Jezyk urzedowy : japonskiFresh Japanese News
The Japan Times: All Stories >  |
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| Government reaches out to North Korea for abduction talks |
| A government official close to Jin Matsubara, the minister in charge of addressing the abduction of Japanese by North Korea, has sent a message to Pyongyang seeking talks with officials of the Workers' Party of Korea, according to sources. The message was delivered through a member of the assembly in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, who visited North Korea last week, but officials there withheld response, saying Pyongyang wants to watch carefully the Japanese government's attitude, including that of Matsubara, the sources said Friday.
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| Day care workers deserve better |
| Day care centers — known as hoiku-jo or hoiku-en — take care of one of the country's most precious resources — its children. However, the failure of the central government to provide sufficient subsidies has led to chronic shortages of day care workers. The difficulties in attracting workers meant 25,556 children remained on waiting lists to enter day care centers in 2011. The current hiring and salary system demands improvement. Day care workers' average monthly salary stands at ¥220,000, according to a government survey of wage structures in 2011. As a result, of the 1.06 million people qualified as day care workers, only 367,000 currently work at day care. Salaries scarcely increase even with years of experience.
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| Private rail lines want Diet ranks to pay up |
| Both the Lower and Upper houses have failed for the last 20 years to respond to requests from an association of private railways to pay for the free train passes member companies provide to lawmakers. The Association of Japanese Private Railways said it has been asking both Diet chambers to fork over money for the passes, but neither house has ever processed the requests.
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| Cubs' Wood retires after one final K |
| Kerry Wood arrived in the majors 14 years ago, a fresh-faced kid with No. 34 on his back, slinging fastballs at 160 kph, delivering breaking pitches that were often unhittable and striking out 20 batters in just his fifth start. On Friday, he left the game after one final, emotional appearance with the Chicago Cubs.
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| Artist creates Yokohama bodhisattvas |
| Eleven bodhisattvas stand in formation, their heads crowned and their almond-shaped eyes and faces dusted with gold. The scene could be a reenactment of a painting, or a sculpture in a Buddhist temple or museum. But it's not. It's a scene beheld one recent Sunday afternoon at the shopping center in Yokohama's Noge district — and the potential Buddhas are in reality just regular Earthlings.
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| The wonder of feathers |
| A soft flake of seeming sky falls, wafts and floats earthward catching the light. Lightly, and soft as gossamer, it lands to add a splash of color to the greenery of spring. It may be no more than a tiny feather that's fallen from a passing bird, but it carries with it a message of mystery and miracle from the heavens. Not all creatures that fly have feathers — witness bats, insects, even some reptiles, amphibians and fish. Flight is a challenge that many groups of organisms have risen to independently at different times during their evolutionary histories, whenever need or advantage arose.
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| Water supply cut off over formaldehyde |
| Five water-purification plants in Chiba, Saitama and Gunma prefectures halted some filtration operations Friday and Saturday after hazardous formaldehyde was detected, stirring fears the contamination came from the upstream part of a major river system of the Kanto region. Saitama Prefecture halted water intake and supply at one of its filtration plants after formaldehyde exceeding permitted limits was found in tap water there, and Chiba stopped water intake at three plants after detecting the substance. Gunma followed suit.
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| Kisenosato recovers to set up grandstand finish |
| Kisenosato rebounded from back-to-back losses to blast out fellow ozeki Harumafuji, and rank-and-filers Tochiozan and Kyokutenho both pulled off upset wins Saturday to send the title race down to the wire at the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament. All three wrestlers improved to 11-3 ahead of Sunday's final round of bouts, while lone yokozuna Hakuho also won handsomely to stay on the co-leaders tails and in contention for his 23rd Emperor's Cup.
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| Noda, EU leaders unite on tackling debt crisis |
| Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has agreed with European Union leaders to work together in addressing Europe's sovereign debt crisis, a Japanese official said. Noda was quoted as telling European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Friday that a "recovery in the European economy is indispensable for global stability and prosperity" while pointing out Japan has already provided help to alleviate the crisis.
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| TV: no longer the drug of the people |
| Last week, Japan's fifth largest discount electronics retailer, Bic Camera, announced it would soon obtain a 50 percent share of Japan's sixth-largest discount electronics retailer, Kojima, thus making the combined companies Japan's second-largest electronics retailer. Bic operates 34 stores in large cities while Kojima has about 200 in the suburbs. The deal would give the combined companies greater leverage to negotiate lower prices with manufacturers. That sounds like good news for consumers, but it's also a clear indication of how desperate the home-electronics situation is. The record losses recently reported by Sony and Panasonic for fiscal 2011 were worthy of front-page headlines in overseas newspapers. Sharp is also swimming in red ink. The company saw a 30 percent decline in year-on-year sales due to sluggish demand for liquid crystal displays in Japan, thus forcing it to accept investment help from a Taiwanese company, but even with that Sharp has already predicted a deficit of ¥30 billion for fiscal 2012.
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| Talented youngster Aranami brings excitement to BayStars lineup |
| The question is often asked: "What will happen to Japanese baseball if the star players keep going to play in the major leagues?" My response is always the same: "Japanese baseball will be fine. In order for the stars to keep going, they will have to keep coming." And they do.
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| DPJ may try to extend Diet till year's end to get tax hike OK |
| Executives of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan are considering a long extension for the current Diet session, including all the way to the end of the year, according to sources. The legislative session is currently slated to end June 21.
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| The sky's the limit |
| After the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11 last year, the performance of the spectacularly tall Tokyo Sky Tree going up in the capital's downtown Sumida Ward became a subject of heightened interest to experts, residents and the general public alike. Tobu Tower Sky Tree, the corporate owner of the project, reported that no structural damage resulted from the magnitude-9 temblor, whose epicenter was some 350 km to the north off the Pacific coast of Miyagi Prefecture.
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| Kings attempt to keep focus |
| Dwight King has been living in a hotel since the Los Angeles Kings recalled him from the minors just over three months ago, and the playoff hero isn't about to move out of his temporary digs. He's not tempting fate while the Kings are on the verge of exceeding his wildest dreams for his first NHL postseason run.
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