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BUSINESS
Jun 7, 2006

Sony has high hopes for its first digital SLR

Sony Corp. on Tuesday unveiled its first digital single lens reflex camera, the Alpha DSLR-A100, in its first product rollout since acquiring the Konica Minolta Group's digital SLR division earlier this year.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2006

Thaksin best underscores fatal flaws of his kind of rule

HONG KONG -- Thailand's "democracy" is in limbo. Judges of the country's three top courts have decided that April's elections were unconstitutional, and new ones must be held. The Election Commission set October for new elections, but the judges said the commission has no power to set the date and its...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 6, 2006

Murakami arrested over insider trading

Outspoken investment fund manager Yoshiaki Murakami was arrested Monday for alleged insider trading linked to his investment fund's purchase of Nippon Broadcasting System Inc. shares between late 2004 and early 2005.
BUSINESS
Jun 6, 2006

Japan firms lag in cybercrime fight

Japanese companies are less prepared to fend off Internet-based cybercrime than their counterparts in other major countries, according to a survey released Monday by IBM Japan Ltd.
BUSINESS
Jun 6, 2006

Firms log 15.5 trillion yen profits

Combined pretax profits by companies totaled a record 15.51 trillion yen in the January-March quarter, up 4.1 percent from the same period last year, according to a Finance Ministry survey released Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2006

Dousing flames in East Timor

SYDNEY -- The need for closer links between Tokyo and Canberra has never been clearer than in recent days: Bloody fighting in East Timor, humanitarian rescue near the Java volcano site, economic basket cases in the South Pacific . . . The case for regional cooperation grows more urgent daily.
COMMENTARY
Jun 5, 2006

Japan's college gap growing

In the two years since Japanese national universities were reorganized into independent administrative corporations, government grants for their operating expenses (personnel and equipment costs) have been slashed by 1 percent each year.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2006

France's weak incentive to earn income

LONDON -- France's chronic malaise is marked by periodic explosions of protest. The two most recent episodes -- the rioting and arson in French cities last autumn and the successful student campaign earlier this year against a new law governing young labor-market entrants -- seem to have little in common....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jun 4, 2006

Time to kill -- but not mosquitoes

I am only an hour's drive from my destination -- the lodge of Safari Hoek, where, as promised in the last column, I plan to write up an "ethical" hunting safari outfit -- when I inadvertently bag my first trophy.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 4, 2006

Involuntary students of death

KAMIKAZE DIARIES: Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers, by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney. Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 2006, 206 pp., 13 b/w plates, $25 (cloth). War flourishes through caricature and some of these wartime creations live on long after their political usefulness is over. One...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 3, 2006

Theodore Skillman and Paul Guilfoile

In May 2004, 26 people representing six international schools in the Kanto area met and formed the first International Alumni Council, Japan.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jun 2, 2006

Marines get better of Swallows

CHIBA -- Whatever the secret is, the Chiba Lotte Marines have interleague play figured out.
MORE SPORTS
Jun 2, 2006

Italian Rossi stays with Yamaha

Defending world MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi will remain with Yamaha for the 2007 season, the Japanese manufacturer announced Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2006

Serb tragedy needs epilogue

PRAGUE -- Serbia's long tragedy looks like it is coming to an end. The death of Slobodan Milosevic has just been followed by Montenegro's referendum on independence. Independence for Kosovo, too, is inching closer.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 2, 2006

Former Archer's crooked path

"I'm going be a strange hybrid of Mick Jagger and Johnny Cash, with a touch of Steve Forbert [singer-songwriter best known for his 1980 hit "Romeo's Tune"] and some animated bear whose name I can't remember. Oh yeah, and some hip-hop too -- the kids love that sh*t," jokes Eric Bachmann when asked what...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 2, 2006

Hit fairy tale musical returns

Voted Best Musical of 2004 by the vernacular magazine Musical, "Into the Woods" returns to the New National Theatre with even greater verve than before, boosted by an increased confidence and greater experience second time around.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 2, 2006

Turkish Kitchen Izmir: Meze and much more

Of Turkey's three largest cities, Istanbul certainly needs no introduction, and neither does Ankara, the capital and seat of government, in the heart of Anatolia. The bustling Aegean port of Izmir, however, remains more of an unknown quantity, except to those fortunate enough to have explored that beautiful...
EDITORIALS
Jun 1, 2006

From recovery to resilience

A devastating earthquake hit Indonesia over the weekend, even as the country is still struggling to recover from the magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami off Sumatra Island that killed about 168,000 people in the country in December 2004.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 1, 2006

"Naoki Honjo -- The Metropolis in Miniature"

Aoyama Book Center Gallery Closes in 12 days
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 1, 2006

"Vu Dan Tan -- Tanorigami: Suitcases of a Pilgrim"

Art-U Room Closes in 11 days
JAPAN
May 31, 2006

Environment white paper places focus on Minamata

The 2006 white paper on the environment features Minamata disease in its opening article as the year marked the 50th anniversary of the official recognition of the mercury-poisoning malady, and it blames the government for its failure to act.
JAPAN
May 31, 2006

Cabinet OKs U.S. realignment plan but is vague on specifics

The Cabinet adopted plans Tuesday to help pay for the U.S. military realignment in Japan, pledging to come up with steps to stimulate the economies of communities hosting bases and to take money out of the defense budget to finance the program.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2006

Industrial output hits record high

Industrial production rose a seasonally adjusted 1.5 percent in April to set a record high, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 31, 2006

Philosopher reignites debate over contraception

When it was reported last month that Hollywood actor Tom Cruise intended to eat his wife's placenta raw, I thought it was one of the stranger stories going round at the time. Another, according to some newspapers, was that Cruise had bought his wife, actress Katie Holmes, an adult-sized pacifier to ensure...
BUSINESS
May 30, 2006

Revamped Narita terminal set to open

NARITA, Chiba Pref. -- About 1,000 guests and reporters toured the refurbished South Wing at Narita International Airport's Terminal 1 during a ceremony Monday held ahead of the grand reopening later in the week.
JAPAN
May 30, 2006

France awards Nakagawa for role in WTO farm talks

France has honored Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Shoichi Nakagawa for his proactive role in farm negotiations under the World Trade Organization, making him the first Japanese to receive the highest award of Commandeur in the agricultural sector.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2006

Seafood dealer obtains eco-label

A Tokyo-based seafood wholesaler has become the first business in Japan to be certified by a London-based conservation group as a supplier of seafood produced by sustainable fishing, officials of the group said Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2006

English-only laws: a pain with little gain

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- "It gives the idea that any other language is excluded," stated Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain in reaction to a recently passed amendment that would make English the "national language of the United States."

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell