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BUSINESS
Jan 23, 2009

Citing high costs, Allianz to halt new insurance sales here

Allianz SE, Europe's biggest insurer by market value, will stop selling new insurance contracts in Japan less than a year after entering the market, saying the cost to cover guarantees is too high.
BUSINESS
Jan 23, 2009

Housewives desperate over currency fund collapse

Allied LLC, an Osaka-based asset manager, is under investigation on suspicion it bilked Japanese investors, mostly housewives, using a currency trading fund, a police official said.
Reader Mail
Jan 22, 2009

Efforts of activists misguided

Although bombastically titled, Gregory Clark's Jan. 15 article was a welcome riposte to the chorus of criticism originally inspired by Paul de Vries' Dec. 2 Zeit Gist article, "Back to the baths: Otaru revisited."
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2009

Congratulatory Aso requests early meeting

The government congratulated new U.S. President Barack Obama Wednesday and was quick to request an early meeting with him.
Reader Mail
Jan 22, 2009

Missing a business opportunity

I want to thank Gregory Clark for expressing an opinion that needs to be expressed, particularly when everyone else seems to be striving to be politically correct. I live in Japan and many things about Japan utterly annoy me, but I feel that they have more to do with me and my relationship with Japan. ...
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2009

Cabinet team formed to help foreign settlers

The Cabinet Office has formed a team to address problems facing out-of-work foreigners with permanent settler status, particularly Brazilians, including job searches and their children's education.
EDITORIALS
Jan 21, 2009

Resolve to win not enough

Prime Minister Taro Aso, who also heads the Liberal Democratic Party, and Democratic Party of Japan leader Ichiro Ozawa each showed resolve at their parties' respective conventions Sunday to win the coming Lower House election. The election will be held by September when the current Lower House members'...
BUSINESS
Jan 21, 2009

Tokyo talks aim to revive oil, gas investment

Energy and trade ministers from Japan, India, Saudi Arabia and 17 other Asian and Middle Eastern nations will gather in Tokyo in April for talks on reviving investment in oil and gas projects after crude prices tumbled.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2009

Temps in manufacturing: Safety valve, but no net

A day before Christmas, temporary worker Yoshinori Sato, 49, received his dismissal notice from Isuzu Motor Co.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jan 20, 2009

Lifelines back to the 1900s

With 2009 so far looking bleak, here are some queries from around the world that take us into the past with the hope of finding positive solutions for the present.
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Jan 20, 2009

Animal fair brings in the people

Seven-year-old Julie-Anne Bernet of Tokyo said coming to the fair had been "a surprise!" For both Julie-Anne and her brother Alan, 6, it was a day that brought lots of smiles and lots of warm, fuzzy feelings. How could it not, with all those cats and dogs to pat and play with?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 20, 2009

Breaking the silence on burakumin

For those who don't know — and you would be forgiven considering the lack of coverage the issue receives — a buraku is the term used to describe an area where some, but not all, of the residents have ancestral ties to the people placed at the bottom of feudal society in the Edo Period. These people...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jan 20, 2009

Missionary devotes lifework to helping Tokyo homeless

Jean Le Beau says his decision to pursue a life dedicated to the benefit of others was inspired in high school when he read the story of Father Damien, a 19th-century Roman Catholic missionary from Belgium who spent his life caring for lepers cast out of normal society and quarantined on the Hawaiian...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 20, 2009

'Exam hell' now not so hot

The annual university entrance examination season kicked off Saturday and Sunday as some 540,000 high school students and graduates nationwide took the standardized National Center Test for University Admissions.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jan 19, 2009

Aso getting the brushoff

As the approval rate for the government of Prime Minister Taro Aso plummets, bureaucrats have begun to distance themselves from him in favor of establishing closer ties with the No. 1 opposition Democratic Party of Japan, which they apparently think has at least a fair chance of displacing Aso's ruling...
JAPAN
Jan 19, 2009

LDP pledges to unite behind Aso

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party held its annual convention Sunday to gear up for the upcoming Lower House general election, vowing to unite under Prime Minister Taro Aso and win one of the toughest battles it has ever faced.
JAPAN
Jan 19, 2009

Bureaucratic reform on the line

Former administrative reform minister Yoshimi Watanabe's resignation from the Liberal Democratic Party highlights a growing rebellion against Prime Minister Aso Taro, who has been struggling to steer the nation amid sagging public support.
Reader Mail
Jan 18, 2009

Making a lovely place better

Regarding the Jan. 13 Views From the Street question — "If you could change one thing about Japan, what would it be?" — I think smoking should be banned in many places as it is in North America. I love Japan, but when I went to Tokyo for a trip in 2005, I ended up getting bronchitis because of the...
Reader Mail
Jan 18, 2009

Sports strategy for everyone

I read with amusement and sadness the Jan. 14 article "Plan afoot to raise Olympic athletes' medal prospects before '16." I've lived in Japan through five Olympics now, and it has been the same after each one: great frustration over the failure of Japanese athletes to do better than they did, mixed with...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 18, 2009

Karori: A wildlife sanctuary for our times

A new year has begun, signs of change abound, and this column has migrated to a new page. The economic crises of 2008 are still with us and the nightmare of global climate shock is not one that we can awaken from. But among all this there are signs of hope.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2009

Fuji Heavy forecasts first loss in 15 years on recession, strong yen

Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., the maker of Subaru-brand cars, said Friday it forecasts the first loss in 15 years, as the global recession decimates demand for new cars and a strong yen erodes overseas sales.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2009

Web site offers refugees a way to reunite

For Danish brothers David and Christopher Mikkelsen, it all began in 2005 when they met Mansour, a young Afghan refugee who had become separated from his family while fleeing the Taliban regime.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 16, 2009

Yoshinoya to open 100 outlets as recession bites food budgets

Yoshinoya Holdings Co., Japan's largest chain of beef-bowl restaurants, plans to add a record 100 outlets in its home market next fiscal year as demand for budget meals increases from recession-hit consumers.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA / STYLE WISE
Jan 15, 2009

Goocy and Gozi but no more Green

Genki at Goocy Goocy (pronounced "goosey") is the local answer to the Western "fast-fashion" invasion that has recently swept Japan. It's a pet project by brand director Harumi Fukuda and designer Mary Fukumoto of high-end label Triptych.

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