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BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 2, 2005

Matsuzaka shelves big league plans

Seibu Lions ace right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka has given up on his plan to pursue a career in the major leagues and will remain with Seibu next season, baseball sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2005

Conservatives fight secular war memorial

A nonpartisan group of 233 conservative lawmakers adopted a resolution Tuesday against establishing a secular memorial for the war dead.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2005

Suzuki gets manual, mocks ministry 'secrets'

House of Representatives member Muneo Suzuki said Tuesday he has received a copy of the so-called Muneo manual drafted by the Foreign Ministry to instruct its officials on how to deal with the lawmaker who once wielded enormous influence with the ministry.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Nov 2, 2005

Recalling fond memories of eiders

It's getting to that time of year when I air out my down-filled sleeping bag. No big field trips are planned for this year, but I do like to spend a few nights in the woods, a campfire going, with no phones (no, not even a cell phone), no television and no mosquitoes.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2005

37 held over baccarat gambling

Thirty-seven people have been arrested for allegedly engaging in baccarat gambling in Minato Ward, Tokyo, police said Monday.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2005

Onus on Japan to ensure U.S. beef safety, report says

A food safety panel on Monday adopted a draft report that, once finalized, will pave the way to ending the two-year-old ban on imports of U.S. and Canadian beef.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2005

Soldier's son in search for other veterans' kin

Koichi Ogawa began searching for the relatives of a Japanese soldier who died in the battle of Okinawa after receiving the soldier's identification tag from William Fischer, a former U.S. Navy officer, in June.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2005

LDP expels postal rebel Norota

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Friday expelled former farm minister Hosei Norota and punished 49 other lawmakers for voting against Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's postal privatization bills in July.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2005

LDP revises Article 9 in draft Constitution

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Friday endorsed a new draft Constitution featuring a rewritten version of war-renouncing Article 9 that would officially allow the nation to possess a military for self-defense.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 28, 2005

Seibu shuns Matsuzaka's request

Seibu Lions ace right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka made a fresh request to his team Thursday to let him pursue a career in the major leagues next year, but the answer was "no" again.
JAPAN
Oct 28, 2005

Lawmakers wonder how to dress

The government is following up its summer "Cool Biz" campaign with "Warm Biz" this winter to save energy and combat global warming, but bureaucrats and lawmakers already are having trouble finding the right clothes.
JAPAN
Oct 28, 2005

Vow to 'fully execute' leaves Tokyo in Futenma dilemma

, head of the Naha Defense Facilities Administration Bureau, sits with Okinawan Gov. Keiichi Inamine at the start of their meeting to discuss the new plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2005

Key panel in favor of females on throne

can be expanded to a maternal line," panel Chairman Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, a former president of University of Tokyo, told a news conference after Tuesday's panel session. "It's almost certain that the (tradition of) paternal-line-only succession can't continue to exist," he added.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2005

At last minute, safety panel delays ending ban on U.S. beef imports

A government-appointed panel unveiled Monday a draft report that would pave the way to lifting the 22-month-old ban on U.S. beef imports, saying meat from young cattle poses an extremely low food safety risk.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2005

Koizumi's next target: the bureaucracy

With the Diet's enactment of the postal privatization bills earlier this month, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi now has a new punching bag he can use to maintain his political momentum: the bloated bureaucracy.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2005

Iraqi minister seeks continued SDF deployment

A visiting Iraqi Cabinet member asked Japan in a meeting with Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura on Monday to extend the Self-Defense Forces' humanitarian and reconstruction mission in southern Iraq beyond the current deadline of mid-December.
JAPAN
Oct 23, 2005

Broad-based effort to help 'NEETs' find jobs

A group drawn from industry, local government and academia has launched a project to help youths not in employment, education or training -- known as "NEETs" -- find jobs.
Japan Times
Features
Oct 23, 2005

Sickness unto death, without despair

One summer morning in 2001, a good friend of mine, Bronson Conrad, rang me at my Manhattan home. After we'd chatted for a while, he broke the news that he had incurable, terminal cancer in his hip bone.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 21, 2005

Eagles hire Nomura

Katsuya Nomura has accepted a request to take over as new manager of the Tohoku Rakuten Eagles next season, team president Toru Shimada said Thursday.
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2005

James Bond goes Japanese? Tokyo eyes MI6-style spy agency

The idea of a Japanese James Bond may sound hilarious, but serious discussions are under way in Japan on whether to create a secret intelligence service along the lines of Britain's MI6 to conduct overseas espionage.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji