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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 1, 2005

Sekirei: In a beer garden of heavenly delights

The grass is as closely mowed a croquet lawn. In the distance, conifers jut into the early evening sky. The air is sultry, the city traffic just a far-off hum. A waiter wearing a black bow tie delivers a tall glass of frothing beer to your table. You sink back in your armchair. Summer's here, and there...
BUSINESS
Jul 1, 2005

Softbank unit returns Fuji TV shares

Softbank Investment Corp. has returned the 353,000 Fuji Television Network Inc. shares it borrowed from Nippon Broadcasting System Inc., the companies said Thursday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 1, 2005

Macau charms with blend of history and modernity

As a location where East meets West and with its historic streets blending into the modern city landscape, Macau retains a distinctive, mysterious charm that appeals to travelers.
EDITORIALS
Jun 30, 2005

Scheduling a withdrawal from Iraq

Iraq on Tuesday marked the first anniversary since the military coalition led by U.S. forces transferred sovereignty to the Iraqi provisional government. During this period, a free election was held in January and a transitional government headed by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari made its debut in...
COMMENTARY
Jun 30, 2005

Blaming Pakistan won't help

ISLAMABAD -- The latest diplomatic rift between Pakistan and Afghanistan speaks volumes about the underlying frictions among both countries and the United States in the so-called war on terror.
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2005

Bid-rigging probe targets highway body

Tokyo prosecutors on Wednesday searched the headquarters of Japan Highway Public Corp. in connection with their investigation into massive bid-rigging for bridge construction projects.
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2005

Law passes to facilitate M&As but allow for takeover defenses

The House of Councilors on Wednesday passed into law a bill to update the corporate legal system, facilitate mergers and acquisitions and enhance defenses against hostile takeovers.
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2005

UFJ shareholders challenge but give nod to merger

Shareholders of UFJ Holdings Inc. and Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. approved on Wednesday their plan to merge in October, taking a big step closer to creating the world's largest banking group in terms of assets.
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2005

Industrial output falls 2.3% on slumping demand

Industrial production declined a seasonally adjusted 2.3 percent in May from the previous month due to weakened demand for motor vehicles, computers and mobile phone devices, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2005

Romania envoy seeks more investment in EU entry runup

Romania has sent Aurelian Neagu, one of its Japan experts, to Tokyo as ambassador at a time when Japanese companies are considering investing in Romania and Bulgaria in the runup to the two nations' planned entry into the European Union in 2007.
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2005

Dynacity chief held over stimulants

Satoshi Nakayama, 42, president of midsize condominium sales company Dynacity Corp., has been arrested on suspicion of possessing a stimulant drug, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2005

Sony faces 4.5 billion yen in back taxes

Sony Corp. said Wednesday it has been notified by the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau that it failed to declare 21.4 billion yen worth of taxes for five years to March 2003.
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2005

Bureaucrat embezzlement nets a slap

Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said Wednesday he will voluntarily give up one-month's salary in the wake of the alleged misappropriation of 24 million yen in public funds by a senior ministry official for personal stock trading.
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2005

Foreign investment hit record 4 trillion yen in '04

Direct investment in Japan by foreigners jumped 90.3 percent in fiscal 2004 from the previous year to a record 4.027 trillion yen, with capital inflow from the United States swelling more than sevenfold, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 30, 2005

A revealing peek inside working women's purses

Let me confess my weakness: women's briefcases. I don't mean buying them; I mean peeking into those belonging to my friends, and begging them to take out the contents so I can look them over and go "Heeeee, soonandaaa (Oooh, so THAT's what it's all about)."
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2005

Lost ITER bid elicits mixed reactions

With Tuesday's decision for France to host the multibillion-dollar experimental ITER nuclear fusion reactor, many experts predict Europe will take the lead in developing the promising energy source.
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2005

Arsenic in Kamisu well not from poison gas: panel

Arsenic contamination of well water in the town of Kamisu, Ibaraki Prefecture, came from an arsenic compound that was mixed into blocks of concrete and abandoned there by an unknown party, not from wartime chemical weapons as previously assumed, an Environment Ministry panel concluded Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2005

Asylum lawyers threaten boycott

A group of lawyers who represent people seeking asylum threatened Wednesday to boycott appeals hearings for their clients unless the Justice Ministry's Immigration Bureau changes its procedures.
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2005

Amex card data abuse 19 million yen

American Express International Inc. said Wednesday it has learned of 77 cases of illicit use of data on Amex credit cards issued in Japan, resulting in a total loss of about 19 million yen, in connection with the massive credit card data theft in the United States.
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2005

Sentences final for Green Cross pair in HIV fiasco

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal filed by two ex-presidents of the defunct Green Cross Corp. against a lower court ruling in an HIV contamination debacle, finalizing their guilty sentences.
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2005

1,600 firms convene shareholder meetings

Some 1,600 listed and unlisted companies held their annual shareholders' meetings Wednesday, marking the peak for the year.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 30, 2005

Changing values pose problems for terminal care in Japan

Several years ago, I read cancer surgeon Fumio Yamazaki's unforgettable book titled "Dying in a Japanese Hospital." Through case studies of his patients, he describes the final moments in the lives of terminal cancer sufferers. Invariably, just as a patient is slipping away, doctors battle to resuscitate...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Jun 30, 2005

"Silverfin," "Baby Touch Playbook"

"Silverfin," Charlie Higson, Puffin Books; 2005; 372 pp. For James Bond's legions of males fans (this possibly includes your father), Charlie Higson's "SilverFin" is news of the best kind. Not for this reviewer, though, who belongs to the female half of the planet and whose grouse is that there are already...

Longform

The byzantine process for converting a foreign driver’s license into a Japanese one entails mountains of paperwork and significant stamina — unless you're a lucky license holder from a country or region where these requirements are waived.
Driving in Japan isn’t hard. Getting the license is.