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Japan Times
BUSINESS / DECENTRALIZATION SYMPOSIUM
Oct 3, 2007

Revitalizing Japan through 'doshu-sei'

Introduction of the so-called "doshu-sei" system of reorganizing Japan into several regional blocs is the "ultimate structural reform" that will fundamentally change the nation's administrative, fiscal and political systems, Fujio Mitarai, chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren),...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / DECENTRALIZATION SYMPOSIUM
Oct 3, 2007

More government money won't close urban-rural divide

Any attempt to close the widening gap between urban and rural areas by increasing public-works spending and subsidies from the central government will only cover up the root cause of the problem, Yoshitsugu Hayashi, an economics professor at Kwansei Gakuin University told the Sept. 18 symposium.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / DECENTRALIZATION SYMPOSIUM
Oct 3, 2007

Bureaucracy resists change, fights to retain its power

Public support for the "doshu-sei" system will depend on whether people can realize the benefits of ongoing efforts at decentralizing the nation's administrative powers, but the efforts have so far been hampered by the strong resistance of the central bureaucracy, panelists told the Sept. 18 symposium....
EDITORIALS
Oct 3, 2007

Mr. Fukuda's good intentions

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda made his first policy speech in the Diet Monday. Although Mr. Fukuda's speech lacked freshness and bold proposals, it shows that he correctly grasps what worries people have about today's politics. But the question is whether he will come up with concrete policy measures and...
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2007

Tepco customers save reactor's worth of power

Work for a full inspection of the quake-damaged No. 7 reactor began Tuesday at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant. Workers opened the lid on the pressure container, the main body of the reactor. Of the power plant's seven reactors, No. 7 was the first to have its lid removed...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2007

Heading for a French Sixth Republic?

PARIS — Nearly 50 years after the creation of the Fifth Republic by Gen. Charles de Gaulle, French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to change France's fundamental institutions. An expert council will send him its proposals by Nov. 1.
BUSINESS
Oct 3, 2007

'Otaku' fantasy businesses raising social worries

With her frilly green dress and white lace gloves and about to serve tea under a chandelier in a small Tokyo store, Naru Naruse looks the perfect French maid.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2007

Wealth related to the culture of nations

DAVIS, Calif. — Modern economists have turned Adam Smith into a prophet, just as communist regimes once deified Karl Marx. The central tenet they attribute to Smith — that good incentives, regardless of culture, produce good results — has become the great commandment of economics. Yet that view...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Oct 3, 2007

Wild orangutans 'facing extinction within 15 years'

PANGKALAN BUN, Borneo — Homeless, semiparalyzed and blind in one eye, Montana faces an uncertain future. Even if his human friends find somewhere for him to live, the 15-year-old has been weakened by years in assisted care. The lethal dangers of readjustment to life in his natural habitat include not...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Oct 3, 2007

'Stoopid ninja' keeps on learning

T he first time I ever heard cicadas was in 1963, during my very first summer in Japan. I was wandering through a small mixed woodland where some small boys were flitting from tree to tree, playing ninja. I, as a strange young foreigner passing through, became their target for assassination. Being just...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2007

In need of legal help? Just dial the center

From marital woes to financial crises, people often require legal assistance for the problems they face in life.
BUSINESS
Oct 3, 2007

Sony, Qimonda agree on joint venture to develop high-performance DRAM

Sony Corp. and Germany's Qimonda AG said Tuesday they have agreed to form a joint venture to design high-performance DRAM memory chips for consumer and graphic applications.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2007

Tokyo to Yangon: Hand over Nagai's camera

Gambari is also making diplomatic efforts there. We would like to decide on further actions after seeing the Myanmar government's response." Komura added it was "extremely regrettable" that many casualties, including Nagai, have resulted from the clashes despite Japan's requests for the Myanmar government...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 2, 2007

Kanji, kana trip search engines

Like the rest of the world, people in Japan rely on search engines every day to tap the ocean of information that is the World Wide Web.
Reader Mail
Oct 2, 2007

Real cost of self-sufficiency

Regarding the Sept. 18 editorial, "Self-sufficiency amid diversity": Perhaps I am missing something, but in every article about Japan's food self-sufficiency that I have read so far, the word "oil" is never mentioned. Where I live, out in the countryside, besides bird songs and distant ambulance sirens,...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’