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Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2008

Wanted: good home for old icebreaker

ABOARD THE SHIRASE — Old soldiers may just fade away, but it is a fate far better, some feel, than what awaits the Maritime Self-Defense Force's icebreaker Shirase, which is headed for the scrap heap after 25 years of hard service.
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2008

North to soon be off U.S. blacklist: China envoy

The United States will probably soon remove North Korea from its list of states sponsoring terrorism, visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Friday.
BUSINESS
Apr 18, 2008

Clear criteria urged for cases when foreign investors snubbed

All nations should have clear-cut criteria and transparent procedures if they feel the need to shut out foreign investment in certain sectors for the sake of their national interests, Charles Heeter, board director of the U.S. Council for International Business, said Thursday.
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2008

Divided Diet forecloses on Fukuda's May Europe trip

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has canceled planned visits to France, Germany and France in early May due to the expected continuation of the political standoff in the divided Diet, government officials said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Apr 17, 2008

Dollar seen rebounding by 2009

Japan's two biggest brokerages said the dollar will rebound against the yen and euro by year's end as economic conditions in Japan and Europe deteriorate and U.S. interest-rate cuts near an end.
BASKETBALL
Apr 16, 2008

Peppers earns final week honors

Rookie forward Joshua Peppers was a reliable all-around scoring threat for the first-year Rizing Fukuoka this season, scoring 20 or more points 23 times. His team, meanwhile, earned a playoff berth on the final day of the bj-league's regular season on Sunday, a day in which he scored 23 points and matched...
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2008

Soccer philanthropist Nakata signs on for exhibition match

Former soccer star Hidetoshi Nakata announced Tuesday he will play in an exhibition match in Yokohama on June 7 as part of his Plus One campaign to spur people to think about what they can do to make the world a better place.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Apr 15, 2008

Mr. Mung; being big in Japan

Remembering John Mung Marcia Caron is organizing a book club for her son's elementary school in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.
BASKETBALL
Apr 15, 2008

Apache outlast HeatDevils in OT; earn right to host wild-card game

Seconds before overtime started on Sunday afternoon at Ariake Colosseum, Tokyo Apache coach Joe Bryant told his players the good news: The Takamatsu Five Arrows had just beaten the Niigata Albirex BB 90-85.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 13, 2008

Landmark case spotlights 'Japanese-style nationalism'

"The most critical thing for us Japanese in the 21st century is to free ourselves from Japanese-style nationalism, both politically and culturally." So said author Kenzaburo Oe to me in the autumn of 1995, a year after he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 12, 2008

Miura earns first win of season

YOKOHAMA — Daisuke Miura didn't want to wait too long to pick up his first win of the season. So he made Hanshin Tigers slugger Tomoaki Kanemoto wait at least one more night before reaching his own goal.
BUSINESS
Apr 12, 2008

Nomura group to buy into Ashikaga Bank

A consortium led by Nomura Holdings Inc. signed an agreement Friday with Deposit Insurance Corp. of Japan to purchase shares of Ashikaga Bank Ltd., paving the way for the government-owned regional bank to become private again July 1.
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2008

Fukuda, Fillon to push emissions talks at U.N.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda agreed Friday to further promote bilateral cooperation on a varied economic agenda, in particular their push to combat global warming, the main topic of the Group of Eight summit in July in Hokkaido.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2008

Tough call on rate cut awaits new governor

The past three weeks have been something of a roller coaster ride for Masaaki Shirakawa, the former career central banker who was appointed Bank of Japan governor Wednesday by both chambers of the Diet.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 8, 2008

Rudd pencils in Tokyo visit

SYDNEY — After much grief in Canberra, Kevin Rudd has set a date to meet with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in Tokyo. True, it's a bit late and the timing comes a poor second to his talks with other world leaders. But at least it's on and tempers may now cool.
BUSINESS
Apr 8, 2008

See it on catwalk, buy it through cell phone

Screams erupted from 22,000 young women in flowery frills, boots, really short shorts and glittery jewelry whenever a model — dressed similarly — waltzed down the runway in a Tokyo stadium.
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2008

Osaka English teachers may be cut by Hashimoto

OSAKA — Nearly three dozen native English teachers called Monday on Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto not to cancel an education program that places native speakers of English in the prefecture's schools and expressed concern that the teachers have only been offered four-month contracts.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 8, 2008

National holidays trace roots to China, ancients, harvests

Golden Week is approaching, covering four national holidays from late April to early May.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Apr 8, 2008

Tokkotai survivor Hideo Suzuki

Eighty-five-year-old Hideo Suzuki is a reluctant survivor. A former tokkotai (Special Forces Unit) member of the Jinrai Butai (Thunder Gods Corps), Suzuki volunteered to be the pilot of an Ohka, a manned rocket-powered aircraft, during World War II. For sailors on U.S. warships in the Pacific, the Ohka...
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2008

Official defends 'Yasukuni' screening for lawmakers

Defending the government's involvement in giving lawmakers an advance screening of a documentary on Yasukuni Shrine, a senior Cultural Affairs Agency official argued Monday it was appropriate to show Diet members a film partially funded by taxpayers' money.

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