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EDITORIALS
Feb 13, 2005

Dead man moonwalking

Pity Michael Jackson. Of course, that's after checking off a long list of other justifiable reactions to the sad, clown-like figure whose trial on child molestation and other charges is now getting under way in California with all the solemnity of a circus. Amazement, impatience, sympathy, repugnance,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 13, 2005

Little progress on Japanese gender equality

Last weekend the Cabinet Office released the results of its latest gender-roles survey, which it has been carrying out irregularly since 1979. About 3,500 adult men and women offered their opinions about who should be in charge of the home and who should do the breadwinning. The results were reported...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 13, 2005

Learn if your pet loves you in TV Tokyo's "Pochi-Tama" and more

Does your pet love you? It may sound like a pointless question, but this week the pet variety program "Pochi-Tama" (TV Tokyo; Fri., 7 p.m.) will offer a test that pet owners can take to determine the degree of affection that their dogs and cats feel toward them.
COMMENTARY
Feb 12, 2005

Cross-strait flights unlikely to narrow gap

New Year! Finally, there's a bit of good news to report in cross-strait relations. During this holiday period, the first direct flights are taking place between mainland China and Taiwan since the 1949 Chinese civil war. But while both sides applaud these charter flights as an important step forward,...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2005

Easy money set up today's dollar slump

GUATEMALA CITY -- There is a great deal of misunderstanding about why the dollar is in a slump. But it's no mystery. Recently, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was quoted as blaming America's infamous twin deficits for the fall of the dollar. And many financial talking heads murmured with relief when...
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2005

McDonald's Japan posts first profit in three years

McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan) said Thursday it returned to profit in 2004 for the first time in three years.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Feb 10, 2005

A treasure for the Game Boy

"Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories," a new role-playing adventure from Square- Enix for the Game Boy Advance, is an astounding achievement by Game Boy standards.
BUSINESS
Feb 9, 2005

Kirin set to dive into quasi-beer fray

Kirin Brewery Co. announced Tuesday it will release a malt-free beerlike alcoholic beverage on April 6, joining its biggest rival Asahi Breweries Ltd. in the so-called third-beer market pioneered by Sapporo Breweries Ltd. and Suntory Ltd.
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 8, 2005

Sandro handed suspended sentence

The Tokyo District Court on Monday sentenced Brazilian forward Sandro Cardoso Dos Santos of J. League team JEF United Ichihara-Chiba to 10 months in prison, suspended for three years, for sexually assaulting a woman at his home in May 2004.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2005

Vodafone K.K. inserts Morrow as president as subscribers fall

The Japanese unit of global mobile-phone carrier Vodafone Group Plc. said Monday that Bill Morrow, head of the group's British operations, will replace Shiro Tsuda as president just two months after Tsuda assumed the position.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2005

Nippon Life picks Okamoto as president to succeed Uno

Nippon Life Insurance Co. said Monday that Kunie Okamoto, a senior managing director, will be promoted to succeed Ikuo Uno as president beginning April 1.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 8, 2005

Foreign teachers have lucky escape

When news of the tsunami disaster in south Asia began to filter through on Dec. 26, there was good reason for friends and employers of the many English-language teachers in Japan to fear the worst.
EDITORIALS
Feb 6, 2005

Prohibition in Bhutan

The news out of the Himalayas last week was all about Nepal, where King Gyanendra on Tuesday dissolved the government and proclaimed a state of emergency. (The move was billed as an attempt to end an intractable Maoist insurgency; observers predict it will only feed the flames.) But if you think Nepal...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 6, 2005

Kabuki kid's taxi tussle exposes insular world

Celebrities live in goldfish bowls, but some goldfish bowls are roomier than others. The amount of leeway the public is willing to allow a famous person in terms of objectionable behavior depends on the nature of that person's fame and his or her own understanding of the seriousness of the trespass....
COMMENTARY
Feb 5, 2005

A question mark for Chirac

PARIS -- With a growth rate of 2.4 percent, France's performance was a bit higher than the euro-zone's average 1.8 percent but not enough to dispel the gloom that presently characterizes the national mood. Unemployment remains at 9.9 percent, close to the Belgian, German and Spanish figures, and far...
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2005

JAL to buy 30 Boeing 737s; Airbus aced out

Japan Airlines Corp. said Friday it will sign a contract with Boeing Co. of the United States to buy 30 737 jetliners, with an option for 10 more, foiling a bid by Europe's Airbus consortium to break into the U.S.-dominated market.
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2005

Matsushita upgrades '04 profit forecast

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Friday it had revised upward its full-year operating profit forecast by 7 percent to 300 billion yen, in stark contrast to Sony and Toshiba, which have cut their outlooks.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 5, 2005

Davenport strolls into Pan Pacific semis

Top-ranked Lindsay Davenport overpowered Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic in straight sets Friday to advance to the semifinals of the Pan Pacific Open.
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2005

Daiei expects 510 billion yen loss for '04

Struggling retailer Daiei Inc. said Friday it expects to post a net group loss of 510 billion yen in fiscal 2004 due to the acceleration of restructuring.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2005

Toyota unveils remodeled Vitz compact

Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday unveiled its fully remodeled Vitz compact.
BUSINESS
Feb 1, 2005

Toshiba outlook cut as chips plunge

Toshiba Corp. said Monday it has slashed its projected operating profit for the full year to March by 30 billion yen to 160 billion yen, joining a growing list of technology firms that are revising their outlooks due to a slowdown in the sector.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2005

Kabuki actor held for punching cop

Kabuki actor Nakamura Shichinosuke, who played the emperor in the Hollywood movie "The Last Samurai," was arrested Sunday in Tokyo for allegedly punching a police officer after a taxi driver complained to the officer that he did not pay for his ride.
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2005

Not just rhetoric anymore

Nine days ago, U.S. President George W. Bush delivered his second inaugural speech, a rousing, 21-minute address in which, among other things, he extolled liberty and proclaimed "ending tyranny in our world" the ultimate goal of U.S. policy. God himself backed this policy, Mr. Bush said. Wasn't it in...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2005

LDP seeks more robust postal control

The Liberal Democratic Party aims to convince the government to expand its control of postal operations even after privatization begins in a bid to ensure uniform services nationwide, according to party sources.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 30, 2005

Japanese hero pointedly ignored

It's said that the virtue most valued in Japan is loyalty, which is why the famous heroes of Japanese literature and history are people who made sacrifices for their lords rather than their beliefs. And often, as in the case of the 47 ronin celebrated in Chushingura or the tokkotai (kamikaze) pilots...
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2005

80% of regional banks may introduce ATM cards with chips

More than 80 percent of the nation's regional banks are considering switching from magnetic cash cards to ones embedded with IC chips to make counterfeiting more difficult.
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2005

MMC execs resign as automaker gets 540 billion yen bailout

Ltd. MMC's latest plan includes no specific steps for increasing profits, he said. But MMC chief financial officer Hiizu Ichikawa said that external consultants have reviewed the plan and claimed he was confident it would work.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jan 29, 2005

Take this job and love it

Maybe it was Benjamin Disraeli or maybe it was Mark Twain or maybe it was me who said, "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics . . . followed by Japanese financial data."

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight