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BUSINESS
Mar 15, 2007

Auto, electronics workers get pay hikes

Major automakers and electronics companies agreed Wednesday to raise base wages and bonuses for their employees for the second consecutive year as they enjoy improved earnings amid continued economic growth.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 15, 2007

Testing nihonga's limits

Finding their personal voice, something an artist can call their own, is a sublime achievement. The nihonga (Japanese-style) painter Insho Domoto (1891-1975) channeled the voices of at least a dozen others to forge his own unique one and create an exhaustive and encyclopedic body of work.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Mar 14, 2007

Teal

* Japanese name: Kogamo * Scientific name: Anas crecca crecca * Description: A small, surface-feeding dabbling duck, the teal is 34- to 38-cm long and has a 58- to 64-cm wingspan. Males (known as drakes) have an orange-chestnut colored head with a large stripe of emerald green, trimmed with a thin thread...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 14, 2007

What's 'separate' about humankind?

In a sense, I'm a mind reader. In writing this, I believe that you think that I want you to think that I intend to persuade you of something I believe. Got that?
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 13, 2007

Japan is obliged to accept refugees, so why so few?

In 1981, Japan signed the U.N. 1951 Conventions Relating to the Status of Refugees and in 1982, it inked the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees and enacted the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law. Signatories are obliged to give refugees due recognition and protect their basic...
COMMUNITY
Mar 13, 2007

Coaching helps women avail of new opportunities

Ritsuko Hatano, an energetic sales manager, has steadily climbed the career ladder after she graduated from university a decade ago.
COMMENTARY
Mar 13, 2007

Dealing with climate change

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol, and the 20th anniversary of the publication "Our Common Future," by the United Nations Brundtland Commission, the landmark report that called for "sustainable development" -- meeting the needs of the present without compromising...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 10, 2007

Onsen -- a rubber ducky's dream

Bath time: Run the bath water, throw in some bath salts and jump in. If this is your idea of bath time, then you and your rubber ducky have been deprived.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2007

Tech project turns streets into virtual tour guides

It makes for a jabber-filled downtown stroll -- getting deluged by chatter over earphones from some 1,200 tiny computer chips embedded in lampposts, subway-station ceilings and road cement, beaming maps, tidbits of history and store guides.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Mar 6, 2007

What exactly is White Day?

BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 5, 2007

Japan must eliminate hidden agriculture taxes to progress at Doha

Some new developments may be around the corner in the Doha Round of trade liberalization talks.
Reader Mail
Mar 4, 2007

Japanese publishers accountable?

Regarding the Feb. 23 article "Mag on foreigner crime not racist: editor": I would like to comment on editor Shigeki Saka's remark that publisher Eichi's special magazine edition "Shocking foreigner crime: the underground file" does contain "a little bit of extreme expressions for commercial purposes."...
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 4, 2007

Nagai goal lifts Reds in opener

SAITAMA -- Urawa Reds coach Holger Osieck sees something in Yuichiro Nagai not many others do. His faith in the forward paid off Saturday when he crashed in a brilliant late goal to secure a 2-1 win over Yokohama FC as the new J. League season got underway.
EDITORIALS
Mar 4, 2007

Hardship born of an anachronism

An outmoded provision in the Civil Code is causing many remarried women and their children hardship concerning the children's family registry. Article 772 of the Civil Code, which took effect in 1898, stipulates that a baby born to a woman within 300 days of her divorce must be regarded as having been...
EDITORIALS
Mar 3, 2007

Streamlining strategic decisions

A government panel has proposed creating a Japanese version of the U.S. National Security Council. The main task of the new entity would be to work out long-range diplomatic and defense strategies as well as cope with emergencies not limited to defense. The success of the new body would depend on whether...
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2007

Court overrules Tokyo, lets Chongryun gather in Hibiya

," said presiding Judge Norihiko Sugihara. He said it would be difficult to compensate for cancellation of the gathering with money alone and that "there is urgency" in the need to suspend the metropolitan government's order.
JAPAN / Q&A
Mar 1, 2007

Ministry takes charge of bankrupt city

This month, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry is expected to designate Yubari, Hokkaido, as a "municipality under rehabilitation." Following are questions and answers outlining what that means for the city:
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Feb 28, 2007

Tree nymph butterfly

* Japanese name: Ogomadara * Scientific name: Idea leuconoe * Description: This large, striking, black-and-white butterfly is also known as the rice-paper butterfly, perhaps because of the unusual texture of the wings, but also perhaps because the way it flits and floats in the air is said to be like...
COMMENTARY
Feb 26, 2007

Sounding off on realignment

I appreciated the critical remarks that Japanese Cabinet ministers recently made about U.S. policy in Iraq, feeling that high-level Japanese officials had finally begun to express their honest opinions. But I was disappointed when the government scrambled to coordinate its views to eliminate any impressions...

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’