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BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Government seeks to keep 3% cost cut target in budget

The government hopes to trim public-works spending by at least 3 percent in the fiscal 2006 budget, the same modest cost cuts made for this fiscal year, according to budget compilation guidelines submitted Wednesday to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Aug 11, 2005

Little grebe

* Japanese name: Kaitsuburi * Scientific name: Tachybaptus ruficollis * Description: Little grebes, also known as dabchicks, are quite small and rather dumpy birds with blunt rear ends. They are dark brown, with a chestnut-brown throat and face. This chestnut color becomes richer and more shiny during...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 11, 2005

A-bomb gene 'shadow' may be fading

One of the strongest memories I have of a trip to Hiroshima that I made a few years ago is of the shadow on the steps of the Sumitomo Bank. Someone had been sitting on those steps, probably waiting for the bank to open, when at 8.15 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1945, a bomb went off.
EDITORIALS
Aug 10, 2005

North Korea's choice

Predictably, the fourth round of talks over North Korea's nuclear-weapons programs broke off last weekend in stalemate. Progress was evident during the marathon negotiations, however, so the break is only a recess: Representatives from the six parties to the talks -- China, Japan, North Korea, Russia,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 10, 2005

Daylight-saving time always a tough sell

Pity the proponents of daylight-saving time. Late last month, the third bill drafted to revive the energy-saving practice was put on the Diet's back burner, delayed by filibustering over postal privatization.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2005

Slovakia boasts an investment hub, envoy says

Slovakia, a recent EU entrant from Central Europe with low labor costs, can be a highly attractive destination for Japanese investors, Slovakian Ambassador to Japan Peter Vrsansky said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2005

Politicians begin plotting strategies for Sept. 11 poll

Campaigning for the Sept. 11 Lower House general election effectively got under way Tuesday, one day after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dissolved the chamber on the heels of the House of Councilors' rejection of his postal privatization bills.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2005

Record 566 teachers judged incompetent

A record 566 teachers in public schools were ruled incompetent by local boards of education in the 2004 school year, up 85 from the year before, according to a government survey released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2005

Redress eludes survivors of deadly Soviet gulags

Haruyoshi Inukai was 20 when he donned an Imperial Japanese Army uniform on a sunny day in April 1944 and boarded a ship for deployment to Manchuria.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2005

JR West reports 4% increase in net profit

West Japan Railway Co. said Tuesday its group net profit in the April-June quarter rose 4.0 percent from a year ago to 13.87 billion yen despite the fatal April 25 train derailment in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2005

Toshiba lowers profit ratio goal despite expected sales growth

Acknowledging Toshiba Corp. has not met its targets in the last five years, the firm's new president lowered profit ratio forecasts Tuesday, indicating that while it expects sales to grow, profits will likely decline -- or will not grow as fast.
Japan Times
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 10, 2005

Luck only payoff for Siberia returnees

Japanese soldiers who survived the slave labor, starvation and bitter cold of Siberian prison camps after the war could count themselves lucky, but not count any significant cold cash for their ordeal.
COMMENTARY
Aug 10, 2005

No rationalization for Nagasaki attack

NEW DELHI -- History is written by victors and thus abounds in well-cultivated rationalizations for the winners' actions, however unjustifiable or gory they might be. Vanquishers are rarely burdened by guilt. Sometimes the rationalization stops with their first major slaughter in a war, as if their willful...
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2005

BOJ keeps monetary stance unchanged

The Bank of Japan decided Tuesday to keep its monetary stance unchanged, judging it necessary to get the nation on a clearly sustainable recovery amid renewed worries about the economy after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called for a general election.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2005

Cheap eats bite halfway into McDonald's profit

McDonald's Holdings Co. Japan said Tuesday its net profit for the first six months dropped by more than half to 474 million yen, dragged down by a cheap-menu campaign launched in April.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2005

Machinery orders jump 11.1% to five-year high

Core private-sector machinery orders increased a seasonally adjusted 11.1 percent in June from the previous month to 1.059 trillion yen, the highest level in five years, the government said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Aug 10, 2005

When it comes to American policy, Tokyo and Beijing have something in common

LOS ANGELES -- In two recent decisions involving the two major powers of East Asia, the United States revealed that it is still ungenerous about sharing power, even with a close ally like Japan, and that it is still so paranoid about China that it is willing to risk antagonizing it by acting as if it...
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2005

Economy seen moving out of soft patch

Economic policymakers on Tuesday showed their strongest confidence yet that the nation has emerged from the lull that started in autumn and upgraded their economic assessments accordingly.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Aug 10, 2005

Market dreams of glory

Tokyo art collectors were out in force as the first-annual Tokyo Art Fair (TAF) debuted this past weekend (Aug. 6-8) at the Tokyo International Forum in Yurakucho. The fair saw participation from 81 galleries and art-related companies.

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?