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BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2007

Aeon to invest $2 billion in China

BEIJING (Bloomberg) Aeon Co., Japan's largest supermarket operator and owner of the Jusco chain, said Tuesday it may invest 15 billion yuan ($1.97 billion) to increase its stores in China to 100 in the next five years.
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2007

Nippon Steel unsure about expanding ties with Arcelor Mittal

Nippon Steel Corp., the world's second-largest steelmaker, said Tuesday no "concrete" decision had been made about expanding cooperation with bigger rival Arcelor Mittal.
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2007

Ministry shuffles out key advocate of the weak yen

The Finance Ministry's top currency bureaucrat, widely considered an advocate of a weak, yen will step down in a regular reshuffle, a ministry official said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2007

Corporate-service inflation at fastest pace in nine years

Corporate service prices rose at their fastest pace in more than nine years in May, the Bank of Japan said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2007

Jasdaq gets FSA order to improve controls

The Jasdaq Securities Exchange for venture firms, run by the Japan Securities Dealers Association, was ordered Tuesday to improve its internal controls, the Financial Services Agency said.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2007

Abe, two of his ministers to forgo bonus

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki and Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa will forgo their summer bonuses as Cabinet ministers to take responsibility for the pension record fiasco, it was announced Monday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 26, 2007

New cell phone services tap image-recognition technologies

Normally used for security purposes, face and image recognition technologies are making their way into other, more entertaining, fields. One service, kaocheki, lets people send a digital photo of themselves via cell phone to find out which celebrity they most resemble.
COMMENTARY
Jun 26, 2007

China aims for bigger share of South Asia's water lifeline

NEW DELHI — Sharpening Asian competition over energy resources, driven in part by high growth rates in gross domestic product and in part by mercantilist attempts to lock up supplies, has obscured another danger: Water shortages in much of Asia are beginning to threaten rapid economic modernization,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2007

Lions and tigers and the foibles of men

MADRAS, India — The Chinese now appear to be turning to Indian lions since a terrifying number of tigers have been killed for their body parts, which are sold to make medicines and even aphrodisiacs.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2007

U.S. still considers Japan top partner in Asia: poll

Japan is still the United States' most important partner in Asia, according to an annual public opinion poll commissioned by the Japanese government, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jun 26, 2007

Minoru Inaba

Minoru Inaba, 63, is the director of the Meijijingu Shiseikan Dojo, a martial arts facility located in Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. He is a master of budo, an ancient Japanese fighting style that taught samurai to be versatile and supposedly invincible. Learning budo requires training in a myriad of martial...
EDITORIALS
Jun 26, 2007

Low number of organ transplants

Ten years have passed since the Organ Transplantation Law was enacted, allowing organ transplants from brain-dead people. So far there have been only 56 of these organ transplants. The latest was carried out on June 14 and 15, using the heart, pancreas and kidneys from a woman in her 50s. The small number...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 26, 2007

Prison reforms seen as too little, and way too late

In May 2006, the government revised the prison law in the first attempt at broad reform since 1908. The Law Concerning Penal Institutions and the Treatment of Sentenced Inmates, as the legislation is formally known, went into effect June 7.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 26, 2007

The war according to Aso Co.

'Japan the Tremendous,' the new book by Foreign Minister Taro Aso, highlights the peaceful nature of postwar Japan and calls the country a "fount of moral lessons" for Asia. It might even help Aso become Japan's next prime minister.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes