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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 12, 2006

Fathoming the depths and heights of Japan's intercultural encounters

JAPAN'S LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE WEST by Sukehiro Hirakawa. Folkstone: Global Oriental, 2005, 557 pp., £50 (cloth). Rudyard Kipling, one of the most popular writers in the English tongue of his generation, addressed his poem "The White Man's Burden" to the American people in 1899 -- when the...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2006

English abusers finally get their day in the sun

"Please be careful to forget valuables" has received the Sign Language Award at the Amazing English Hunt 2005 awards, the English-Speaking Union of Japan, a nonprofit organization to promote international exchanges through English, and eigoTwown.com, which runs a Web site offering English education information,...
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2006

Household consumption off 0.7%

Household consumption spending averaged 300,903 yen per month in Japan in 2005, down 0.7 percent from the previous year in real terms after adjustment for price changes, the government said in a preliminary report Friday.
BUSINESS
Feb 10, 2006

Taisho mulls purchase of OTC unit

Taisho Pharmaceutical Co. is in talks with Astellas Pharma Inc. to buy its over-the-counter drug unit Zepharma Inc., sources said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Feb 10, 2006

Livedoor units poised to jump ship

Like rats fleeing the sinking ship, Livedoor Co. subsidiaries moved closer to severing ties with their beleaguered parent Thursday, aggravating its bid to recover under new President Kozo Hiramatsu.
BASEBALL / MLB
Feb 9, 2006

Ozeki to sign minor league contract with Brewers

Former Seibu Lions outfielder Tatsuya Ozeki is set to sign a minor league contract with the Milwaukee Brewers shortly, baseball sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2006

Mizuho exec admits stealing data for mob

Tokyo police arrested a Mizuho Bank official Wednesday on suspicion of embezzlement for allegedly leaking customer information to a company linked to the mob.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2006

Pressure prizing open door for refugees

Last year, Japan's contribution to the United Nations refugee agency was second only to the United States.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2006

Suntory revives nostalgic blend for retiring baby boomers

For businesses from banks to high-end stereo makers, the expected mass retirement of the baby boomer generation beginning next year represents the birth of a huge consumer base with relatively deep pockets and a lot of free time.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2006

Centrair seeks to revive expo-style traffic

Nearly one year after opening, Central Japan International Airport outside Nagoya is struggling to attract more passengers.
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2006

JAL reports 23 billion yen group net loss

Japan Airlines Corp. reported Monday a group net loss of 23 billion yen for the first three quarters of fiscal 2005, slumping from a net profit of 79.2 billion yen it logged in the same period the previous year.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Feb 6, 2006

Source: Saito to sign with Dodgers

Japanese right-handed pitcher Takashi Saito is likely to sign a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers shortly, baseball sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2006

Health ministry to set specific nonsmoking goal

The health ministry has decided to set a numerical target to lower the ratio of smokers as part of a national health campaign, officials said Sunday.
COMMENTARY
Feb 6, 2006

Containing a growing divide

The growing economic gap in Japanese society under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's reform policy is emerging as a major national political issue. Critics in the opposition camp as well as the ruling coalition charge that deregulation and intensified competition have divided society into winners and...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 5, 2006

Painting a fascinating picture of the 'noble savage' debate

OMAI: The Prince Who Never Was, by Richard Connaughton, Timewell Press, 2005, 270 pp., £16.99 (cloth). It may not be true that, as the adage has it, every picture tells a story, but if pictures have any tales to tell, then Joshua Reynolds' portrait of Omai has a richer and stranger one than most.
EDITORIALS
Feb 4, 2006

End of an era at the Fed

Mr. Alan Greenspan ended his 18-year tenure as chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board this week, stepping down after the Fed raised interest rates to their highest level in nearly five years.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2006

Livedoor four face new charge

Prosecutors appear ready to serve fresh arrest warrants in mid-February on four now-former Livedoor Co. executives, including ex-President Takafumi Horie and former Chief Financial Officer Ryoji Miyauchi, on suspicion of falsifying the company's 2004 financial statements, investigative sources said Friday....
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2006

Diet passes 4.5 trillion yen extra '05 budget

The Diet passed a 4.52 trillion yen supplementary budget Friday for the current fiscal year through March and is preparing to take action on the budget for fiscal 2006, which is scheduled to begin in April.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2006

Livedoor tied to faked transactions

Former Livedoor Co. executives are now suspected of booking fictitious transactions and revenues in 2005 as well as those earlier reported for the year to September 2004, investigative sources said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2006

Matsushita profits up 39% despite heater fiasco

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Thursday robust sales of plasma display panel TVs and digital cameras boosted its earnings for the third quarter of fiscal 2005, raising its net profit by 39 percent to 49.3 billion yen.
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2006

New games bring more people to video consoles

There may be no monsters to slay or racing cars to spin, but new video games that claim to stimulate the brain or translate languages are being snapped up by a new crowd of gamers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 3, 2006

M.I.A. terrorizes the dancefloor

Maya Arulpragasam sighs into the phone. I've asked her if journalists have accurately depicted her life story, and she seems tired of the question.
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2006

Nissan issues all-new Moco in bid to tap minicar shift

Nissan Motor Co. launched a fully remodeled version of the Moco minivehicle Wednesday that is being supplied by Suzuki Motor Corp. on an original equipment manufacturing basis.
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2006

Sharp's third-quarter profit climbs to record 26 billion yen

Sharp Corp. said Wednesday its net profit jumped 26 percent to a quarterly record of 26.26 billion yen for the three months through December, driven by continued strength in its liquid crystal display TV sales.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami