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BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2006

TSE studies simplifying minimum trade rules

Distressed by a recent streak of huge erroneous orders, the Tokyo Stock Exchange has begun to study the possibility of streamlining the seven kinds of minimum trading units currently allowed for shares on the bourse.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2006

Diet passes 4.5 trillion yen extra '05 budget

The Diet passed a 4.52 trillion yen supplementary budget Friday for the current fiscal year through March and is preparing to take action on the budget for fiscal 2006, which is scheduled to begin in April.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2006

Birds recognize languages: study

An experiment by a group of scientists has shown that Java sparrows can be trained to distinguish between different human languages.
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2006

Bourse reform proposals due this month: Yosano

Financial Services Minister Kaoru Yosano said Friday that his advisory panel will issue recommendations on stock market reforms by mid-February.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2006

Attendant sent up for rail crossing deaths

The Tokyo District Court sentenced a Tobu Railway Co. railway-crossing attendant to 18 months in prison Friday for negligence resulting in the deaths of two women and injuries to two others in March, when he opened a grade crossing gate as a train approached.
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2006

Importers ask for refunds before U.S. beef on hold rots

The Japan Meat Traders Association is sounding out the United States about the possibility of buying back 1,380 tons of U.S. beef that cannot clear Japanese customs, association officials said Friday.
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2006

Hitachi operating profit rises 14%

Hitachi Ltd. said Friday its operating profit for the October to December quarter rose 14 percent to 39.14 billion yen, as strong plant and equipment, and social infrastructure investments by customers domestically and overseas boosted its industrial business.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2006

Aso, Tanigaki also balk on female reign

Senior Cabinet ministers Friday joined growing voices within the Liberal Democratic Party expressing concern over a government-sponsored bill to allow females and their descendants to ascend to the Imperial throne.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2006

Tokyo to leverage whole talks on abduction issue

In a move to pressure North Korea a day before bilateral talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang are to start in Beijing, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Friday that Tokyo may consider abandoning the three-track talks on security, abduction and normalization if there is no progress on the abduction issue.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2006

Pro-Pyongyang groups set for tax scrutiny

The government will urge municipalities that provide tax breaks for pro-North Korean group facilities to consider whether such preferential treatment is appropriate, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2006

Pabco truck-scandal toll rises to 10,351 since 1986

Auto body maker Pabco Co. said Friday it illegally modified at least 10,351 trucks -- four times the number it announced in December -- by adding equipment that made them too heavy.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2006

New auto jobs, not quotas

WASHINGTON -- U.S. automakers are in dire straits. While non-U.S. brands are gaining market share, both GM and Ford have announced major plant closings and substantial layoffs. For some, these announcements have raised the specter of a return to the policies of the 1980s, when the United States imposed...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 4, 2006

'Land art' drives home message on environment

Imagine you are driving along an expressway and suddenly you are slicing a hare -- inscribed into the landscape to right and left -- in half. Truly a most uncomfortable and powerful metaphor for what we are doing to nature.
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2006

Insurers mimic each other to clean up act

Four domestic nonlife insurers announced business improvement plans Friday in the wake of an industrywide failure to pay legitimate claims that prompted closer scrutiny of structural problems in the sector, including a follow-the-leader mentality.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 4, 2006

Dave Bockmann

"A psychologist wants to change people. An organizer wants to change society," Dave Bockmann said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 4, 2006

The year 2006 -- going to the dogs

Jan. 29 was the Chinese Lunar New Year, the official beginning of the year of the dog according to the Chinese calendar. I did some dog-on-the-street interviews to find out what we can expect this year under the helm of the dogs.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 4, 2006

Another strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

I have within me, I confess, a split personality -- like sheared halves of a single beating heart.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 3, 2006

Sharapova on track

Top seed Maria Sharapova began her defense of the Pan Pacific Open title in Tokyo on Thursday with a comfortable 6-4, 6-4 win over American qualifier Lisa Raymond.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’