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Japan Times
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Apr 12, 2006

Promotions, trips and an NHK departure

With memories of the Osaka Haru Basho starting to fade, a lot of sumo fans will be looking to May 7th and the first day of the Natsu Basho in Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 12, 2006

Peacock butterfly

* Japanese name: Kujaku-cho * Scientific name: Inachis io geisha * Description: Instantly recognizable, with its chocolate-brown body, striking red wings and eye spots, the peacock is in the Nymphalid family of butterflies. In members of this family, the front pair of legs are reduced and useless for...
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2006

JAL, Skymark presidents give unsworn Diet testimony

have to secure robust profit." The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry launched a special inspection into Skymark in March after it was found to have flown a plane nine months past its repair deadline.
EDITORIALS
Apr 9, 2006

Mr. Ozawa takes the DPJ's helm

The Democratic Party of Japan -- which has plunged into a crisis following the resignation of its young leader Seiji Maehara over a bogus e-mail fiasco -- chose Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, a heavyweight veteran politician, as its new leader. As leader of the No. 1 opposition party, the tasks facing Mr. Ozawa are...
Japan Times
Features
Apr 9, 2006

Off the road from Damascus

Megumi Yoshitake's experience of living with the Bedouin is quite probably unique. Although her primary medium is photography, here she also offers some written snippets of memory and expression from her numerous sojourns in the Syrian Desert since the 1980s.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 9, 2006

Bringing the lady-makes-tea debate to the boil

In the early 1990s I interviewed a representative of the vending machine industry who told me that one of the most revolutionary developments in his business was the installation of coffee and tea dispensers in new office buildings. "Think of it," he said excitedly, "women office workers will no longer...
BUSINESS
Apr 8, 2006

Panel gives options for fiscal health

A key government panel outlined a plan to overhaul of government spending and taxes aimed at restoring the country to fiscal health, but did not provide specifics on the size of expected budget cuts or consumption tax increases.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 8, 2006

Mary Kerwin

Born the eldest of five sisters in Minneapolis, Mary Kerwin said that superficially hers was an insular upbringing. Her grandfather was an immigrant from Norway. Her father was a Lutheran pastor and her mother a schoolteacher. "But while I was still very young, the Viking ancestry won out," she said....
BUSINESS
Apr 8, 2006

Foreign reserves rewrite record high

Japan's foreign-exchange reserves totaled $852.03 billion at the end of March, up $1.97 billion from a month earlier and renewing a record high logged in January, the Finance Ministry said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2006

NPA seeks 20% cuts in road deaths

The National Police Agency will focus on cyclists and elderly people to achieve a national goal of reducing traffic deaths and injuries by 20 percent a year over the next five years, according to an action program unveiled Thursday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 7, 2006

Ryuan, Kaikaiya: izakaya mood swings

We were in the mood for eating Japanese -- nothing too fancy, but somewhere modern, with a sense of style, to match the elevated state engendered by strolling under the Meguro-gawa blossoms. We couldn't get into our favorite watering holes alongside the river. So we decided to try our luck at Ryuan [formerly...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2006

U.S. is its own worst enemy

HONG KONG -- U.S. congressmen heartily congratulated themselves when -- after their outcry -- Dubai Ports World backed off and decided to relinquish control of the U.S. ports that were included in its takeover of P&O.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 6, 2006

An art born of Saicho's syncretism

This year marks the 1,200th anniversary of the founding of the Buddhist Tendai sect in Japan, when Priest Saicho (767-822), posthumously known as Dengyo Daishi, received court permission to establish a school of religious study and training at Enryaku-ji Temple on Mount Hie to the northeast of Kyoto....
COMMENTARY
Apr 4, 2006

Hope dims for plebiscite bill

Now that the budget bills for fiscal 2006 have cleared both houses of the National Diet, one of the focal issues for the remainder of the current session will be how to reconcile conflicting views between the ruling and opposition parties over legislation on plebiscites, a process indispensable for amending...
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2006

Prosecutors set up quake-data team

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office has set up a full-time team to investigate the quake-resistance fabrication scandal involving disgraced architect Hidetsugu Aneha, sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2006

Bill to fingerprint, photograph arrivals clears Lower House

The House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday to require fingerprinting and photographing of foreigners entering Japan as a measure to prevent terrorism.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 31, 2006

Majestic entertainment

Subtitled "Adult Frustration!?" Yebisu Cultural Festival returns for its fifth installment to Tokyo nightspot Milk on April 1. As usual, it boasts a diverse lineup of live bands, DJs and special performances.
EDITORIALS
Mar 30, 2006

DPJ has dawdled long enough

With the Diet's passage of the fiscal 2006 budget, the Koizumi administration has cleared an important hurdle. But the Diet is in a sad state following the Democratic Party of Japan's blunder in its handling of an e-mail message presented by a DPJ lawmaker alleging shady financial ties between disgraced...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 30, 2006

Reshaping U.S.-ROK alliance

HONOLULU -- The U.S.-South Korea alliance is at a turning point. South Korea has become a modern, vibrant democracy and a dynamic economy with global reach. Despite the nuclear crisis with North Korea, inter-Korean reconciliation has taken root and South Korea feels confident enough to seek a more independent...
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2006

Japan wants to limit realignment tab to 50%: Aso

Japan wants to keep its share of the expenses for moving some 8,000 U.S. Marines to Guam from Okinawa to under half, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2006

Vote cuts term of U.S. force budget

A House of Councilors plenary session approved Wednesday a new Japan-U.S. agreement that takes effect in April on Japan's host-nation support for U.S. forces stationed in the country.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2006

Bill in works to officially allow military use of space

In a shift away from a nearly 40-year-old commitment to an exclusively nonmilitary space program, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party announced plans Tuesday to draft a bill that would authorize Japan's military to use space for self-defense.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2006

What next in Asahara trial saga?

Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara's lawyers continue to protest the Tokyo High Court's dismissal Monday of their appeal of the cult guru's death sentence.
SUMO
Mar 28, 2006

HARU HAPPENINGS -- Something for everyone

In perhaps the most entertaining sumo tournament in years, the recently completed Haru Basho essentially had it all.

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