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SOCCER / World cup
Jun 24, 2006

Zico to leave Japan team with clear conscience

DORTMUND, Germany -- Zico said he will leave the post of Japan coach at ease with his conscience despite his team's disastrous World Cup exit on Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 24, 2006

Relapse in Afghanistan

With international attention focused on Iraq, it is easy to forget the other front in the fight against terrorism. A coalition of forces, acting under United Nations authorization, has waged war against Islamic extremists in Afghanistan for nearly four years. That battle has been overshadowed by the...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 24, 2006

Japan heats up whaling wars

The battle over whaling has grown more acrimonious in recent years principally because Japan has become a more vociferous and belligerent advocate for a resumption of commercial whaling. In the recently concluded meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), Japan's representative browbeat and...
BUSINESS
Jun 24, 2006

Investors get more vocal on management decisions

Over the past several weeks, company executives have been beating a path to Pension Fund Association's door, trying to get the investment manager to agree with proposals they plan to submit at their shareholder meetings.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 24, 2006

Geta fliers and Bo(y) Derek on a jet ski

The Moooo! Bar season has started on Shiraishi Island and I have to admit that I am a little disappointed. Now into our third season, not one cow has come to the Moooo! Bar, even though I advertise that cows drink for free.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2006

Schools taking anticrime steps

Over 90 percent of elementary schools have implemented measures to help protect their students from crime, including "hazard maps," according to an education ministry survey.
BUSINESS
Jun 24, 2006

Tax hike consensus reached to achieve 2011 budget surplus

The government and the ruling parties agreed Friday to propose a tax hike to achieve a primary budget surplus -- which excludes new bond issues and debt-servicing costs -- by fiscal 2011, government and party officials said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 24, 2006

Beatrice M. Bodart-Bailey

A new book published by the University of Hawaii Press appeared recently on bookshelves in Japan. Painstakingly written by Beatrice M. Bodart-Bailey, it is titled "The Dog Shogun: The Personality and Policies of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi."
BUSINESS
Jun 24, 2006

Son says Vodafone can top rivals with content

Mobile phone carrier Vodafone K.K., which Softbank Corp. acquired in April, can outperform rivals NTT DoCoMo Inc. and KDDI Corp. by funneling content from Softbank subsidiary Yahoo Japan Corp. into its mobile business, Softbank President Masayoshi Son said Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 24, 2006

Irrepressible force raising funds for 3,000 kids

It seems ironic to find 30-year-old Sylvia Charczuk worrying about her biological clock when already she has 3,000 children. But her energy is so prodigious, her determination so single-minded, that it would take a very special kind of partner to fit into the scheme of things. She knows this, of course,...
SOCCER / J. League
Jun 23, 2006

Adilson named Iwata manager

Jubilo Iwata said Thursday they have named former defender Adilson as manager, following the resignation of Masakuni Yamamoto, who took responsibility for his side's lackluster performance this season.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jun 23, 2006

Kobayashi named interleague MVP

Chiba Lotte Marines closer Masahide Kobayashi was named interleague MVP on Thursday after helping the Pacific League club have the best interleague record for the second straight year.
EDITORIALS
Jun 23, 2006

Downshifting in Iraq

The government announced Tuesday that Japan will withdraw its Ground Self-Defense Force troops from southern Iraq, ending their 2 1/2-year noncombat mission. It is fortunate that, so far, not a single GSDF member has been injured or killed during this time and that the GSDF troops have not had to fire...
BUSINESS
Jun 23, 2006

TSE chief gives system update to shareholders

The chief of the Tokyo Stock Exchange briefed TSE shareholders Thursday on a recent upgrade to the transaction data processing capacity of its computerized trading system following a string of system problems since November.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 23, 2006

Takashi Miike makes his mark

Whatever the place or occasion -- including a hurried press interview in the middle of a film festival, as happened at April's Udine Far East Film Festival for the screening of his first English-language film "Imprint" -- Takashi Miike is always gracious, patient, thoughtful and well spoken. In other...
BUSINESS
Jun 23, 2006

Trade surplus surges 35%, fueled by car exports to U.S.

Japan's trade surplus jumped 35.2 percent in May from a year ago to 384.9 billion yen, marking the first jump in 17 months on brisk auto exports to the United States, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 23, 2006

Motivation Tour 2006 Final

For those with a taste for an eclectic mix of pop, techno and house, June 25 at Liquid Room -- the final date of DJ Towa Tei's Motivation Tour -- should hit the spot. Tei is promoting the April release of "Motivation 3," the third CD in a series featuring his classic pop-house sound.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 23, 2006

Homage to a highland shrine

Fifteen years ago, photographer Naoyuki Kobayashi was on a joint Chinese-Japanese mountaineering expedition in the Himalayas when an avalanche took the lives of 17 of his fellow climbers. He has been returning to the Meili Snow Mountain, where the tragedy occurred, ever since, in a dogged search for...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 23, 2006

Brainstorm to save Shimokita

With the hip, culturally vibrant neighborhood of Shimokitazawa in western Tokyo's Setagaya Ward threatened by a major development project, participatory design group Urban Typhoon is organizing a series of workshops to raise awareness on the importance of preserving the culture of the area. The workshops,...
CULTURE / Music
Jun 23, 2006

Sonic Youth "Rather Ripped"

Ever since Kim Gordon sang about her friend Goo, she has epitomized what's great about Sonic Youth as a rock band.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2006

Ah, no kids afoot: Empty trains, work till you die

There has been a great deal of hand-wringing in the media and government about Japan's population implosion. A breakdown in the pension system, soaring health-care costs, slower economic growth and a looming labor shortage are just a few of the dark clouds on the horizon.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 23, 2006

The garden of earthly delight

An air of seclusion still hangs over Shikoku. This is despite the building of Japan's greatest civil-engineering white elephants -- three grandiose and grandiosely debt-ridden bridge systems that span the Inland Sea and connect the island with Honshu.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell