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BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2005

Jobless rate dropped to 4.2% in June

Japan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 4.2 percent in June, marking a 0.2 percentage point contraction from May and the lowest figure in nearly seven years, the government said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2005

Michigan seeks investment, to evolve

Seeking to lure investment from a country that once threatened her state's main industry with ruin, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Thursday her five-day trade mission to Japan underscores the new reality of the global economy -- evolve, or die.
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2005

TVs skew electronics earnings

Sony Corp. and Matsushita Electronic Industrial Co. presented starkly different earnings reports Thursday as sales of flat-screen televisions altered the fortunes of the rival consumer electronics makers.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2005

NHK axes one, chides 13 over funds

NHK said Thursday it has dismissed a camera operator for embezzlement and suspended another employee from work for seven days for false accounting, while imposing minor punishments on 12 others for insufficiently supervising the two.
BUSINESS
Jul 28, 2005

New Microsoft Japan chief warm to partnerships, downplays FTC probe

The new president of Microsoft Japan said Wednesday the U.S. software giant will continue to invest heavily in the Japanese market and played down the contentious nature of the ongoing hearings with the Fair Trade Commission.
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2005

New Komeito exec signals willingness to jump LDP ship

New Komeito's secretary general said Wednesday his party would entertain forming a coalition government with the Democratic Party of Japan if, in a snap election, the DPJ took a majority in the House of Representatives.
BUSINESS
Jul 28, 2005

BOJ keeps ultra-loose money policy

The Bank of Japan maintained its ultra-easy monetary policy Wednesday, leaving the current account balance target unchanged at a range of 30 trillion yen to 35 trillion yen, in line with analysts' predictions.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 28, 2005

Moves afoot to counter U.S. Big Oil's clout

Reducing the greenhouse gases that derive from human activities and cause global warming is perhaps the most critical environmental challenge facing the world community.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2005

Chen blasts China arms expansion

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian repeated on Tuesday his call on China to stop aiming missiles at Taiwan while stressing the need to try to normalize relations with Beijing.
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2005

Remodeled Lexus trio rolled out

Toyota Motor Corp. unveiled three remodeled Lexus luxury models Tuesday that will be launched in late August.
COMMUNITY
Jul 27, 2005

Comedienne Tomochika is quite a character

Along with comedy duos who do manzai (two-man standup) or short skits, a rise in "pin geinin (solo comedians)" is another dimension to the current owarai boom.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2005

Mesothelioma risk known in '78

The government was aware that inhaling even a small amount of asbestos could cause mesothelioma, an incurable cancer, more than a decade before Japan started to curb asbestos use in 1989, according to a 1978 report by a labor ministry expert panel obtained by Kyodo News.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2005

Obituary: Hinako Sugiura

Hinako Sugiura, an author of books on Tokyo culture in the Edo Period, died Friday of hypopharynx cancer at a hospital in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, publisher Shinchosha Co. said Monday. She was 46.
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2005

Girding for competition, KDDI to absorb Tu-Ka units

KDDI Corp. said Monday it will absorb its Tu-Ka cellular phone subsidiaries on Oct. 1 as part of efforts to prepare itself for greater competition in the wireless telephone market.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jul 25, 2005

Right for the wrong reasons: deflation dilemma at the BOJ

What do you do when things turn out right for all the wrong reasons? Do you laugh? Do you cry? Do you do a bit of both, or none of either? This must be the kind of mental acrobatics that observers of consumer price developments at the Bank of Japan are going through at this particular moment.
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2005

52% of Japanese don't trust U.S. government

More than half of the Japanese public doesn't trust the U.S. government, but 59 percent of Americans consider Tokyo trustworthy, according to a joint public perception survey by Kyodo News and the Associated Press.
Japan Times
Features
Jul 24, 2005

Mama Calcutta

Emiko Dhar moved to Calcutta (now renamed Kolkata) in 1962 after she married an Indian engineer whom she met through her job in Japan. She has lived there ever since.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 24, 2005

Strangelove encounters of a MAD scientist kind

Herman Kahn is back in the news.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 23, 2005

Defense chief given missile-intercept role

The Diet enacted a revised law Friday that allows the Defense Agency chief to order emergency missile interceptions without waiting for approval from the prime minister and the Cabinet.
BUSINESS
Jul 23, 2005

FSA reveals 6.78 million unreported data loss cases

Financial institutions have reported about 6.78 million cases of missing client data, the Financial Services Agency announced Friday.
BUSINESS
Jul 23, 2005

Unpegged yuan to impact firms

From electronics makers to fishing companies, China's decision Thursday to abandon the yuan's peg to the dollar will affect a wide range of Japanese businesses over the long term, observers say.
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2005

State admits inaction on threat it knew since '70s

The government offered vows of action and a denial Thursday after revelations the previous day that officials knew nearly 30 years ago of the serious health hazards of asbestos.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2005

MHI to get license to produce PAC-3 interceptor missiles

Japan and the United States agreed earlier this year that ground-based Patriot Advanced Capability 3 interceptor missiles will be produced under license in Japan as part of the missile defense system, Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2005

MHI to get license to produce PAC-3 interceptor missiles

Japan and the United States agreed earlier this year that ground-based Patriot Advanced Capability 3 interceptor missiles will be produced under license in Japan as part of the missile defense system, Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2005

Ruling upheld nixing redress over Unit 731 germ warfare

The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court decision denying Chinese plaintiffs compensation for germ warfare atrocities committed in China by the Imperial Japanese Army during the war.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2005

North willing to build ties, Japan is told

Taku Yamasaki, former vice president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Monday he asked South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong Young to understand Japan's intention to take up the abduction issue at the upcoming six-party talks over North Korea's nuclear programs.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?