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Japan Times
JAPAN / THE TROUBLE AT TOYOTA
Sep 3, 2010

Slow response made perfect storm worse

While the intense speculation that Toyota Motor Corp. may have covered up electronic defects appears to have ebbed, Japanese experts say the world's top automaker deserves a failing grade for its risk management, and the resulting damage to its reputation was worse than it should have been.
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Sep 2, 2010

Japan by the numbers (09.02.10)

Surveys uncover attractions to learning and being eco-friendly, as well as aversions to balding and becoming a housewife.
EDITORIALS
Sep 2, 2010

JAL revival plan takes flight

Japan Airlines Corp. and its bankruptcy administrator, the state-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. of Japan, submitted a rehabilitation plan to the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday. This marks the start of JAL's full-scale efforts to reconstruct itself.
EDITORIALS
Sep 2, 2010

Habitat for military aircraft?

The Japanese and U.S. governments on Tuesday disclosed details of a technical report on a replacement facility for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, now set in a crowded residential area of Ginowan in the central part of Okinawa Island. A 2006 Japan-U.S. accord called for building two, V-shaped...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 2, 2010

A shift in strategy needed to revive Japanese industry

Against the backdrop of intensifying Japan-U.S. trade frictions in the 1980s, it was considered for some time that Japan's economic power was a threat to the United States. This country's high rating has since declined, however, giving way to comments like "Japan has disappeared from the world's radar...
BUSINESS
Sep 2, 2010

Japan is 'growing ripe' for bout of M&A activity: Goldman Sachs

Japan "is ripe" for more mergers and acquisitions as companies have ample cash and the level of takeover activity is lower than it should be, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
COMMENTARY
Sep 1, 2010

U.S. policy on Somalia sowed seeds for chaos

The U.S. decision in 2006 to send Ethiopian troops into Somalia was one of the stupidest moves in a very stupid decade. Last week, some of the chickens spawned by that decision came home to roost.
EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 2010

Surviving with a strong yen

As the Japanese economy is battered by a recent rise of the yen against the U.S. dollar to a 15-year high, the Bank of Japan decided Monday to inject more liquidity — an additional ¥10 trillion at a low interest rate on top of the ¥20 trillion under the existing lending scheme — into the economy,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Aug 31, 2010

Tsukuba: What are the challenges when observing Ramadan in Japan?

Fatma HachaniStudent, 30(Tunisian)Ramadan is the hardest month for me to be away from my family and country. I spend weekdays working in the lab. From 2 p.m. I start to feel tired. Not eating is not a major problem for me, but not drinking in such an exceptionally hot summer is a challenge! I realize...
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Aug 31, 2010

NPO's tours give foreigners a taste of community life

Forty people from 19 countries have been taking part in tours, which included home-stays and exchanges, since June to experience community life in various parts of Japan with local residents.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 29, 2010

Saved by a few — and a fierce typhoon

In 1993, when large tracts of wilderness on the Kagoshima Prefecture island of Yakushima were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, environmentally minded observers the world over celebrated. But the real battle to save the island's forests had been fought — and won — a decade earlier. One of the...
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Aug 29, 2010

Motoyama's late goal gives Antlers draw against Reds

SAITAMA — Masashi Motoyama salvaged a point in the final minute of injury time as Kashima Antlers snatched a 1-1 draw with Urawa Reds on Saturday night.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2010

Relax arms export ban so firms can profit: panel

Japan should consider relaxing its ban on arms exports so defense companies can participate in international projects, a special advisory panel to Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Friday.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2010

Ozawa to challenge Kan for DPJ helm

Democratic Party of Japan heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa broke his silence Thursday to announce he will run against Prime Minister Naoto Kan in the ruling DPJ's Sept. 14 presidential election, raising the possibility of a third prime minister in a year if he wins.
Reader Mail
Aug 22, 2010

Road designs discourage cycling

I read with interest (online) Tomoko Otake's Sept. 27, 2009, article, "Let's Bike!" Our organization, UWABA, is advocating for the construction of better and safer infrastructure for cyclists in Dar es Salaam. Tanzania is a poor country in East Africa and most funding for major roads comes from external...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 22, 2010

Families dictate Japan's economic fate

Though everybody saw it coming, the announcement last week that China's economy supplanted Japan's as the second largest in the world shocked many people. It matters little that China's sheer size makes its dominance inevitable. What matters is that Japan's 42-year run as the world's No. 2 is over, and...
EDITORIALS
Aug 20, 2010

Dealing with disaster

Every day another deluge. Pakistan is battling what the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs calls "the worst monsoon-related floods in living memory." Rains have triggered landslides in China that have claimed more than 1,000 lives. In Russia, rain would be welcome: Wild fires have...
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2010

Rwanda envoy pledges to work on improved business relations

Rwandan Ambassador Antoine Munyakazi-Juru, who took his post last October, says his main mission is improving business relations between his country and Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 20, 2010

In search of society's true affluence

"When I was 40, my father died. When he died, he was working on a project for a children's campground on the island of Naoshima. When I returned from Tokyo to Okayama to lead the family company, I inherited the project. As I lived and worked with the locals, my thinking went through a 180-degree reversal....
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2010

Mihara's fight for women's health is personal

The turning point in Junko Mihara's life came two years ago when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer and had to have her uterus removed.
EDITORIALS
Aug 18, 2010

High hopes for new sumo chief

The Japan Sumo Association, which has been rocked by gambling and other scandals suggesting the existence of ties with organized crime, elected stablemaster Hanaregoma, the former ozeki Kaiketsu, as its new chairman in an emergency board meeting late Aug. 12. It is hoped that under his leadership, the...
EDITORIALS
Aug 16, 2010

A mixed verdict in Rwanda

Rwanda's Paul Kagame has won a second term as president. Having ruled the war-torn country since 1994, and claiming — quite rightfully — to have ushered in a period of peace after civil war and genocide, he had been expected to win another election. But beneath the calm that prevails in Rwanda is...

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