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JAPAN
Jun 3, 2006

LDP wants to allow military projects in space programs

A panel of the Liberal Democratic Party has drafted a bill that would allow Japan to use space for military purposes within the realm of self-defense, shifting from the current stance that space projects only have civilian roles, party officials said Friday.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2006

90,650 people disappeared in 2005

The National Police Agency said Thursday that 90,650 people left their homes and were unaccounted for last year, falling 5.6 percent from the previous year for the third year of decline.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2006

Ethiopia envoy pushes investment

Japanese companies can benefit from investing in Ethiopia because of the country's vast natural resources and agribusiness potential, the ambassador of the sub-Saharan nation said Thursday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Jun 2, 2006

The hidden charms of Nerima

Do you have daikon ashi (giant-radish legs)? Let's hope not, as the Japanese metaphor usually applies to fat, lard-white and water-laden gams. If the daikon in question is from Nerima, however, it's no insult, as the northwestern ward's famous daikon is a long, slender and highly prized variety.
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2006

Nippon Sheet Glass profit up 2.3%

Nippon Sheet Glass Co. said Wednesday its group net profit rose 2.3 percent to 7.76 billion yen in the 2005 business year as proceeds from sales of securities holdings outweighed the impact of higher crude oil and other raw materials costs.
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2006

New U.S. Treasury chief welcomed

The government's top spokesman on Wednesday welcomed the nomination of Henry M. Paulson Jr. as new U.S. Treasury secretary, saying he hopes Paulson will help contribute to stable economic growth worldwide.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2006

Abe-led panel stresses need for 'second chances'

The government needs to create a social system that gives a second chance to people who drop out of the job market and to entrepreneurs whose businesses have failed, a government panel said in an interim report released Tuesday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 30, 2006

Japan ready to battle 'culinary imperialists'

Earlier this year I was commissioned by a British newspaper to research a Japanese company called Hakudai, which was reputed to be putting whale meat into dog food.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2006

All major life insurers had better financial health in '05

The nation's nine major life insurers had financial improvements in fiscal 2005 due mainly to appraisal gains on stockholdings.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2006

Seafood dealer obtains eco-label

A Tokyo-based seafood wholesaler has become the first business in Japan to be certified by a London-based conservation group as a supplier of seafood produced by sustainable fishing, officials of the group said Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2006

Australia's dirty little secret

SYDNEY -- A dirty little secret in Australian society has been exposed, and federal and state governments are maneuvering to clean up the mess or face international condemnation for allegedly allowing the violation of human rights.
BUSINESS
May 29, 2006

Japanese capitalism proved naysayers wrong, scholar says

Japan has successfully modified and reinforced its own economic model -- rather than surrendering to the American one -- while fighting its way out of the prolonged stagnation it got mired in when the bubble economy imploded in the early 1990s, an American scholar said at a recent seminar in Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE
May 28, 2006

Manga by any other name is . . .

With the video-game business now outgrossing Hollywood's box office, and anime being distributed to destinations as diverse as Patagonia and Phuket, the influence of Japan's entertainment industry on young people worldwide has never been as powerful.
BUSINESS
May 26, 2006

Bonuses to be second-highest ever

The summer bonus to be paid by 113 major companies will come to 877,191 yen on a weighted average basis, the second-highest amount since records started to be kept in 1959, the Japan Business Federation said Thursday.
JAPAN
May 25, 2006

Consulting firm chief quizzed in quake scandal

Police questioned the head of a Tokyo-based consulting company on a voluntary basis Wednesday over a fraud case involving a hotel in Nara Prefecture built with fake earthquake-safety data, investigation sources said.
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2006

Evidence portrays Russia as failed state

LONDON -- Have you read Russian President Vladimir Putin's 2006 State of the Nation message yet? The one he gave last week? You should.
BUSINESS
May 23, 2006

Nipponkoa expands overseas ties

Nipponkoa Insurance Co. has struck tieup deals with Moscow's Ingosstrakh Insurance Co. and Hanoi-based Vietnam Insurance Co., known as Baoviet, with a view to better serving its corporate customers operating in those two countries, the nonlife insurer said Monday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 23, 2006

Making certain of a positive I.D.

Last weekend, I visited three major retail outlets in Shinjuku, Tokyo, to inquire about the purchase of a cell phone.
BUSINESS
May 22, 2006

Livedoor sets shareholders' meeting for June, will kill investment units

Livedoor Co. will hold an extraordinary shareholders' meeting June 14, the first such gathering since several of its executives were arrested, and select a new board of directors including some from outside the firm, company sources said Sunday.
COMMENTARY
May 22, 2006

Japan keeps blowing smoke

This year's slogan adopted by the World Health Organization for No Tobacco Day (May 31) is "Tobacco: deadly in any form or disguise." Since the framework convention on tobacco control came into effect in February 2005, the antismoking movement has become an irreversible global trend.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 21, 2006

See how Japan's TV entertainment evolved in Fuji TV's drama "The Hit Parade" and more

The model for the modern Japanese talent agency or "production company," which dominates all aspects of show business in Japan, was created by the late Shin Watanabe and his wife, Misa, in 1955. This Friday and Saturday Fuji TV will present a special two-part drama, "The Hit Parade" (9 p.m. each night),...
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2006

Rethinking ties with ASEAN

Japan-ASEAN relations, which have traditionally been underpinned by trade, tourism, investment and official development assistance (ODA), appear to have reached a turning point. This is because most, if not all, 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have become economically mature...
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2006

Is Europe turning toward a strong euro?

PALO ALTO, California -- European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet made news at the press conference following the May meeting of the ECB Governing Council not by what he said, but by what he did not say.
BUSINESS
May 20, 2006

Millea Holdings to swap stock to get Nisshin Fire

Millea Holdings Inc. plans to make midsize nonlife insurer Nisshin Fire & Marine Insurance Co. a wholly owned subsidiary by the end of the year by acquiring all of its outstanding shares in a stock swap, Millea Holdings sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
May 20, 2006

TV Asahi posts 28% rise in net profit

TV Asahi Corp. said Friday its group net profit increased 28.2 percent in the 2005 business year over the year before to 9.47 billion yen on a 3.0 percent rise in operating revenues to 249.38 billion yen.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person