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JAPAN
Jan 27, 2005

Promotion just for Japanese: supreme court

principle of national sovereignty and in view of the fact that the people should in the end be responsible for how the central and local governments govern, (the Constitution) should be viewed as presuming that Japanese nationals in principle will assume local civil service positions" that require the...
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2005

English teachers safe after tsunami: schools

Major English-language schools and local governments said Wednesday that all of their non-Japanese teachers who had been unaccounted for in the wake of last month's massive tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean are now safely back at work.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2005

Execs face charges in revolving door death

Police on Wednesday handed prosecutors their case against six executives in connection with the death of a 6-year-old boy who was crushed in an automatic revolving door at Tokyo's Roppongi Hills commercial complex in March.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2005

China now Japan's top trade partner

trade," said Yukari Sato, chief economist at Credit Suisse First Boston Securities (Japan) Ltd. Economists and government officials predict that Japan's trade with China will grow further, given lower tariffs and an improving investment climate spurred by China's entry into the World Trade Organization...
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2005

Police bust 10 billion yen phone fraud ring

Police arrested more than 10 people Wednesday, including mobsters, former loan sharks and youths, on suspicion of perpetrating a series of remittance frauds nationwide.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2005

Koizumi vows rural postal services will be maintained

postal delivery services, the (privatized) entity (in charge) will be legally obliged to continue to provide them," Koizumi said, indicating this entity would receive preferential treatment over actual private-sector firms seeking to enter the mail delivery fray. Under the government's privatization...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2005

High court refuses to acknowledge police negligence led to fatal stalking

The parents of a woman who was murdered in 1999 by a group of men linked to her ex-boyfriend failed Wednesday to win recognition that the negligence by Saitama police who failed to act on her complaint of stalking and harassment led to her slaying.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Jan 27, 2005

Wonderfully easy on the eyes

Sony launched its new PlayStation Portable in Japan in December. According to Sony, it is slated to launch in the United States by the end of March. Who knows about Europe.
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2005

MMC's loss nearly doubles forecast, tops 400 billion yen

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is expected to mark a record consolidated net loss of more than 400 billion yen for fiscal 2004, which ends in March, after being battered by sluggish sales in North America, according to sources.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2005

Foggy North Korean shuffle

BRUSSELS -- Recent events in North Korea have been interpreted in various ways and, generally, the wish has been father to the thought. The truth is difficult to discern, but indications are that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has placed himself firmly behind a reform program that may finally bring...
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2005

Finance Ministry maintains gradual recovery assessment

The Finance Ministry on Wednesday left its overall assessment of the economy unchanged for the November-January period for the fourth straight quarter, saying the economy was making a gradual recovery despite the appearance of weak movements.
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2005

MTFG to up capital in merger runup

Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. plans to issue 250 billion yen in preferred shares by the end of March to expand its capital base ahead of its planned merger with UFJ Holdings Inc. in October, MTFG officials said Wednesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jan 27, 2005

Bull-headed shrike

* Japanese name: Mozu * Scientific name: Lanius bucephalus * Description: At first glance, bull-headed shrikes look like large (20-cm-long) house sparrows, albeit they have thick, hooked, black bills and are more strongly colored, with black and white feathers in their wings, rust flanks, gray-brown...
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2005

Seibu Railway panel to seek four bank execs

A Seibu Railway group reform panel will ask four banks to dispatch representatives to the board of directors of a new company to lead the scandal-tainted group, panel sources said Wednesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2005

Yamaichi Securities creditors hold last gathering

Creditors of Yamaichi Securities Co. held their last meeting Wednesday, completing bankruptcy procedures for the major brokerage whose collapse in 1997 nearly set off a nationwide financial crisis.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2005

Loan shark handed five-year term but court stiffs victims for damages

The Tokyo District Court sentenced a senior member of a loan-sharking ring to five years in prison Wednesday and fined him 20 million yen for money laundering.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 27, 2005

'Sobering study' spells out the global crisis

After more than 30 years of work in national and international environmental policymaking, James Gustave Speth has written an extraordinary book. Even better, it's now out in Japanese, published by Chuohoki.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2005

Latest sanction threat against North Korea likely an empty promise

Japan on Wednesday again threatened to impose economic sanctions on North Korea after the reclusive state formally dismissed Tokyo's protest against its probe into the fate of 10 missing Japanese.
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2005

National burden ratio likely to rise

The national burden ratio -- the portion of taxes and social welfare premiums in national income -- is projected to rise to 35.9 percent in fiscal 2005, up 0.2 percentage point from fiscal 2004, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 26, 2005

Takahashi returns to training

Sydney Olympic champion Naoko Takahashi began a one-month training camp on Tuesday and is in high spirits about her comeback to competitive marathon racing from an ankle injury.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 26, 2005

Miyazato invited to year's first major

Japan's Ai Miyazato has been invited to compete in the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first major tournament of the year on the U.S. LPGA tour, the Ladies Professional Golfers' Association of Japan said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2005

Stock option income counts as salary: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that proceeds from exercising stock options should be regarded as a part of salary and thus subject to a higher tax rate than for one-time income.
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2005

Visa issuance for all chinese may become permanent

Transport minister Kazuo Kitagawa said Tuesday he wants to make permanent a plan under which group tourists from all over China will get Visas for the six-month Aichi World Exposition.
EDITORIALS
Jan 26, 2005

A reason for long-term unity

The World Conference on Disaster Reduction, held last week in Kobe under the auspices of the United Nations, has produced concrete results, notably the Hyogo Framework for Action, a 10-year global action plan for reducing disaster risks, and an agreement to build a tsunami early-warning system in the...
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2005

Five Kurdish refugees may be sent to a third country

law."
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2005

No deal made to keep quiet about ashes: Machimura

Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura denied Tuesday that a senior Foreign Ministry official who visited Pyongyang in November agreed not to disclose the fact that Japan had received what North Korea claimed were cremated remains of abductee Megumi Yokota.

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?