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JAPAN
May 22, 2006

LDP may try to take away tax deduction for 'NEETs'

The Liberal Democratic Party's tax panel will consider proposing that households with young people not in employment, education or training -- the so-called NEETs -- be excluded from income tax deductions for dependents, panel sources said Sunday.
EDITORIALS
May 22, 2006

Repairing a lifelong ideological rift

The top leaders of the pro-Seoul and pro-Pyongyang groups of Korean residents in Japan met last week, ending almost 60 years of hostilities and marking the start of reconciliation. Mr. Ha Byeong Ok, president of pro-Seoul Mindan (Korean Residents Union in Japan) and Mr. So Man Sul, chairman of pro-Pyongyang...
JAPAN
May 22, 2006

Store robbed twice in three days

A man armed with a knife held up a "bento" store in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, early Sunday and made off with some 170,000 yen, the second time in three days the store was robbed, police said.
BUSINESS
May 22, 2006

Livedoor sets shareholders' meeting for June, will kill investment units

Livedoor Co. will hold an extraordinary shareholders' meeting June 14, the first such gathering since several of its executives were arrested, and select a new board of directors including some from outside the firm, company sources said Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2006

The great ape debate unfolds in Europe

PRINCETON, New Jersey -- In his "History of European Morals," published in 1869, the Irish historian and philosopher W.E.H. Lecky wrote:
COMMENTARY
May 22, 2006

Japan keeps blowing smoke

This year's slogan adopted by the World Health Organization for No Tobacco Day (May 31) is "Tobacco: deadly in any form or disguise." Since the framework convention on tobacco control came into effect in February 2005, the antismoking movement has become an irreversible global trend.
JAPAN
May 22, 2006

Kawasaki oil tank explodes; no injuries

Firefighters battled flames and black smoke for more than two hours Sunday after an oil tank exploded in Kawasaki, police said. No one was injured in the incident.
SUMO
May 21, 2006

Hakuho, Miyabiyama deadlocked heading into last day

Sekiwake Miyabiyama overpowered rising star Baruto on Saturday to remain tied for the lead with Mongolian Hakuho on the next to last day of the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
May 21, 2006

Zuleta defends his actions after being plunked by Kanemura

It was Sunday, April 16. The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters were playing in Kyushu. Hawks slugger Julio Zuleta was at the plate when Fighters right-hander Satoru Kanemura delivered a pitch that sailed inside and nailed Zuleta in the middle of his 197-cm frame.
EDITORIALS
May 21, 2006

Mr. Matsui's apology

'Mind the gap," the British warn commuters stepping off trains. It's good advice in East-West relations, too, since there are some gaps that appear to be unbridgeable. A rather wide one was revealed last week in the hubbub in the United States over the apology of New York Yankees left fielder Hideki...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 21, 2006

Henry says money not reason he chose to stay with Gunners

LONDON -- According to Thierry Henry, he had not thought about signing a new contract with Arsenal before last Wednesday's Champions League final defeat by Barcelona. The match over, Henry said he would start to think about his future.
JAPAN
May 21, 2006

Robots will have to comply with safety guidelines

Future robots that will someday provide services in such areas as nursing, security and cleaning will have to comply with safety guidelines planned by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 21, 2006

Will Japan's 'positive influence' persist as it didn't before?

Well, the news is out, and it's good news.
CULTURE / Books
May 21, 2006

The search for a legendary sword

MISHIMA'S SWORD: Travels in Search of a Samurai Legend, by Christopher Ross. London: Fourth Estate-HarperCollins, 262 pp., £14.99 (cloth). On Nov. 25, 1970, Yukio Mishima committed seppuku or, to employ the term he preferred, hara-kiri. He did so with a great deal of fanfare (he had hoped to have the...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 21, 2006

Lurking in the shadows, following in Edgar Allan Poe's footsteps

THE BLACK LIZARD AND BEAST IN THE SHADOWS, by Edogawa Rampo, translated by Ian Hughes, introduction by Mark Schreiber. Fukuoka: Kurodahan Press, 2006, 284 pp., $15.00 (paper). Edogawa Rampo, the pen name Taro Hirai (1894-1965) adopted in homage to Edgar Allan Poe (think phonetically), is the father of...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 21, 2006

Yukio Mishima's prequel to the end

YUKOKU (Patriotism), 1966, produced, written and interpreted by Yukio Mishima, associate producer Hiroaki Fujii, associate director Masaki Domoto, photographed by Kimio Watanabe. Tokyo: Toho DVD, 2006, Disc One: 28 minutes, Disc Two: 175 minutes, 6,300 yen. In 1961 Yukio Mishima published a short story,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 21, 2006

See how Japan's TV entertainment evolved in Fuji TV's drama "The Hit Parade" and more

The model for the modern Japanese talent agency or "production company," which dominates all aspects of show business in Japan, was created by the late Shin Watanabe and his wife, Misa, in 1955. This Friday and Saturday Fuji TV will present a special two-part drama, "The Hit Parade" (9 p.m. each night),...

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