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EDITORIALS
Jul 14, 2005

Shutting down business fraud

Today's communities in Japan, especially impersonal big cities, are becoming hostile places in many ways for elderly people living alone. New gangs of criminals, who often pose as kind and soft-spoken business operators, are eager to swindle the elderly out of their life savings. These con artists know...
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2005

Government looks to seize loan shark assets for victim redress

The Justice Ministry may help out loan sharking victims by imposing penalties on and seizing the assets of loan sharks via criminal trials and channeling the money into victim compensation funds, government sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2005

Tokyo condo market shrinks 5.3%

The number of condominiums put on the market in the Tokyo metropolitan area in the first half of 2005 fell 5.3 percent from the year before to 38,398 units, the Real Estate Economic Institute said Wednesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jul 14, 2005

Japanese littleneck clam

* Japanese name: Asari * Scientific name: Ruditapes philippinarum * Description: Clams are bivalve mollusks, meaning that they are shellfish, like mussels and oysters. The shells are elongated and pinched together in the center where they join. There are both radial and concentric ribs on the...
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2005

Top court to rule on suits to void poll

The Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision on appeals filed by a group of lawyers seeking to invalidate the November 2003 election for Diet members in some constituencies, citing disproportionate allotments of seats that did not reflect population density.
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2005

Seoul names warship after Tok-do

Japan said Wednesday it would protest South Korea's decision to name a naval ship after islets it controls that are also claimed by Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2005

Big-name firms expected to bid on Kanebo bailout

Kao Corp., L'Oreal SA and Proctor & Gamble Co. are among firms expected to bid on struggling Kanebo Ltd. and Kanebo Cosmetics Inc. when the Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan issues requests for tenders, industry sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2005

Bots engage in pitch battle as RoboCup kicks off

OSAKA -- Excitement ripples through the onlookers as the players take their positions on the pitch. The whistle blows, and the match begins. But just as one player clears the ball and starts racing toward the goalposts, the referee blows a whistle.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Jul 14, 2005

"The Opal Deception," "Solomon Snow and the Stolen Jewel"

"The Opal Deception," Eoin Colfer, Puffin Books; 2005; 344 pp. There's only one person on the planet who can have had more fun than I did reading "The Opal Deception" -- the guy who wrote it.
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2005

Ishihara's faux pas over French language spurs suit

A French-language teacher and 20 other plaintiffs sued Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara on Wednesday over his remarks about the French language last year.
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2005

Teikoku Oil to be granted drilling rights in East China Sea

The government is set to grant Teikoku Oil Co. concessions later this week to conduct exploratory drilling in the East China Sea, a senior official at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Wednesday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 14, 2005

No need to blush if you become red-faced after a few

Whatever your job and background, drunken conversations between work colleagues have much in common. However, a phrase that I often heard in Japan but have heard nowhere else is, "I have an inactive form of aldehyde dehydrogenase."
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2005

Current account surplus declined 19.5% in May

The current account surplus shrank 19.5 percent in May from a year earlier to 1.38 trillion, yen the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2005

Tokyo still weak on human-trafficking: U.N. investigator

The government will have to do much more than just revise a few laws to combat human-trafficking, the U.N. special rapporteur on the problem said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2005

Tokyo-Seoul rift threatens U.S. interest

WASHINGTON -- Despite efforts during last month's summit between South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun and President George W. Bush in Washington to speak with "one voice" about the health of the alliance and to improve policy coordination toward North Korea, the summit saw the emergence of a potentially...
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2005

Koizumi confident as postal bills hit last stage

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday he is confident his contentious package of postal privatization bills won't be rejected by the House of Councilors and there will be no need to dissolve the House of Representatives.
COMMENTARY
Jul 14, 2005

Unraveling motives of terror

LONDON -- After months of careful planning, it has been the turn of London to suffer the carnage already familiar to the people of Madrid, Jakarta, Casablanca, Riyadh, Istanbul, New York (although not on the same scale) and many other world cities.
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2005

Bots engage in pitch battle as RoboCup kicks off

OSAKA -- Excitement ripples through the onlookers as the players take their positions on the pitch. The whistle blows, and the match begins. But just as one player clears the ball and starts racing toward the goalposts, the referee blows a whistle.
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2005

Ishihara's faux pas over French language spurs suit

A French-language teacher and 20 other plaintiffs sued Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara on Wednesday over his remarks about the French language last year.
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2005

Government to take ads on official publications

The government will allow private-sector companies to run advertisements in its printed publications, including posters, brochures and white papers, to create a new financial resource for the nation's coffers, sources said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2005

Oil-price rises may hold recovery hostage: experts

Rising oil prices have yet to faze Japan. But with oil experts projecting further hikes to as much as $80 a barrel, the nation should brace itself for direct and indirect hits on its recovery in the not-so-distant future, economists say.
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2005

Stagnation ending, Fukui says

The economy is breaking out of its brief stagnant period and heading back toward recovery, with strength in the corporate sector spilling over to the household sector, Bank of Japan Gov. Toshihiko Fukui said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2005

Lawyers stand firm, boycott refugee appeal hearings

A group of lawyers representing refugee applicants began boycotting appeals hearings Wednesday as promised, after the Justice Ministry's Immigration Bureau rejected their requests for greater information disclosure.

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