Search - member

 
 
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 2006

Stepping up pressure on Pyongyang

Japan imposed financial sanctions on North Korea earlier this week. The action, which came more than two months after the North's July 5 test-firing of seven missiles, may have been be unavoidable since Pyongyang has not shown any sign that it will return to the six-nation talks on its nuclear-weapons...
BUSINESS
Sep 23, 2006

Lawmaker vows cross-party agreement to revise lending bill

Masazumi Gotoda, former parliamentary secretary in charge of financial services, said Friday he will work to revamp a consumer lending bill to get the ceiling on interest charges lowered and the higher rate on small loans scrapped.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2006

Koizumi moves out, signs off

Outgoing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi moved out of the Prime Minister's Official Residence Thursday evening as he gets ready to hand the reins of government to new ruling party leader Shinzo Abe next Tuesday.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 22, 2006

Unfinished symphony finally gets first closure

Anton Bruckner's (1824-96) final symphony will be performed in full for the first time ever by the Tokyo New City Orchestra, conducted by Akira Naito at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space in Ikebukuro on Sept. 28.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2006

Abe wants NSC-style body, extra advisers to boost agility of Cabinet

Having been forced to deal with a string of disputes ranging from North Korea's missile tests to territorial disputes and rows over history, Shinzo Abe, newly elected head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, is stressing the need for a government that can make decisions quickly and decisively.
BUSINESS
Sep 21, 2006

Itoyama takes stake in TV Tokyo

Financier Eitaro Itoyama said Wednesday he has acquired a 5.09 percent equity stake in TV Tokyo Corp., becoming its second-largest shareholder after Nihon Keizai Shimbun Inc.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2006

Political career of Shinzo Abe

Major events in Shinzo Abe's career:
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2006

Tokyo cuts North's cash supply

Japan on Tuesday dealt another blow to North Korea, imposing financial sanctions under a U.N. Security Council resolution that urges countries to prevent the transfer of funds for Pyongyang's weapons program.
COMMENTARY
Sep 18, 2006

A sure-win guards his cards

It is a foregone conclusion that Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe will win the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election Wednesday. He is then likely to be named prime minister at an extraordinary Diet session a week later and to launch a new Cabinet.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Sep 17, 2006

Japan's bid to host 2016 Olympic Games a pipe dream

"Yes means maybe. Maybe means difficult. Difficult means impossible."
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 17, 2006

MLB scouts: Fukudome best Japanese position player in NPB

Who do you think is the best Japanese position player in Japanese baseball right now?
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2006

Cult facilities raided across the nation

The Public Security Intelligence Agency inspected 25 Aum Shinrikyo facilities nationwide Saturday morning after the death sentence for its founder, Shoko Asahara, was finalized the day before.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 17, 2006

Bizarre bouts of self-expression

Nearly 300 spectators cheered wildly as disco music blared. A spotlight picked out two fighters approaching the ring to kick off a puroresu (prowrestling) event held recently in a Tokyo town hall.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 17, 2006

Self-censorship conjures ominous echoes of the past

These days a simple but potent Japanese word is appearing in the media with inordinate frequency. It is hannichi, which means "anti-Japanese." An incident last month brought to mind an earlier era, when the word hannichi was also in common currency. Some words skip decades, returning to haunt the national...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2006

Asahara's execution finalized

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a special appeal by lawyers for Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara, finalizing the death sentence for the man who masterminded the cult's horrific nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2006

Sarin gas victims greet execution news with relief, sadness

The news that Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara would be executed, was met Friday with relief and sadness from victims of the sarin gas attacks and their families Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2006

Decision on further North Korea sanctions may come Tuesday

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe suggested Friday the Cabinet may decide to impose financial sanctions against North Korea next Tuesday under a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Pyongyang's July missile launches.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2006

Afghan man is refugee: high court

The Tokyo High Court has upheld a lower court ruling repealing the government's rejection of an Afghan man's refugee status and its decision to deport him.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2006

Koizumi vague on retirement, but pundits see LDP calling on him again

As the term of Junichiro Koizumi, the nation's third-longest-serving postwar prime minister, comes to a close, political pundits are speculating on his future.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2006

Aso, Nakagawa eyed for No. 2 LDP post

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe is considering Foreign Minister Taro Aso and senior party colleague Hidenao Nakagawa as candidates for secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party if he becomes its next president, LDP sources have said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 15, 2006

Bossa nova forever young

The music may be ageless, but bossa nova's founding generation are aging. Forthcoming tours to Japan this month and next by Joao Gilberto, who, along with Antonio Carlos Jobim, was credited with creating bossa nova in the late 1950s, and Sergio Mendes, bossa nova's great popularizer, may well be their...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 15, 2006

Mixi skyrockets in stock market debut

Shares of Mixi Inc., Japan's most popular social networking site, shot up during the company's stock market debut Thursday as buy orders swamped sell orders and more than doubled its initially offered price.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2006

Blood battle is about the past and future

KELLY DUDA
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2006

Ozawa rallies DPJ with calls for change

The leader of a nation must have ambition above all else, and if he doesn't have it he should quit immediately, said Ichiro Ozawa, who started his new term as president of the Democratic Party of Japan on Tuesday.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat