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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 Times
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2006

Government staff cuts, new financial body headline reforms

A plan to streamline the bureaucracy by cutting 5.7 percent of the central government workforce and a plan to create a new financial institution in October 2008 under an overhaul of public financial institutions were approved Tuesday by two separate government panels.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 25, 2006

Jun'ichiro Tanizaki: new realities from screen fiction

SHADOWS ON THE SCREEN: Tanizaki Jun'ichiro on Cinema and "Oriental" Aesthetics, translated and edited by Thomas LaMarre. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 2005. 410 pp., photos XIX, $25 (paper). The eminent novelist Jun'ichiro Tanizaki was celebrated for his ambivalence...
BUSINESS
Jun 22, 2006

Firms' confidence takes a dive

Slumping stock prices, a rising yen and higher oil prices dampened the business confidence of major companies in the April-June period, sending the key confidence index to the lowest level in four quarters, according to a government survey released Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Jun 21, 2006

Foreign direct investment steps set

The government's Japan Investment Council approved measures Tuesday aimed at promoting foreign direct investment through such means as assisting local authorities' efforts to attract foreign capital, government sources said.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 20, 2006

A swelling dispute over our waistlines

Japan's citizens are well-known for their slim figures, healthy eating habits and longevity.
EDITORIALS
Jun 19, 2006

A united lobby for life

Japan has seen more than 30,000 people kill themselves annually for eight consecutive years since 1998. Last year, 32,552 people took their own lives, a total that breaks down to 89.18 suicides per day and 3.71 suicides every hour. Certainly these are grim figures.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2006

Japan recognizes Montenegro: Aso

The government on Friday recognized newly independent Montenegro as a sovereign state, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said, following in the footsteps of 15 other countries, including the United States, Russia and China.
COMMENTARY
Jun 16, 2006

Is Japan set to stumble after Koizumi?

LOS ANGELES -- China is like the relatively new baby on the block that the neighbors fawn over, mostly ignoring any negatives, acting as if it's the perfect child as the other children are unceremoniously pushed into the background. Overlooked, the others occasionally fling their rattles out of the playpen...
EDITORIALS
Jun 15, 2006

One step forward in Iraq

Last week's killing in Iraq of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an al-Qaida leader, must have come as good news for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who had formed a "national unity" government a little more than two weeks earlier. The death of the Jordanian-born insurgency leader will aid the government's...
BUSINESS
Jun 14, 2006

Government still upbeat on economy, points to improvement in price trends

The government Tuesday upgraded its view on price trends and maintained its upbeat assessment on the overall economy for the fourth straight month.
BUSINESS
Jun 10, 2006

REIT value swells 63% to surpass 4 trillion yen

The aggregate value of land owned by real estate investment trusts totaled 4.03 trillion yen at the end of March, up a sharp 63 percent from a year earlier, attesting to the solid growth of the REIT market, the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry reported Friday.
BUSINESS
Jun 7, 2006

Baby boomers asked to cure farming exodus

The government expressed hope Tuesday that baby boomers, who will begin retiring next year, will take an interest in becoming farmers and help revive the moribund agricultural sector.
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2006

Several envoys support raising abductions at G8

The government Tuesday stepped up pressure on North Korea, drumming up international support for its position on the abductions of Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2006

Thaksin best underscores fatal flaws of his kind of rule

HONG KONG -- Thailand's "democracy" is in limbo. Judges of the country's three top courts have decided that April's elections were unconstitutional, and new ones must be held. The Election Commission set October for new elections, but the judges said the commission has no power to set the date and its...
BUSINESS
Jun 6, 2006

Firms log 15.5 trillion yen profits

Combined pretax profits by companies totaled a record 15.51 trillion yen in the January-March quarter, up 4.1 percent from the same period last year, according to a Finance Ministry survey released Monday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 5, 2006

Base plan augurs big changes ahead

The central government last week finalized a basic plan for the largest-ever realignment of U.S. forces stationed in Japan -- more than three years after Japan and the United States started consultations on the plan. It includes relocation of the heliport functions of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 4, 2006

Will ghostwriters face 'treachery' from post-Koizumi Japan?

A recent news item in The Japan Times really shocked me. It concerned what a former political heavyweight once said in private.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2006

20% of Japan's population over 65

2005 saw the number of Japanese age 65 and older topped 20 percent of the total population for the first time, according to a government white paper released Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2006

LDP wants to allow military projects in space programs

A panel of the Liberal Democratic Party has drafted a bill that would allow Japan to use space for military purposes within the realm of self-defense, shifting from the current stance that space projects only have civilian roles, party officials said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2006

Diet enacts law to revive urban centers

The Diet enacted a law Wednesday designed to revive the centers of regional cities, which have hollowed out in recent years as retailers and homeowners have moved to the suburbs.
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2006

New U.S. Treasury chief welcomed

The government's top spokesman on Wednesday welcomed the nomination of Henry M. Paulson Jr. as new U.S. Treasury secretary, saying he hopes Paulson will help contribute to stable economic growth worldwide.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2006

Abe-led panel stresses need for 'second chances'

The government needs to create a social system that gives a second chance to people who drop out of the job market and to entrepreneurs whose businesses have failed, a government panel said in an interim report released Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
May 30, 2006

The means to a sustainable end

The Cabinet has adopted the third Basic Environment Plan since the first one was approved in 1994. Based on a report by the Central Environment Council, the latest plan, a revision of the second plan (adopted in 2000), is titled "The Way to a New Rich Lifestyle in a Sustainable Society."
JAPAN
May 30, 2006

Japan, South Korea kin join on abduction issue

Relatives of Japanese and South Koreans abducted by Pyongyang told a Diet special committee Monday that their two governments must cooperate to get back their kin from North Korea as quickly as possible.
COMMENTARY
May 29, 2006

New North Korean missiles

North Korea is reportedly gearing up to fire the long-range Taepodong 2 ballistic missile, which is capable of hitting part of the mainland United States.
JAPAN
May 27, 2006

Taxpayers pay Diet partying tab

About 90 million yen in tax money earmarked for House of Representatives members' administrative research was spent on dining and wining by lawmakers and their staff in fiscal 2002 and 2003, the Lower House secretariat said Thursday.
JAPAN
May 27, 2006

Abe's suggestive speech eggs biggest fan on

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe's suggestive declaration Wednesday that he would run for president of the Liberal Democratic Party has thrilled one of his most ardent supporters.

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