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EDITORIALS
Aug 16, 2008

Cloudy economic outlook

The Cabinet Office has announced that Japan's gross domestic product in the April-June quarter shrank 0.6 percent, or an annualized 2.4 percent, from the previous quarter in real terms — the first drop in four quarters and the largest drop since the July-September quarter of 2001 when the economy shrank...
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2008

JR Tokai to up Nippon Sharyo stake

Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) offered to pay about ¥26.2 billion to raise its stake in rail car maker Nippon Sharyo to 50.88 percent.
OLYMPICS / 2008 BEIJING OLYMPICS: SWIMMING
Aug 15, 2008

Double glory as Kitajima repeats feat

BEIJING — Fifteen minutes after repeating as a double gold medalist at the Water Cube on Thursday morning, these were the final words of breaststroke specialist Kosuke Kitajima: "Ashita oyasumi."
OLYMPICS / 2008 BEIJING OLYMPICS: SWIMMING
Aug 15, 2008

Phelps feeling a bit overexposed

BEIJING — Perhaps the quick quip below best sums up the exhaustive media coverage Michael Phelps is receiving around the world as he attempts to break Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals in a single Olympics.
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2008

Don't trust North, abductees' kin warn

Relatives of Japanese abducted by North Korea voiced concern Thursday that the government was rushing into an fruitless agreement with Pyongyang to resolve the long-standing issue.
COMMENTARY
Aug 15, 2008

Ways of beating malaria without using DDT

NEW YORK — Malaria continues to be endemic in the developing world, causing more than 1 million deaths every year, mostly among children living in Sub-Saharan countries.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 15, 2008

Firms strop goods as facial hair finds favor

Japanese men have long shunned facial hair, as many companies frowned on employees with beards or mustaches, or even prohibited them in the workplace.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 15, 2008

The fans have their say at Summer Sonic's Tokyo site

Riviera, 19, office worker; Miku, 22, store manager; Nao, 22, sales assistant
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Aug 15, 2008

Good cool hunting in Edogawa

In Tokyo, when the going gets hot, the cool go to Hawaii, or flee to mountain resorts. Others plunk down their yen for a dip in a hotel or amusement-park pool. The rest of us steam in the stupefying humidity and hope our flip-flops don't fuse to the tarmac. Surely there's some inexpensive, convenient,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 15, 2008

'Dosokai'

Nostalgia keeps changing. The music, TV shows and junk food that leaves one generation misty-eyed are regarded by the next as quaint curiosities from a distant past, until they finally pass into that dead, hallowed realm known as history.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Aug 15, 2008

Buffets, beers and bikinis

Summer vacation buffets Through Aug. 31, the Pan Pacific Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu is serving special buffets during the summer at its Mediterranean and Japanese restaurants.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 15, 2008

Future Pop Lounge

Future Pop Lounge is a big treat for fans of the Shibuya-kei scene. Although the Japanese genre that spawned such awesome acts as Pizzicato 5 and Flipper's Guitar was pretty much over by the turn of the century, many bands escaped the millennium-bug meltdown by evolving in weird and wonderful ways. ...
EDITORIALS
Aug 15, 2008

Remember what militarism did

Two years ago, Japan marked the anniversary of the end of World War II under politically noisy circumstances as Mr. Junichiro Koizumi, in his official capacity as prime minister, visited Yasukuni Shrine, Japan's war shrine. Last year, then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe refrained from visiting the shrine....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 15, 2008

Don't panic! It's just a stadium

Las Vegas four-piece Panic at the Disco changed radically between their 2005 debut album "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out," which made them poster boys for the emo scene, and 2008's "Pretty. Odd.," where they paid homage to The Beatles and "Ogden's"-era Small Faces. Their set in Summer Sonic's vast Marine...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 15, 2008

Another scorching Summer Sonic

Held simultaneously in Tokyo (well, Chiba's Makuhari Messe and Marine Stadium) and Osaka, Summer Sonic pulled a combined 190,000 music fans for a weekend of polite debauchery under a scorching sun on Aug. 9-10.
EDITORIALS
Aug 15, 2008

About-face on Chinese 'gyoza'

It was learned Aug. 6 that an incident of "gyoza" dumpling poisoning occurred in China in mid-June, involving the same Chinese food maker whose gyoza caused cases of food poisoning in Japan last December and January. Although China informed Japan of the June incident on the night of July 7, the first...
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2008

Aug. 15 — Japan's longest day — still resonates

Aug. 15, 1945, a scorcher without a cloud in the sky, is one of the most emotional dates for the Japanese people, as it is considered the day the nation surrendered and ended World War II.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 15, 2008

'Sex and the City'

Hmmm. This is tough. Trashing "Sex and the City" is like saying you don't own one pair of great strap-on heels or a little black dress. It's like admitting to years of celibacy. Immediately, you're seen as less than a woman (the modern definition of one anyway), one with no sense, no taste, weird and...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / JAPAN NATIONAL BASEBALL TEAM
Aug 15, 2008

Japan loses to Cuba

BEIJING — Veteran poise carried Cuba to a 4-2 triumph over Japan in their 2008 Olympic opener on Wednesday night.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years