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COMMENTARY / World
Sep 15, 2005

Human rights key to China's development

NEW YORK -- During a recent visit to Beijing, U.N. rights envoy Louise Arbour called attention to the serious human-rights situation in China and the need for improvements according to international human-rights standards. An important step in that regard would be for China to ratify the International...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 15, 2005

Independent brushstrokes

A commonly heard accusation is that Japanese oil painters are followers rather than innovators. It is a criticism that has been made against many early adopters in this country -- be they filmmakers, fashion designers, chefs or rock musicians -- and one that has even come from painters' compatriots....
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 15, 2005

Betting on a bolder Japan

WASHINGTON -- A Latin proverb says, "fortune favors the bold but abandons the timid." That, more than any other explanation captures the drama of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's gravity-defying success in catapulting his Liberal Democratic Party to its biggest electoral success ever -- in...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 15, 2005

Consumers reaping benefits of farm deregulation

Fresh tomatoes, sweet oranges and bright green lettuce grown organically and tracked by computer may soon arrive on consumers' tables directly from farms, thanks to agricultural deregulation.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2005

Election spurs Upper House posts reform rebels' flip-flop

A House of Councilors member who played a key role in nixing the government's postal privatization bills last month said Tuesday he and 10 other rebels will back them this time, making their passage this month a virtual certainty.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2005

Centenarians to hit 25,606 by October

The number of centenarians in Japan will set a new record of 25,606 by the end of the month, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said ahead of Respect for the Aged Day.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2005

Support for Koizumi Cabinet hits 59%

Public support for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet rose to 59.1 percent this week, up 11.8 percentage points from last month, according to a Kyodo News survey released Tuesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 14, 2005

Taking it slowly to savor eco-exploring

These days, "eco" has become something like a random, loosely attached, brand name. Not associated with any particular company, nor with any particular product, eco -- which "Webster's" defines as a combining form meaning "environment or habitat" -- is applied seemingly indiscriminately.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2005

Four CPAs arrested over Kanebo scandal

Four certified public accountants at a Japanese unit of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Group were arrested Tuesday for allegedly collaborating with former executives at Kanebo Ltd. to falsify accounting reports.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2005

Ailing DPJ prepares to pick new boss

A day after being clobbered in Sunday's general election, the Democratic Party of Japan said it will vote for a new party leader this weekend.
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2005

Koizumi's next act to be his toughest yet

By MAYUMI NEGISHI and HIROKO NAKATA Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's landslide victory has given him a broad mandate to privatize the postal services and downsize the bloated public sector.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2005

'Theater politics' key to poll shift

The 296 seats won by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Sunday's general election comes second only to the 300 Lower House seats it secured in the 1986 election.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 13, 2005

Counseling, insurance and prints

TELL counseling Tokyo English Life Line (TELL) is accepting applications for the Telephone Counselors Training Program, that begins in September.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2005

Posts foe Yashiro undone by New Komeito's Ota

Akihiro Ota, deputy secretary general of New Komeito, retained his seat in Sunday's general election in the Tokyo No. 12 district, which had been a symbol of the ruling coalition's campaign cooperation.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2005

Accountants face Kanebo fraud charge

Prosecutors are set to charge several certified public accountants at a Japan unit of the PricewaterhouseCoopers group with collaborating with executives at Kanebo Ltd. in an accounting fraud that has humbled the once premier cosmetics and textile company, according to investigative sources.
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2005

SDF to upgrade, deploy new radar to detect missiles

The Defense Agency will improve its missile surveillance network by deploying four new radar units and upgrading seven others by fiscal 2009 to detect ballistic missile launches in North Korea, agency officials said Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2005

Pyongyang palliative is Bush's bitter pill

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut -- Although buried by headlines from Iraq and Hurricane Katrina-devastated U.S. Gulf Coast region, the fourth round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program, about to resume in Beijing, presents the best chance yet to resolve diplomatically the simmering crisis on the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 11, 2005

The Evens

Have you hugged your local independent record store lately? It might need it, what with all those kids downloading songs and pumping them into their iPods. Whatever happened to long, lazy afternoons picking through used record stacks and cutout bins, hoping to find that deleted 13th Floor Elevator comp...
Japan Times
Features
Sep 11, 2005

What's the Point?

Fabrice Blocteur may not be as well known as Marco Polo, Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan or Sir Francis Drake. But like explorers of old, this French-Canadian resident of a rural Kyoto village is on a quest to rewrite the maps through new discoveries.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 10, 2005

Escape to the land of country bumpkins

So you've decided to escape to the countryside for the long holiday weekend? Well, fine, but if you're wanting to get back in touch with nature, be prepared. If you come to an island like mine, you will have entered a world cut off not only from city life, but from the mainland as well. Without a major...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Sep 9, 2005

Despite troubles, Gooden blessed

I got a bit choked up the other day.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2005

Seiko Noda and Yukari Sato in desperate battle in Gifu

GIFU -- A showdown between two female candidates has all eyes fixed on this sleepy conservative city in the Chubu region.
EDITORIALS
Sep 8, 2005

Try again with rights bill

The government was to have submitted a human-rights protection bill during the most recent session of the Diet. Various reasons are cited for the bill's failure to reach the Diet floor, including government leaders' obsession with other hot-button issues such as postal-service reform. Still, legislation...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2005

Downsizing government sounds great

Downsizing the public sector has been high on the agenda of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government, and both his Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Japan are promising this campaign season to reduce the number of people on the government payroll.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Sep 8, 2005

Eight-map butterfly

* Japanese name: Sakahachichou * Scientific name: Araschnia burejana strigosa * Description: These are feisty butterflies, with a wingspan of about 5 cm and sharp, erratic flight. In terms of coloration, red, orange and brown usually predominate. The forelegs are merely "brushes," and are not used...
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2005

JCP wants united front on postal bills

The Japanese Communist Party plans to call on other parties to join hands to scrap the postal privatization bills that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi aims to resubmit to the Diet after Sunday's general election, JCP chief Kasuo Shii said Monday.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan