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BUSINESS
Feb 9, 2006

Bank lending stops declining

The average daily balance of financial institutions' lending rose 0.02 percent to 446.49 trillion yen in January, moving into positive territory for the first time since January 2001, when comparable data began being compiled, the Bank of Japan said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2006

Rise in elderly offenders graying prisons

There are still plenty of metal bars and handcuffs. But prisons these days have some new features -- like wheelchair-friendly stair ramps, handrails in the bathrooms and nurses trained to spoon-feed inmates.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2006

Suntory revives nostalgic blend for retiring baby boomers

For businesses from banks to high-end stereo makers, the expected mass retirement of the baby boomer generation beginning next year represents the birth of a huge consumer base with relatively deep pockets and a lot of free time.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2006

Forex reserves soar to record $851.7 billion

Japan's foreign-exchange reserves rose $4.80 billion in January to a record high $851.67 billion, helped in large part by a stronger euro, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2006

Abe wants North 'political decision' on abductions

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe Monday urged North Korea to change its stance on the dispute over its agents' abductions of Japanese citizens and called for a "political decision" by Pyongyang after the two countries failed to make progress on the issue in Sunday's talks.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2006

Senior official confirms Iraq pullout within months

A high-ranking government official confirmed for the first time in public Saturday that Japanese ground troops will be pulled out of southern Iraq within the next several months.
EDITORIALS
Feb 5, 2006

A tradition not yet finished

The bad news just keeps on coming for fans of conventional cameras. Nikon Corp. will stop manufacturing most of its film cameras, and Konika Minolta Holdings Inc. will completely withdraw from the camera and film business. The sad thing is that these makers have long contributed to Japan's photographic...
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2006

Tokyo to leverage whole talks on abduction issue

In a move to pressure North Korea a day before bilateral talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang are to start in Beijing, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Friday that Tokyo may consider abandoning the three-track talks on security, abduction and normalization if there is no progress on the abduction issue.
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2006

Monetary base up 1.4% last month

Japan's monetary base expanded 1.4 percent in January from a year earlier for the 60th straight monthly rise, the Bank of Japan said Thursday.
COMMENTARY
Feb 3, 2006

Avoiding energy ultimatums

LONDON -- The recent break in energy supplies to Georgia after a natural gas pipeline and power pylons were blown up inside Russia near the border with Georgia came during a bitter cold wave, causing considerable hardship and the risk of death from hypothermia for some.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Feb 3, 2006

Counting Nakano among the best

There's no better word than "counter" to encapsulate Nakano, a ward in Western Tokyo. It's an area of counterculture, counterintelligence, casino-card counters and, of course, lunch counters; perhaps even a place where you might find your counterpart in life.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 1, 2006

Sugiyama tossed out in 1st round at Toray Open

Local favorite Ai Sugiyama was knocked out in the first round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open on Tuesday after a 6-3, 6-0 drubbing to teenager Ana Ivanovic of Serbia and Montenegro.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 31, 2006

Hospital death exposes 'tip of malpractice iceberg'

Loyd Cummings tried to ignore his headache when it began on Aug. 7, 2003. But the electronic technician, who was working in Japan on U.S. Navy radars, eventually collapsed from an aneurysm -- a bulge in a vein in his head.
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2006

Settling labor disputes promptly

I n April, Japan will introduce an "industrial tribunal system" to settle individual labor disputes, such as those involving dismissals, working conditions and reassignments. The purpose of this system is to settle disputes expeditiously by limiting the number of trial sessions to no more than three....
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2006

Suspension of food aid to N. Korea to continue

Japan will continue to suspend food aid to North Korea despite an agreement to resume bilateral talks next Saturday in Beijing, according to government sources.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 29, 2006

Beverlin back for another chance after Tommy John surgery

Call this the year of the recycled foreign player in Japanese baseball.
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2006

Poorest nations to get help marketing specialty goods

The government will help poor nations market their specialty goods in Japan under the "one village, one product" initiative in line with an aid package presented in December, officials said Saturday.
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2006

Ministry to pay for CJD autopsies

The health ministry plans to provide 250,000 yen to subsidize each autopsy of a person suspected to dying from sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease to confirm whether they died from that or variant CJD, which is linked to mad cow disease, officials said Saturday.

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