koizumi's political record is checkered: He achieved big successes...
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2006

575 defense workers took unauthorized trips: agency

A total of 575 Defense Agency employees, including Self-Defense Forces personnel, have traveled abroad without informing their superiors, agency officials said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2006

More single men expect future wives to work

An increasing number of single men hope their future spouses will continue to work after having children, according to a government survey released Friday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 2006

Stepping up pressure on Pyongyang

Japan imposed financial sanctions on North Korea earlier this week. The action, which came more than two months after the North's July 5 test-firing of seven missiles, may have been be unavoidable since Pyongyang has not shown any sign that it will return to the six-nation talks on its nuclear-weapons...
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2006

506 teachers in '05 tagged incompetent

More than 500 teachers at public schools across Japan were branded as incompetent in the 2005 academic year, down about 10 percent from a year earlier but still the second-highest number since the teacher assessment system began in 2000, the education ministry said Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 23, 2006

Award-winning docudrama 'From a Silk Cocoon'

It is 1986, the year that the U.S. government passes the Civil Liberties Act for providing financial reparation and an apology to all Japanese-Americans incarcerated in internment camps during World War II.
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 2006

A setback for Thai democracy

The Thai military seized power Tuesday, revoking the constitution and declaring martial law. The coup took place while Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was in New York attending a U.N. General Assembly session.
BUSINESS
Sep 22, 2006

Japan in FTA talks with Gulf states

Japan and the oil-producing countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council began official negotiations Thursday in Tokyo on a free-trade agreement.
BUSINESS
Sep 22, 2006

Surplus saw 95.5% jump in August

The trade surplus ballooned 95.5 percent to 200.5 billion yen in August from the previous year, logging its first increase in three months due mainly to brisk auto exports to the United States, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Sep 22, 2006

Thai coup puts FTA, investment in doubt

Tuesday's bloodless coup in Thailand has left a free-trade agreement negotiated between Tokyo and Bangkok up in the air, a senior Japanese official said Thursday as businesses waited for the dust to settle.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2006

LDP election broke with norm

to a certain degree," he said. "Without Koizumi's guidance, Abe would never have become party president." Abe won 464 votes, or 66 percent of the total, although he had reportedly been shooting for more than 70 percent. Aso came in second with 136 and Tanigaki got 102.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 21, 2006

The world's biggest mystery

LONDON -- In a recent opinion poll in Russia carried out by the Yury Levada Analytical Center, 58 percent of the respondents said they believe that "non-Russian nationalities are to blame for many of Russia's misfortunes"; 52 percent said they thought the government should restrict immigration.
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2006

Paternity leave slowly catching on

A record 1 percent of central government male workers engaged in clerical work took paternity leave after their wives gave birth in fiscal 2005, up 0.1 point from a year earlier, according to the National Personnel Authority.
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2006

Top Lexus model glides into showrooms

Toyota Motor Corp. unleashed the Lexus LS, its flagship model, on Japan on Tuesday in hopes of improving flagging sales of the internationally known brand, which has not lived up to expectations here since debuting in August 2005.
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2006

Talks with China set for weekend

Japan and China will hold sub-Cabinet-level talks Saturday and Sunday in Tokyo to discuss bilateral and regional topics, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2006

TBS, Bic launch joint promotion

Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. and consumer electronics store chain Bic Camera Co. said Tuesday they have linked up for sales of goods related to TBS programs and promotion of TV programs.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2006

Chronically hungry children of America

NEW YORK -- While it is normal to expect high levels of hunger and poverty in a developing country, it may come as a surprise to observe such conditions in one of the richest countries in the world. The Food Bank for New York City recently reported that nearly 20 percent of children in the city rely...
JAPAN / LASTING IMPACT
Sep 18, 2006

Aum's crimes marked start of growing public safety fear

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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 17, 2006

Struggling to put the brakes on the culture of drunk driving

What makes a crime more heinous than another? We usually think it has to do with intention. Murder, which implies pre-meditation, is more seriously punished than manslaughter, which implies lack of premeditation.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 17, 2006

Take a wild ride on the Orient Express

THE OTTOMAN CAGE by Barbara Nadel. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005, 312 pp., $23.95 (cloth). DRAGON FIRE by William S. Cohen. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2006, 383 pp., $24.95 (cloth). "One of the most frequently asked questions that I get as a British author," Barbara Nadel tells the e-zine...
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2006

Japanese centenarians to reach a record 28,395

, of Fukuchi, Fukuoka Prefecture, is the oldest person in Japan at 113, and Tomoji Tanabe from Miyakonojo, Miyazaki Prefecture, who turns 111 on Monday, is the oldest man. KYODO PHOTOS
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2006

Asahara's execution finalized

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a special appeal by lawyers for Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara, finalizing the death sentence for the man who masterminded the cult's horrific nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995.
COMMUNITY
Sep 16, 2006

Sun and Moon Yoga: 'Within my body, a city'

Trying to find the way in and out of the Sun and Moon Yoga studio in Meguro, Tokyo, is a bit like trying to negotiate an Escher drawing. Do you take the clean way, the dirty way, the back way or the other way? No worry, says owner-director Leza Lowitz, there is no right or wrong way, only the space that...
BUSINESS
Sep 16, 2006

Government says deflation still not beaten

The government on Friday stopped short of declaring the death of deflation in its September economic report, but dropped the dreaded word for the first time since April 2001.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2006

Abe, LDP sued over history text approval

A group of people Thursday filed a lawsuit against Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe and the Liberal Democratic Party with the Tokyo District Court, claiming they broke the law by intervening in the approval process for a revisionist history text.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 15, 2006

Yuki "Wave"

With her Minnie-Mouse-on-helium voice and overt Bjorkisms, there's no denying that Yuki is one of J-pop's most colorful stars. But after her success fronting Judy And Mary, Yuki's solo sound was far from consistent until, after two dodgy albums, she hit her stride with 2005's "Joy," an out-and-out pop...

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A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake