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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 28, 2004

A clotheshorse for all seasons

"What will she be wearing?"
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2004

Kokudo employee found dead in suspected suicide

An employee of scandal-hit Kokudo Corp. was found dead Nov. 21 on the seashore in Yamagata Prefecture, and police are looking into the possibility he killed himself, according to sources familiar with the case.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2004

Education minister slams textbooks as 'self-torturing'

Education minister Nariaki Nakayama said Saturday that history textbooks used in secondary schools contain passages that are extremely "self-torturing" and suggest "Japan has done nothing but bad things."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2004

Koizumi an official at Yasukuni

The Thursday court ruling on Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's 2001 visit to Yasukuni Shrine indicates he may longer be able to continue to be ambiguous about the nature of his contentious visits, many scholars agree.
EDITORIALS
Nov 27, 2004

A revealing melee in Chile

It seemed like a sideshow at the time, but the incident in Santiago last weekend in which U.S. President George W. Bush intervened to "rescue" one of his Secret Service agents from a scuffle with Chilean police has been mushrooming all week. In retrospect, that melee -- and a dispute last Sunday involving...
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2004

Government strong-arms Itami airport

OSAKA -- The battle over the future of the Kansai region's airports heated up this month as the central government pressured Osaka's Itami airport to shift domestic flights to Kansai International Airport and threatened to take away Itami's official status as an international airport.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 26, 2004

Furuta, NPB officials on same page

Officials of Nippon Professional Baseball and representatives of the pro baseball players association met Thursday to negotiate possible revisions of the rules regarding trades and player transfers, salary and the amateur draft system.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 25, 2004

Now may be the time to finesse U.S. 'bully'

Beneath the buzz of news last week, it was easy to overlook one important story -- as much of the media did. On Thursday, the Russian Federation submitted to the United Nations its ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, beginning a 90-day countdown to the protocol's entry into force. As a result, on Feb....
BUSINESS
Nov 25, 2004

MTFG, UFJ post declines in first half

Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. announced Wednesday its group net profit fell 43.1 percent in the fiscal first half from a year earlier to 171.7 billion yen, while merger partner UFJ Holdings said separately its group net loss was 674.3 billion yen for the six months to September.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 24, 2004

Kiyohara set to stay

Disgruntled veteran Yomiuri Giants slugger Kazuhiro Kiyohara indicated Tuesday he will stay with the Central League club next season.
BUSINESS
Nov 23, 2004

Mizuho, SMFG loan ills abating

Mizuho Financial Group Inc., the nation's biggest bank by assets, said Monday its first-half net profit fell 8.4 percent from a year earlier but its bad loans shrank due to improved earnings at borrower firms.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2004

Wife of GSDF sergeant found dead in her home

The wife of a Ground Self-Defense Force sergeant was found dead at their house in late September while he was stationed in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah.
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2004

Miyazaki's latest movie to get overseas distribution

Director Hayao Miyazaki's new animated film, "Howl's Moving Castle," which has just premiered in Japan, will also be screened in South Korea, France, Taiwan and Hong Kong, the producer of the film said Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Nov 21, 2004

Leave it to the beavers

You have to admire the spirit of some beavers in Louisiana who were found last week to have woven thousands of dollars worth of stolen currency into a dam they were building out of the more usual boring sticks and brush. It was certainly a whole new twist on the idea of putting money into property.
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2004

Obituary: Suzuko Egashira

Crown Princess Masako's maternal grandmother, Suzuko Egashira, died Friday at a hospital in the city of Fuji, Shizuoka Prefecture, the Imperial Household Agency said. She was 88.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / COUNTER CULTURE
Nov 19, 2004

Ginza bites the Big Apple

American fashion institution Barneys New York has finally found a place to call home in Tokyo. Opened last month in Ginza, this is the first flagship store in Japan for the prestigious Big Apple retailer. Operated by Isetan, Barneys has been in Japan for over a decade, but fans in Tokyo have had to settle...
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2004

Derailment mars shinkansen safety myth

Reverberations from the bullet train derailment in Niigata Prefecture on Oct. 23 continue to echo across Japan, as experts debate whether it was luck or skill that saved the day for the passengers roughed up by the series of strong earthquakes.
BUSINESS
Nov 19, 2004

Mitsubishi, Itochu to be stakeholders in Isuzu

Mitsubishi Corp. and Itochu Corp. will buy stakes in truck maker Isuzu Motors Ltd., the two trading companies said Thursday.
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2004

Government is urged to offer more help for foreigners with HIV, AIDS

A group of researchers and nongovernmental organizations is urging the government to reinforce support measures for foreigners with HIV or AIDS in Japan.
COMMENTARY
Nov 18, 2004

Atomic energy's second wind

LONDON -- American utility companies are returning to the idea of building nuclear power stations. They believe they can get approval for licenses to start doing so by 2007, and they also believe, despite bitter past experience, that safety problems can finally be solved and the economics can be justified....
BUSINESS
Nov 18, 2004

Steelmakers report record earnings on worldwide demand

Major steelmakers reported record earnings for the first half, powered by strong worldwide demand.
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2004

TSE to delist scandal-tainted Seibu Railway

The Tokyo Stock Exchange said Tuesday it will delist shares of Seibu Railway Co. on Dec. 17 because the company has been falsifying its shareholder records for nearly 50 years.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 17, 2004

Mound relief almost backfired for MLB pitchers

The visiting Major League Baseball All-Stars left Japan Nov. 14 with a 5-3 series victory over their All-Japan opponents but, ironically, a change in the pitching mounds designed to help the big leaguers for the final three games of the tour almost resulted in disaster for the visitors. Let me explain....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2004

Yokota's 'remains' brought home

Japanese officials returned Monday from Pyongyang with what they were told are the cremated remains of Megumi Yokota, who according to North Korea committed suicide after being abducted to the reclusive state in 1977.

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