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BUSINESS
Mar 11, 2008

Steel raises Sapporo offer but drops goal to one-third

U.S. hedge fund Steel Partners said Monday it will raise its offer price for shares in Sapporo Breweries Ltd., the nation's third-largest brewery, to ¥875 per share to gain 33.3 percent of the company.
BUSINESS
Mar 11, 2008

Shinginko Tokyo may sue ex-managers

Shinginko Tokyo, the brainchild of Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, said Monday it will consider suing its former management team, including ex-Chief Executive Officer Yasumasa Nishi, for allowing over-lenient screening that resulted in billions of yen in losses.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2008

Japan acquittal doesn't let Miura off the hook in California: expert

Differences between the Japanese and U.S. criminal justice systems made it possible for the Los Angeles Police Department to arrest Kazuyoshi Miura for the 1981 fatal shooting of his wife in California, despite being acquitted of her slaying in Japan, an expert says.
BUSINESS
Mar 11, 2008

Merchant confidence stayed low in February

Japanese merchant sentiments held near a six-year low in February as soaring oil and food prices sapped consumer spending power, the government said Monday.
BUSINESS
Mar 11, 2008

Market woes ruin EAccess bond sale

EAccess Ltd., the first new entrant to Japan's mobile-phone market in 13 years, said Monday it canceled a planned bond sale because of unfavorable market conditions.
EDITORIALS
Mar 11, 2008

A frozen Garden of Eden

They call it the "doomsday vault," but it is intended to save humankind, not menace it. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which opened Feb. 26 in Norway, will serve as a repository for billions of seeds. It is designed to protect biodiversity and the people and cultures that depend on it. It is one of...
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2008

Tokyo air raid survivors sue for redress

Survivors of the numerous U.S. air raids on Tokyo in 1945 sued the central government for compensation Monday, demanding an apology and a combined ¥220 million in reparations for its failure to assist the wounded.
BUSINESS
Mar 11, 2008

Yen's rally to continue as BOJ intervention unlikely

For the first time in more than a decade, foreign-exchange traders are confident the Bank of Japan won't intervene in the currency market, paving the way for the yen to extend its biggest rally since 2000.
COMMENTARY
Mar 10, 2008

Redundant royal honors provoke wonder

HONOLULU — Not every monarch is alike. It's true that many are mean and greedy and full of themselves — selfish squirrels who sock their ill-gotten gains beneath everyone's eyes overseas while they stick their political opponents into dark dank prisons — or graves. But some are comparatively mild,...
BASKETBALL
Mar 10, 2008

Tokyo, Saitama stay in playoff picture

With 10 games remaining in the regular season, the Tokyo Apache and Saitama Broncos are locked in a tight race for the bj-league's third and final Eastern Conference playoff spot.
COMMENTARY
Mar 10, 2008

Get set for emissions trading

The year 2007 marked the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Kyoto Protocol; the 20th anniversary of the release of the report "Our Common Future" by the World Commission on Environment and Development, headed by former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland (the expression "sustainable development"...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2008

Freedom and music go hand in hand

NEW YORK — North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is one of the world's most oppressive, closed and vicious dictatorships. It is perhaps the last living example of pure totalitarianism — control of the state over every aspect of human life. Is such a place the...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2008

The global economic party has ended

MUNICH — With the United States teetering into recession, the global economic boom has ended. The boom was unusually long and persistent, with four years of roughly 5 percent growth — a period of sustained economic dynamism not seen since around 1970.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2008

Foreign workers rally in Shibuya for equal rights

Foreign workers staged a rally in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, on Sunday as part of their annual spring labor offensive, calling for proper and equal treatment on par with Japanese working conditions.
BASEBALL / SPORTS SCOPE
Mar 10, 2008

Pair of rookie hurlers could make big impact for their teams this season

While Hokkaido Nippon Ham rookie Sho Nakata continues to turn heads at the plate during the exhibition season it may be a pair of rookie hurlers that make the biggest difference this year.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 10, 2008

No easy answers for the United States before or after the presidential election

The United States will likely see a "fertile period of policy experimentation" under the new administration that takes office after the November presidential election, says Thomas E. Mann, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution who is an expert on U.S. election campaigns.
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Mar 10, 2008

Isolationist tendencies threatening to turn Japan into a 'subprime state'

Although the word "subprime" may have been understood only by a few industry insiders a few months ago, it is certainly entering the global lexicon with some force these days. Governments around the world have been deploring the state of their economies, usually invoking the dreaded problem as a key...
EDITORIALS
Mar 10, 2008

Accelerate antismoking measures

The World Health Organization in early February released a report stating that the global tobacco epidemic is one of the greatest public health threats of modern times. It said that in the 20th century the tobacco epidemic killed 100 million people worldwide.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 10, 2008

Takahashi comes up short

NAGOYA — A nation watched. A nation waited. A nation hoped. . .

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan