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JAPAN
Feb 19, 2006

Lawyers eye joint help for Livedoor shareholders

Lawyers are preparing to form a group to assist individual investors who suffered huge losses stemming from allegations Livedoor Co. violated the securities law, sources said Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 19, 2006

Thank you, Jeeves, that will be all

I cons come, and icons go. And in today's sped-up, high-tech world, some come and go pretty fast. Last month we were told that Sony plans to euthanize its groundbreaking robotic dog Aibo, who at not quite 7 years old is still a pup in shelf-life terms.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2006

Supplements for pets selling despite doubts

Sales of supplements for dogs, cats and other pets are on the rise, but veterinarians are starting to take a closer look at some of the products.
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2006

Corporate character goods harness power of 'cute'

A traditional seasoning flies off store shelves after the bottles begin sporting a cartoon panda. A droplet-shaped character turns a little-known manufacturer into a household name.
EDITORIALS
Feb 16, 2006

Help for loan victims

The Supreme Court has made a ruling helpful to those who have borrowed money from consumer and "shoko" (industry and commerce) loan firms -- which lend operating funds to small companies -- as well as from illegal loan sharks. The ruling will affect the practice of having borrowers pay interest rates...
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2006

Four directors at JAL seek Shinmachi's ouster

Four members of the Japan Airlines Corp. board want JAL President Toshiyuki Shinmachi and two other top executives out, JAL said Wednesday, amid a revolt highlighting tensions within the nation's top air carrier.
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2006

NEC launches e-mail service to alert schools about prowlers

NEC Corp. has started a new e-mail service to help city and prefectural boards of education alert elementary and junior high schools and students' parents about suspected prowlers near schools.
BUSINESS
Feb 15, 2006

Matsushita, Sony unveil new cameras

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Sony Corp. unveiled new digital cameras Tuesday that will go on sale next month in a bid to get out in front of the pack amid intensifying competition.
JAPAN
Feb 15, 2006

Mitutoyo unaware exports illegal?

High-tech precision instrument maker Mitutoyo Corp. issued a qualified denial Tuesday of knowingly engaging in the illegal export of machinery that could be converted for use in nuclear weapons production.
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2006

Livedoor chief says firm could be sold

Backpedaling from his previous position, Livedoor Co. President Kozo Hiramatsu said Monday the firm is preparing for any eventuality, including possibly selling itself to a willing buyer.
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.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2006

Kobe Steel to up welding material

Kobe Steel Ltd. will double its annual production of welding material to 600,000 tons by around 2010 from the current 300,000 tons in a bid to meet growing demand from shipbuilders and car manufacturers in East Asia, a company spokesman said Tuesday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 5, 2006

When building bridges becomes a fruitless endeavor

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi prides himself on his plain-spoken approach to politics. His popularity guarantees that people listen to everything he says, and because what he says tends to be simple it has the power of a pronouncement, regardless of whether or not it makes any sense.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2006

New auto jobs, not quotas

WASHINGTON -- U.S. automakers are in dire straits. While non-U.S. brands are gaining market share, both GM and Ford have announced major plant closings and substantial layoffs. For some, these announcements have raised the specter of a return to the policies of the 1980s, when the United States imposed...
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.
OLYMPICS
Jan 31, 2006

Blogs by Olympics participants to be banned

The Japanese Olympic Committee is telling athletes competing at the Turin Winter Olympic Games not to open web logs because the Olympic Charter bans athletes' journalist activities when the games are on, and violators will be disqualified.
EDITORIALS
Jan 31, 2006

The future of local post offices

Japan Post has announced a "master plan to reform postal offices" as the process of privatizing the mammoth state-run entity of 260,000 employees is set to begin in October 2007. The focus of the plan is the reform of the specially designated tokutei post offices, which account for three-fourths of the...
COMMENTARY
Jan 30, 2006

A way past Kyoto's 'hot air'

In a Jan. 7 symposium at Dalian University of Technology, I delivered a keynote speech on the possibility of Japan's implementing the clean development mechanism in China.
BUSINESS
Jan 28, 2006

Fewer women atop ladder in '05

The number of female corporate leaders in Japan fell for the first time in 25 years in 2005 to 67,299, down 604 from the previous year, according to a survey by a private credit research company.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2006

'Spyware' developer arrested over online theft

Police said Thursday they have arrested the developer of a "spyware" program that was used in the theft of 216,000 yen from a Japan Net Bank account last year.
BUSINESS
Jan 26, 2006

Horie resigns from Livedoor board

Livedoor Co. founder Takafumi Horie, who stepped down as the Internet firm's president Tuesday, resigned from the boards of all Livedoor group firms Wednesday, the company said.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2006

Horie involved in buyouts, execs now say

Livedoor Co. executives, including Ryoji Miyauchi, the Internet company's No. 2 man, have reversed themselves and are now telling prosecutors that President Takafumi Horie was involved in corporate takeovers currently under scrutiny, investigative sources said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2006

Pyongyang may hold secret info on missiles

Confidential data on a Defense Agency surface-to-air missile system may have been leaked to a group affiliated with the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryun) in 1995, the Defense Agency said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2006

Miyauchi 'financial brain' behind firm's M&A blitz

Livedoor Co. Chief Financial Officer Ryoji Miyauchi, who prosecutors arrested Monday, was central to the company's rapid expansion since joining its predecessor, Livin' on the Edge, as a director in July 1999.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2006

Japan to lodge protest over shoddy U.S. beef inspection

Top government officials said Saturday they would lodge protests with the United States after it was found that lack of knowledge on the part of an inspector allowed a banned material that poses a risk of mad cow disease to be included in a shipment of beef to Japan.
BUSINESS
Jan 20, 2006

Rakuten pushes ahead with bold move into finance

Rakuten Inc., one of the country's fastest growing Internet startups, said Thursday it has formed business alliances with three entities, as it works to expand its Internet shopping mall business into comprehensive financial services.
BUSINESS
Jan 18, 2006

Ex-NEC exec to lead chip venture

A computer chip production company to be set up jointly by Hitachi Ltd., Toshiba Corp. and Renesas Technology Corp. will be headed by Hirokazu Hashimoto, a former vice president at NEC Electronics Corp., sources said Monday.

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Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person