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Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2015

Japan pushes clean-coal technology; hurdles abound

For all the talk of a solar boom in Japan, coal still has a future, and potentially a big one at that. Japan's government and industry are backing emerging coal technologies they say are less damaging to the environment. While they are pushing the most polluting fossil fuel at home and abroad, the government...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 11, 2015

Japan's lost decade has lesson for those dreading China slowdown

When Japan's economy downshifted dramatically in the 1990s, the rest of the world managed to do just fine. Now, as China suffers a sustained slowdown, there's a group of economists who say the same may well happen again.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 10, 2015

SeaWorld will phase out San Diego orca show

SeaWorld said on Monday it plans to replace its signature "Shamu" killer whale shows in San Diego with displays focused on "conservation," after grappling with sagging attendance and years of criticism over treatment of the captive marine mammals.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 10, 2015

California drought not over but downpours raise hopes, open slopes early for skiing

Snow and rain brought an autumn respite in Northern California from the state's devastating drought on Monday, with up to 12 inches (30 cm) of snow forecast for the Sierra Nevada mountains, raising hopes for a strong ski season and a replenished snowpack.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 9, 2015

Japan's regular wages increase for a seventh straight month

Regular wages in Japan rose for a seventh consecutive month as the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe presses businesses to boost salaries.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 7, 2015

A guide to disaster survival and good design

'The medium is the message" — with that famous 1964 phrase, communication theorist Marshall McLuhan emphasized that societies are influenced just as much by a medium as the content it carries. Three years later, McLuhan and graphic designer Quentin Fiore teamed up to create the book "The Medium is...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 5, 2015

Takata braces for exodus of air bag customers after losing Honda

Takata Corp. is bracing for further defections after Honda Motor Co., its top customer, began turning its back on the distressed Japanese air bag maker.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 5, 2015

Japan Post's epochal IPO

Japan Post's $12 billion listing is a symbol of the bold change that needs to be embraced to rejuvenate Asia's second largest economy.
BUSINESS
Nov 5, 2015

SoftBank's Son defends cellphone costs, but is open to cutting prices

Responding to government pressure to lower cellphone fees, SoftBank Group Corp. Chairman Masayoshi Son said Wednesday the carrier provides good value for money, but that it is open to providing more options.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 4, 2015

Japan Tobacco cuts 2015 operating profit forecast by 17%

Japan Tobacco Inc., which is paying $5 billion for rights to sell Natural American Spirit cigarettes outside the U.S., lowered its annual operating profit target by 17 percent.
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 4, 2015

Citizens group sues California agency over nuclear waste burial

A civilian watchdog group sued a California coastal agency on Tuesday, seeking to overturn its decision to allow 1,800 tons of radioactive waste from a closed nuclear power plant to be buried in containers not far from a beach.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 4, 2015

Trudeau set to take office in Canada, make half of his Cabinet female

Justin Trudeau promised in June that half of his Cabinet would be female if he was elected Canada's prime minister. On Wednesday, he was set to get the job and make good on the vow — bruising the egos of some experienced men who won't make it to the top tier of government.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 3, 2015

China admits over 40 percent of its online sales counterfeit, shoddy

More than 40 percent of goods sold online in China last year were either counterfeits or of bad quality, the official Xinhua News Agency said, illustrating the extent of a problem that has bogged down the fast-growing online sector.
WORLD
Nov 3, 2015

NTSB confirms wreck found intact 3 miles down off Bahamas is U.S. freighter El Faro

U.S. authorities confirmed on Monday that a large vessel found on the deep ocean floor off the Bahamas is the lost cargo ship El Faro, which sank with 33 mostly American crew in a hurricane last month.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 2, 2015

With massive IPO of Japan Post, the nation seeks to shake decades of torpor

As Japan prepares this week for the biggest initial public offering in the world since Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in September 2014, the government hopes that the ¥1.5 trillion privatization of the postal service will help revive the country from its 20-year slump.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 2, 2015

Kuroda sows doubts on further easing among some BOJ watchers

After twice this year putting off his inflation target yet declining to step up monetary stimulus, Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda has discouraged some analysts from thinking he'll ever boost policy again.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Nov 2, 2015

University-affiliated startup revolutionizes the electron beam

A Nagoya University-affiliated venture firm has created a next-generation electron beam device, signaling a landmark shift in the way electron microscopes and 3-D printers operate.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 1, 2015

TPP giving sheltered farmers greater incentive to export pricey produce

Japan's high-cost farmers, sheltered by prohibitive import tariffs, might appear to be most at risk from the giant trans-Pacific trade deal agreed upon last month, but they are instead making an unlikely push to export more of their pricey produce.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 31, 2015

How analysts calculate China's true — and huge — burden of bad loans

Corporate investigator Violet Ho never put a lot of faith in the numbers on bad loans that are reported by China's banks.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 30, 2015

China's graying migrants have stash of money ready to spend

Migrant worker Guo Huailiang is planning to live it up a bit in his retirement.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 29, 2015

Japan's top steel mills slash profit forecasts on China glut

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. and JFE Holdings Inc. cut their profit forecasts for the year as the nation's top two producers respond to a global supply glut spurred by unprecedented Chinese exports.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 29, 2015

You probably have herpes, WHO says in global prevalence estimate

Two-thirds of the world's population under 50 have the highly infectious herpes virus that causes cold sores around the mouth, the World Health Organization said Wednesday in its first estimate of the global prevalence of the disease.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 29, 2015

Trailing, Trump gets testy as candidates wade into GOP debate

Republican outsider front-runners Ben Carson and Donald Trump came under fire at the outset of the party's third presidential debate Wednesday night, as the moderators and some of their opponents pushed for details of their tax and budget proposals and raised questions about their inexperience in government....

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