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JAPAN
Dec 19, 2005

No hike in consumption tax in 2007: Nakagawa

The Liberal Democratic Party's policy affairs chief said Sunday that the consumption tax will not be raised from the current 5 percent in fiscal 2007.
BUSINESS
Dec 17, 2005

No decision on future inflation target: Fukui

The Bank of Japan has not decided whether it will introduce a specific inflation target after it ends its ultraeasy monetary stance, BOJ Gov. Toshihiko Fukui said Friday, after the Policy Board announced the policy would continue.
EDITORIALS
Dec 15, 2005

Mideast's democracy dilemma

The surprise showing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt's national elections highlights the dilemma faced by democracy advocates in the West. The strong support for fundamentalist Islamic groups throughout the region directly challenges the assumption that free and open elections will lead to governments...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 15, 2005

Director Koki Mitani and the gentle indecision of Japanese juries

When 44-year-old writer/director Koki Mitani was young, he got so excited watching "Twelve Angry Men," a classic American jury-room film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Henry Fonda, that he wanted someday to make his own original version.
BUSINESS
Dec 15, 2005

LDP again eyes raising tax on cigarettes in 2006

The Liberal Democratic Party reopened discussions Wednesday on raising the tax on cigarettes after Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki told executives of the LDP's tax panel the government needs the extra revenue to start putting its finances in order next year.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ASEAN-JAPAN SYMPOSIUM
Dec 13, 2005

Japan can help ASEAN integration

See related story: Political power plays cloud East Asian economic community vision
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2005

Japan-China feud clouds EAS launch

SINGAPORE -- The East Asia Summit gets under way in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday under Malaysia's chairmanship. The EAS will be held concurrentl with the summits of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the ASEAN-Plus-Three (Japan, China, South Korea) grouping.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 11, 2005

New Carp manager Brown excited about 2006 season

(This is a continuation of last week's column with our report about new Hiroshima Carp manager Marty Brown and his thoughts on the challenge of taking over at the helm of the Central League club which has been a second-division team for the past seven seasons.)
Features
Dec 11, 2005

The 'undigested other': Koreans in Japan

Few parents would voluntarily send a son to live in North Korea; Kongsun Yang sent all three of his. In the early 1970s, Yang waved goodbye to his young Osaka-born boys, who later married and started families in Pyongyang. Poor and unhappy, the sons survive today only thanks to support from their parents...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2005

Frustrated bureaucrats pen reform ideas

When Ichiro Asahina, a 32-year-old bureaucrat at the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, was studying at Harvard University between 2001 and 2003, he had time to think about what Kasumigaseki, Tokyo's governmental hub, meant to him and to Japan.
EDITORIALS
Dec 9, 2005

Dutiful extension in Iraq

The government has extended by another year the deployment of Self-Defense Force (SDF) troops in Iraq. The extension, decided at Thursday's Cabinet meeting, came about by changing the basic plan under an ad hoc law that allows SDF soldiers to engage in noncombat activities in Iraq. The decision follows...
SOCCER / J. League
Dec 8, 2005

FC Tokyo, Tokunaga agree to deal

J. League first-division club FC Tokyo agreed on a contract Wednesday with Japan Under-23 international Yuhei Tokunaga, who had drawn interest from Spanish side Valencia.
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2005

Time not ripe for BOJ policy shift: Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday that the time is not yet ripe for the Bank of Japan to lift its super-easy monetary policy.
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2005

Japan productivity lowest in G7

Japan's labor productivity in 2003 was the lowest among the Group of Seven advanced economies for the 10th year in a row, according to results of a survey released by a think tank Wednesday.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2005

Panel OKs SDF's Iraq extension

A key policy panel of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party approved on Wednesday a one-year extension for the Ground Self-Defense Force's mission in Iraq.
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2005

Tokyo plans to pull GSDF from Iraq by Aug. 31

Tokyo told Washington in November that it will begin withdrawing the Ground Self-Defense Force from Iraq in June and finish by the end of August, government and ruling coalition sources revealed Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2005

Rakuten-TBS panel to start tieup talks this weekend

Rakuten Inc. and Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. will launch a committee this weekend to consider tieups for combining broadcasting and Internet services, the first negotiations since Rakuten withdrew its management integration proposal last week, sources said Monday.
BUSINESS
Dec 6, 2005

Japan to keep releasing oil from reserves via IEA

Japan will continue to release oil reserves held by the private sector for the fourth straight month starting Tuesday running through Jan. 4 in a concerted action with the International Energy Agency.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 4, 2005

Between life and death stands culture

FINAL DAYS: Japanese Culture and Choice at the End of Life, by Susan Orpett Long. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005, 288 pp., $45 (cloth). This book asks how the final days might be different for Japanese patients and for those in the United States. Both Japanese and Americans state that they...
EDITORIALS
Dec 3, 2005

Cut spending before raising taxes

With Japan's economic recovery gaining momentum, the government appears set to increase taxes across a broad spectrum. The Tax Commission last week proposed a series of tax-code changes for fiscal 2006, including an abolition in 2007 of the flat-rate tax cuts for individual income taxes that had been...

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