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BUSINESS
May 29, 2009

Retail sales dropped 2.9% in April

Retail sales across the nation fell in April for the eighth straight month as worsening job prospects and declining wages deterred shoppers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 29, 2009

Classical music lovers get set for Matsumoto

"Sending out high-quality Western classical music from Japan" was the goal for renowned cellist and conductor Hideo Saito (1902-74), who studied in Germany. In 1955, he cofounded the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, where he devoted the latter half of his life to music education and taught many...
Reader Mail
May 28, 2009

Fine points of dispute with Russia

Allow me to reply to the four points that Thomas Schoenbaum says, in his May 21 letter ("Positions on Kurils not binding"), were "inaccuracies" in my May 12 article ("Northern Territories dispute"). First, while Dean Acheson was U.S. secretary of state at the time of the negotiations with Japan on the...
Reader Mail
May 28, 2009

Best after-sales service anywhere

Regarding the May 25 article "Traditional merchant values resurgent in recessionary Japan": In my 16 years living and working in Japan, I found the merchant values overwhelmingly positive — once you could communicate in Japanese — especially when shopping for big-ticket items. Anyone who has bought...
BUSINESS
May 27, 2009

Rio agrees to 33% iron ore price cut with Nippon Steel

Rio Tinto Group, the world's second-largest iron ore exporter, agreed to a 33 percent cut in contract prices with Japanese steelmakers, the company said Tuesday, making it the first decline in seven years as the global recession slashes demand. Nippon Steel Corp. agreed to pay Rio 97 cents a dry metric...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
May 26, 2009

Pre-empting an EMP

Dear Prime Minister Taro Aso, I'm writing to urge you to initiate measures that would protect Japan in the event of an EMP attack.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 25, 2009

Proposed foreigner card protested

More than 200 people rallied in Tokyo's Shinbashi district Sunday to protest government-sponsored immigration bills they claim would violate the privacy of foreign residents and strengthen government control over them.
Reader Mail
May 24, 2009

Defining a Japanese citizen

In the United States, we have the opposite problem: Way too many aliens that the federal, state and county have no records of. They are preyed upon by criminals, and too many of them are criminals fleeing their home countries. I'm more attuned to the problems of illegal immigration since I ran into it...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
May 24, 2009

Explaining Oya's break for 'rest' and ban on balloons

Yokohama manager Tatsuhiko Oya took a "kyuyo" on Monday, the eve of opening day for Japan pro baseball's interleague season, replaced by Tomio Tashiro, previously manager of the BayStars farm club, the Shonan Searex.
LIFE
May 24, 2009

City's new gateway to worlds apart

When I was walking to Osanbashi Pier, I noticed that the asphalt road changed to a wooden deck leading me up a slope to a grassy hilltop.
JAPAN
May 24, 2009

Second batch of MOX delivered to Saga reactor

GENKAI, Saga Pref. — The second of three deliveries of mixed uranium-plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel manufactured in France arrived at Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s Genkai No. 3 reactor in northern Saga Prefecture early Saturday morning.
LIFE
May 24, 2009

Traders' plans pay off in Motomachi

What was supposed to be a day spent savoring the delights of Motomachi Shopping Street for our Timeout Yokohama feature soon took on the nature of a quest.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 24, 2009

Hitching through Japanwith friends at every turn

Second in a two-part series
JAPAN
May 23, 2009

Flu policy given more flexibility

The government adopted a new policy Friday that designates infected regions under one of two categories so local governments, hospitals and schools can react with greater flexibility.
BUSINESS
May 23, 2009

Flu virus starts to take toll on businesses

The spreading H1N1 swine flu virus is having an ill effect on a wide range of businesses from tourism to retailing, particularly in the western regions where the outbreak was first detected, industry sources said Friday.

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