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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 25, 2006

Who needs a trial when the media has hanged, drawn and quartered the accused?

Cynicism comes naturally to members of the tabloid press, who report sensational news in a sensational way and rarely think about what exactly it is they're doing. All they care about is the gory details. However, their coverage of the murder of a 7-year-old boy last month in Akita Prefecture and the...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 18, 2006

NHK's public service is to take your money and run . . . bad TV

Fans of baseball star Ichiro Suzuki had reason to be mad at NHK two weeks ago. The Seattle Mariners outfielder was on the verge of his 2,500th career hit, one of the game's rare milestones, which was predicted to happen some time between June 6 and 9. However, the public broadcaster, whose BS-1 satellite...
EDITORIALS
Jun 11, 2006

Whither the newspaper?

What does the future hold for newspapers? It all depends on what you think a newspaper is and where on the planet you are standing. If you are a literal-minded type who considers the concept inseparable from actual newsprint and your view is restricted to, say, North America or Japan or Australia or...
BUSINESS
Jun 6, 2006

Murakami fund to sell Hanshin stake to Hankyu

The investment fund led by Yoshiaki Murakami announced Monday that it is selling its shares in Hanshin Electric Railway Co., paving the way for Hankyu Holdings Inc.'s takeover bid for Hanshin.
JAPAN
May 31, 2006

Magazine appeals ruling on sources

The president of Themis magazine on Tuesday appealed a Tokyo District Court ruling that the source for a 2002 article on tax evasion by the Japanese subsidiary of a U.S. health food company must be revealed if it was a tax official.
LIFE / Language
May 23, 2006

Opening up to difference: The dialect dialectic

Many people in Japan lead a double life -- linguistically speaking, that is. In their community, they speak the hogen (dialect) of their city, town or village, while outside it they may be accustomed to use hyojungo (standard Japanese). Their native language, in the true sense of that word, is their...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 21, 2006

Will Japan's 'positive influence' persist as it didn't before?

Well, the news is out, and it's good news.
JAPAN
May 20, 2006

Tokyo: North moving long-range missile to pad but launch not in offing

Foreign Minister Taro Aso confirmed Friday the government has information indicating Pyongyang has moved a long-range ballistic missile closer to a launchpad at a military base in northeastern North Korea, in apparent preparation for launch.
COMMENTARY
May 19, 2006

Pride in a Yankee apology

LOS ANGELES -- In the sports-happy, internationally oblivious country of the United States, probably more people know who Hideki Matsui is than who Junichiro Koizumi is.
COMMENTARY
May 16, 2006

Pioneers turned paper into must-reads

LOS ANGELES -- It was a remarkably sad coincidence that within the span of a few days, two of the world's more influential newspaper figures died.
BUSINESS
May 9, 2006

Aiful halts lending as FSA punishment

Consumer lender Aiful Corp. suspended some operations at all of its nearly 1,900 outlets nationwide Monday in line with punishment meted out by the Financial Services Agency for illegal loan-collection tactics.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 7, 2006

So what did Yokota's trip to the United States really achieve?

National interest is in the eye of the beholder. For example, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi traveled to Ethiopia and Ghana last week to offer aid, but also to reinvigorate the African Union's support for reform of the U.N. Security Council, of which Japan still hopes to become a permanent member....
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2006

JCG best steer clear of Dokdo, Seoul warns

sovereignty over Dokdo," Yonhap News Agency reported. South Korea's coast guard said it has deployed more than 18 ships, including patrol vessels, near the isles to block the Japanese ships from entering South Korea's EEZ.
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2006

NHK hit by fresh embezzlement case

NHK was bombarded by about 600 complaints Wednesday as a new embezzlement case broke at a time when the government is talking about forcing viewers to pay the public broadcaster's subscription fees.
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2006

Ozawa poised to bedevil the LDP

The election of political veteran Ichiro Ozawa as the new leader of the Democratic Party of Japan poses a threat to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, regardless of who the next prime minister will be, according to political observers.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 9, 2006

Bringing the lady-makes-tea debate to the boil

In the early 1990s I interviewed a representative of the vending machine industry who told me that one of the most revolutionary developments in his business was the installation of coffee and tea dispensers in new office buildings. "Think of it," he said excitedly, "women office workers will no longer...
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2006

DPJ elects Ozawa as new president

The Democratic Party of Japan elected veteran lawmaker Ichiro Ozawa, 63, as its new president Friday, ending his head-to-head race with rival and two-time President Naoto Kan.
COMMENTARY
Apr 4, 2006

Hope dims for plebiscite bill

Now that the budget bills for fiscal 2006 have cleared both houses of the National Diet, one of the focal issues for the remainder of the current session will be how to reconcile conflicting views between the ruling and opposition parties over legislation on plebiscites, a process indispensable for amending...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 2, 2006

Tireless emcee comes up with "Mino Monta no Sashinomi" on Nihon TV and more

Apparently, being listed in the Guinness Book of Records isn't enough for tireless emcee Monta Mino. On Monday, at midnight, he launches yet another series with himself as host. That adds up to a whopping 10 programs a week for the 61-year-old presenter, who claims to only need three hours of sleep a...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 2, 2006

Buying U.S. out of Okinawa started a habit that is hard to kick

The bombshell that former Foreign Ministry official Bunroku Yoshino dropped last month hasn't had the explosive effect one might expect. Yoshino was in charge of the ministry's American Bureau at the time the United States handed Okinawa back to Japan in 1972, and in an exclusive interview in the Feb....
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2006

Foreign Ministry kept contracted studies secret

The Foreign Ministry has refrained from disclosing 58 percent of the research projects it commissioned from affiliated organizations or outside experts since 2002 due to confidentiality reasons, an internal ministry document showed Saturday.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2006

Unit 731 exhibit to grow into peace, protest park

BEIJING (Kyodo) A germ warfare exhibition in Harbin in northern China that showcases deadly medical experiments carried out by Japanese forces on live prisoners during the war will expand its area by three times and reopen as a peace park, the curator said Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2006

Futenma relocation plan may change, coalition execs hint

Executives of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and coalition partner New Komeito indicated Sunday that a minor change could be made to the Japanese-U.S. plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station within Okinawa Prefecture.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Mar 14, 2006

Minori Kitahara

Minori Kitahara, 35, is the owner of Love Piece Club, Japan's first sex-toy shop owned by a woman and catering exclusively to women. She believes that women deserve their sexual fun and games and she has just the right toys for them.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 12, 2006

Money laundering and global debt

CAPITALISM'S ACHILLES HEEL: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market System, by Raymond W. Baker. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley and Sons, 2005, 438 pp., $27.95 (cloth). Reviewed by JEFF KINGSTON The scandalous tolerance of massive money laundering by global financial institutions contributes to poverty...
BUSINESS
Mar 10, 2006

BOJ lifts ultraloose policy

The Bank of Japan on Thursday ended its five-year-old ultraloose monetary policy, brushing aside concerns in the Cabinet and the ruling coalition that the nation has not yet overcome years of deflation.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb