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EDITORIALS
Dec 9, 2008

Budget in disarray

The government has adopted a basic policy for the fiscal 2009 budget compilation. It will maintain budget caps introduced in 2006 by the Koizumi administration, which include a 3-percent annual cut in public-works spending and a ¥220 billion reduction each year in the natural growth of social security...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 9, 2008

'Tokyo Two' fight to clear names

Six months ago Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki were ordinary men looking after young families. But in June they were arrested by a large group of uniformed police, taken to a detention center in Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan, and held for 26 days.
BUSINESS
Dec 9, 2008

Bank lending up 3.6% last month, fastest pace in 16 years

Lending by banks accelerated in November at its fastest pace in 16 years, the Bank of Japan said Monday, as the global credit squeeze shut off other funding avenues for firms in an economy that's slowing more sharply than expected.
EDITORIALS
Dec 8, 2008

Temps weather the storm

It is becoming increasingly clear that the economy is sinking deeper. Domestic sales of new vehicles in November plunged 27.3 percent from a year earlier. The U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research found that the U.S. recession had started in December 2007. As the U.S. and European economies are unlikely...
COMMENTARY
Dec 8, 2008

Mumbai and Kashmir: What goes around, comes around

We were all shocked, rightly, by the Islamist attacks in Mumbai. But how many or us were equally shocked by earlier reports about the discovery of unmarked graves in Kashmir?
Japan Times
BUSINESS / JAPAN-U.S. SYMPOSIUMS
Dec 8, 2008

Japan yet to grasp significance of an Obama White House

To assess how the next U.S. administration of Barack Obama would cope with the various challenges ahead, it is essential to have an accurate understanding of the significance of his election victory, Japanese experts told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Dec 8, 2008

Japan, Germany set to pounce on seismic shifts in auto industry

Last week, the heads of America's Big Three automakers were sitting again before a government panel, begging for money to save their companies. This time, the companies were asking for a total injection of some $34 billion — $9 billion more than just two weeks ago.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2008

Aso losing grip on power as LDP faces crisis over budget problems

Prime Minister Taro Aso signaled last week his readiness to depart from austere fiscal policies ardently defended by then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his successors.
Reader Mail
Dec 7, 2008

Arguments aren't good enough

I am afraid Paul de Vries has not done his homework; furthermore, he is comparing apples and oranges. For instance, you can't label women-only cars as a form of acceptable discrimination in an argument about whether xenophobic actions are justified.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 7, 2008

Slugger Woods hoping for one more chance in Japan

The Chunichi Sports is reporting former Chunichi Dragons first baseman Tyrone Woods wants to continue playing in Japan.
Reader Mail
Dec 7, 2008

'Civilian control' misinterpreted

Regarding the Nov. 28 article "SDF's rise in '90s behind Tamogami's challenge": I'd like to point out that "civilian control" has been wrongly interpreted — by the media, government bureaucrats, politicians and the like in Japan — ever since the end of World War II to curtail the freedom of speech...
Reader Mail
Dec 7, 2008

Accountability must be narrowed

Every mountain has more than one slippery slope. While Paul de Vries ("Back to the baths: Otaru revisited") is concerned with the worrying precedent of Debito Arudou's onsen lawsuit, de Vries sets an equally worrying precedent by implying that restrictions on "group accountability as a social conditioner"...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 7, 2008

Graduates' security goes to pot

Last week, a 25-year-old University of Tokyo graduate was arrested for allegedly posting death threats on his blog. The police say that the man, who has been unemployed since graduating from Japan's most prestigious university, had written that he would kill members of the education ministry for misleading...
EDITORIALS
Dec 6, 2008

Prepping a new climate deal

A two-week meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), or COP14, is now under way in Poznan, Poland, with some 10,000 delegates and environmentalists from some 190 countries attending. The participants are supposed to discuss international efforts...
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2008

Revised law removes barrier to nationality

The revised Nationality Law cleared the Diet Friday but only after lawmakers at the last minute managed to have a clause inserted to prevent what they claimed would be a surge in bogus paternal recognition cases.
JAPAN
Dec 6, 2008

'Educational' package tour of U.S. jury system falls flat

A travel package featuring an educational tour of the jury system in the United States has so far failed to attract enough applicants to actually take off, a Japan Airlines Corp. spokesman said Friday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 5, 2008

In Fukuoka, we're walking in a winter ramen land

Winter whistles through the streets, slips its icy fingers down your coat, and you search for something, just about anything, to ward off the damp chill of a Japanese winter. Suddenly, you know with all certainty the one true cure — ramen.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji