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Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2005

Hayashi loses appeal over curry poisonings

OSAKA — Masumi Hayashi must hang for murdering four people and injuring 63 others with arsenic-laced curry at a Wakayama summer festival seven years ago, the Osaka High Court ruled Tuesday, upholding a lower court verdict.
COMMENTARY
Jun 27, 2005

Perceptions that defy amity

On a recent Korea Air flight from Narita to Inchon, South Korea, I was surprised when they showed images of air routes on the in-flight video system. The Tok-do islets in the Sea of Japan, the source of a Japan-South Korea territorial dispute, were shown as prominently as Tokyo and Seoul. The islets,...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jun 25, 2005

Agents continue making huge sums for doing very little work

LONDON -- The following story is, I promise, absolutely true, but you will understand why I have not used the names of the player, agent, club or manager concerned.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2005

Shady cash stash puts METI in hot water

A probe into years of accounting fraud at Kanebo Ltd. has led to a secret stash of nearly 30 million yen collected over 20 years by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry officials.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Jun 25, 2005

No easy fix for reapportionment wrongs

WASHINGTON -- Among the issues that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will take to a special referendum election next fall is that of reapportionment. Specifically, the Gubernator wants to change the way California draws its district lines for representation in the state legislature and in the Congress....
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 23, 2005

China's growth sums just don't add up for the planet

China's 1.3 billion (and counting) citizens are poised to transform the global landscape dramatically, both economically and ecologically.
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2005

Ex-LTCB execs convicted of hiding loans lose appeal

The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by three former top executives of the now-defunct Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan who were convicted of window-dressing the bank's earnings reports.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 22, 2005

Teaching the world to sing in perfect harmony

When Kazufumi Miyazawa, vocalist of the Japanese rock band The Boom wrote the song titled "Shima-uta" about 15 years ago, no one imagined the path it would take, starting as a huge domestic hit and then gaining a life of its own abroad.
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2005

10% of bureaucrats quit after subsidized sabbaticals

Out of 576 young career-track bureaucrats who studied abroad at government expense from fiscal 1997 through 2002, 56 quit within five years after returning home, according to a study by the National Personnel Authority.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2005

Ethnic Myanmar refugee pleads for policy change

A refugee from Myanmar belonging to an ethnic minority urged Japan on Monday to grant asylum to more of his compatriots, saying they face serious persecution back home.
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2005

Swindler Inagaki found guilty, avoids prison

Jitsuo Inagaki, a former state minister for Hokkaido and Okinawa development, was sentenced Monday to a suspended two-year prison term for illegally selling investment products that promised high returns and guaranteed the principal.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 19, 2005

Life and times of a Heian-Period crime sleuth

Scrolling back in history THE DRAGON SCROLL, by I.J. Parker. New York: Penguin, 2005, 432 pp., $13.00 (paper). Now beginning a new series with Penguin, Parker has just released "The Dragon Scroll." While the third full-length novel to be published, it is the first, chronologically, in her series and...
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2005

A-bomb survivors will be able to apply for benefits in S. Korea

Atomic-bomb survivors living in South Korea will be able to apply at Japanese diplomatic offices for medical allowances under a new government plan.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2005

Cambodia school intrusion raises security scrutiny here anew

Thursday's deadly hostage-taking by four intruders at an international school in Cambodia has further driven home the need for schools in Japan to assess whether they have taken adequate security measures.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2005

Koizumi nixes Yasukuni replacement

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday rejected a suggestion that the government set up a new war memorial as a substitute for Tokyo's war-related Yasukuni Shrine.
BUSINESS
Jun 18, 2005

Toyota, Honda fuel-cell cars certified

Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. said Friday their fuel-cell cars have become the first to receive motor-vehicle type certification from the government.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jun 17, 2005

Alcohol continues to fuel Best's free fall toward tragic ending

LONDON -- When George Best was having problems with his first wife, Angie, I shared a flight back to England with him from Miami -- he was playing for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the North American Soccer League at the time.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2005

Journalist did not defame expert in tainted blood fiasco: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court overturned a high court decision Thursday, ruling that noted journalist Yoshiko Sakurai did not defame a late hemophilia expert in her writings about the infection of hemophiliacs with HIV from tainted blood products.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2005

NPO chief, cohorts held over investment swindle

Police arrested the former head of a Tokyo nonprofit organization Thursday on suspicion of swindling group members through an investment scheme.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2005

Suspended sentence of racy comics publisher switched to fine

The Tokyo High Court on Thursday reduced the sentence imposed by a lower court on a comic book publisher who was convicted of distributing obscene comic books featuring graphic sex scenes.
SOCCER / J. League
Jun 16, 2005

Barcelona's supporting cast coast past Reds in friendly

SAITAMA -- Barcelona proved too strong for Urawa Reds in a friendly match at Saitama Stadium 2002 on Wednesday as the Spanish champion coasted to a 3-0 win.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jun 15, 2005

The art that rocks the boat of war in Iraq

If you don't like U.S. President George W. Bush -- particularly if you don't support his war in Iraq -- then there is a new gallery exhibition in Tokyo that you will relish.
BUSINESS
Jun 15, 2005

Regional banks turn profit, cut bad-loan ratios

Regional banks swung back to the black in fiscal 2004 as a whole for the first time since fiscal 1999 with a combined net profit of 800 billion yen, the Financial Services Agency said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 14, 2005

Japan's beneficent potential

During my 7 1/2 years of service in the 1990s as deputy secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, I initiated a research project that produced, in 1997, a report titled "The World in 2020: Toward a New Global Age." In the course of this research I assumed that the...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jun 12, 2005

Johnson gives his backing to Japan's bid

The Japan Rugby Football Union's bid to host Rugby World Cup 2011 received the backing and support of rugby legend Martin Johnson on Friday.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan