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COMMENTARY / World
Feb 12, 2006

A yen to help a dictatorship

LONDON -- So Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are now working to help support the dictatorship of the people in China -- as managed on their behalf by the Chinese Communist Party. So are most of the world's multinational companies -- as well as you (and me).
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 12, 2006

Still life on a moving train

SUBWAY LOVE, photos by Nobuyoshi Araki with an interview (bilingual: English/Japanese), art direction by Toshine Ishihama. Tokyo: IBC Publishing, 2005, 226 pp., over 200 b/w images, 3,200 yen (paper). Between 1963 and 1972, photographer Nobuyoshi Araki took the subway to work. Always with his cameras,...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 12, 2006

Fathoming the depths and heights of Japan's intercultural encounters

JAPAN'S LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE WEST by Sukehiro Hirakawa. Folkstone: Global Oriental, 2005, 557 pp., £50 (cloth). Rudyard Kipling, one of the most popular writers in the English tongue of his generation, addressed his poem "The White Man's Burden" to the American people in 1899 -- when the...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 12, 2006

Hosting is ghosting in as respectable profession

The reported improvement in the ratio of jobs to job seekers is good news for the nation's leaders, and not just because it indicates better economic health.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 12, 2006

Building scandals expose society's uncaring foundation

Japan is in the throes of two scandals that highlight a stunning flaw in the social order. For all its much-trumpeted national cohesion and the lip service paid in Japan to the people's sense of nasake (compassion, sympathy, mercy), these scandals are stark reminders that public welfare and the common...
Japan Times
Features
Feb 12, 2006

Refuge of Last Resort

It is 9 o'clock on a freezing winter's morning in Sanya, eastern Tokyo, a blighted downtown district that was once famed as a day laborers' mecca. Now, it is home to thousands of aging men on welfare.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 12, 2006

Quiz show 'Nep-League' on Fuji TV, Jo Odagiri in TV Asahi's 'Jiko Keisatsu' and more

One of the most popular new game shows is "Nep-League" (Fuji, Monday, 7 p.m.), starring the comedy trio Neptunes. The quizzes are based on word games that test knowledge of Chinese characters and arcane vocabulary. The show is also famous for its game-arcade atmosphere. The tests are time-intensive and...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 11, 2006

Mourinho's constant moaning comes at a cost for Chelsea

LONDON -- Dear Jose (if I can call you that as opposed to Senior Mourinho),
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 11, 2006

Ogura announces retirement

Former Japan striker Takafumi Ogura has announced his retirement after a 14-year professional playing career, officials of his J. League first-division club Ventforet Kofu said Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2006

Kansai business leaders get political

KYOTO -- A key annual gathering of senior business leaders in the Kansai region ended Friday with calls to improve relations with China and South Korea and to create an East Asian economic bloc.
EDITORIALS
Feb 11, 2006

A pension for their thoughts

The Diet last week passed a bill, effective in April, to abolish the controversial pension system for members of the national legislature. Proposed by the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito, it is a halfhearted measure because it preserves, although in a reduced form, special...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2006

English abusers finally get their day in the sun

"Please be careful to forget valuables" has received the Sign Language Award at the Amazing English Hunt 2005 awards, the English-Speaking Union of Japan, a nonprofit organization to promote international exchanges through English, and eigoTwown.com, which runs a Web site offering English education information,...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2006

Toshiba suspected of falsifying more reactor flow meter data

Electronics maker Toshiba Corp. might have again falsified data on three coolant flow meters for a reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co., in addition to one at the utility firm's Fukushima No. 1 power plant, government nuclear safety inspectors said...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2006

Koizumi relegates succession bill to debate

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi indicated Friday the government will not submit a bill to allow for female monarchs until it sees the results of discussions on the issue within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2006

Adopted bills add more pain to elderly health care

The government adopted a package of bills Friday to limit its health-care costs as part of an overall medical reform plan.
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2006

Management buyouts break record in 2005

The number of management buyouts in 2005 hit a record 67, surpassing the previous high of 43 in 2004, merger and acquisitions concern Recof Corp. said Friday.
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2006

Household consumption off 0.7%

Household consumption spending averaged 300,903 yen per month in Japan in 2005, down 0.7 percent from the previous year in real terms after adjustment for price changes, the government said in a preliminary report Friday.
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2006

Wholesale prices up 23rd straight month

Wholesale prices in Japan grew 2.7 percent in January from a year earlier, marking the fastest growth in nearly 16 years, the Bank of Japan said Friday.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes