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JAPAN
May 2, 2006

Memorial service marks Minamata tragedy's 50th year

MINAMATA, Kumamoto Pref. -- Japan marked on Monday the 50th anniversary of the recognition of Minamata disease, a malady caused by pollution that officials were slow to confront and whose sufferers include thousands still seeking recognition and compensation.
COMMENTARY
May 2, 2006

Limiting the economic gaps

Japan is rich because Japanese are poor.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 2, 2006

A long life on the island

Reaching 100 has long fascinated societies. The century mark is regarded as an almost supernatural seal of hardiness and good health.
LIFE / Language
May 2, 2006

Manga fans take their Japanese to another level

Manga are the engine of Japan's new multibillion dollar export success, its pop-culture sofuto sangyo -- software industry -- which includes anime, video games, and music. Not surprisingly, perhaps, more and more foreigners are also using manga to learn Japanese.
BUSINESS
May 2, 2006

S&P puts Hankyu on its watch list

Credit rating firm Standard & Poor's said Monday it has put Hankyu Holdings Inc. on its watch list because the railway operator's planned merger with rival Hanshin Electric Railway Co. might prove too costly.
JAPAN
May 2, 2006

Japan, U.S. finalize troop plan

Capping more than three years of grueling negotiations, top Japanese and U.S. officials signed a set of agreements Monday in Washington to realign the U.S. military forces in Japan by 2014 and take the security alliance to a new level.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 2, 2006

Fingerprint fears and TELL news

Immigration law Michael asks how the new immigration law for foreign arrivals will affect those with re-entry visas. "Can we still use the Japanese national line, or will we have to go to the foreigners line? Japanese nationals are not being photographed or fingerprinted."
BUSINESS
May 2, 2006

Legal change seen giving entrepreneurs flexibility

When Keiji Okayasu founded his game software company, Studiofake, in 2000 he wanted it to be a limited liability company, a form of business popular with software developers in the West.
BUSINESS
May 2, 2006

New Corporate Law sets stage for LLCs, M&As

The new Corporate Law took effect Monday, setting a legal basis for business activities. The law eases restrictions on company management, aiming to give them a freer hand in decision-making and encouraging entrepreneurialism.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
May 2, 2006

"Cyrano," "Small Steps"

"Cyrano," Geraldine McCaughrean, OUP; 2006; 167pp.
BASKETBALL
May 1, 2006

Osaka holds off Niigata for inaugural bj-league crown

No way, nope, not going to happen.
BASKETBALL
May 1, 2006

Commish Kawachi looks to future of bj-league

The bj-league commissioner Toshimitsu Kawachi has watched game after game in his league all year, and as the inaugural season successfully came to an end at the weekend with the playoffs, he has no regrets and lots of hopes for the future.
MORE SPORTS
May 1, 2006

Deep Impact romps to record

KYOTO -- Last out of the gate and first over the finish line, Deep Impact dragged the crowd emotionally through the dirt, knocking them about as first they gasped, then sighed, cheered and finally even cried. "I'm 90 percent relieved, and 10 percent overjoyed," an exhausted-looking owner, Makoto Kaneko,...
JAPAN
May 1, 2006

Liquor tax goes up on ersatz beer

Monday is the first day of a higher liquor tax on "third-category" beer products, and retailers are divided over whether to hike prices of the sparkling drinks.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
May 1, 2006

Nioka has record breaking night

Tomohiro Nioka homered three times and became the first player in Japanese baseball to hit grand slams in consecutive at-bats as the Yomiuri Giants walloped the Chunichi Dragons 15-4 in the Central League on Sunday.
JAPAN
May 1, 2006

TOEIC revisions mean big change in English study

is to prevent test-takers who only learn techniques from getting high marks," ARE President Yoshinari Nagamoto said. The revision will affect many workers in Japan.
JAPAN
May 1, 2006

Atami jolted by afternoon quake

An earthquake measuring lower 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 hit Atami, a famous hot springs resort city in Shizuoka Prefecture, on Sunday afternoon, the Meteorological Agency said.
COMMENTARY
May 1, 2006

From reforms to deadlock

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi greeted the fifth anniversary of his rule, becoming Japan's third-longest serving postwar leader after Eisaku Sato and Shigeru Yoshida.
JAPAN
May 1, 2006

12 sacked for taking coffee money

OSAKA (Kyodo A West Japan Railway Co. subsidiary has fired 12 workers and reprimanded 21 others for pocketing at least 5 million yen from sales of coffee served aboard sleeper express trains, the company said Sunday.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 1, 2006

Global inflation changing economic fundamentals

Ajoint statement released April 21 by finance minis- ters and central bankers of the Group of Seven major economies in Washington noted that the global trend in economic expansion has entered its fourth year, with inflationary pressures relatively contained despite the surge in crude oil prices.
COMMENTARY / World
May 1, 2006

France on the mark with hiring subsidies

NEW YORK -- Was France's recent wave of protests against an amendment that would have increased employers' freedom to fire young workers a blessing in disguise? To defuse the protests, President Jacques Chirac was forced to withdraw the provision, and instead has proposed hiring subsidies as a way to...

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo