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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 13, 2005

Filling an emptiness with public play

Just before Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi died of pneumonia in 1988, he completed his final legacy, the master plan for Moerenuma Park north of Sapporo in Hokkaido. Seventeen years later, the 189-hectare park envisaged by Noguchi as one large sculpture was finally completed in July at a cost...
BUSINESS
Oct 13, 2005

Government still bullish on economy

The government Wednesday maintained its bullish assessment of the economy from the previous month, with officials citing recoveries in personal spending and exports.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 13, 2005

Eight Japanese-Filipinos file for citizenship in Tokyo

Eight Japanese-Filipinos born in the Philippines prior to the end of World War II applied Wednesday with the Tokyo Family Court to be registered as Japanese citizens.
BUSINESS
Oct 13, 2005

Electronic toll collection tops 50%

The transport ministry said Wednesday that 50.2 percent of vehicles used the electronic toll collection system when they passed through toll booths on expressways between Sept. 30 and Oct. 6.
BUSINESS
Oct 13, 2005

Direct financing boon for insurers

Life insurance companies are increasingly tapping the capital market directly, a trend expected to help improve their financial flexibility and credit quality, Standard & Poor's said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Oct 13, 2005

FamilyMart expanding

Convenience store chain FamilyMart Co. will open some 40 stores in Hokkaido and Aomori Prefecture in the business year through February 2007, becoming the second convenience chain with a nationwide network after Lawson Inc., its president said Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 13, 2005

Pop mystification

Sigmar Polke has a lot in common with the medieval alchemists with whom he identifies. Like them, he is interested in transmutation, sometimes employing pigments and techniques that make his paintings change over time. Like those pseudo-scientists of the past, he uses a combination of mystification and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 13, 2005

When revolution came to the big screen

1969 was a watershed year for American cinema, with two films in particular heralding significant changes to the movie-making industry. One was "Midnight Cowboy," the story of a hustler and a junkie on the streets of New York City, starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman; this became the first X-rated...
JAPAN
Oct 13, 2005

Jenkins hopes book helps settle abduction cases

how they handle the abductions . . . they are doing everything they can do," he said. In his memoir, Jenkins says he met or witnessed many people in North Korea who he believed were definitely abductees from Europe, the Middle East, Hong Kong and other parts of Southeast Asia.
BUSINESS
Oct 13, 2005

Six insurance execs face pay cuts

Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. said Wednesday it will cut the pay of President Hiroyuki Uemura and five other executives over a scandal in which it failed to make payments in some 25,000 cases over a three-year period.
JAPAN
Oct 13, 2005

Keidanren grades LDP over DPJ

The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) generally gave higher grades to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party over the Democratic Party of Japan in an assessment of the two parties' policies and achievements.
BUSINESS
Oct 13, 2005

Pentax, Korean firm target DSLRs

Pentax Corp. said Wednesday it has agreed with Samsung Techwin Co. of South Korea to jointly develop digital single-lens reflex cameras.
JAPAN
Oct 13, 2005

Taiwanese let ruling on Yasukuni lawsuit stand

Taiwanese who sued the government over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine will not appeal to a higher court, their lawyers said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Oct 13, 2005

BOJ retains its ultraloose money policy

The Bank of Japan maintained its ultraloose monetary policy Wednesday, leaving the current account balance target unchanged at 30 trillion yen to 35 trillion yen.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 12, 2005

Thai champ stops Naito

Japanese boxer Daisuke Naito lasted longer this time against Thai champion Pongsaklek Wonjongkam but his renewed bid for a world title ended in the seventh round Monday in a rematch of their WBC flyweight fight.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 12, 2005

Swallows' Aoki first in CL to top 200 hits

Norichika Aoki hit a leadoff single to right field in the first inning of the Yakult Swallows' 5-0 win over the Yokohama BayStars on Tuesday night, making him the second player in Japanese baseball history to reach 200 hits in a single season.
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2005

Supreme Court upholds former Itoman exec's 10-year term

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal filed by a former managing director of the now-defunct trading house Itoman Corp. against his prison sentence for his part in a scam that caused the company to incur huge losses, judicial sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2005

Postal bills fly through Lower House

got what he wanted by fair means or foul," Kamei said after the vote. "It seems as if the 'age of civil wars' has been revived in modern society and I fear that democratized Japan will disappear."
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2005

Ministry sees 85,000 asbestos deaths

Deaths caused by asbestos-related mesothelioma and lung cancer in Japan could reach 85,000, Environment Ministry sources said in an estimate Tuesday.
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2005

Japanese-Filipinos seek citizenship

Seven Japanese-Filipinos, who were born in the Philippines before Japan's wartime surrender, visited Tokyo on Tuesday to seek family registration as Japanese.
EDITORIALS
Oct 12, 2005

Diminishing role of LDP factions

Factionalism has often been said to be the hallmark of the Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled the nation for most of the past 50 years. The LDP landslide in the Sept. 11 Lower House election, however, has dramatically altered the party's internal structure. In particular, its factional politics...
COMMENTARY
Oct 12, 2005

New authoritarian ways cross the line

LONDON -- At the recent Labour Party Conference, Prime Minister Tony Blair criticized the British criminal justice system. He said it needed toughening and called for "a radical extension of summary powers to police and local authorities" to deal with antisocial behavior and prevent terrorism.
BUSINESS
Oct 12, 2005

Wolfowitz hits poverty, takes Iraq flak

Donor nations, including the United States and Japan, must act now to fight poverty in an interconnected world, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said Tuesday in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2005

GSDF private's stimulants bust kept under wraps

A Ground Self-Defense Force enlisted man whose August drug bust was kept under wraps went on trial Tuesday, GSDF officials said.

Longform

A store clerk tries to cool things down in front of their shop by spraying a hose.
Is extreme weather changing the way Japan shops?