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JAPAN / Politics
Jul 29, 2006

LDP hopefuls kick off debates

Both declared and undeclared candidates for the Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election began making their cases for prime minister Friday in a high-profile panel discussion viewed as a prelude to the Sept. 20 poll.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 29, 2006

Deven Arora

In his book "A Yen for Yen," Deven Arora from India describes his life in Japan as a "rupees-to-riches success story." He has always, he said, followed six rules: being committed to a dream; believing in self; daring to try unconventional ideas; being unafraid of making mistakes; persevering; and enjoying...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 28, 2006

Window on the West

It's hard not to feel well disposed toward a place like Nagasaki even before you set foot in it. Nagasaki was, after all, the port in western Kyushu that had to bear the torturous brunt of the anti-Christian persecutions assiduously pursued by the Tokugawa shoguns in the 17th century. And had it not...
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2006

A-bomb tales as relevant now as ever, student says

, an American student who spent the last year at Tokyo's Waseda University, rehearses Saturday for the Japanese-language recitation play "The Day the Dragonflies Were Gone" with fellow performers from China, Japan, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Sweden and Ukraine. AKEMI NAKAMURA PHOTO
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2006

'Harry Potter' translator's spell fails on tax office

Tax authorities believe Yuko Matsuoka, the Japanese translator of the global best-seller "Harry Potter" series, failed to declare 3.5 billion yen in income in the three years to 2004, sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2006

U.S. beef ban on its way to being lifted Thursday; first batch already on ice

A Liberal Democratic Party policy panel gave the go-ahead Wednesday to lift the import ban on U.S. beef, with official government approval expected the following day.
EDITORIALS
Jul 26, 2006

Words carrying weight

Last week's discovery of a memorandum recording the words of the Emperor Showa explaining why he stopped visiting Yasukuni Shrine will exert considerable influence on the debate over Japanese publicly remembering Japan's war dead, while praying for peace, in a manner acceptable both to Japanese and to...
JAPAN
Jul 23, 2006

North Korea government smuggled drugs: NPA chief

The commissioner general of the National Police Agency has said the North Korean government was involved in smuggling several hundred kilograms of amphetamines into Japan in 2002.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2006

U.S. to deploy PAC-3s in Okinawa next month

The United States will start deploying advanced surface-to-air missile interceptors at the U.S. Kadena Air Base and the U.S. Air Force's Kadena Ammunition Storage Area in Okinawa in August, Japanese officials said Thursday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2006

Japanese relatively poor: OECD

Japan ranked second-worst among advanced economies in 2000 in terms of the relative poverty rate because nonregular workers with low wages rose amid the prolonged economic slump, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2006

Missile crisis put Abe in leader spotlight

Although the political pageantry to choose the next Liberal Democratic Party president will not officially begin until September, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe's recent time in the crisis spotlight is giving him a huge lead over other possible candidates to succeed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi....
EDITORIALS
Jul 20, 2006

Warning North Korea

The United Nations Security Council resolution condemning North Korea's July 5 multiple missile test-firings may lack strong teeth, but it serves as a stern warning from the international community to the reclusive country. While the contents of the resolution fell short of what Japan originally wanted...
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2006

Koizumi cools momentum on Pyongyang sanctions push

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday Japan should hold off before imposing more economic sanctions on North Korea, depending on whether Pyongyang responds "seriously" to the international condemnation of its July 5 missile tests.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2006

GSDF troops enjoyed Japanese rice, cup noodles sent over to Samawah

Throughout their 2 1/2-year mission in Iraq that concluded Monday, Ground Self-Defense Force troops survived mostly on food transported from Japan, including 420 tons of rice, logistics officers said.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 2006

Time for a new approach to Pyongyang?

HONOLULU -- Ever since the North Korean fireworks display of missile launches on July 4, the world has watched the spectacle of political leaders and diplomats of America, China, Japan and South Korea scurrying for a response to Pyongyang's leader, Kim Jong Il.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 16, 2006

AFN changes may augur trends for other sports media

Recent news items indicate big changes are coming for the traditional form of broadcasting baseball games in Japan and the end of the line for baseball -- and other sports -- on Armed Forces Network radio in our world of high-tech, satellite and cable communications.
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2006

Pro-N. Korean schools, students harassed over missiles

Students and teachers attending pro-North Korean schools in Japan have received dozens of threatening phone calls and letters -- and in some cases have been physically assaulted -- since Pyongyang test-fired a barrage of missiles, a teachers federation said.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 16, 2006

And now for some good news -- on tap for everyone

We have become so used to environmental portents that whenever we hear good news we blink in disbelief, so blink away: It appears that the various concerted efforts to get people in Japan to save water has paid off.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 16, 2006

For Fumiko Hayashi, not every cloud has a silver lining

FLOATING CLOUDS by Fumiko Hayashi, translated by Lane Dunlop. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006, 328 pp., $27.50 (cloth). Toward the end of her life Fumiko Hayashi (1903-1951) said that she did not think her work would outlive her. Happily, she was quite wrong: She remains one of Japan's most...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 16, 2006

Dental 'charm school' puts bite on competition

The Omori Group is a booming dentistry franchise company that doubled its sales to 1.07 billion yen last year and now aims to double them again to 2 billion yen this year.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 15, 2006

Alison Pockett

In 1995, Alison Pockett of Britain set up Magellan, her own personal financial advisory company, in Tokyo. She said, "When I came here, this country shocked me deeply, positively. I didn't expect so many opportunities to set up on my own and go as far as I could. There are so many things to do here....
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2006

Free-trade agreement with Malaysia takes effect

A free-trade agreement between Japan and Malaysia took effect Thursday, with the two countries ready to scrap tariffs on essentially all industrial goods and most agricultural, forestry and fishery products within 10 years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 13, 2006

The accidental art collector: Unearthing the pure essence of Nature

The painters in your collection are commonly described simply as "Individualist." Can you elaborate on what is meant by that?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 13, 2006

Antiestablishment for all

Founded in 1970 by director Sho Ryuzanji, the Engekidan company was a natural bridge between two major theatrical movements in postwar Japan: the 1960s underground scene of dramatists such as Shuji Terayama and Juro Kara and the so-called "small-scale theater movement" started in the 1980s by the likes...
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2006

Osaka activist's arrest lays bare yakuza ties with 'burakumin'

On the night of Jan. 26, 1985, four hit men from the Ichiwa-kai crime syndicate drove up to an apartment complex in Suita, Osaka Prefecture.
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2006

Koizumi wants UNSC vote on North Korea before G8

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Tuesday he hopes the U.N. Security Council votes on a resolution calling for sanctions on North Korea before the Group of Eight summit starts in St. Petersburg, Russia, this weekend.

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