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JAPAN
Nov 5, 2007

Ozawa offers to resign

Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa offered his resignation Sunday as head of the biggest opposition force over the rift caused by his controversial handling of a proposal for a grand coalition with the ruling bloc.
LIFE / Digital
Oct 24, 2007

Nova gets the Web talking

Ah, the wonderful world of blogging, where people from all walks of life and all corners of the globe find a forum to have their voices heard. This week, let's take a peek into the goings on of Nova, Japan's largest English school company, which has recently found itself in a big onsen tub of hot water....
BUSINESS
Oct 11, 2007

Reuters boss upbeat on bid from Thomson

Reuters Chief Executive Officer Thomas Glocer said in Tokyo Wednesday he is optimistic that European Union antitrust regulators will clear Canada-based Thomson Corp.'s $17.6 billion bid to acquire the British news agency.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2007

Fukuda in lead to take over LDP

Yasuo Fukuda emerged Friday as the clear favorite in the race to replace Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as president of the Liberal Democratic Party, in what is shaping up to be a two-man contest with LDP Secretary General Taro Aso.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2007

Account fudging undoes vice foreign minister

Dealing yet another blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Vice Foreign Minister Yukiko Sakamoto resigned Monday, admitting her political office falsified political funding records for fiscal 2004 and 2005.
SOCCER
Jul 16, 2007

Prickly Osim in rare form before match

HANOI — Ivica Osim's tit-for-tat battle with sections of the press at the Asian Cup finals reached surreal new heights Sunday ahead of defending champion Japan's final Group B match against cohost Vietnam.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2007

Koike takes defense helm, condemns '45 A-bombings

Newly appointed Defense Minister Yuriko Koike pledged Wednesday to further strengthen the Japan-U.S. military alliance but also denounced the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Japan as "unacceptable from a humanitarian viewpoint."
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Jul 3, 2007

"Tunnels," "The Boy in the Biscuit Tin"

"Tunnels," By Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams, Chicken House; 2007; 463 pp. Books that lead to sequels are good news and bad news bundled into one. Good news because a sequel means that there's more where this came from, and bad news because the author is not obligated to resolving the plot by the...
BUSINESS
Jun 19, 2007

TBS' Rakuten snub reflects protected world

Hiroshi Inoue, president of Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc., does not hide his displeasure when he talks about online shopping mall operator Rakuten Inc.'s attempt to make the broadcaster its affiliate.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 12, 2007

Media scream 'yellow peril'

Days after the broken body of British teacher Lindsay Hawker was discovered in a fourth-floor flat in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, when the media feeding frenzy was at its most intense, a newspaper editor called me from London.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 20, 2007

Buy a car and drive up your grocery bill

Toyota Motor Corp. made headlines when it announced that its profit for 2006 was a record-breaking 2.24 trillion yen. In the United States, the news was greeted with some bitterness, since the Japan automaker had recently surpassed General Motors in terms of worldwide sales for the first time ever.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2007

Reporter fails to clear name over '72 scoop

will not be reversed even if the claimed secret pact really existed, and the plaintiff needs to accept it even if the guilty verdict damaged his honor." Following the ruling, Nishiyama told a news conference, "I want to continue showing how the government illegally concluded the secret agreement with...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 10, 2007

New light cast on capital-punishment issues

It's not especially pleasing to write about death in the first column of the New Year, but there's a lot of it about.
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2006

Princess Kiko delivers a boy

Princess Kiko, the wife of Prince Akishino, the Emperor's second son, gave birth to a boy Wednesday morning, a long-awaited male heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne.
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 8, 2006

Tokyo snubs Pyongyang threat over sanctions

Japan rejected North Korea's demand Friday to drop new economic sanctions over the North's Wednesday missile launches, ignoring Pyongyang's threat of "stronger measures" and "devastating consequences" unless it reversed its decision.
BUSINESS
Mar 18, 2006

Softbank will buy Vodafone K.K.

Softbank Corp. said Friday it has reached an agreement with Vodafone Group PLC to buy 97.7 percent of its Japanese unit for 1.75 trillion yen in a move that will allow it to acquire Vodafone K.K.'s 15 million users and its nationwide mobile communications network.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 12, 2006

Weekly magazines joust over trillion-yen fortunetelling trade

It is often said that if you really want to understand what is happening in Japan you should read the weekly magazines. Though the weeklies' journalistic standards are considered less rigorous than those of the daily newspapers, they are less reluctant to step on toes that belong to people who might...
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2006

Horie no longer head of Livedoor; Fuji TV to sell

Takafumi Horie is out as head of Livedoor Co.
EDITORIALS
Jan 14, 2006

Catching the kabuki spirit

Kabuki, which dates back some 400 years to Izumo no Okuni, the leader of a women's theatrical troupe that caused a sensation in Kyoto, now appears to be riding an upsurge. Recently, the kabuki world saw a series of events that have caught people's attention and increased their interest.
EDITORIALS
Dec 28, 2005

Portrait of a year in buzzwords

If it's December, it's time for those list-loving dictionary folks to be announcing their Words of the Year again -- and in the process providing editorial writers with a revealing lens on the past 12 months. This year, their labors yielded a couple of startlingly different scenarios.
COMMENTARY
Dec 1, 2005

Trying to stem controversy in South Korea

LOS ANGELES -- The people of South Korea have responded to the stem-cell scandal involving genius-innovator Hwang Woo Suk with admittedly excessive passion and near-unanimous conviction. Still, by rallying around their amazing Seoul National University pioneer, their support should be a comfort to risk-taking...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 26, 2005

Richard Quest

Almost 20 years ago, viewers of the BBC World Service used to watch a British television reporter whose agile, distinctive style excited comment. "Unconventional," some said. "Quirky," said others, "original and mold-breaking."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Nov 17, 2005

A new art center, in Kiyosumi

This week brings some good news and some bad news to Tokyo's contemporary art scene. The good news is that a group of galleries that have been sharing a building in Shinkawa since January 2003 have relocated en masse, and now all boast significantly bigger spaces. The bad news is that the galleries vacated...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 17, 2005

On the precipice in Iraq

WASHINGTON-- How are things going in Iraq? The short answer, unfortunately -- based on Brookings' Iraq Index and my own assessments -- is not very well. There is still considerable hope, and much that does go well in Iraq. But on balance, there is more reason for worry than optimism right now.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji