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JAPAN
Nov 30, 2005

France boasts benefits in bid to boost foreign investment

French industry minister Francois Loos is calling on Japanese businesses to invest more in France despite recent rioting that spread across the country.
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2005

Ex-programmer arrested for faking news story, Yahoo site

into a squad car Monday morning immediately after he was placed under arrest
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Nov 28, 2005

Tax reforms must sustain positive economic cycle

The Japanese economy is on the path toward a full-scale recovery driven by the private sector. The next major challenge for the nation is to its rebuildfiscal health, which is now the worst among the key industrialized countries.
EDITORIALS
Nov 25, 2005

Press on with territories issue

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Tokyo this week for the first time in five years for a summit meeting with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. They and their ministers signed 12 documents, ranging from joint efforts to counter international terrorism to economic cooperation, including a Russian...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 25, 2005

Two days of the craziest art

The biannual international art event Design Festa returns to Tokyo Nov. 26-27 for "two days of crazy art, thousands of talented artists, performances from outer space and heaps of imagination," according to the Design Festa Web site.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 25, 2005

Classical dance workshop

The Nihon Buyo Foundation is running a classical Japanese dance workshop in English Nov. 27 in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The workshop will be conducted by NBF Director Minosuke Nishikawa V, who hopes that it will give an opportunity to foreigners in Japan to experience a form of dance that has been a part of...
COMMENTARY
Nov 23, 2005

Neocons absconded with round five

BRUSSELS -- The six-party talks, which initially began in August 2003 to resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, reconvened in Beijing on Nov. 9, then adjourned three days later inconclusively. Defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 23, 2005

Big Money warms to socially responsible investing

Environmentalists have been preaching for decades that true societal change will only happen when the really big-money players, such as multinational corporations and banks, begin to balance profit-making with social responsibility.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2005

Putin, Koizumi bolster economic ties, skip isles

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi agreed Monday to increase security and economic cooperation despite the 60-year territorial row over the four Russian-held islands off northern Hokkaido.
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2005

Putin to focus on economy, avoid territorial dispute

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived Sunday in Tokyo on a business-oriented visit unlikely to bring any progress in settling the 60-year territorial dispute that has prevented the two nations from formally ending World War II hostilities.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 21, 2005

China far way from becoming global technology powerhouse

China has come a long way to show "pockets of excellence" in some fields of science and technology, but it still has a long way to go before it can become a full-blown innovative power, a China expert at a U.S. think tank told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Nov 20, 2005

Myanmar goes deep

Capitals have moved before, but rarely so mysteriously. When Myanmar's military government began streaming out of the country's longtime capital city of Yangon on the morning of Nov. 6, headed for a fortified but unfinished compound in jungle-clad mountains 400 km to the north, people scratched their...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 20, 2005

The good, the bad and the cliched

A RABBIT'S EYES by Kenjiro Haitani. Vertical, 2005, 288 pp., $14.95 (paper). On first publication, the mellow and delightful 1974 novel "A Rabbit's Eyes," out now in English for the first time, brought Kenjiro Haitani a great deal of fame and a wide following.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2005

IC tags eyed to curb accidents involving kids

NTT Data Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and three other companies have developed a safety system using a wireless integrated circuit tag to help prevent traffic accidents involving children.
BUSINESS
Nov 17, 2005

Gas prices fall first time since June

The average retail price of a liter of regular gasoline in Japan fell to 130 yen, including tax, on Monday, down from the previous week for the first dip in about five months, the Oil Information Center said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Nov 16, 2005

TSE releases new computer measures

The Tokyo Stock Exchange released Tuesday a set of measures to prevent future computer system breakdowns like the one that shut down the world's second-largest equity market on Nov. 1.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2005

Rokkasho drawing proliferation flak

OSAKA -- As Japan moves forward with plans to conduct further uranium tests in the near future at the Rokkasho nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Aomori Prefecture in preparation for full operations in 2007, it faces growing pressure from the international community to give up some control of the process....
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2005

Action plan for bird flu includes ban on gatherings

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry unveiled a plan Monday empowering the government to ban public gatherings and quarantine people to counter the potential outbreak of a new strain of bird flu against which humans have yet to develop an effective defense.
EDITORIALS
Nov 15, 2005

Braking illicit drug use

Police statistics show that the number of people taken into police custody on narcotics-related charges is on the decrease. Still, optimism about drug use in Japan is not warranted, as recent arrests or indictments have involved a former lawmaker and members of the Self-Defense Forces.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2005

Students hope play will defeat nukes on subcontinent

University students have been performing an antinuclear drama in Tokyo in the Urdu language that they hope will persuade people in India and Pakistan to urge their governments to abandon nuclear arms.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 15, 2005

Counseling, cults and Hotteeze

Cults K (who prefers to remain anonymous) takes me to task: "You recommended Yamagishikai for organic food, but left out half the story - such as why it 'came under pressure from a scandal-driven media' during the murder/brainwashing peak of the Aum period. This was less a 'scandal-driven' problem than...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 15, 2005

Aussies preparing for worst

SYDNEY -- Tough new antiterrorist laws will soon give troops shoot-to-kill authority when patrolling Australian streets in anticipation of a terrorist attack. But the change will come only after the Australian public has agonized over a claimed loss of civil liberties.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 15, 2005

Consultant eyes bank market

The recent deregulation and stiffer competition in retail banking will boost the demand for marketing services at branches, according to the head of a U.S. marketing and design firm specializing in retail banking.
EDITORIALS
Nov 13, 2005

The pop-word culture

The dictionary frowns on words it snootily labels "informal." Teachers and newspaper copy editors carry a grudge against slang. Nearly everyone recoils from jargon. But according to a new book irresistibly titled "Slam Dunks and No-Brainers: Language in Your Life, the Media, Business, Politics, and,...
BUSINESS
Nov 12, 2005

Fuji TV planning to divide, absorb NBS assets

Fuji Television Network Inc. is planning to absorb all or part of its subsidiary, Nippon Broadcasting System Inc., sources said Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 12, 2005

Christine Ishikawa

Within the first month of her arrival in Japan in 1989, Chris Ishikawa joined the Yokohama International Women's Club. She was a foreign bride then, living in a Japanese neighborhood, and feeling lonely. She said: "I read a writeup in a local newspaper about YIWC's outing to an antiques dealer. I went...
BUSINESS
Nov 12, 2005

IT, R&D tax breaks may be eliminated in March

A Tax Commission subcommittee agreed Friday that some of the government's corporate tax breaks should be abolished as planned next March because the economy seems to be recovering.

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