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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 13, 2008

A frosty reception

It's getting cold , a bit frosty, you might say. But I'm used to having frost on the windows of my house, even in the summer time. This is due to an amazing phenomenon in Japan called frosted glass.
BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2008

Timing of sales tax hike unspecified

Faced with a Lower House election that must come by September, the struggling Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc said Friday the timing of a consumption tax hike will not be specified in its guideline for fiscal 2009 tax reforms.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2008

Japan must offer more than free gas

The Friday extension of the special law to continue the Maritime Self-Defense Force refueling mission in the Indian Ocean will prolong Japan's involvement in global antiterrorism efforts but both supporters and critics of the action agree the nation still has little to show for its efforts on the world...
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2008

Aso's latest stimulus worth ¥23 trillion

Prime Minister Taro Aso unveiled a ¥23 trillion stimulus package Friday that will allow up to ¥12 trillion in public funds to be injected into financial institutions, far more than the ¥2 trillion initially planned.
BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2008

Japan must spend way out of recession: Tanigaki

Japan should increase government spending to prevent the nation's first recession in seven years from deepening, said Sadakazu Tanigaki, an advocate of fiscal restraint when he was finance minister from 2003 to 2005.
BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2008

Housing agency seeks new biz model

The Japan Housing Finance Agency, with $429 billion in assets, said it needs a new business model after copying the failed practices of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2008

Pan Pacific to cut copper output

Pan Pacific Copper Co., the biggest copper smelter in the nation, will cut production for the first time in 14 years as the global economic slowdown reduces demand.
BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2008

Beef imports from U.S. plant halted

Japan, the third-largest buyer of U.S. beef, has halted imports of the meat from a Wisconsin plant owned by JBS SA after finding noncertified beef products in a shipment, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.
BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2008

Itochu to build Brazil biofuel plant

Japanese trading company Itochu Corp. and New York-based Bunge Ltd. will build an $800 million biofuel plant in Brazil to capitalize on rising demand for the alternative fuel.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 12, 2008

Emerging strategic ties in Asia

LONDON — Before visiting Beijing to attend the Seventh Asia-Europe Meeting summit in Beijing in October, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stopped over in Tokyo. It was his second visit to Japan since assuming office in 2004 and underlined the rapidly evolving strategic realities in Asia.
EDITORIALS
Dec 12, 2008

Responsibility for food safety

A panel of the Cabinet Office on Nov. 25 made public a report on a scandal involving the reselling of contaminated rice for human consumption, which had surfaced in September 2008. The report said officials of the farm ministry lacked a sense of responsibility for their role in ensuring the safety of...
EDITORIALS
Dec 12, 2008

Sony cutting back

Sony Corp. has announced a major restructuring plan. It will be cutting about 16,000 jobs worldwide — 8,000 regular jobs and another 8,000 irregular jobs — by the end of fiscal 2009 (March 31, 2010). The 8,000 regular jobs account for about 5 percent of Sony's 160,000-strong worldwide workforce in...
SOCCER
Dec 12, 2008

Adelaide beats Waitakere

Adelaide United manager Aurelio Vidmar sounded a warning to Gamba Osaka after his side edged past Waitakere United 2-1 in the opening game of the Club World Cup on Thursday.
COMMENTARY
Dec 12, 2008

Obama and the vets: caring for a generation

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — When Eric K. Shinseki, the first four-star U.S. Army general of Japanese- American ethnicity, was still his service branch's chief of staff, he became a symbol of doubt about official competence in pursuit of the Iraq war.
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2008

In-laws raise women's risk of heart disease

While husbands may not stress out their wives, a study in Japan has shown that kids, parents and in-laws do.
Japan Times
JAPAN / READERS' FUND
Dec 12, 2008

Helping Filipino schoolchildren

This is the first in a series of how contributions to The Japan Times Readers' Fund last year — the 53rd since the campaign started — are being put to use. The ¥940,595 readers donated in 2007 has gone to six organizations to finance humanitarian projects for needy people across Asia.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo