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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 31, 2005

What six reasonable men can do

REASONABLE MEN, POWERFUL WORDS: Political Culture and Expertise in 20th Century Japan, by Laura Hein. Berkeley, Calif.; University of California Press, 2004, 328 pp., $45 (cloth). This is the compelling story of how six prominent intellectuals shaped the conventional wisdom that came to characterize...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 31, 2005

Book bite

SEEING JAPAN (three-volume boxed set), by Charles Whipple, Juliet W. Carpenter, Kaori Shoji. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2005, approx. 90 pp. per volume, 11,400 yen (cloth). "Seeing Japan," the boxed set, presents three different visual journeys: Japan as a whole, plus the country's two famous cities...
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2005

Kanebo created big slush funds

Kanebo Ltd., already under fire for falsifying financial statements for years, used the pretext of buying back cosmetics products that were being sold at heavily discounted prices to raise money for slush funds, it was learned Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 31, 2005

Believe what you will in the new Tibet

BRUSSELS -- Any visit to Tibet is liable to leave you breathless. At Tibetan altitudes, oxygen is only 60 percent of what it is at sea level, with the result that it takes several days to acclimate. Yet it is clear from the start that Tibetan reality, at least on the surface, is very different from its...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 31, 2005

Breach the defenses of marriage with a smile

FORTRESS BESIEGED, by Qian Zhongshu. Penguin Classics, 2005, 426 pp., £18.99 (cloth). 1937 was a rotten year for China. Japanese forces moved their operations from the Peking to the Shanghai region, the Nationalist lines in Nanjing collapsed, and the remnants of the resistance moved their troops deeper...
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2005

Two women die in Canada crash

Two Japanese women were killed and two were seriously injured in a car crash in Ontario, Canada, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday.
Japan Times
Features
Jul 31, 2005

Speaking up for a 'right-size' city

In their search for the soul of Nagoya -- a city some dub "Japan's best kept secret" -- staff writers Setsuko Kamiya and Yoko Hani met up with five long-term foreign residents. All five happened to be American, and all have been in business there for between five and 10 years. Settling down for a chilled-out...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jul 31, 2005

Nature never tries to be nice

MOSCOW -- Planet Earth, aka Mother Nature, is a sturdy killer. Preachers, environmentalists and sunset lovers keep trying to persuade us that it is as benevolent and fragile as a loving aging parent. Not at all. The environment we live in is hard-nosed and violent -- hardly a mother figure but rather...
Japan Times
Features
Jul 31, 2005

'Secret' city basks in its low-profile limelight

It's at the geographic center of Japan and has in the past been at the hub of its history. It's also the nation's fourth-largest city, with a population of 2.2 million. But despite these, and many more, claims to fame and prominence, Nagoya City in Aichi Prefecture has always been outstanding for its...
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2005

ANA trounced JAL in fiscal first quarter

The nation's two major airlines Friday announced contrasting results for the first quarter of fiscal 2005, with All Nippon Airways Co. managing to upstage Japan Airlines Corp.
EDITORIALS
Jul 30, 2005

Hopes for peace in Aceh

The government of Indonesia and Acehnese rebels have agreed on a peace plan that could end three decades of fighting that has devastated that province. Signing the accord is only a step forward, however: Previous agreements have come apart under the pressure of mutual suspicion and competition for control...
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2005

Kanebo trio arrested over window-dressing

Prosecutors arrested former Kanebo President Takashi Hoashi and two other former executives of the firm Friday on suspicion of submitting falsified financial statements to authorities.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2005

Ministry shows cautious optimism over first quarter

The Finance Ministry on Friday left its cautiously optimistic assessment of the economy for the April-June period unchanged from the previous quarter.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 30, 2005

Messages of peace seek empathetic human canvas

A peace symbol set modestly with diamonds. A tiny image that is open for interpretation as a tree, an atom-bomb cloud or even an angel. The curved line of a whale suggesting the swell of the sea while winking freedom with a precious eye. All are designs on a theme -- the work of jewelry artist-craftsman...
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2005

Court backs JEC defensive stock split

The Tokyo District Court on Friday told Japan Engineering Consultants Co. it could execute a stock split to protect itself from a hostile takeover bid by Yumeshin Holdings Co.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2005

Government to probe extent of asbestos woes

The government will begin an investigation into the spiraling number of asbestos contamination cases revealed in recent weeks, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2005

Production edged up 1.5% in June

Industrial production rose a seasonally adjusted 1.5 percent in June from the previous month, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2005

Jobless rate dropped to 4.2% in June

Japan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 4.2 percent in June, marking a 0.2 percentage point contraction from May and the lowest figure in nearly seven years, the government said Friday.
COMMENTARY
Jul 30, 2005

China: how threatening, and to whom?

LOS ANGELES -- Nations tend to act like alcoholics when it comes to military arms: The more, the merrier. What's more, they do not generally tend to adopt a healthier lifestyle and drink less as they become wealthier. Instead, they just consume a better quality of booze.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2005

NHK, Asahi still trading blows in censorship row

NHK and the Asahi Shimbun are still at odds over allegations that an NHK war crimes documentary was censored under political pressure, and a new report by the daily threatens to add fuel to the fire.

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