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JAPAN
Feb 4, 2006

Attendant sent up for rail crossing deaths

The Tokyo District Court sentenced a Tobu Railway Co. railway-crossing attendant to 18 months in prison Friday for negligence resulting in the deaths of two women and injuries to two others in March, when he opened a grade crossing gate as a train approached.
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2006

Importers ask for refunds before U.S. beef on hold rots

The Japan Meat Traders Association is sounding out the United States about the possibility of buying back 1,380 tons of U.S. beef that cannot clear Japanese customs, association officials said Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2006

Aso, Tanigaki also balk on female reign

Senior Cabinet ministers Friday joined growing voices within the Liberal Democratic Party expressing concern over a government-sponsored bill to allow females and their descendants to ascend to the Imperial throne.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2006

Tokyo to leverage whole talks on abduction issue

In a move to pressure North Korea a day before bilateral talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang are to start in Beijing, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Friday that Tokyo may consider abandoning the three-track talks on security, abduction and normalization if there is no progress on the abduction issue.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2006

Toyoko Inn qualifies apology to disabled

Toyoko Inn Co. President Norimasa Nishida apologized to a federation of nationwide disabled people's groups Thursday for removing mandatory facilities designed for their use at its hotels.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2006

'80s serial killer Miyazaki's death sentence finalized

SAITAMA (Kyodo) The death sentence for serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki, 43, who was convicted of killing four girls in 1988 and 1989, is final now that the Supreme Court has rejected an objection filed by his counsel over a technical detail.
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2006

New games bring more people to video consoles

There may be no monsters to slay or racing cars to spin, but new video games that claim to stimulate the brain or translate languages are being snapped up by a new crowd of gamers.
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2006

TSE's new IT czar has big task

The newly installed chief information officer at trouble-plagued Tokyo Stock Exchange Inc. vowed Thursday to improve the computer trading system of Asia's largest bourse to make it more competitive in the global capital market.
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2006

Fuji Photo plans to ax 5,000 jobs, reduce its film lineup

Fuji Photo Film Co. said Tuesday it will cut 5,000 workers, one-third of its image product division, due to the rapidly shrinking photo-film market.
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2006

Meiji Yasuda unveils plan to regain credibility

Scandal-hit Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. announced a medium-term business plan Tuesday focused on regaining credibility over the next two years.
BUSINESS
Jan 31, 2006

Aeon to launch friendly bid for Origin Toshu

Retail giant Aeon Co. announced Monday it will launch a friendly takeover bid for Origin Toshu Co., offering to serve as a white knight for the boxed-meal chain currently facing a hostile takeover by Don Quijote Co.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 31, 2006

Hospital death exposes 'tip of malpractice iceberg'

Loyd Cummings tried to ignore his headache when it began on Aug. 7, 2003. But the electronic technician, who was working in Japan on U.S. Navy radars, eventually collapsed from an aneurysm -- a bulge in a vein in his head.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2006

Man loses racial discrimination suit against shop

OSAKA -- In a case that human rights lawyers and activists worry could condone racial discrimination against foreigners by Japanese businesses, the Osaka District Court rejected a lawsuit Monday that was filed by a black American man who was denied entry to a store apparently due to his color.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2006

Yen fall, Dow rise send TSE to 65-month high

The key Nikkei stock index rose Monday to end at a fresh five-year, five-month high on buying prompted by the yen's fall against the dollar and recent strength on Wall Street.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jan 30, 2006

Fighters, Diaz agree to contract

After originally agreeing to a one-year deal with the Hiroshima Carp, former Chicago White Sox prospect Felix Diaz instead will be joining the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, the club announced Sunday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 29, 2006

Sifting through the geeks -- that's all of us -- to identify the perverts

Less than a week after the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki on Jan. 17, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia had not only recorded the ruling in its entry on Miyazaki, but had added an incisive note. When the Miyazaki case was dominating the headlines in 1989, he...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 29, 2006

With Horie's downfall, who can young Japan look up to?

The media has had a field day with Takafumi Horie, the 33-year-old founder of the communications firm Livedoor.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2006

Three-prong North Korea talks set for Feb. 4

Japan and North Korea will begin the first of three-track normalization talks on Feb. 4 in Beijing, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2006

Hotelier beats checks, drops disabled access

Toyoko Inn Co. admitted Friday that some of its business hotels in Yokohama and other areas removed mandatory parking facilities for the disabled after authorities certified them as barrier-free.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2006

Support for Cabinet falls to 52.9%

The approval rate for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet stood at 52.9 percent in January, down 4.2 percentage points from the previous month, a Kyodo News poll of 1,007 people showed Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2006

U.S. Democrats urge Japan to halt nuclear fuel plan

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) Six U.S. Democrats have urged Japan to suspend its plan to begin a test operation to extract plutonium at a nuclear-waste reprocessing facility in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, Democratic congressional sources said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2006

Professor faked enzyme test: Todai panel

A University of Tokyo investigative panel said Friday that results from 12 experiments on human enzymes conducted by one of its academic teams have not been reproduced so far, suggesting a biochemistry engineering professor may have fabricated results published in scientific papers on the research.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2006

'Harem' man held after candidate balks

Police arrested a man Thursday who allegedly tried to force a woman to live with him and his "harem" of 10 female housemates in suburban Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Jan 27, 2006

Bravia, Vaio sales buoy Sony earnings forecast

Sony Corp. said Thursday it revised its earnings forecast for the full year through March 31 from a net loss of 10 billion yen to a net profit of 70 billion yen, buoyed by stronger-than-expected sales of Bravia TVs and Vaio PCs over the holidays.

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