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COMMENTARY
Aug 12, 2005

Dreams drive the nightmare

WASHINGTON -- Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel is again pushing legislation to reintroduce a draft in America. He first did so in 2003 to slow the Bush administration's rush to war. Now he says conscription is necessary to provide the bodies necessary for Iraq's occupation.
BUSINESS
Aug 12, 2005

Livedoor sales post three-fold rise

Internet business operator Livedoor Co. said Thursday its group sales in the first nine months of its 2005 business year saw a threefold jump from a year before to 52.28 billion yen due mainly to a 3.5-fold sales leap at its Net-based financing segment.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Aug 12, 2005

Keeping your wines alive in the heat

As it becomes warm enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk, owners of large wine collections, or even a few special bottles, should be asking themselves, "Just how hot is too hot?"
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 12, 2005

Bank lending key to postwar revival

When Hiroshige Nishizawa got a job at the now-defunct Industrial Bank of Japan more than 40 years ago, the new graduate was full of ambition.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Aug 12, 2005

Weekend trance party picks 08.12

Friday 08.12
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / COUNTER CULTURE
Aug 12, 2005

A little more love is in store for you

It's not often that I get to write about a shop that really gets me excited, but Colour By Numbers pushes more than a few of my buttons. It debuted in Daikanyama two weeks ago, one year to the day after the opening of its Aoyama sister store Loveless, and carries a big selection of creations by Japan-based...
EDITORIALS
Aug 11, 2005

Feelings between neighbors

Two recent polls on grass-roots perception -- one in Japan, China and South Korea, and the other in Japan and the United States -- offer a helpful clue in putting Japan's relations with these other countries in a perspective wider than government-level relations. The survey conducted by Kyodo News in...
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2005

Truants dip 0.01-point to 123,000

About 123,000 elementary and junior high school students were absent from school for 30 days or longer in the 2004 school year, down about 3,000 from the previous year, the education ministry said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2005

Koike takes on Kobayashi as LDP hits postal rebels

...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2005

Okunoshima: poison gas past belies isle's bucolic serenity

OKUNOSHIMA, Hiroshima Pref. -- With its turquoise waters, quiet forest paths, palm trees and spectacular views of the mainland and other islands of the Inland Sea, Okunoshima Island has the feel of a resort somewhere in the Aegean Sea or the South Pacific.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2005

Nikkei has highest close since April '04 on economy restart announcement

The key Nikkei stock index ended Wednesday at its highest level since late April 2004, racking up the second-largest single-day gain this year after the government said the day before that economic recovery had ended its pause.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2005

Snap election to delay realignment report: Ono

Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono said Wednesday that a joint interim report on realignment of the U.S. military in Japan, initially expected to be compiled in September, will be delayed to October due to the House of Representatives election on Sept. 11.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2005

More nuclear plant mishaps spur Tokai reactor shutdown

A nuclear power plant in the village of Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, shut down a reactor Wednesday for the second time this week after a valve in one of its pumps malfunctioned, the operator said.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Softbank forecasting first operating profit since 2000

Softbank Corp. said Wednesday it is projecting a full-year operating profit for the first time since fiscal 2000 thanks to subscriber growth in its high-speed Internet connection services.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Japan Post finalizing delivery tieup

Japan Post is in final talks to form a capital alliance with Asocia Corp., a delivery company affiliated with the Daimaru Inc. department store chain, in a bid to strengthen its services in areas where it competes with private-sector firms, Japan Post officials said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 11, 2005

Memories of war alive at old military sites

YANAGIMOTO, Nara Pref. -- It's just quiet farmland now, nothing more than fields and a few houses. But if you listen closely as the wind rustles through the rice stalks, you might just be able to hear the ghostly sounds of World War II fighter planes taking off and landing at what was once one of the...
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

July wholesale prices up 1.5% on energy cost rise

Wholesale prices rose a preliminary 1.5 percent in July from a year earlier for the 17th straight month of gain, due mainly to higher energy prices, the Bank of Japan said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Seibu now plans holding firm

Seibu Railway Co. said Wednesday its group has chosen to reconstruct itself under a holding company, deviating from an earlier plan for the railway to absorb other key group members.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Defying record companies, musicians look to iTunes

Japanese musicians under contract with Sony and other labels that haven't joined Apple's iTunes Music Store are starting to defy their recording companies by trying to get their music on the popular download service.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Shiseido sees no synergy from Kanebo bid

Shiseido Co. will withdraw from a series of tenders for Kanebo Ltd. and Kanebo Cosmetics Inc. soon to be held by the Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan, company sources said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 11, 2005

Remnants of war still buried in Japan

Residents in the western Tokyo suburb of Nishitokyo recently had a World War II flashback.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Pakistan prime minister: invest in boom

Pakistan needs more private foreign investment in infrastructure, energy and other areas to meet the growing demands of its booming economy, the Pakistani prime minister said Wednesday in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2005

Put everything on the table

WASHINGTON -- North Korea's return to six-party negotiations in Beijing has been accompanied by greater civility and seriousness than many expected. Further, the frequent and direct bilateral contacts that have taken place between the U.S. and North Korean delegations -- a softening of the Bush administration's...
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2005

Police launch traffic safety campaign

The National Police Agency said Wednesday it would try to achieve the world's best traffic safety by introducing comprehensive safety education and reviewing licensing requirements for elderly drivers.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2005

Long-term value of new peace memorial

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine have unduly been compounded as a diplomatic issue in Japan's relations with China and South Korea. It seems that Chinese and Korean leaders consider the visits supportive of moves by some Japanese to "legitimize the wrongs of the past."

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?