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BUSINESS
Feb 22, 2006

U.S. partner to help ChuoAoyama

ChuoAoyama PricewaterhouseCoopers will receive an expert team from its U.S. partner to get advice on and update auditing knowhow, according to sources.
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2006

Food safety fears heat up delivery services

As consumers become increasingly sensitive toward food safety issues, some food delivery service operators are getting brisk business by ensuring the quality of the produce they sell.
BUSINESS
Feb 22, 2006

BOJ's focus on CPI is only natural, Yosano says

Economic and fiscal policy minister Kaoru Yosano said Tuesday he understands the Bank of Japan's position of basing any policy shift on the consumer price index.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 22, 2006

S. Korean wetland faces doom

For those readers long ago numbed to the fraud, waste and environmental abuse that accompanies public works projects in Japan, here's one that might jump-start your ire: A project by the South Korean government to landfill and develop 40,100 hectares (almost 100,000 acres) of coastal waters and wetlands...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Feb 22, 2006

Signal crayfish

* Japanese name: Uchida zarigani * Scientific name: Pacifastacus leniusculus * Description: Crayfish look like small lobsters. Despite their name, they are not fish, but freshwater crustaceans. They have a segmented body, up to 20-cm long, with 10 legs and a hard exoskeleton that they must molt as they...
EDITORIALS
Feb 21, 2006

Mr. Koizumi's running on empty

The Diet is in turmoil over a fresh scandal. At a session of the Lower House Budget Committee last Thursday, an opposition party member alleged that Mr. Takafumi Horie, the disgraced former chief executive of the Internet company Livedoor, had sent an internal e-mail to subordinates before the Sept....
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2006

NHK mulls sponsors for its exports

Vice Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Shogo Hayashi said Monday the ministry will consider accepting sponsorship from advertisers to fund programs that NHK airs abroad.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2006

Mergers reduce municipality count by a third since 1999

The number of cities, towns and villages fell below 2,000 Monday, compared with more than 3,200 in 1999, prior to the central government's push for municipal consolidation to streamline local administration, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2006

Devotion to job a recipe for retiree divorce

Many middle-aged couples are filing for divorce upon arriving back in Japan after traveling overseas to celebrate the husband's retirement.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2006

Takebe may file slander suit over e-mail allegation

Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe refused Monday to rule out the possibility of suing Hisayasu Nagata, a lawmaker from the Democratic Party of Japan, over his allegation that Takebe's second son had shady financial connections with jailed Livedoor Co. founder Takafumi Horie.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2006

Another architect in shoddy building scam won't give unsworn testimony

The head of an architectural design office embroiled in a scandal over faked quake-resistance data in three building projects in Fukuoka Prefecture refused Monday to give unsworn testimony before a Diet committee.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2006

U.S. beef report insufficient: Nakagawa

The U.S. report on its probe into a shipment last month of banned bovine material and measures to prevent a recurrence is "insufficient," farm minister Shoichi Nakagawa said Monday, adding that Japan plans to raise a range of questions with Washington.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2006

47% of nursing homes fail fire code

Nearly half of all nursing homes for senile elderly people do not have proper fire protection measures, according to a government report released Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2006

Child killings cast light on isolated foreign moms

The arrest of a Chinese woman in Friday's fatal stabbing of two children she routinely drove to kindergarten in Nagahama, Shiga Prefecture, has cast a light on the problems foreigners face in trying to fit into Japanese society.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2006

Lower House members not quite as rich

The average value of assets held by 479 House of Representatives lawmakers elected last September is 49.78 million yen excluding equities, according to a Kyodo News survey based on declarations released Monday.
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2006

Fuji Photo plans foray into drugs

Fuji Photo Film Co. said Monday it has become the leading shareholder in Tokyo drug venture Perseus Proteomics Inc. in a bid to push deeper into the medical business.
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2006

Ad spending up thanks to Net

Spending on advertising came to 5.96 trillion yen in 2005, up 1.8 percent from the previous year for the second consecutive annual growth as the market for Internet ads grew more than 50 percent, Dentsu Inc. said Monday.
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 21, 2006

Araujo wins award from press

Brazilian striker Araujo, whose 33 goals helped Gamba Osaka win its first J. League title last season, on Monday was named the 2005 Footballer of the Year in a poll of Japanese soccer writers.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2006

Asahara's daughter beats school in court

The Tokyo District Court on Monday ordered the operator of Wako University to pay 300,000 yen in damages to a daughter of Shoko Asahara, founder of Aum Shinrikyo, for illegally denying her entry after she passed the school's entrance exam.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2006

Empire of debt has its limits

HONG KONG -- Recent news about U.S. current-account deficits with the rest of the world gives grim pause for thought from Beijing and Tokyo to London, and especially in Washington, for it shows the United States approaching the financial equivalent of a nuclear meltdown.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2006

Yamanote Line halted after track section sinks

East Japan Railway Co. said Monday it found that a 15-meter stretch of track on Tokyo's Yamanote Line had subsided by up to 2 cm.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2006

Aso now calls honey trap allegation hypothetical

Foreign Minister Taro Aso on Monday backed away from an earlier claim that China lured a consular official with a female spy, saying he offered the account only as a possible scenario.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji