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JAPAN
Sep 13, 2005

Doi's loss ends 36-year Diet run

Former Social Democratic Party leader Takako Doi failed to retain her House of Representatives seat for a 13th term in Sunday's election, bringing a 36-year Diet run to an end.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2005

Ex-disarmament envoy wins, touted as foreign minister

Kuniko Inoguchi, former ambassador to the U.N. Conference on Disarmament, was set to win a seat in the House of Representatives election Sunday, according to Kyodo News projections.
Sep 12, 2005

'Assassin' Koike bests 'rebel' Kobayashi

Environment Minister Yuriko Koike wrested the Tokyo No. 10 district seat in Sunday's election from former Liberal Democratic Party member Koki Kobayashi.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2005

Pyongyang palliative is Bush's bitter pill

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut -- Although buried by headlines from Iraq and Hurricane Katrina-devastated U.S. Gulf Coast region, the fourth round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program, about to resume in Beijing, presents the best chance yet to resolve diplomatically the simmering crisis on the...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 11, 2005

Views from Asia suggest that 'Team Bush' is playing poorly for all sides

CONFRONTING THE BUSH DOCTRINE: Critical Views From the Asia-Pacific, edited by Mel Gurtov and Peter Van Ness. London: Routledge Curzon, 2004, 277 pp., £20.99 (cloth). Characterizing the Bush administration's foreign policy of zigzagging, dysfunctional initiatives and self-inflicted wounds a "doctrine"...
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2005

Japan to send Afghan poll monitors

Japan to send Afghan poll monitors
COMMENTARY
Sep 10, 2005

From Kyoto to New Orleans

LOS ANGELES -- Beneath the endlessly horrific details surrounding the hurricane that swamped parts of New Orleans and the southeast United States lurks a monster question. Just how angry -- really -- is Mother Nature over the irreverent, careless way we humans and our energy-hungry machines have been...
BUSINESS
Sep 10, 2005

Komura to be Meiji Yasuda president

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. is finalizing a decision for the company to promote Senior Managing Director Masato Komura to the presidency, succeeding Ryotaro Kaneko, sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2005

Bureaucrats fear not the loss of pull on politics if they join in

The road from bureaucrat to politician is well-paved.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2005

Position on North Korea unchanged

Tokyo will maintain its stance of demanding complete abolition of North Korea's nuclear arms program during the six-party talks that are to resume next week, but is not yet sure whether the new round will lead to any substantial developments, the top government spokesman said Thursday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Sep 9, 2005

Hail Vouvray, Aristocrat of the wine world

Just as The Aristocrats is the dirty joke that comedians tell each other after the punters have gone home, Vouvray is the tipple of choice among sommeliers once the ties have come off at the end of the evening.
EDITORIALS
Sep 8, 2005

Try again with rights bill

The government was to have submitted a human-rights protection bill during the most recent session of the Diet. Various reasons are cited for the bill's failure to reach the Diet floor, including government leaders' obsession with other hot-button issues such as postal-service reform. Still, legislation...
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2005

Urban support seen as key for Horie

ONOMICHI, Hiroshima Pref. -- A small office in front of JR Onomichi Station attracts hundreds of visitors daily as the Sept. 11 House of Representatives election draws near.
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2005

Japan to release 7.3 million barrels of oil

Japan will release 7.3 million barrels of reserve oil kept by 66 private-sector refiners over a 30-day period beginning Wednesday in a concerted action by the International Energy Agency to help stabilize the world oil market in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2005

Ishihara turns to Taipei as Beijing exits forum

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara will visit Taiwan on Tuesday to discuss ways to run a forum for major Asian cities, following the recent withdrawal of Beijing from the network, Tokyo Metropolitan Government officials said.
BUSINESS
Sep 6, 2005

Minimum for oil reserves to be cut in line with IEA

Japan will cut its mandatory minimum for oil reserves held by refiners and other private-sector oil firms in a concerted action by the International Energy Agency, a senior government official said Monday.
BUSINESS
Sep 6, 2005

Fast Retail to pay big to put Uniqlo on world fashion stage

Fast Retailing Co., which runs the Uniqlo casual clothing chain, said Monday it will spend up to 400 billion yen over the next three years to acquire apparel businesses as part of an overall plan to evolve into a global powerhouse.
JAPAN
Sep 5, 2005

LDP leading in polls with a week to go

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is likely to win a majority Sept. 11, while the Democratic Party of Japan may not end up with the 175 seats it held when the House of Representatives was dissolved, a Kyodo News survey shows.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2005

Japanese confirmed dead in Afghanistan

Two bodies recently found in southern Afghanistan were confirmed Saturday to be those of a missing Japanese man and woman, the Foreign Ministry said.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2005

Politician's gripe sparks sales of Mimolette cheese

Mimolette, a French cheese criticized as "hard and shriveled" by former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori in a hot fray over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's threat to dissolve the House of Representatives, is catching on with curious consumers.
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2005

Women-only salons offer refuge after last trains

There is good news for weary women in Tokyo who stay out late and miss their last trains after working long hours or hanging out with friends.
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2005

APEC ministers plan oil coordination

Asia-Pacific finance ministers at their meeting next week will call for increased policy coordination between oil-producing and -consuming states, including the launch of annual dialogue in the International Energy Forum, to curb surging oil prices, according to a draft joint statement.
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2005

Groups against revisionist history text call campaign a success

Civic groups opposing a contentious revisionist history textbook on Thursday hailed the result of the publisher's recent survey, as well as their own, that less than 1 percent of the nation's junior high schools are likely to use the book from next April.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2005

Ailing Ito-Yokado to close 30 stores

Supermarket chain Ito-Yokado Co. said Wednesday it will close about 30 unprofitable outlets by February 2009 as part of its group restructuring plan.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2005

Japan 'regrets' China drilling

A Chinese Embassy official was summoned Wednesday to the Foreign Ministry to be told that Tokyo regrets that a Chinese consortium is set to begin drilling in the Chunxiao gas field in the East China Sea, where the two countries are disputing the boundary, a ministry spokesman said.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Sep 1, 2005

Learning to enjoy where waters flow free

Every summer in Japan there is news of a few children drowning in rivers, and the message that comes from the media with those tragic stories is that rivers are dangerous and children should not go near them.

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