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BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2006

Insurers scour the streets to fill female sales ranks

A couple approach a young woman on a Tokyo street and ask her if she is interested in pursuing a new career.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 17, 2006

The rules of Lebanon's reconstruction

PRAGUE -- Lebanon's reconstruction, so painstakingly carried out in the 1990s, is now at risk of being undone. But Lebanon is not alone in that respect: According to the United Nations and several independent studies, countries in transition from war to peace face roughly a 50 percent chance of sliding...
BASKETBALL
Aug 15, 2006

Team Japan's heads held high despite loss as worlds approach

URAYASU, Chiba Pref. -- More than an hour after Japan and Senegal had completed their exciting exhibition basketball game at the Urayasu City Sports Park Gymnasium on Sunday several hundred die-hard fans remained at the arena.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 9, 2006

Make better rural life a priority: Tanigaki

Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki promised Tuesday to place priority on revitalizing rural areas and creating a society where people who work hard can lead untroubled lives if he becomes prime minister by winning the Sept. 20 Liberal Democratic Party presidential election.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2006

U.S.-India nuclear deal sets bad example

MADRAS, India -- The India-U.S. deal to cooperate in civil nuclear energy signed in New Delhi in March now appears set to be approved by the U.S. Congress. This will end India's nuclear isolation, which began in 1998 when the country first tested nuclear weapons.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 1, 2006

Can NHK justify its huge collection costs?

NHK spends a massive 76.9 billion yen per year on its fee collection system, which equates to some 12.4 percent of the national broadcaster annual operating income.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 31, 2006

A time for every age group

Many pundits agree that the most important challenge Japan faces is how to deal with the problem of falling birthrates and an aging population. Among direct, specific proposals for solving the problem are measures to increase birthrates and reform the pension and medical-care systems.
COMMENTARY
Jul 27, 2006

Pols undermining Britain's civil service

LONDON -- The British civil service has prided itself on being politically neutral in providing unbiased advice to ministers. It has also largely avoided being corrupted by political cronyism. Sadly these traditions are being undermined by British politicians.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 25, 2006

Lesbian mothers' twin tasks

Motherhood can be daunting under even the best of circumstances, but, as a lesbian, considering starting a family brings with it a whole new set of difficulties.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 23, 2006

Democracy falters as underworld forces flourish

Kyrgyzstan is referred to as a faltering state, meaning that it is not quite failing.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2006

LDP sees bureaucratic white paper glut

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has begun studying how to restructure the annual issuance of government white papers, both to cut costs and to reduce the work of bureaucrats, but how much of a reduction can be made is uncertain as bureaucrats themselves are cool to the idea.
BUSINESS
Jul 19, 2006

Deflation's end seen; BOJ urged to be prudent

The government said in its annual report on the economy Tuesday that the end of deflation is in sight and pressured the Bank of Japan to carry out future interest rate rises in a wise manner.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 18, 2006

Preventing suicide and axing overtime pay is a risky mix

More than 30,000 people kill themselves each year in Japan, bestowing the country with the shameful honor of the highest suicide rate in the developed world. To deal with this reality, a group of lawmakers from across the political spectrum pushed an antisuicide bill through the Diet last month to force...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 16, 2006

Vietvets come in from the cold war

THE LAST ASSASSIN by Barry Eisler. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2006, 334 pp., $24.95 (cloth). WHITE TIGER by Michael Allen Dymmoch. St. Martin's Minotaur, 2005, 308 pp., $24.95 (cloth). THE TUNNEL RATS by Stephen Leather. Hodder and Stoughton, 2005, 501 pp., £6.99 (paper). John Rain, Barry Eisler's American-Japanese...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 16, 2006

Fractured families bode ill for Japan's gray army

The late actor Kiyoshi Atsumi, who played Tora-san in all of the movies with that title, was a compassionate man of the old Japanese school.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2006

Student loan defaults hit 142,000 in '05

A record 142,000 people have failed to repay their student loans even a year after the deadline, a survey by the government-affiliated Japan Student Services Organization showed Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2006

Osaka activist's arrest lays bare yakuza ties with 'burakumin'

On the night of Jan. 26, 1985, four hit men from the Ichiwa-kai crime syndicate drove up to an apartment complex in Suita, Osaka Prefecture.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jul 11, 2006

Yoshiko Sakurai

Yoshiko Sakurai, 60, is known as Japan's bravest and most responsible journalist. Her in-depth investigations have unnerved members of the establishment for decades. After 16 years as the nation's top newscaster, she quit television in 1996 to dedicate herself to writing. Sakurai has published more than...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 9, 2006

A bumper-car experience in Toyota-land

NOTES FROM TOYOTA-LAND: An American Engineer in Japan, by Darius Mehri. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2006, $26 (cloth). Toyota is booming, but its PR department has had its hands full with a high-profile sexual harassment lawsuit in the United States -- and now this damning insider's revelations...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 9, 2006

There's a price to pay for flaunting wealth in Japan

For its annual World Wealth Report, finance firm Merrill Lynch circles the globe and counts the number of millionaires. Though a million dollars -- 114 million yen, as defined by the survey -- ain't what it used to be, it's still a distant dream for the vast majority.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2006

Tunnel workers get 69 million yen

The Tokyo District Court ordered the government Friday to pay 69.3 million yen in compensation to victims of pneumoconiosis who worked on tunnel projects ordered mainly by the state.
BUSINESS
Jul 8, 2006

Spending cuts, deferring sales tax hike, get nod

The Cabinet on Friday approved an economic policy guideline for 2006 aimed at shoring up the government's woeful finances with spending cuts and tax revisions, but leaves the dreaded consumption levy hike for a later administration to deal with.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 8, 2006

Richard Schwartz

Richard Schwartz said, "I originally graduated with a drama degree, which basically qualified me to drive a truck." That was in 1986, and that was what he did, among other things, supporting himself with day labor jobs. He thought that wasn't good enough for a lifetime, though, so he attended night school...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2006

Western geopolitics suffering from an infantile disorder

PRAGUE -- Recent statements from some American leaders and North Atlantic Treaty Organization representatives give the impression that not only Islamic and other radicals, but also quite civilized figures, are losing their grasp of reality and have begun acting irrationally. The world is becoming an...
JAPAN
Jul 1, 2006

Slight raise seen as civil servants get summer bonus

Most of Japan's 4 million public servants, from the nation's top leaders to the rank-and-file employees of the central and local governments, received their summer bonuses Friday.
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2006

Long-term fiscal health needs cuts, taxes: experts

Monday's decision by the government to cut spending and aim for a primary surplus by 2011 is a step in the right direction, but more drastic reforms are needed to whip the books back into shape, experts say.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2006

Number of parole officers should double: panel

A Justice Ministry panel discussing ways to improve the probation system proposed Tuesday that the number of parole officers be at least doubled to better supervise parolees.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2006

Successor inherits ever-unpopular deficit mess

Most banks have shed their burden of bad loans. The Nikkei 225 average has recovered from rock bottom and the economy is finally picking up. But what about Japan's debt-ridden finances?

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?