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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 31, 2004

I. Marek Kaminski

Many of the sequences in the life of I. Marek Kaminski have been beset by complications. Some were political, and not of his own making. Some were personal, and equally not of his making. His was the task of dealing with them instead of being defeated by them. He takes a broad view. "As a refugee, I...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 31, 2004

Cabinet OKs 48.2 trillion yen outlay cap

The Cabinet on Friday approved a 48.2 trillion yen ceiling for core policy-related outlays in the fiscal 2005 budget, kicking off the annual scramble by government ministries and agencies for public funding.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2004

Teachers develop trilingual textbook

OSAKA -- English teachers from Japan and South Korea who are trying to deepen international exchanges in Asia through language education have together developed a unique textbook.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2004

Matsushita sees 12-fold rise in profit

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Thursday its net profit for the April-June quarter soared 12-fold to 32.82 billion yen on strong sales of plasma display-panel TVs and cost-cutting efforts.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2004

Pension delinquency down -- nominally

The delinquency rate for national pension premium payments fell to 36.6 percent in fiscal 2003 from a record 37.2 percent the previous year, with the number of people required to pay having declined, the Social Insurance Agency said Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 28, 2004

Something for your head

Animators have always had a thing for Surrealism, going back to Disney's "Silly Symphonies" in 1934 and beyond. (Disney, in fact, collaborated with the most notorious Surrealist of all, Salvador Dali, on 1946's fabled "Destino" project.) Japanese animators, however, are the arch Surrealists of the movie...
EDITORIALS
Jul 28, 2004

Making the farm sector competitive

The government's economic and fiscal report for 2004, which was released last week, has a subtitle that sounds only too familiar: "No growth without reform." Yet the report deserves attention for two reasons. First, it focuses on the regional economy, a subject that has been more or less overlooked in...
BUSINESS
Jul 28, 2004

Local government tax subsidies fall for fourth year

Ordinary tax subsidies allocated to local governments for fiscal 2004 dropped 6.5 percent from the previous year to 15.87 trillion yen, down for the fourth year in a row, according to a report submitted Tuesday to the Cabinet.
BUSINESS
Jul 28, 2004

2005 budget outline promises 'effectively' lower outlays

The government's key policy-setting panel released a general outline Tuesday for the nation's core fiscal 2005 budget that aims at keeping general outlays "effectively" below levels seen this year.
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2004

Store sales fell in first half of year

Sales at supermarkets and department stores in the first six months of 2004 fell from the same period last year on a same-store basis, according to industry data released Monday.
EDITORIALS
Jul 27, 2004

Worrisome muscle flexing

Relations across the Taiwan Strait continue to deteriorate. The re-election of Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian has alarmed the mainland government, which is convinced Mr. Chen seeks Taiwan's independence. China has been sending signals that it is prepared to take military action if Taipei takes that...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jul 26, 2004

Separate but equal acts of reconciliation

NEW YORK -- In "My Life" (Knopf, 2004), former U.S. President Bill Clinton writes: "Elizabeth Eckford, who at 15 was deeply seared emotionally by vicious harassment as she walked alone through an angry mob, was reconciled with Hazel Massery, one of the girls who had taunted her 40 years earlier."
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jul 26, 2004

Despite its luck, Japan must not shirk reform

In the July 11 House of Councilors election, the main opposition force -- the Democratic Party of Japan -- made big gains while the leader of the ruling coalition -- the Liberal Democratic Party -- fell short of its modest target of a one-seat gain. Nevertheless, the LDP-led coalition government still...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 25, 2004

DPRK diplomacy or brinkmanship?

TARGET NORTH KOREA: Pushing North Korea to the Brink of Nuclear Catastrophe, by Gavan McCormack. New York: Nation Books, 228 pp., 2004, $13.95 (paper). Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's gamble on a trip to Pyongyang seems to have paid off, giving him a boost in the polls, reuniting some of...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 25, 2004

Way to go keigo: a loaded language of politeness

KEIGO IN MODERN JAPAN: Polite Language From Meiji to the Present, by Patricia J. Wetzel. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 206 pp. with illustrations, 2004, $45 (cloth). Keigo is often thought of as a separate kind of Japanese (often called "polite speech," "honorifics," or the like) that is used...
BUSINESS
Jul 24, 2004

McDonald's ups first-half estimates

McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan) Ltd. on Friday revised its group net and pretax profit estimates upward for the first six months of the 2004 business year to 1.12 billion yen and 2.61 billion yen, respectively.
BUSINESS
Jul 23, 2004

Exports, imports hit record highs in first half

Japan's exports and imports hit record highs in the first half of 2004, underscoring solid growth in the Japanese and world economies, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 21, 2004

It's a wonderful (and weird) life

Cha no Aji Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Katsuhito Ishii Running time: 143 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Brimming with whacky invention and seemingly inspired by the stranger manga, Katsuhito Ishii's "Samahada Otoko to Momojiri...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 21, 2004

Too deep for tears

Greece has been buzzing with excitement following the Euro 2004 victory and before the countdown to this summer's Olympics. When I arrived in Athens on July 1, it looked like the whole city was being given a long overdue clean-up. After strolling around the Acropolis gardens where people were chatting...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2004

Public fund-injection law to spur regional bank mergers

A newly enacted law allowing the government to inject public funds into regional financial institutions will probably encourage such bodies to merge, according to the commissioner of the Financial Services Agency.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 18, 2004

The literary perfect crime

SAYONARA, GANGSTERS, by Genichiro Takahashi, translated by Michael Emmerich. New York: Vertical, Inc., 2004, 311 pp., $19.95 (cloth). A poet is talking to a refrigerator. The refrigerator with whom he is conversing is Virgil -- yes, that Virgil, author of "The Aeneid" and later Dante's guide through...
BUSINESS
Jul 17, 2004

Report says Japan must be more open to outside world

Japan needs to carry out further structural reforms to take greater advantage of economic globalization, according to the government's annual white paper on the economy.
BUSINESS
Jul 16, 2004

MTFG exec sees mutual benefits from UFJ merger

The chairman of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi said Thursday he sees a planned merger between Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. and UFJ Holdings Inc. as being mutually beneficial.
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2004

Corporate bankruptcies down 19.3% in first half

The number of corporate bankruptcies during the January-June period of 2004 dropped 19.3 percent from a year earlier to 7,253, underlining a continued declining trend in the number of failures, a private-sector credit research agency said Wednesday.
CULTURE / Film
Jul 14, 2004

A 'Steamboy' timeline

1995 After enjoying international success with his debut feature "Akira" (1988), Katsuhiro Otomo comes up with the idea for his second feature, "Steamboy," from an animated short, "Cannon Fodder." One of three segments in his 1995 animation omnibus "Memories," "Cannon Fodder" tells an Orwellian tale,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2004

Ultraeasy monetary policy to stay despite steady growth

The nation's recent steady economic growth will not immediately lead to a tighter monetary grip by the Bank of Japan due to the inherent time lag between a recovery and a turnaround in deflation, BOJ Gov. Toshihiko Fukui said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2004

New PlayStation due this fiscal year

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. said Monday it will launch the next-generation PlayStation video game console by the end of the current fiscal year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 11, 2004

Yasuaki Shimizu

While most ambient music evokes a place or an ambience figuratively, (Brian Eno's "Music for Airports" was, after all, not composed for a departure lounge), Yasuaki Shimizu's latest musical challenge was to create music that worked on both a literal and metaphoric level. His current release, "Seventh...

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past