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JAPAN
Aug 18, 2005

Koizumi turns new residence into exclusive art museum

If the new Prime Minister's Official Residence was opened to the public, unknowing visitors would think they had stumbled into an art museum.
BUSINESS
Aug 17, 2005

Nonlife insurers admit payout failure

Five of Japan's six biggest nonlife insurers, including Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., acknowledged Tuesday that some of their policyholders may have been wrongfully denied policy payouts in the past.
BUSINESS
Aug 17, 2005

Investor funds flourish, but caveat emptor

Ranging from hip-hop music to premium wines and a ramen court, funds are emerging in myriad fields to whet the appetites of investors tired of the minuscule interest on regular bank deposits and eager for a taste of adventure.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2005

Abe, ministers, Diet members visit shrine

Amid heightened attention on Japan's wartime past, 47 Diet members visited contentious Yasukuni Shrine together Monday, the 60th anniversary of the nation's surrender.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2005

For Koizumi, Yasukuni risks far outweigh benefits

As many people both at home and abroad waited with bated breath, the 60th anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender came and went Monday with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi not visiting Yasukuni Shrine.
EDITORIALS
Aug 14, 2005

Mr. Bolton goes to the United Nations

A s expected, U.S. President George W. Bush used a recess appointment to name Mr. John Bolton his ambassador to the United Nations. The move is a result of the bitter, partisan divisions that dog politics in Washington D.C, and a sign of Mr. Bush's determination to send Mr. Bolton to the U.N. While his...
Japan Times
Features
Aug 14, 2005

Caught in the middle: an 'enemy' in service of the Emperor

Life in Japan during the war years was not easy for foreign-born persons of Japanese parentage, but relatively speaking it would seem that I had a fairly easy time.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 14, 2005

Art of survival born from desperation, fear and hope

SURVIVING THE SWORD: Prisoners of the Japanese 1942-45, by Brian MacArthur. London: Time Warner Books, 2005, 512 pp., £20 (cloth). Of the 132,142 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) taken by Japan in World War II, 27 percent died compared to 4 percent of Germany's. The brutal treatment of the POWs is well...
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2005

MTFG-UFJ merger officially put off till Jan. 1

Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. and UFJ Holdings Inc. formally announced Friday the postponement of the planned integration of their core banking units until Jan. 1, three months after their original schedule.
BUSINESS
Aug 13, 2005

Cabinet approves 15% retaliatory levy on U.S. steel

The government said Friday it will slap a 15 percent retaliatory levy on U.S. ball bearing and other steel products from Sept. 1 to counter a U.S. antidumping law that violates global trade rules.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2005

550,000-name sex slave petition for Koizumi

Former sex slaves and their supporters gave a petition of 550,000 signatures to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi Friday demanding compensation from the Japanese government and a formal apology for the hardships the women suffered from during World War II.
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2005

Welfare costs lift leeway for '06 budget

The Cabinet on Thursday approved a 47.5 trillion yen cap on core policy-related outlays for fiscal 2006 budget requests.
EDITORIALS
Aug 12, 2005

Brink of starvation in Niger

Life in the West African country of Niger is hard in the best of times. Now the country is facing a food crisis that threatens hundreds of thousands of lives. A combination of factors -- nature, misguided policies, and neglect -- has left Niger teetering on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe, and...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Aug 12, 2005

Keeping your wines alive in the heat

As it becomes warm enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk, owners of large wine collections, or even a few special bottles, should be asking themselves, "Just how hot is too hot?"
EDITORIALS
Aug 11, 2005

Feelings between neighbors

Two recent polls on grass-roots perception -- one in Japan, China and South Korea, and the other in Japan and the United States -- offer a helpful clue in putting Japan's relations with these other countries in a perspective wider than government-level relations. The survey conducted by Kyodo News in...
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2005

Snap election to delay realignment report: Ono

Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono said Wednesday that a joint interim report on realignment of the U.S. military in Japan, initially expected to be compiled in September, will be delayed to October due to the House of Representatives election on Sept. 11.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Softbank forecasting first operating profit since 2000

Softbank Corp. said Wednesday it is projecting a full-year operating profit for the first time since fiscal 2000 thanks to subscriber growth in its high-speed Internet connection services.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Pakistan prime minister: invest in boom

Pakistan needs more private foreign investment in infrastructure, energy and other areas to meet the growing demands of its booming economy, the Pakistani prime minister said Wednesday in Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Aug 10, 2005

North Korea's choice

Predictably, the fourth round of talks over North Korea's nuclear-weapons programs broke off last weekend in stalemate. Progress was evident during the marathon negotiations, however, so the break is only a recess: Representatives from the six parties to the talks -- China, Japan, North Korea, Russia,...
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2005

Cheap eats bite halfway into McDonald's profit

McDonald's Holdings Co. Japan said Tuesday its net profit for the first six months dropped by more than half to 474 million yen, dragged down by a cheap-menu campaign launched in April.
BUSINESS
Aug 10, 2005

Economy seen moving out of soft patch

Economic policymakers on Tuesday showed their strongest confidence yet that the nation has emerged from the lull that started in autumn and upgraded their economic assessments accordingly.
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2005

House dissolution may delay critical diplomacy

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's decision Monday to call a general election may end up stalling Japan's diplomatic agenda, including talks on realigning the U.S. forces in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 9, 2005

The power of empathy

August is a time when questions of war and peace seem to hang in the heavy summer air like the feverish trilling of the cicadas -- this year, in particular, as it marks the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, which came to a close with Japan's surrender on Aug. 15, 1945.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2005

Thousands mark Hiroshima A-bomb

HIROSHIMA -- Hiroshima marked the 60th anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombing Saturday with calls for more international grassroots activism to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons and harsh criticism of the nuclear powers for blocking such efforts.

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