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BUSINESS
Jul 28, 2005

Misawa Homes, Toyota Finance to tie up

Misawa Homes Holdings Inc. said Wednesday it has agreed with a finance unit of Toyota Motor Corp. to tie up in the home mortgage business as part of its revitalization plan supported by an alliance led by the automaker.
LIFE / Language
Jul 28, 2005

Cram schools cash in on failure of public schools

With Japan's economic bubble long since burst and job security fast becoming no more than a fond memory, there has been a surge in applications to private schools from primary grades up to college.
BUSINESS
Jul 28, 2005

BOJ keeps ultra-loose money policy

The Bank of Japan maintained its ultra-easy monetary policy Wednesday, leaving the current account balance target unchanged at a range of 30 trillion yen to 35 trillion yen, in line with analysts' predictions.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2005

Indict Yamasaki, inquest urges

A Tokyo prosecution inquest panel held a vote Wednesday and decided Taku Yamasaki, a senior Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker, should be charged for failing to declare campaign donations from a scandal-tainted dentists' lobby.
BUSINESS
Jul 28, 2005

Honda reports 3.1% drop in net profit

Honda Motor Co. said Wednesday that its net profit in the first quarter of fiscal 2005 fell 3.1 percent to 110.6 billion yen, despite brisk domestic and overseas sales.
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2005

Publisher hit for alleging murder role

Publisher Kodansha Ltd. was ordered Wednesday to pay 8.8 million yen in damages to a 49-year-old man for defamation, having suggested in one of its magazines that he had been involved in the murder of a family in Fukuoka in 2003.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 28, 2005

Med students set to train on superdummies

It's the most advanced artificial human outside of a Japanese sex shop. The Human Patient Simulator, also known as Stan D Ardman ("Standard Man"), may not look or feel exactly human, but it leaves sex toys behind when it comes to mimicking human physiology.
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2005

State checked three of 2,000 asbestos plants, saw low risk

The state's air checks for asbestos in fiscal 1981-1983 were conducted at only three of the 2,000-plus factories that handled the carcinogenic material, government sources said Wednesday.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 28, 2005

Moves afoot to counter U.S. Big Oil's clout

Reducing the greenhouse gases that derive from human activities and cause global warming is perhaps the most critical environmental challenge facing the world community.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jul 28, 2005

Oriental long-headed locust

* Japanese name: Shouryou-batta * Scientific name: Acrida cinerea antennata * Description: Although it is called the long-headed locust, this member of the grasshopper family of insects has a stranger appearance than the more familiar swarming locust. "Shouryou" refers (bafflingly) to the Buddhist...
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2005

Male ranks cede to females as population rise tapers off

Japan's population grew a mere 0.04 percent, or 45,231 people, to stand at 126,869,397 as of March 31 -- the lowest annual increase in both rate and quantity on record, the government said Wednesday, noting population data started being collected in 1968.
COMMENTARY
Jul 28, 2005

Whining won't ease 'burden'

Why should the U.S. ambassador to Japan have to spell out how much Japan benefits from its alliance with the United States? The reason is that Japan's leaders remain incompetent in explaining vital security issues to the Japanese public, and so take the easy way out by bleating about the so-called burden...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2005

Welfare firms training foreign caregivers

Annie Watanabe took part last month in a role-playing exercise with other Filipino students, learning both how to feed a bedridden patient and how to be cared for.
BUSINESS
Jul 28, 2005

Longreach bags 25% of McDonald's

The Longreach Group, a private equity investment firm based in Hong Kong and Tokyo, said Wednesday that it acquired a 24.98 percent stake of McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan) from the family of Den Fujita, the late founder of the burger chain's Japanese unit.
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2005

Court seeks Hashimoto, Nonaka, Aoki testimony in fund scam

The Tokyo District Court said Wednesday it will call former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and two Liberal Democratic Party heavyweights to testify in a trial over a political fund scandal involving a major LDP faction Hashimoto led when the funds were received.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Jul 28, 2005

A one-way trip down psycho alley

Feeling that virtual, killer instinct when playing violent games is a guilty pleasure of the PlayStation era. We kill zombies in "Biohazard," Chinese warlords in "Dynasty Warriors" and police officers in "Grand Theft Auto." For many of us, the aim-fire-reload mechanics of games have become second nature....
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 27, 2005

Sheets pounds three homers as Tigers maul Giants

Andy Sheets hit three homers and drove in four runs and Shinjiro Hiyama had three RBIs as the front-running Hanshin Tigers routed the Yomiuri Giants 9-3 in the Central League on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2005

French teachers give Ishihara homework

French-language instructors at Meiji University on Tuesday gave French textbooks and a dictionary to Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, who has been targeted in a lawsuit for allegedly remarking that the French language "cannot count numbers."
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2005

Obara to take stand this week, Blackman says

A man accused of raping and murdering a British woman found dismembered in a seaside cave in 2000 was expected to take the stand this week, the victim's father said Tuesday, as the focus of the case shifted to defense arguments.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2005

Chen blasts China arms expansion

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian repeated on Tuesday his call on China to stop aiming missiles at Taiwan while stressing the need to try to normalize relations with Beijing.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2005

Remodeled Lexus trio rolled out

Toyota Motor Corp. unveiled three remodeled Lexus luxury models Tuesday that will be launched in late August.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2005

Typhoon Banyan dodges Tokyo, veers into Chiba

Powerful Typhoon Banyan sideswiped eastern Japan on Tuesday evening, narrowly missing Tokyo but hitting Kamogawa, Chiba Prefecture, shortly after 8 p.m., the Meteorological Agency said.
COMMUNITY
Jul 27, 2005

Comedienne Tomochika is quite a character

Along with comedy duos who do manzai (two-man standup) or short skits, a rise in "pin geinin (solo comedians)" is another dimension to the current owarai boom.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2005

Tepco, KDDI in discussions on fiber-optic telecom tieup

Tokyo Electric Power Co. and mobile phone firm KDDI Corp. are in talks to tie up in the area of telecommunications, it was learned Tuesday.

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?