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JAPAN
Feb 11, 2008

Nukaga, Xie agree food scare shouldn't hurt ties

Japan and China have agreed to cooperate on clarifying the cause of the recent contamination of "gyoza" dumplings and that such incidents should not hurt Sino-Japanese relations, Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga said Sunday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 11, 2008

Avoid hysteria over food

As the mystery surrounding incidents of food poisoning caused by gyoza dumplings imported from China intensifies, it is becoming even more important for Japanese to avoid hysteria over Chinese imports and for Japanese media to be coolheaded in reporting about China and its products. It goes without saying...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 8, 2008

Shorty Cat

Adding some spice to this month's Wild Wacky Party event, held to mark the 18th anniversary of Japanese punk ladies Lolita No. 18, South Korea's Shorty Cat are bound to cause a few cold sweats.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2008

Games equestrian age record looms?

Japan effectively won the right Thursday to participate in the dressage equestrian competition at the 2008 Olympics, and one of the riders will be Hiroshi Hoketsu, who is set to become the oldest-ever Japanese participant in the Games.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2008

Closer G7 coordination on monetary, fiscal policy unlikely

The Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank chiefs plan to discuss ways to deal with continuing global market turbulence, a credit crunch and U.S. recession fears during their one-day meeting Saturday in Tokyo, but few analysts expect them to agree on concerted international monetary or fiscal...
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2008

Japanese beef prices set to climb

Japanese beef prices — already the world's highest — are about to get even higher, the country's farmers said Wednesday, warning that livestock feed prices have shot up from the global rush for ethanol.
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2008

G7 unlikely to discuss joint rate cuts, Hirano says

The world's richest nations are unlikely to discuss joint interest-rate cuts this week as a step to ease turmoil in global financial markets, a former Bank of Japan official said.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Feb 6, 2008

Talking sense about deer

We were filming a television documentary in the mountains of Hokkaido. It was winter, and bitterly cold. Through the trees, bare of leaves, we could see floe ice, dotted with eagles, gulls, crows and a few ravens. Then a raucous gathering of crows ahead drew our attention and we trudged through the crisp...
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2008

Nations swap papers limiting MSDF fuel use

Diplomatic notes were exchanged Tuesday in Tokyo between Japan and nations whose ships will receive fuel when the Maritime Self-Defense Force resumes its Indian Ocean support mission, with the understanding that the fuel will be used only for U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan....
EDITORIALS
Feb 5, 2008

Mother-and-child health care

In addition to the fight against global warning, Japan could exercise its leadership at July's Group of Eight summit to promote international cooperation in protecting the health of mothers and infants in developing countries. The Japanese government plans to propose an action guideline at the summit...
Reader Mail
Feb 3, 2008

Whaling dates back centuries

In response to Lindsay Caffin's Jan. 27 letter, "If we're talking about tradition" (with regard to whaling), I would like to suggest doing research via a simple tool like the Internet. Records such as the Kojiki, Japan's oldest written document, state that whaling goes back to the eighth century, meaning...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 3, 2008

Journal of an uncommon traveler

WINDOWS ON JAPAN: A Walk Through Place and Perception, by Bruce Roscoe. Algora Publishing, 2007, 308 pp., $31.95 (paper) On the premise that speed blunts the mind, New Zealander Bruce Roscoe decided to make his journey on foot, following a route across the waist of Japan, from the port city of Niigata...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 3, 2008

'Pimp' my road — For bureaucrats, it's business as usual

It's that time of year again, when the highways and byways of Japan are suddenly filled with construction crews tearing up asphalt for repair and maintenance work. That's because the annual budgets of the crews' public-sector employers must be used up before the end of the fiscal year in March, regardless...
EDITORIALS
Feb 2, 2008

Making an impact on tourism

The government plans to inaugurate a Tourism Agency in October as an extra-ministerial bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The new agency will be aimed at attracting overseas visitors to Japan as their tourist destination and to make tourism an important industry of the nation....
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2008

Condemned trio sent to the gallows

Three condemned convicts were hanged Friday and the government released their names and other details in line with the disclosure policy introduced by Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama with his Dec. 7 approval of three other executions.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2008

No sure bets on next BOJ chief

Bank of Japan Gov. Toshihiko Fukui's voice became slightly tense as he answered questions from reporters at a news conference last month about the upcoming appointments of his successor and two new deputy governors.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2008

Celebrating black Americans in Yamanashi

American diplomat Ayanna Hobbs is a dynamo of energy and enthusiasm. She's just finished her weekly Japanese class, and thinks it the most amazing coincidence that her wonderful teacher happens to be from Yamanashi, the prefecture that lies so close to her heart.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 31, 2008

Tilting the balance back to darkness

In the minds of casual observers, Japan is simple. Between lovers of tradition and those enraptured by Japan's quirky window into an urban future, it's either the former land of austere, honorable warriors or the current one of air-headed, emotionally overwrought manga characters.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2008

New approach for the DPJ

When the Lower House of the Diet passed the antiterror special measures law on Jan. 11, it became clear that the Democratic Party of Japan is not in control of the political situation. After briefly setting the agenda in the aftermath of the July 29 Upper House election by opposing the refueling mission...

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers