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JAPAN
Aug 11, 2005

Nikkei has highest close since April '04 on economy restart announcement

The key Nikkei stock index ended Wednesday at its highest level since late April 2004, racking up the second-largest single-day gain this year after the government said the day before that economic recovery had ended its pause.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2005

Snap election to delay realignment report: Ono

Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono said Wednesday that a joint interim report on realignment of the U.S. military in Japan, initially expected to be compiled in September, will be delayed to October due to the House of Representatives election on Sept. 11.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2005

More nuclear plant mishaps spur Tokai reactor shutdown

A nuclear power plant in the village of Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, shut down a reactor Wednesday for the second time this week after a valve in one of its pumps malfunctioned, the operator said.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Softbank forecasting first operating profit since 2000

Softbank Corp. said Wednesday it is projecting a full-year operating profit for the first time since fiscal 2000 thanks to subscriber growth in its high-speed Internet connection services.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Japan Post finalizing delivery tieup

Japan Post is in final talks to form a capital alliance with Asocia Corp., a delivery company affiliated with the Daimaru Inc. department store chain, in a bid to strengthen its services in areas where it competes with private-sector firms, Japan Post officials said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 11, 2005

Memories of war alive at old military sites

YANAGIMOTO, Nara Pref. -- It's just quiet farmland now, nothing more than fields and a few houses. But if you listen closely as the wind rustles through the rice stalks, you might just be able to hear the ghostly sounds of World War II fighter planes taking off and landing at what was once one of the...
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

July wholesale prices up 1.5% on energy cost rise

Wholesale prices rose a preliminary 1.5 percent in July from a year earlier for the 17th straight month of gain, due mainly to higher energy prices, the Bank of Japan said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Seibu now plans holding firm

Seibu Railway Co. said Wednesday its group has chosen to reconstruct itself under a holding company, deviating from an earlier plan for the railway to absorb other key group members.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Defying record companies, musicians look to iTunes

Japanese musicians under contract with Sony and other labels that haven't joined Apple's iTunes Music Store are starting to defy their recording companies by trying to get their music on the popular download service.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Shiseido sees no synergy from Kanebo bid

Shiseido Co. will withdraw from a series of tenders for Kanebo Ltd. and Kanebo Cosmetics Inc. soon to be held by the Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan, company sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 11, 2005

Remnants of war still buried in Japan

Residents in the western Tokyo suburb of Nishitokyo recently had a World War II flashback.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Pakistan prime minister: invest in boom

Pakistan needs more private foreign investment in infrastructure, energy and other areas to meet the growing demands of its booming economy, the Pakistani prime minister said Wednesday in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2005

Put everything on the table

WASHINGTON -- North Korea's return to six-party negotiations in Beijing has been accompanied by greater civility and seriousness than many expected. Further, the frequent and direct bilateral contacts that have taken place between the U.S. and North Korean delegations -- a softening of the Bush administration's...
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2005

Police launch traffic safety campaign

The National Police Agency said Wednesday it would try to achieve the world's best traffic safety by introducing comprehensive safety education and reviewing licensing requirements for elderly drivers.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2005

Long-term value of new peace memorial

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine have unduly been compounded as a diplomatic issue in Japan's relations with China and South Korea. It seems that Chinese and Korean leaders consider the visits supportive of moves by some Japanese to "legitimize the wrongs of the past."
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Government seeks to keep 3% cost cut target in budget

The government hopes to trim public-works spending by at least 3 percent in the fiscal 2006 budget, the same modest cost cuts made for this fiscal year, according to budget compilation guidelines submitted Wednesday to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Aug 11, 2005

Little grebe

* Japanese name: Kaitsuburi * Scientific name: Tachybaptus ruficollis * Description: Little grebes, also known as dabchicks, are quite small and rather dumpy birds with blunt rear ends. They are dark brown, with a chestnut-brown throat and face. This chestnut color becomes richer and more shiny...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 11, 2005

A-bomb gene 'shadow' may be fading

One of the strongest memories I have of a trip to Hiroshima that I made a few years ago is of the shadow on the steps of the Sumitomo Bank. Someone had been sitting on those steps, probably waiting for the bank to open, when at 8.15 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1945, a bomb went off.
EDITORIALS
Aug 10, 2005

North Korea's choice

Predictably, the fourth round of talks over North Korea's nuclear-weapons programs broke off last weekend in stalemate. Progress was evident during the marathon negotiations, however, so the break is only a recess: Representatives from the six parties to the talks -- China, Japan, North Korea, Russia,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 10, 2005

Daylight-saving time always a tough sell

Pity the proponents of daylight-saving time. Late last month, the third bill drafted to revive the energy-saving practice was put on the Diet's back burner, delayed by filibustering over postal privatization.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2005

Slovakia boasts an investment hub, envoy says

Slovakia, a recent EU entrant from Central Europe with low labor costs, can be a highly attractive destination for Japanese investors, Slovakian Ambassador to Japan Peter Vrsansky said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2005

Politicians begin plotting strategies for Sept. 11 poll

Campaigning for the Sept. 11 Lower House general election effectively got under way Tuesday, one day after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dissolved the chamber on the heels of the House of Councilors' rejection of his postal privatization bills.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2005

Record 566 teachers judged incompetent

A record 566 teachers in public schools were ruled incompetent by local boards of education in the 2004 school year, up 85 from the year before, according to a government survey released Tuesday.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight