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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 4, 2005

Japan's show-biz hacks fail to raise ante 24 / 7

Last Monday was a pretty busy day for Tokyo's entertainment reporters. At 11 a.m. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, fresh from spending Thanksgiving in Pakistan, held a press conference in Shinjuku to promote their movie "Mr. and Mrs. Smith"; and then at 2 p.m. across town at the Imperial Hotel in Hibiya,...
EDITORIALS
Dec 3, 2005

Cut spending before raising taxes

With Japan's economic recovery gaining momentum, the government appears set to increase taxes across a broad spectrum. The Tax Commission last week proposed a series of tax-code changes for fiscal 2006, including an abolition in 2007 of the flat-rate tax cuts for individual income taxes that had been...
BUSINESS
Dec 3, 2005

BOJ's No. 2 wary of relying on just one price index

The No. 2 man at the Bank of Japan indicated Friday he holds a different view from other central bank policymakers who say the bank should end its ultra-easy monetary policy once core consumer prices stabilize.
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2005

Former Kanebo execs plead guilty

A former president and vice president of Kanebo Ltd. both pleaded guilty Wednesday at the Tokyo District Court to falsifying financial statements.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2005

U.S. English-only laws harm immigrants

SANTA MARIA, California -- The Latino population has increased 500 percent in the past 15 years in State Rep. Courtney Combs' district, located between Cincinnati and Dayton. That has created a communication problem between residents and government officials, according to Combs, a Republican.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2005

Asbestos-relief bill may hit 27 billion yen

The government revealed Tuesday that thousands of buildings nationwide, including public facilities, pose asbestos exposure risks while unveiling a draft bill to pay 27 billion yen in compensation to the people affected.
COMMENTARY
Nov 29, 2005

The pebble in Russia's shoe

At their meeting in Tokyo on Nov. 21, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to produce a joint statement on stalled peace treaty talks. The reason, of course, is that the two nations remain at odds over possession of the Northern Territories. It is unusual that...
BUSINESS
Nov 29, 2005

Mitsubishi Fuso to slim operations

Scandal-tainted Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp. said Monday it will streamline its domestic sales network and group firms to slash costs and increase efficiency as it struggles to cope with dwindling domestic sales.
BUSINESS
Nov 29, 2005

Rising demand lifts life insurers

The rising demand for medical and annuity insurance by the rapidly graying population boosted revenues at many of the nation's six largest life insurers in the first half of fiscal 2005, according to earnings reports released Monday.
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2005

18 inspection firms using lax procedures

The Nara Prefectural Government said Monday that two hotels in the prefecture were built using false data from Aneha Architect Design Office. The hotels are the Sun Hotel Nara in the city of Nara, and Sun Hotel Yamato-Koriyama in Yamato-Koriyama.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2005

Seki returns as mayor of Osaka

OSAKA -- Junichi Seki was returned to office in Sunday's Osaka mayoral election after he resigned amid clashes with the city assembly and bureaucrats over reform.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2005

TBS ready to talk with Rakuten on program distribution

Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. has decided to negotiate with major Internet shopping mall operator Rakuten Inc. on a business tieup in the form of online distribution of programs via Rakuten's portal site, sources said Sunday.
COMMENTARY
Nov 28, 2005

Yasukuni impasse cracking

Since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi took office in 2001, Japan has faced diplomatic spats with China and South Korea over his visits to Yasukuni Shrine. On Oct. 17, Koizumi made his fifth Yasukuni visit as prime minister, as Japan's relations with the two neighbors soured.
EDITORIALS
Nov 27, 2005

Thanks for a thankless job

Most of the time, let's face it, journalists just do not get good press. The very word "reporter" is often used or interpreted as a smear. Newspaper readers and television viewers alike regularly complain to news organizations about their employees' bias, incompetence and bad grammar. And for all their...
Japan Times
Features
Nov 27, 2005

Too much of a good thing

Humans are wholly dependent on nature's cornucopia for food, clothing, shelter, many medicines, beer and wine -- to name just a few of life's essentials and pleasures.
Japan Times
Features
Nov 27, 2005

Is it so hard to see the forest for the trees?

By C.W. NICOL
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2005

Shoddy Aneha designs may spur mass eviction

The land ministry and local governments agreed Friday to ask residents of condominium complexes with quake-resistance levels found to be less than half the state standard to voluntarily vacate their homes.
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2005

Individual investors being hit by suspicious stock schemes

Individual investors looking for places to invest their money are getting dragged into shady schemes that persuade them to buy unlisted stocks with the promise of getting high returns once they get listed.
BUSINESS
Nov 25, 2005

TBS to visit Rakuten for details of financial condition

A team from Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. will visit the headquarters of Internet portal operator Rakuten Inc. on Friday to get information on its financial condition, a senior TBS official said.
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2005

FSA to slap insurers with improvement orders

The Financial Services Agency will issue business improvement orders to more than 20 nonlife insurers for failing to pay insurance claims, sources said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
Nov 24, 2005

Myanmar ranks high on Bush's radar

HONG KONG -- One significant though insufficiently noticed aspect of U.S. President George W. Bush's weeklong visit to Asia was his consistent effort to focus attention on Myanmar, and to pressure Asian allies, notably Japan, to be more forthright in their criticisms of the military junta's shortcomings....
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2005

Developers wed something old, new

Central Tokyo is undergoing an office redevelopment boom that in part includes restoring structures from the Meiji to Showa eras and sometimes incorporating them into new high rises, and making replicas of historic buildings, including famous Western-style ones.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2005

LDP, at 50, goes after Constitution

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pledged Tuesday to put the nation on a reform path to meet the challenge of a rapidly changing world, and to this end presented his party's blueprint to amend the Constitution for the first time to bring the charter in line with global realities.
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.

Longform

A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped