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JAPAN
Feb 9, 2006

Koizumi wary of foreign solution to labor shortage

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi voiced reluctance Wednesday about increasing the number of foreign workers in Japan, citing concerns it would cause more social conflicts and crime.
COMMENTARY
Feb 9, 2006

'British' identity in the EU

LONDON -- British Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) Gordon Brown has been calling for a national debate on the subject of British identity and what he terms "Britishness."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2006

Fukuoka design firm also faked structural data

Faked earthquake-resistance data were used to construct at least three condominium complexes in Fukuoka Prefecture built by Kimura Construction Co. but not designed by disgraced architect Hidetsugu Aneha, the land ministry and the Fukuoka Municipal Government said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2006

Koizumi puts bill for female succession on back burner

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe backed off Wednesday from their earlier pledge to quickly get a bill passed that would allow a female on the Chrysanthemum Throne.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 9, 2006

Berlin/Tokyo : Invitation to a car wreck

See related story: Berlin/Tokyo : Your pick of the isms
EDITORIALS
Feb 7, 2006

Enough of make-believe bidding

The arrests last week of senior officials of the Defense Facilities Administration Agency (DFAA) confirmed that bid-rigging on public-works projects remains an entrenched practice in Japan. What happens, basically, is that a contract is awarded at a price higher than if it were put out to bid through...
LIFE / Language
Feb 7, 2006

Practical reasons for praising entrance exams

On Saturday, Jan. 21, history was made. And I was a part of it by simply taking a 30-minute listening test. It was the first time that the unified university entrance exams, prepared by MEXT's National Center for University Entrance Examinations, had included listening comprehension. This may very well...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Feb 7, 2006

Guarantors and leaving the country

Guarantor Is there an organization in Japan that serves as a guarantor for foreigners in Japan who want to rent apartments?
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2006

Japan, South Korea agree to double size of bilateral currency swap deal

Japan and South Korea agreed Saturday in Tokyo to increase the size of a bilateral currency swap agreement to $15 billion from $7 billion to help address potential financial crises in Asia.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Feb 5, 2006

Fashionista with attitude

Raised on the mean streets of Brooklyn's Brownsville district, Gene Krell is a self-proclaimed tough guy who cites as one of his heroes a little-known but highly colorful "Dadaist professional boxer" called Arthur Cravan.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2006

Tokyo to leverage whole talks on abduction issue

In a move to pressure North Korea a day before bilateral talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang are to start in Beijing, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Friday that Tokyo may consider abandoning the three-track talks on security, abduction and normalization if there is no progress on the abduction issue.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2006

Pabco truck-scandal toll rises to 10,351 since 1986

Auto body maker Pabco Co. said Friday it illegally modified at least 10,351 trucks -- four times the number it announced in December -- by adding equipment that made them too heavy.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 4, 2006

Another strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

I have within me, I confess, a split personality -- like sheared halves of a single beating heart.
EDITORIALS
Feb 3, 2006

A way of looking at profits

Mr. Takafumi Horie, the 33-year-old maverick businessman who built the Livedoor Co. empire from scratch, has entered the most difficult phase of his life, confined to sleep in an unheated, three-mat cell in the Tokyo Detention House -- a world apart from his posh Roppongi Hills residence. The criminal...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 3, 2006

M.I.A. terrorizes the dancefloor

Maya Arulpragasam sighs into the phone. I've asked her if journalists have accurately depicted her life story, and she seems tired of the question.
EDITORIALS
Feb 2, 2006

Leading in science and technology

The government will launch a five-year science and technology development plan with the start of fiscal 2006 in April. The plan is based on the "third basic plan for science and technology" that the General Council on Science and Technology submitted to the government late last year spelling out the...
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2006

Lenders, insurers offer relief to Aneha victims

Most insurance companies and two banks said Wednesday they will help people who bought substandard condominiums developed by Huser Ltd. and other builders.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 31, 2006

Hospital death exposes 'tip of malpractice iceberg'

Loyd Cummings tried to ignore his headache when it began on Aug. 7, 2003. But the electronic technician, who was working in Japan on U.S. Navy radars, eventually collapsed from an aneurysm -- a bulge in a vein in his head.
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2006

Settling labor disputes promptly

I n April, Japan will introduce an "industrial tribunal system" to settle individual labor disputes, such as those involving dismissals, working conditions and reassignments. The purpose of this system is to settle disputes expeditiously by limiting the number of trial sessions to no more than three....
COMMENTARY
Jan 30, 2006

Iran highlights EU failings

LONDON -- The battle for Europe's soul continues. Austria now holds the presidency of the European Union until July, and the Austrians see themselves very much as being at the heart of an integrated European state.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2006

Hotelier beats checks, drops disabled access

Toyoko Inn Co. admitted Friday that some of its business hotels in Yokohama and other areas removed mandatory parking facilities for the disabled after authorities certified them as barrier-free.
BUSINESS
Jan 28, 2006

Bargain-hunters circling Livedoor group in search of value

What's in a name?
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 28, 2006

No single recipe for facing challenges of globalization

T here are multiple ways for companies to stay competitive in a globalized world, and even firms in what are often perceived as sunset industries have the potential for success, scholars and business executives said at a recent symposium in Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Jan 27, 2006

False start on beef imports

Less than six weeks after lifting a two-year ban on U.S. beef imports, the Japanese government was forced to impose it again last week. The action followed the discovery of prohibited material in a shipment from a New York meatpacker in violation of safety rules aimed at preventing the spread of bovine...
COMMENTARY
Jan 27, 2006

Don't do mullahs' bidding

NEW DELHI -- The United States and European Union have taken the lead in framing a robust international response to a series of provocative actions by Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The wise way to tackle a renegade Iran, however, is not through punitive action, but through sustained...
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2006

Koizumi not backing down on Yasukuni

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi again attempted Wednesday to justify his repeated trips to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine by noting that China and South Korea are the only countries that denounce the visits.

Longform

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Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat