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BUSINESS
Jun 19, 2008

Citigroup's offer to retire staff 'unacceptable': union

Citigroup Inc. has offered 1,350 employees at its consumer finance unit in Japan early retirement with two months' pay as the company withdraws from the business, a proposal the workers' union called unacceptable.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 18, 2008

Aloft with ospreys, ultimate Fisher Kings

There is a moment of commitment; a glint of scales just beneath the water's surface is perhaps the trigger. As the bright-yellow eyes register the rippled light patterns, the brain is already identifying them as potential food, computing distance, assessing direction, considering depth.
Japan Times
JAPAN / RETRACING ROUTES
Jun 18, 2008

Returnee from Brazil offers blend of both worlds to Gunma settlers

Second in a series When Shoko Takano opened a Japanese-language school in Oizumi, Gunma Prefecture, in October 1991, Japanese-Brazilians working at local factories flocked in to seek her advice on living in Japan.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jun 17, 2008

Idling drivers

Dear Alice,
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 17, 2008

How hard is it really to learn Japanese?

As a language so distinct from most others, Japanese has an air of mystery about it.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jun 16, 2008

Reluctant runner viewed as possible Fukuda fill-in

It is expected that a race for Japan's national leadership will start after Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda hosts the summit meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in Toyako, Hokkaido, in July.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 15, 2008

Nuggets of 'wisdom' can speak volumes beyond what's said

"Biting Comments, Curious Statements and Famous Misstatements" is the headline on the lead article in the June 5 issue of the popular Japanese weekly magazine Bungei Shunju. It features dramatic ejaculations of famous politicians, sports figures and entertainers, among others.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 15, 2008

Nationality ruling could affect Japanese who don't 'exist'

After the Supreme Court ruled on June 4 that 10 children born to Filipino women had the right to be granted Japanese nationality, every media outlet in the country called the verdict "epoch-making" because the court declared a provision of the Nationality Law unconstitutional.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2008

Shared goals, IT connect Polish-Japanese couple

Jacek Strakowski from Poland and Mai Usami from Tokyo have information technology to thank for bringing and keeping them together.
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2008

Fukuda, Rudd affirm economic, security ties but avoid whaling

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda agreed Thursday to cooperate on a wide range of issues but left the sensitive subject of whaling effectively untouched to avoid diplomatic friction.
BUSINESS / G8 COUNTDOWN
Jun 12, 2008

Soaring prices pose challenge to G8 finance chiefs

Finance chiefs from the Group of Eight countries are expected to discuss Friday in Osaka how their economies can tame the soaring oil and food prices battering businesses and consumers around the world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 12, 2008

The space to act out in Shizuoka

Shizuoka Performing Arts Center is Japan's first so-called European-style public theater. Founded by the Shizuoka prefectural government in 1997, it has its own company (also called SPAC) and an artistic director in residence when the norm is for public theater companies to share venues and for artistic...
BUSINESS
Jun 12, 2008

Wholesale prices jumped 4.7% in May

Wholesale prices in May rose at their fastest pace in 27 years, signaling soaring energy costs may erode corporate profits and bring an end to the economy's longest postwar expansion, the Bank of Japan said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
Jun 10, 2008

A shift in priority to 'happiness'

Per capita gross domestic product is a highly valued as yardstick for measuring the degree of "affluence" enjoyed by the citizens of each nation. The figures of various countries are usually converted into U.S. dollars to determine how countries rank internationally.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2008

NGOs slam Fukuda's CO2 proposal as lacking substance

Environmentalists and nongovernment organizations were quick to denounce Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's new climate change initiative Monday, calling it "insufficient" and "lacking essence" for not proposing a solid midterm greenhouse gas reduction target.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 10, 2008

Health cover; donating clothes

Reader TJ writes:
EDITORIALS
Jun 10, 2008

Reintroducing the Ainu

Both chambers of the Diet unanimously passed a resolution last week urging the government to recognize the Ainu as an indigenous people. It says the fact that many Ainu people suffered discrimination and poverty during Japan's modernization should be taken seriously. Noting that the Ainu have their own...

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic