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JAPAN
Jun 24, 2005

Ishihara seen as X-factor in metro race

Four years ago, it was Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi who appeared on the posters of Liberal Democratic Party candidates for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election.
BUSINESS
Jun 24, 2005

Credit card firms stepping up security

The massive security breach last week at a credit card data processing center in the United States is prompting credit card companies in Japan to step up measures to prevent card-related fraud.
BUSINESS
Jun 23, 2005

Trade surplus shrank 68.3% in May

Japan's customs-cleared trade surplus shrank 68.3 percent in May from a year earlier to 297.0 billion yen for the second monthly decline in a row, as record high oil prices inflated the value of imports while exports to China slowed, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2005

Chile eyes FTA talks in November '06

Chile hopes to start negotiations in November 2006 for a free-trade agreement with Japan, Chilean Ambassador to Japan Daniel Carvallo said Wednesday.
LIFE / Language
Jun 23, 2005

Seminars help teachers survive tough times

There are an estimated 30,000 people teaching English in Japan, including those on the government's widely recognized JET program. But with the craze for language learning fading fast, the English conversation industry is facing a crisis and many teachers, fearing for their livelihoods, are taking courses...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 22, 2005

Breathing the life into the dance

"I had a hard time finding the title," Pina Bausch tells me during an interview about her most recent work, "Nefes." The Turkish for "Breath" is the title of the latest in a series of works which the choreographer, who will turn 65 in July this year, has created in collaboration with theaters around...
COMMUNITY
Jun 21, 2005

Should we hunt whales?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for shooting whales. Get a bunch of tourists, put them on boat, send it out to the North Pacific and let them fire off some rounds for an hour or two. Of course the ammunition used would be Kodak and Fuji stock, but it's a lot more humane than blowing them up. And it doesn't...
Rugby
Jun 20, 2005

Ireland too strong for Brave Blossoms

Japan ended its 2005 international rugby campaign on a losing note as it went down 47-18 to Ireland at Tokyo's Chichibunomiya on Sunday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 2005

A debate-challenged legislature

The Diet has extended its regular session by 55 days through Aug. 13 to continue the debate on proposed postal reforms. The extension gives Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi a make-or-break opportunity to realize his cherished dream of putting the unwieldy postal system under private management.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2005

Miyazawa urges Koizumi not to visit Yasukuni

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi faced fresh pressure Sunday over his visits to Yasukuni Shrine, with former Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa saying Koizumi should not go again because it would hurt Japan-China relations.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 19, 2005

Interleague action rates a good grade in first year of play

Japan pro baseball's fist interleague season will wrap up this weekend, as soon as they can make up a few games previously rained out.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2005

Prosecutors set to widen bid probe

The Tokyo High Prosecutor's Office is set this week to begin questioning on a voluntary basis former executives of Japan Highway Public Corp. who went on to be hired by companies now embroiled in a massive bid-rigging scandal, sources said Saturday.
COMMENTARY
Jun 18, 2005

Perverse allusions to glory

LONDON -- I regard myself as a friend of Japan, not least because I have many Japanese friends and appreciate Japanese arts and culture, but this does not mean that I can look at Japanese history through rose-tinted spectacles.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2005

Cambodia school intrusion raises security scrutiny here anew

Thursday's deadly hostage-taking by four intruders at an international school in Cambodia has further driven home the need for schools in Japan to assess whether they have taken adequate security measures.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 18, 2005

'Testament': Poems that speak of life's dark side

I meet two men in one: Tomonori Saito, who works for a shipping company in Tokyo's Shinagawa district, and Saion, the nom de plume of a young Japanese poet.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 16, 2005

Worlds of nature are just a click away

Although I've only just packed away my skiing gear (the remnant snowfields have crept too close to the peaks to make the physical cost of carrying heavy boots and skis so far uphill worth the downhill benefits), and though mountain cherry blossoms have only recently begun to shed their petals here in...
COMMENTARY
Jun 15, 2005

Free to take exceptions to 'free trade'

The harsh treatment handed out to European Union ideals by French and Dutch voters this month was in part a reaction to excessive EU bureaucracy and expansionism. But it was also a gut rejection of so-called globalization -- the foolish effort to deny economic and social differences between nations....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2005

'Yafoo' site nets first 'phishing' arrest

A computer-system engineer was arrested Monday on suspicion of creating a bogus version of Yahoo Japan Corp.'s Web site to steal personal information from users of the nation's largest portal site, police said.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2005

War-dead families ask Koizumi to consider Asia

An association of families of the war dead on Saturday asked Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to show more consideration for Japan's Asian neighbors over his contentious visits to Yasukuni Shrine.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2005

Man to sue TV Asahi over report he smuggled guns

A Japanese man now serving a 15-month sentence in the United States will seek 5 million yen in damages from TV Asahi for defamation for airing a report that he was illegally selling guns.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 11, 2005

'Artistic space consultant' unites walls and works

Nob Hagiwara is a brave man indeed. How many top-rank executives decide one day to chuck it all in and pursue personal goals? Not many -- and especially not in Japan.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 9, 2005

TM bolsters notion of a Japanese mind-set over mortality

As we heard in a government white paper on the elderly last week, the number of people aged 90 or over topped 1 million in Japan for the first time in 2004. Japan has long held the record for its citizens having the longest life expectancy in the world. And the government is only too aware of the graying...
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2005

LDP eyes law to protect gas-drilling ships

The Liberal Democratic Party may draft a new law to protect Japanese vessels that drill for gas in the East China Sea, where the exclusive economic zones of Japan and China are in dispute, a senior LDP member said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2005

Aliens face entry, exit fingerprinting

Japan plans to expand fingerprinting requirements for foreigners not only upon entry into the country but upon departure as well, as part of crime prevention measures, members of the Liberal Democratic Party said Wednesday.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person