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BUSINESS
Feb 23, 2005

JR East lets DoCoMo handsets serve as tickets

East Japan Railway Co. said Tuesday it will start a new service in January that allows NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s smart-card cell phone handsets to be used as train tickets.
BUSINESS
Feb 23, 2005

FSA calls on banks to fight cash card crime

The Financial Services Agency urged financial institutions Tuesday to step up efforts to tackle cash card forgeries.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Feb 23, 2005

Lights up on gifted artist

The Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts is the ne plus ultra of honors in Canadian art. Some 2,000 of the country's cultural elite attend the annual awards ceremony, a black-tie affair held at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. But last year, organizers faced a dilemma:...
BUSINESS
Feb 23, 2005

Don Quijote sees strong earnings despite fires

Discount retailer Don Quijote Co. said Tuesday it expects double-digit earnings growth for the year through June, despite a spate of apparent arson fires, including a fatal blaze, that hit its outlets late last year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 23, 2005

Miro's best critic shows with stars of Surrealism

"Drifting Objects of Dreams: The Collection of Shuzo Takiguchi" is an exhibition which features the diversity of this famous Japanese artist and a host of collaborators. Though it started in the West, the Surrealist movement was expansive and noone, not even its founder-cum-leader Andre Breton, had a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 23, 2005

Whitewash fails to cover the pain

In "Akuma no Uta, (Devil's Song)" the playwright Keiishi Nagatsuka, 29, seems to ask what we Japanese have learned from defeat in World War II. Leaning heavily on comedy, farce, satire and sometimes tragedy, Nagatsuka's answer -- as one of a generation only able to know about that human catastrophe from...
BUSINESS
Feb 23, 2005

Curbs eyed for foreign acquisition of broadcasting firms

Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Taro Aso said Tuesday he has ordered ministry officials to consider revising radio and broadcasting laws to put greater regulations on purchases of Japanese broadcasters by foreign companies.
BUSINESS
Feb 23, 2005

Economy holds steady but spending loses steam

The government left its assessment of the economy unchanged in a monthly report released Tuesday but said personal spending has lost steam due to sluggish sales of winter clothes and rising vegetable prices.
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2005

More challenges face EU charter

Spanish voters approved the European Union's new constitution by an overwhelming majority in Sunday's referendum -- the first time that a EU country had put the charter to a popular vote. This victory is no cause for complacency, however. The document, signed in October, will not take effect if it is...
BUSINESS
Feb 23, 2005

Fuji TV likely to get over 30% of radio broadcaster

Fuji Television Network Inc. will likely secure more than 30 percent of Nippon Broadcasting System Inc., its largest shareholder, to prevent Internet service provider Livedoor Co. from intervening in the TV broadcaster's management, an anonymous source said Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 22, 2005

More trouble ahead for Lebanon

The assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri on Feb. 14 has raised fears of a return to civil war in a troubled country and adds yet another wrinkle to the already complex equation in the Middle East. It is unclear who was responsible for the murder, but fingers are pointing at Syria....
COMMENTARY
Feb 22, 2005

Curtain raised on a new act

LONDON -- The whirlwind tour of Europe and the Middle East by Condoleeza Rice, the new U.S. secretary of state, has contributed to a better atmosphere in relations between Europe and America.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Feb 22, 2005

What should banks do about cashcard skimming?

Haruko Iwasaki Accountant, 22 Credit cards have insurance, but cash cards don't. The Japanese banks just say to customers that they will keep their, but they can't promise to protect it.
BUSINESS
Feb 22, 2005

Livedoor ups broadcaster stake

Livedoor Co. has increased its stake in Nippon Broadcasting System Inc. to more than 40 percent in terms of voting rights, officials of the Internet services provider said Monday, stepping up the pressure on Fuji Television Network Inc. in a high-profile acquisition battle.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 22, 2005

Resisting the tide

Social studies teacher Sho Sasaki is fiercely proud of his native Iwate's local heritage.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 21, 2005

SAJ makes case for Onda

said Saturday the organization will provide the International Ski Federation (FIS) with Yuichi Onda's medical history as he failed a blood test and faces a five-day suspension from the ongoing Nordic World Ski Championships. The SAJ will send Onda's past blood test reports and doctor's certifications...
EDITORIALS
Feb 21, 2005

New airport tilts toward Asia

With the opening of Central Japan International Airport (Chubu airport) last week, Japan's aviation industry entered a new age. The new terminal will serve as a gateway to the 2005 World Exposition (Aichi Expo), which opens next month. Chubu airport is a new symbol of Nagoya, a vigorous commercial and...
COMMENTARY
Feb 21, 2005

Seoul's survival hangs on U.S. restraint

LOS ANGELES -- Hostage theory in international relations can explain why a lot of things do not happen. There's no better example than the North Korean crisis. The reason for continuing to talk to the North Koreans is not that we like them; it's that we care about the South Koreans.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 21, 2005

Meisho Bowler speeds home in record

The first big race of the year went down in record time to favorite Meisho Bowler as the 4-year-old held off a field of veterans for a wire-to-wire, length-and-a-quarter win of the February Stakes (Jpn., I) in Tokyo on Sunday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Feb 21, 2005

They boil lobsters, don't they?

WASHINGTON -- A recent European study has suggested that lobsters don't feel pain when being boiled. For a lobster, the study suggests, going into a boiling pot is like taking a dip in a hot tub.
COMMENTARY
Feb 21, 2005

Pyongyang toeing 'red line'

North Korea shocked the world with its announcement Feb. 10 that it will "indefinitely" stay away from the six-party talks on its nuclear arms program and that it already has nuclear weapons.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Feb 21, 2005

Globalization is a trend fraught with both positives and negatives

It's been a while since the word "globalization" came into widespread use. But its meaning isn't always clear, perhaps because each person uses the term in his own way.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2005

The right thing is not permanent tax cuts

WASHINGTON -- Since his re-election, President George W. Bush has emphasized the need for U.S. fiscal responsibility. He has pledged to halve the enormous federal budget deficit in his second term. He has vowed to put social security on a sound, long-term footing. And he has just submitted a 2006 budget...

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