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COMMENTARY / World
Oct 12, 2006

Restoring our connections with the world

"The cloud-seas of the heavens are riled by waves.
COMMENTARY
Oct 12, 2006

Great problems and promise

LONDON -- The huge growth in Chinese gross domestic product and the market represented by a population 10 times that of Japan present huge opportunities for potential trade and investment. But these tend to obscure the problems that policies pursued by the present regime in China pose to the rest of...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 11, 2006

Bizarre rodents confound a venerable theory of aging

We've all heard the claims. Drink enough green tea and you'll live to be 100. Eat tofu every day to protect against cancer. Recently, there's even been research suggesting that eating curry helps to boost brain power.
EDITORIALS
Oct 6, 2006

Encouragement for reporters

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal filed by a U.S. health-food maker against a high court decision that upheld a reporter's right to keep a news source secret. The decision concerns an NHK report that the Japanese subsidiary of the company had underreported its revenues to reduce tax bills.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Oct 4, 2006

Tackling the cedar-pollen blight

According to figures given to me by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, about 16 percent of people living in Japan suffer an allergic reaction to pollen from Japanese cedars (Cryptomeria japonica). In the Greater Tokyo area this increases from one-in-six to an astonishing one-in-four people. The very...
EDITORIALS
Oct 4, 2006

Dearth of life-giving kidneys

A man who received a kidney for transplant from a living donor at Tokushukai Hospital in Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture, and a woman close to him have been arrested on suspicion of giving cash to the donor for the donor's left kidney. Since monetary exchange between a patient and donor threatens the ethical...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 1, 2006

Salarymen: a dying breed of worker?

21ST-CENTURY JAPANESE MANAGEMENT: New Systems, Lasting Values, by James C. Abegglen. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, 194 pp., $80 (cloth). Japan is back and its companies are leading the charge. The process of reinventing corporate Japan continues apace, but does not mean a repudiation of core values....
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2006

So much for Thai democracy

LONDON -- Democracy is fine as long as the voters elect the right people, but they often get it wrong. The Palestinians elected Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel, so the Israelis and their allies overseas have to persuade them of the error of their ways with bombs, bullets and a financial blockade....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2006

Abe made prime minister

Newly elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe named his Cabinet on Tuesday, giving most of the posts to his close aides and the people who actively supported him during the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2006

Abe's LDP exec picks told to gear up for '07 Diet poll

joins other LDP leaders in a show of unity after appointing Hidenao Nakagawa (third from left) as secretary general, Yuya Niwa (second from left) as chairman of the Executive Council and Shoichi Nakagawa (third from right) as chairman of the Policy Research Council. KYODO PHOTO
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2006

Profiles of new LDP leadership

Hidenao Nakagawa Veteran politician Hidenao Nakagawa ascended to the position of secretar general, or second in command, of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party despite scandals still dogging him.
EDITORIALS
Sep 25, 2006

Sustainable local government

On June 20, Mayor Kenji Goto of Yubari, Hokkaido, solemnly told the city assembly that his city would have to undergo compulsory financial reconstruction, the equivalent of recovering from the brink of bankruptcy. The city is the second local government to fall into this status in 14 years.
COMMENTARY
Sep 25, 2006

Sticky bureaucratic fingers

It used to be said that Japanese bureaucrats were first rate while politicians were third rate. That's no longer true, as evidenced by an appalling spate of scandals involving slush funds in the central and local governments.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 25, 2006

Supreme Court ruling doesn't hold water

NEW YORK -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia can't be serious. In a recent decision he penned, he quoted "a famous exchange" in the 1942 movie "Casablanca" and a tale about "an Eastern guru" exclaiming, "Ah, after that it is turtles all the way down." The first quote was intended to deride the...
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2006

More single men expect future wives to work

An increasing number of single men hope their future spouses will continue to work after having children, according to a government survey released Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 23, 2006

Sports festivals: menace to health?

It's autumn in Japan, and you know what that means -- sports festivals! Oct. 10 is Sports Day, a national holiday started in 1964 to mark the opening day of the Tokyo Olympics. Since then, autumn has been a time of year for schools and communities to hold annual sports festivals.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 21, 2006

The world's biggest mystery

LONDON -- In a recent opinion poll in Russia carried out by the Yury Levada Analytical Center, 58 percent of the respondents said they believe that "non-Russian nationalities are to blame for many of Russia's misfortunes"; 52 percent said they thought the government should restrict immigration.
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2006

Numerical goals established to ensure better-built houses

The government has set numerical goals to improve the durability and quality of houses.
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2006

Fuji Photo to diversify, shift to holding company system

Fuji Photo Film Co. said Tuesday it will reorganize its businesses under a holding company next month, diversifying into new areas such as cosmetics and drugs from its traditional photo film business.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 17, 2006

Noodles with attitude

Chairman Mao Zedong -- who back in 1935 wrote that his nation's basic task was "to oppose the attempt of Japanese imperialism to annex China" -- obviously had some, shall we say, issues with the Middle Kingdom's diminutive neighbor to the east.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 17, 2006

Self-censorship conjures ominous echoes of the past

These days a simple but potent Japanese word is appearing in the media with inordinate frequency. It is hannichi, which means "anti-Japanese." An incident last month brought to mind an earlier era, when the word hannichi was also in common currency. Some words skip decades, returning to haunt the national...
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2006

Aso, Nakagawa eyed for No. 2 LDP post

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe is considering Foreign Minister Taro Aso and senior party colleague Hidenao Nakagawa as candidates for secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party if he becomes its next president, LDP sources have said.
BUSINESS
Sep 15, 2006

Daiei to cut debts through selloff of properties, stocks

Struggling giant retailer Daiei Inc. will cut its interest-bearing liabilities by 200 billion yen from 350 billion yen on an unconsolidated basis by selling real estate and stock holdings, sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2006

Court refuses to shut down garbage dumps

substances, such as dioxin, that exceed the allowable environmental limits." Ono said it was possible that sheets laid out under the garbage to prevent the leakage of pollutants were damaged, but said there was no pollution in the ground as the residents had claimed.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2006

Next prime minister must find a NEET solution

, 20, takes part in a government-sponsored job training program in Fussa, Tokyo, in early August. KYODO PHOTO
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2006

8.3 billion yen shot in the arm eyed for drugmakers

The government plans to give the nation's anemic pharmaceuticals industry a shot in the arm next year by boosting support by 80 percent so companies can better compete on a global scale, officials said Tuesday.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years