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Reader Mail
May 2, 2007

U.S. is no friend of India

Gwynne Dyer's April 19 comments on India's recent long-range missile test are not realistic ("Asia's latest great power joins the game"). In 1971, the U.S. sent the 7th Fleet to intimidate India during its war with Pakistan. Since 1974, when India tested its first nuclear weapon, the U.S. and its Western...
JAPAN
May 2, 2007

State appeals acquittal of Obara in Blackman slaying

Prosecutors have appealed a court ruling that cleared convicted serial rapist Joji Obara of charges that he attacked and killed Briton Lucie Blackman, a court official said Tuesday.
Reader Mail
May 2, 2007

Blogger editorial disappoints

I was excited to see an editorial about the ascendancy of blogging in Japan . . . until I actually read all of it ("Japan as number-one blogger," April 22). While it could have been an engaging celebration of this boom in people's media, it ended up being a lame and quite bizarre attempt to downplay...
EDITORIALS
May 2, 2007

Insurance customers losing out

The failure of life and non-life insurance companies to pay benefits in numerous cases poses a serious problem. The Finance Services Agency recently reported that 38 life insurance companies operating in Japan failed to pay a combined 35.9 billion yen in insurance benefits in 440,000 cases over a period...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 2, 2007

Doctor fights for health of foreigners in detention

In summer 2005, a man from Myanmar seeking asylum in Japan was found dead in his Tokyo apartment. But because he had no family here, the results of the autopsy were not released and the cause of death remains unknown to this day.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 2, 2007

Japanese firms flock to booming Vietnam

HANOI — Fueled by the latest investment boom, Vietnam is one of the world's fastest-growing economies.
EDITORIALS
May 2, 2007

Lawmakers' spending still opaque

Until about a month ago, questions on the use of political funds and the accuracy of mandatory reports on such funds had been a hot political issue. But efforts to dispel public suspicions about issues involving money and politics are not moving fast enough. The fault mainly lies with political leaders,...
Reader Mail
May 2, 2007

Gun access fuels killings

Any person wanting to understand the past, present and future of gun murders in America need not look any further than page 5 of The Japan Times on April 18. The article titled "Gun-control debate looms after massacre" states that "since Columbine, which occurred eight years ago this week, there had...
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
May 2, 2007

Sony goes drag-and-drop for digital music

Sony's missteps in the world of digital music players provide lyrics for enough blues albums to populate, well, an iPod. But while the electronics behemoth may never script another legend like the Walkman, it refuses to shuffle quietly off the stage. Sony is set to bring out the B100 series of MP3 players....
Reader Mail
May 2, 2007

Queen Elizabeth's bad year

The year of Princess Diana's death, 1997, was not Queen Elizabeth II's "annus horribilis" as noted in the April 13 movie review "Interpreting a right royal mess." Queen Elizabeth used this phrase in her Christmas message of 1992 to refer to the year in which Prince Charles' and Prince Andrew's marriages...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 2, 2007

With ODA, Vietnam begins to pull itself out of poverty

QUANG TRI, Vietnam — Filled with the constant roar of motorcycle traffic, Vietnam's cities, including Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi, are bustling with excitement as the country enjoys rapid economic growth.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
May 2, 2007

Life can be sweet down in the forest

Mr. Matsuki, our forester, is six years older than me, so he was born in 1934. When World War II ended, life in the countryside of Japan was tough, so sugary sweets, chocolates and suchlike were scarce. He recalls that, as a boy, he learned that the twigs or branches of a certain native Japanese tree,...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 1, 2007

Are new rules kind to hostile mergers?

Delayed for a year because of strong opposition from domestic firms frightened by the prospect of being taken over, the so-called triangular merger system becomes legal Tuesday.

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