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BUSINESS
May 26, 2006

Surge in oil prices reduces trade surplus 31.8%

The trade surplus shrank 31.8 percent in April to 646.2 billion yen for the 16th straight month of decline as soaring oil prices inflated the value of imports, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 26, 2006

Bonuses to be second-highest ever

The summer bonus to be paid by 113 major companies will come to 877,191 yen on a weighted average basis, the second-highest amount since records started to be kept in 1959, the Japan Business Federation said Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 26, 2006

FSA orders Sompo suspension

The Financial Services Agency on Thursday ordered Sompo Japan Insurance Inc. to suspend most of its operations for two weeks at all of its offices nationwide for illegal sales practices.
JAPAN
May 26, 2006

Upper House panel OKs reform bill

A House of Councilors panel approved an administrative reform promotion bill Thursday aimed at downsizing the government, one of the pillars of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's reform drive.
BUSINESS
May 26, 2006

Customers push megabanks to share the wealth

The top six banking groups' record profits from 2005 are being criticized not only by customers who have put up with years of bad service and token interest rates, but also regional banks seriously affected by their advances.
BUSINESS
May 26, 2006

Honda debuts bio-fabric for cars

Honda Motor Co. said Thursday it has developed a plant-based bio-fabric with sufficient durability and resistance to sunlight for use as a surface material in auto interiors.
BUSINESS
May 26, 2006

Consumer electronics shipments up

Consumer electronics shipments in Japan leapt 10.8 percent in April from a year earlier to 214.4 billion yen, rising for nine months in a row, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association reported Thursday.
CULTURE / Music
May 26, 2006

Tab Benoit et al "Voice of the Wetlands"

Perhaps the only good to come out of the Hurricane Katrina disaster has been the many excellent New Orleans music compilations, whose profits are going to those dispossessed by the storm and the ensuing chaos. The most political and most passionate of these is Tab Benoit and company's "Voice of the Wetlands."...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
May 25, 2006

Shinjo reprimanded

Pacific League head umpire Yoshio Maekawa reprimanded Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters outfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo with another warning Wednesday, telling his club that Shinjo's collared undershirts and other shenanigans will not be tolerated.
EDITORIALS
May 25, 2006

A love that can't be legislated

The Diet has started discussions on a government bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education. First and foremost, the bill represents an attempt to lay down a legal basis for using education as a means of instilling "love of nation" in students. While love of nation is something that should grow...
JAPAN
May 25, 2006

Frozen fraudulent deposits worth 3.5 billion yen, FSA says

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and Resona Bank froze a combined total of about 3.5 billion yen in deposits as of the end of March on suspicion the accounts were being used for fraudulent purposes, officials at the Financial Services Agency said Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 25, 2006

Abe looks to enter LDP race after G8

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe hinted Wednesday he will officially announce his candidacy to succeed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party after the mid-July summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in St. Petersburg, Russia.
JAPAN
May 25, 2006

Consulting firm chief quizzed in quake scandal

Police questioned the head of a Tokyo-based consulting company on a voluntary basis Wednesday over a fraud case involving a hotel in Nara Prefecture built with fake earthquake-safety data, investigation sources said.
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2006

Evidence portrays Russia as failed state

LONDON -- Have you read Russian President Vladimir Putin's 2006 State of the Nation message yet? The one he gave last week? You should.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
May 25, 2006

Incidentally Capturing the city

Berlin is not beautiful like Paris, rich like London, or charming like Amsterdam. Prewar buildings in the German capital are pockmarked by bullet holes, while postwar architecture testifies to the city's division due to the Cold War -- American, British and French sectors were restored or rebuilt, the...
JAPAN
May 25, 2006

New law bans big complexes in suburbs

The House of Councilors approved a bill Wednesday to revise the City Planning Law so that construction of shopping malls and amusement facilities with more than 10,000 sq. meters of floor space will effectively be banned in suburbs.
BUSINESS
May 25, 2006

Japan Post net profit at 1.9 trillion yen, up 56%

Japan Post announced Wednesday it brought in a whopping net profit of 1.93 trillion yen in the fiscal year that ended March 31, up 56 percent from the year before, thanks to the robust performance of its postal savings business.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 25, 2006

Playing for his master

"I entered the world of bunraku by accident, without knowing anything about it," says shamisen player Tsuruzawa Enjiro, who has just received the prestigious stage name Tsuruzawa Enza (VI) previously held by his master.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 25, 2006

Art of Africa

Everyone has an idea about "Africa." Pestilence, famine and genocide top many people's lists. Others think of boundless natural wonder and sprawling metropolises bursting with life. But the truth of it is, there is no one "Africa." There are only Africans, and they defy generalization.
BUSINESS
May 25, 2006

ANA to resume Narita-O'Hare service in the fall

All Nippon Airways Co. said Wednesday that it will resume flights between Tokyo and Chicago's O'Hare airport in October as part of its overseas expansion plan in the coming years.
BUSINESS
May 25, 2006

Honda unveils thought-guided robot

Honda Motor Co. has developed technology that uses brain signals to control a robot's moves, hoping to someday link a person's thoughts with machines in daily life.

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