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JAPAN
Dec 22, 2005

SDF ranks face regular urine tests

The Defense Agency will regularly conduct urine tests of Self-Defense Forces personnel in the light of a series of illegal drug use cases involving Maritime Self-Defense Force members, agency officials said Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 22, 2005

Completely useless objects

It's 6 p.m., it's the end of the work day at a busy Kanda office block. OLs have been furiously tapping away at their keyboards, and connections have been made in the meeting rooms. Power players in their suits have been clinching make-or-break, win-win deals. Suddenly, the doors of the elevator open...
BUSINESS
Dec 22, 2005

China puts off trilateral telecom meeting

China has notified Japan that it will postpone a trilateral ministerial meeting also involving South Korea on information and communications because of a delay in preparations, officials said Wednesday.
MORE SPORTS
Dec 21, 2005

Seagulls rally to X Bowl victory

Yosuke Kaneoya kicked a 45-yard field goal to break a 16-all tie with 1:45 to go as the Obic Seagulls overcame a 16-0 halftime deficit to beat the Matsushita Denko Impulse 25-19 Monday in the Japan X Bowl, the X League championship game.
JAPAN
Dec 21, 2005

War memorial fails to make 2006 budget cut

The Finance Ministry's draft budget for fiscal 2006 does not include outlays for the proposed building of a new national war memorial.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Dec 20, 2005

Swallows to bid for ex-Met Ishii

The Yakult Swallows will launch a bid to regain the services of left-hander Kazuhisa Ishii, who was cut by the New York Mets last month, club president Yoshikazu Tagiku said Monday.
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2005

Hiroshima murder suspect had poor life, broken home in Peru

Jose Manuel Torres Yake, a 33-year-old Peruvian of Japanese descent arrested in the murder of a 7-year-old girl in Hiroshima in November, first came to Japan under an assumed name in April 2004.
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2005

Murakami's prison term upheld

The Tokyo High Court on Monday upheld a lower court-imposed 26-month prison term and 72.8 million yen fine for former Labor Minister Masakuni Murakami for taking bribes from KSD, an organization that provides industrial accident liability insurance to small businesses.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 18, 2005

Artest, Brown reunion very unlikely

NEW YORK -- Before commencing with today's communique excuse me while I laugh in the faces of pretenders whose "sources" claim Isiah Thomas and Ron Artest had a solid relationship in Indiana . . . heckle the hoodwinked who fail to grasp the Knicks' president's phone call to Pacer CEO Donnie Walsh regarding...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Dec 16, 2005

Giants add Powell to roster

The Yomiuri Giants said Thursday they have signed right-hander Jeremy Powell, who played for the Orix Buffaloes in 2005 and has a 57-47 record in the past five seasons in Japan, to a two-year contract.
BUSINESS
Dec 15, 2005

Corporate bankruptcies rose 4.6% in November

Corporate bankruptcies rose 4.6 percent year on year to 1,114 in November, with debts soaring 86.1 percent to 808.27 billion yen, the highest amount this year, a credit research agency said Wednesday.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Dec 13, 2005

Lions accept MLB bid for Mori

The Seibu Lions notified the baseball commissioner's office Monday that the team will accept a bid made by a major league team for pitcher Shinji Mori.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2005

Ban on U.S. beef lifted, but don't expect import flood, just price turmoil

The government on Monday approved the resumption of U.S. beef imports, lifting a two-year ban that has been in place since the discovery of mad cow disease in what had been one of Japan's biggest sources of low-cost beef.
Japan Times
Features
Dec 11, 2005

Japan's new Wave

Japan and South Korea are like an old, bickering couple: Though they may want to part ways at times, their shared history and interdependency compel them to work things out. That, and they've got no place else to go.
Features
Dec 11, 2005

Discordant history mars neighbors' friendship overtures

Japanese actress Yoshino Kimura was the lone main guest at the Chuo Kokaido Hall in Osaka in October. She appeared without her Korean counterpart in the opening ceremony to celebrate this year's 40th anniversary of the 1965 Japan-South Korean Treaty that normalized Tokyo-Seoul relations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Dec 9, 2005

Drumming up an apocalypse

Afrirampo are a whacked-out crackpot girl duo just out of their teens from Osaka, which is famous for its out-there noise-rock scene.
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2005

Japan productivity lowest in G7

Japan's labor productivity in 2003 was the lowest among the Group of Seven advanced economies for the 10th year in a row, according to results of a survey released by a think tank Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
Dec 8, 2005

Crisis behind Arroyo, for now

MANILA -- Some observers of Philippine affairs view political crises in this country as a permanent phenomenon. Just the other day, I joined a group of foreign correspondents for a meeting with a visiting American reporter who has covered the Philippines since the late '60s. While this journalist, who...

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan