search

 
 
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2006

Poorest nations to get help marketing specialty goods

The government will help poor nations market their specialty goods in Japan under the "one village, one product" initiative in line with an aid package presented in December, officials said Saturday.
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2006

SESC probes Livedoor for shady trading in takeover

The securities watchdog has been probing the possibility of insider trading related to Livedoor Co.'s takeover of a used automobile dealer, sources said Saturday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 29, 2006

Sifting through the geeks -- that's all of us -- to identify the perverts

Less than a week after the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki on Jan. 17, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia had not only recorded the ruling in its entry on Miyazaki, but had added an incisive note. When the Miyazaki case was dominating the headlines in 1989, he...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 29, 2006

Understanding, visiting and living in North Korea

NORTH KOREA IN THE 21ST CENTURY: An interpretative Guide, by J.E. Hoare and Susan Pares. Global Oriental, 2005, 253 pp., including index, references/bibliography, b/w illustrations, £14.95 (paper). Jim Hoare opened the British Embassy in Pyongyang in 2001 and was the first British diplomat and charge...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jan 29, 2006

Nihon TV dramatizes Harutoshi Fukui's best-selling novel "Sengoku Jietai" and more

On Jan. 31 and Feb. 7 at 9 p.m., Nihon TV will present a two-part dramatization of Harutoshi Fukui's best-selling fantasy novel "Sengoku Jietai (Warring Nations Self-Defense Forces)," which was adapted as a big-budget movie last year.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 29, 2006

Graphic view of Pyongyang

PYONGYANG: A Journey in North Korea, by Guy Delisle, translated by Helge Dascher. Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly, 2005, 176 pp., $19.95 (cloth). A consideration of North Korea must be, one supposes, a howl of rage, a moan of despair, or some combination, and this anger and despair must certainly be molded...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2006

Ministry to pay for CJD autopsies

The health ministry plans to provide 250,000 yen to subsidize each autopsy of a person suspected to dying from sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease to confirm whether they died from that or variant CJD, which is linked to mad cow disease, officials said Saturday.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 29, 2006

With Horie's downfall, who can young Japan look up to?

The media has had a field day with Takafumi Horie, the 33-year-old founder of the communications firm Livedoor.
COMMENTARY
Jan 29, 2006

Cheap ride on U.S. security

As a "rising" China presses on its maritime frontiers in the East and South China Seas, tensions with Japan are increasing rapidly because of the maritime basis of Japanese security. Yet Japan thinks it can reduce defense spending, continue to rely on the United States for its strategic security, and...
Japan Times
Features
Jan 29, 2006

Cultures combined in the mists of time

Adopt "a correct view of history," China and South Korea demand of Japan. Fair enough. We can all agree on the merits of a "correct view" of anything. The difficulty is to define "correct.''
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2006

New HIV, AIDS cases top 1,000

The combined number of people in Japan newly infected with the HIV virus and the number of new AIDS cases came to 1,124 in 2005, topping 1,000 for the second consecutive year, a health ministry panel said in a preliminary report.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 29, 2006

A reliquary for the story of Buddha

BUDDHISM: On the Path to Nirvana, by Swati Chopra, foreword by Lokesh Chandra, photo editor Lance Dane. New Delhi: Brijbasi Art Press, Ltd., 2005, 160 pp., 200 color photos, $35 (cloth). The true accomplishments of any leader are often compromised when legend wraps itself around the man himself. This...
SOCCER / J. League
Jan 28, 2006

Gamba, Urawa to open J. League

The J. League will kick off its 2006 season on March 4 with a clash between defending champion Gamba Osaka and Urawa Reds, runnerup in 2005, the league announced Friday.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jan 28, 2006

Closer Kobayashi earns raise

Chiba Lotte Marines right-handed closer Masahide Kobayashi received a 20 million yen pay increase Friday, re-signing on a two-year deal worth an estimated 250 million yen in annual salary.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 28, 2006

Forcing Eriksson out early makes perpetrators look weak

LONDON -- The hypocrisy, double-talk, deceit and lies have plummeted to new depths this week.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2006

Gangster nabbed for gun-running

Police arrested a member of the Inagawa-kai underworld syndicate and raided 10 locations, including a Yokohama office controlled by the mob Friday, on suspicion the gang was attempting to smuggle guns and explosives into Japan, police sources said.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2006

Livedoor overvalued publisher for gains: sources

The Livedoor Co. group deliberately overassessed the value of a publisher owned by an investment union it controlled to increase the gains made from share sales, which were then passed on to it through investor dividends, sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2006

Core CPI rises 0.1% for second straight month

In yet another sign that deflation may be dead, the nationwide core consumer price index, excluding volatile perishables, grew 0.1 percent in December for the second straight month, the government said in a preliminary report Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2006

Three-prong North Korea talks set for Feb. 4

Japan and North Korea will begin the first of three-track normalization talks on Feb. 4 in Beijing, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2006

Livedoor nemesis now rescuer

Livedoor Co. on Friday asked Fuji Television Network Inc. to support its efforts to recover during the two firms' first executive-level talks since prosecutors raided Livedoor's offices on Jan. 16 over alleged Securities and Exchange Law violations, Fuji TV President Koichi Murakami said.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2006

Imperial Couple to tour S.E. Asia

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko will make a weeklong visit to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand in June, the government said Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2006

Mom held in fire that killed daughter

A 29-year-old woman was arrested Friday on suspicion of setting her apartment in Koto Ward, Tokyo, on fire, killing her 4-year-old daughter, police officials said.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2006

Hotelier beats checks, drops disabled access

Toyoko Inn Co. admitted Friday that some of its business hotels in Yokohama and other areas removed mandatory parking facilities for the disabled after authorities certified them as barrier-free.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2006

Support for Cabinet falls to 52.9%

The approval rate for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet stood at 52.9 percent in January, down 4.2 percentage points from the previous month, a Kyodo News poll of 1,007 people showed Friday.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2006

U.S. Democrats urge Japan to halt nuclear fuel plan

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) Six U.S. Democrats have urged Japan to suspend its plan to begin a test operation to extract plutonium at a nuclear-waste reprocessing facility in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, Democratic congressional sources said Thursday.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’