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Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 28, 2006

Murakami's influence will linger

Yoshiaki Murakami's arrest was one of the biggest financial scandals of 2006, but the nation's best-known shareholder activist has played a pivotal role in persuading Japanese managers to be more attentive to shareholder interests, according to Marc Goldstein, head of Institutional Shareholder Services...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2006

Compelling antiwar images

Clint Eastwood has turned out a pair of outstanding movies based on stories about Iwo Jima, the scene of an internecine battle between U.S. and Japanese forces during the Pacific War.
EDITORIALS
Dec 17, 2006

Political theater in town

In June 2001, the first government-sponsored town meeting under the initiative of then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was held to promote direct dialogue between the people and Cabinet ministers. So far, there have been 174 such meetings. But a report by a Cabinet Office investigation panel shows that...
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2006

Where does the abduction issue fit in?

in March 1995. "Honestly speaking, if all the issues are settled, Japan's burden of economic aid would be greater than any other country" in the talks, a senior Foreign Ministry official predicted.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2006

Where does the abduction issue fit in?

in March 1995. "Honestly speaking, if all the issues are settled, Japan's burden of economic aid would be greater than any other country" in the talks, a senior Foreign Ministry official predicted.
COMMENTARY
Dec 14, 2006

Japan-India partnership key to bolstering stability in Asia

NEW DELHI -- Japan and India are natural allies because they have no conflict of strategic interests and actually share common goals to build stability, power equilibrium and institutionalized multilateral cooperation in Asia. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Tokyo this week offers an...
JAPAN
Dec 14, 2006

Government jiggered town meetings to push policies

The government padded expenses and had "plants," some of them paid, offer comments and opinions in the state's favor at so-called town meetings over the past five years, an investigating committee said in a final report released Wednesday.
JAPAN
Dec 14, 2006

Government jiggered town meetings to push policies

The government padded expenses and had "plants," some of them paid, offer comments and opinions in the state's favor at so-called town meetings over the past five years, an investigating committee said in a final report released Wednesday.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 9, 2006

Premier League benefiting from foreign ownership of teams

LONDON -- By early 2007 a third of the 20 Premiership clubs will come under foreign ownership.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2006

Kyuma admits Tokyo backed Iraq attack

attends an extraordinary Cabinet meeting Friday with Prime Minister Shinzo Ane and health minister Hakuo Yanagisawa. KYODO PHOTO
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 9, 2006

Calling on the right brain for creative strategy

With his head shaved and outfitted in designer glasses and crocodile-style winklepicker shoes, Gordon Watson does not look like the stereotypical president of any type of company, let alone one selling life insurance.
EDITORIALS
Dec 9, 2006

A change of direction in Iraq?

The long-awaited report of the Iraq Study Group was released Wednesday and it paints a grim picture of that war-torn country. The candor is refreshing; no policy can succeed if it is not based on reality. Not surprisingly, the conclusions constitute a fundamental revision of U.S. policy. But signals...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 7, 2006

Golden oldies step out into the limelight

Sixty-three-year-old Masatake Takei careened around the stage without his trousers, trying to beat off the angry mob of obasan (old ladies) who had just stripped him to his underpants. The audience obviously loved the spectacle, roaring with delight. But what was the president of a Tokyo architectural...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 2006

Russian elite still see U.S. as bogeyman

WASHINGTON -- An old saying in politics in Moscow is that relations between the United States and Russia are always better when a Republican rules in the White House. We are statesmen, and the Republicans are statesmen. Because we both believe in power, it is easy for the two of us to understand each...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 2, 2006

Zidane's spot in last three a joke, no matter who says otherwise

LONDON -- Managers and players know football best because they are involved in it.
COMMENTARY
Nov 30, 2006

The sleeping dog has woken in Canada

LONDON -- "Michael Ignatieff strode back into Canada bearing gilt-edged promises that he had kept a close watch on our political evolution during his decades on foreign soil and that he would be appropriately sensitive to our sociopolitical nuances. He then, by stating a position on Quebec as a nation,...
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2006

11 postal reform foes get nod to rejoin LDP and justify flip-flop

The 11 postal reform rebels Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is welcoming back into the ruling Liberal Democratic Party spoke Tuesday about why they voted against the legislation and then reversed themselves.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2006

Postal rebels vow to follow party line for LDP return

Eleven of a group of 12 lawmakers kicked out of the Liberal Democratic Party last year for opposing postal privatization submitted a petition and special covenant Monday and are likely to be readmitted to the ruling party.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 26, 2006

Time to sink or swim for TV fish pundit Sakana

In September, the TV personality known as Sakana-kun was appointed to the position of guest assistant professor by the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology.
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2006

National security debate mushrooming since Oct. 9

security debate has been lacking. (We) have just come to think about how we should cope with various developments in the real world, as people in other countries do," Nukaga said. The long taboo of discussing going nuclear was most recently broached by Shoichi Nakagawa, LDP policy chief. Nakagawa said...
EDITORIALS
Nov 24, 2006

Cyber-crime bucks the trend

Excluding criminal violations involving traffic accidents, about 2.27 million crimes came to the attention of police in 2005, according to the 2006 white paper on crime. The figure was 11.4 percent lower than the year before and around 20 percent (580,000 incidents) lower than the peak year 2002. The...
COMMENTARY
Nov 20, 2006

Ideological laundry unfurled

Japan's neo-nationalistic rightwing is its own worst enemy. It sees itself as the defender of Japan's global reputation. But by its own actions it besmirches that reputation.
COMMENTARY
Nov 20, 2006

Know the goals of military intervention

In a Washington Post article reprinted in these pages on Oct. 10, "The humanitarian war myth," Eric Posner writes: "If the United Nations were to have its way, the Iraqi debacle would be just the first in a series of such wars -- the effect of a well-meaning but ill-considered effort to make humanitarian...

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?