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JAPAN
Aug 19, 2006

Lobbying firm strives to be bridge to Diet

and Daniel Lintz of Nagatacho Forum pose at a Tokyo hotel in July. PETER CROOKES PHOTO
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2006

Tax hike gets people to stub out for good

Miho Shimada has seen the difference 1 yen can make.
BUSINESS
Aug 12, 2006

Consumers loosen purse strings, splurge on glitzy electronic goods

Japanese home electronics and appliance manufacturers are churning out expensive, high-grade products to take advantage of the growing number of free-spending consumers.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2006

Paternity leave takers fewer

Only 0.5 percent of male private-sector company workers took paternity leave in fiscal 2004, down from 0.56 percent the year before, a health ministry survey said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
Aug 7, 2006

An opportunity to mend ties

Intensive debate is under way ahead of the governing Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election next month to choose the successor to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. At issue is how to assess the reform policies of Koizumi -- now the third-longest reigning prime minister in the postwar years...
BUSINESS
Aug 4, 2006

Tanigaki pitches 8% sales tax by '11

Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said Thursday the 5 percent consumption tax should be raised to 8 percent by fiscal 2011.
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2006

Osaka hospital stopped care for dying newborns

Yodogawa Christian Hospital in Osaka discontinued efforts to prolong the lives of eight babies between 1999 and 2005 with the consent of the parents when doctors determined the newborns would die within one to two hours.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2006

Augmenting breast cancer tests eyed

The health ministry has decided to examine how effective ultrasound is in screening for breast cancer, ministry officials said Saturday.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2006

State, civil servant must pay for forced tweezing

The Tokyo District Court ordered the state and a health ministry employee Wednesday to pay a combined 550,000 yen in damages to a woman who was forced to pluck the whiskers from a coworker's face.
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2006

Hospitals took in over 100 kids for neglect; figure on low side

More than 100 children were hospitalized because of neglect by parents and legal guardians in 2005, but that is likely just the tip of the iceberg, according to a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry study released Monday.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jul 24, 2006

Cutting corporate taxes best course for Japan

The government's 2006 basic policy on economic and fiscal management and structural reforms, approved by the Cabinet on July 7, established two national pillars of economic policy for the coming decade -- the pursuit of growth in a shrinking population, and the rebuilding of state finances to reinforce...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 22, 2006

Robert Erickson

Robert Erickson was born in New Jersey in 1943. The following year, his father was fighting in the Pacific War. "He came into Japan with Gen. Douglas MacArthur, and was stationed at the U.S. Army Air Force Base in Atsugi," Erickson said. "He used to send me small Japanese gifts, wrapped in rice paper,...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 9, 2006

A bumper-car experience in Toyota-land

NOTES FROM TOYOTA-LAND: An American Engineer in Japan, by Darius Mehri. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2006, $26 (cloth). Toyota is booming, but its PR department has had its hands full with a high-profile sexual harassment lawsuit in the United States -- and now this damning insider's revelations...
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2006

Risk of molecular substances weighed

The health ministry has started researching potential toxicity risks of molecular substances increasingly used in a broad range of products, from information technology devices to cosmetics, ministry officials said Saturday.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 25, 2006

Lives in their hands

Uniformed officials of East Japan Railway Co. are solemnly but methodically at work. Their train has just made an emergency stop after running over a middle-age man, who is either unconscious or dead. The driver radios the control office in central Tokyo, from where police and an ambulance are alerted....
BUSINESS
Jun 24, 2006

Tax hike consensus reached to achieve 2011 budget surplus

The government and the ruling parties agreed Friday to propose a tax hike to achieve a primary budget surplus -- which excludes new bond issues and debt-servicing costs -- by fiscal 2011, government and party officials said.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2006

Ah, no kids afoot: Empty trains, work till you die

There has been a great deal of hand-wringing in the media and government about Japan's population implosion. A breakdown in the pension system, soaring health-care costs, slower economic growth and a looming labor shortage are just a few of the dark clouds on the horizon.
BUSINESS
Jun 22, 2006

Ban on U.S. beef to end after meatpacker checks

Japan agreed Wednesday to lift its ban on U.S. beef imports after on-site inspections of U.S. meatpackers by Japanese experts starting early next week, Japanese officials said.
EDITORIALS
Jun 21, 2006

Medical reforms need work

The laws passed last week by the Diet to curb the growth in the nation's medical spending testify to the government's determination to solve the problem. While the laws include positive elements, they are not problem-free. The government needs to continuously review the nation's medical system. Rationalizing...
EDITORIALS
Jun 18, 2006

Magic bean talk

Well, here's news worth celebrating with a big glass of Irish coffee. The more coffee you drink, U.S. researchers announced last week, the less likely you are to suffer alcohol-related liver damage. In a world sloshing in bad news, the assertion had the effect of a morning-after double espresso on anxious...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 14, 2006

Where are these life-saving drugs in Japan?

Wataru Tsurumi's book, "The Complete Manual of Suicide," was a best seller in Japan and it's easy to see why. He was writing for a market that is particularly interested in self-destruction.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 11, 2006

Ready for global discussion on migrants

NEW YORK -- Ever since national frontiers were invented, people have been crossing them -- not just to visit foreign countries, but to live and work there. In doing so, they have almost always taken risks, driven by a determination to overcome adversity and to live a better life.
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2006

Gentler ecological lifestyle, products catching on in Japan

A U.S. lifestyle proposal that combines consumerism with a bit of ecological conscience is proving a hit in this shopping-crazy land, where workaholic salarymen are looking for quick fixes for stress and thinking green is becoming fashionable.
EDITORIALS
May 31, 2006

'Benevolent act' undermines pension

An illegal practice by the Social Insurance Agency came to light last week. Social insurance offices in Osaka, Nagasaki and 24 other prefectures have waived premium payments into the national pension (kokumin nenkin) program by more than 110,000 low-income people without their application.

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