Japan Times: News & Business

People who visited the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, may have stepped into the old two-story Guest House, which stands behind the 40-story main hotel.
The Guest House now hosts a renowned French restaurant, Le Trianon, the Napoleon Bar and several banquet halls.

The captain of the Chinese fishing boat that collided with Japan Coast Guard patrol vessels near the disputed Senkaku Islands could stand trial in the latest bilateral territorial spat, officials said Thursday.
That likelihood increased as the coast guard handed over 41-year-old skipper Zhan Qixiong to prosecutors for further investigation to decide whether to officially charge him, coast guard spokesman Masahiro Ichijo said.

The Japan Coast Guard early Wednesday arrested the captain of a Chinese fishing vessel after his ship hit two Japan Coast Guard patrol boats on Tuesday inside Japanese territorial waters near the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
Because the ship was inside territorial waters, the Japanese Foreign Ministry on Tuesday lodged a protest with Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua by phone. The Chinese Foreign Ministry, in turn, summoned Japanese Ambassador to China Uichiro Niwa on Wednesday to lodge a protest.

WASHINGTON, THE WASHINGTON POST — The European Union is dying — not a dramatic or sudden death, but one so slow and steady that we may look across the Atlantic one day soon and realize that the project of European integration that we've taken for granted over the past half-century is no more.
Europe's decline is partly economic. The financial crisis has taken a painful toll on many EU members, and high national debts and the uncertain health of the continent's banks may mean more trouble ahead. But these woes pale in comparison with a more serious malady: From London to Berlin to Warsaw, Europe is experiencing a renationalization of political life, with countries clawing back the sovereignty they once willingly sacrificed in pursuit of a collective ideal.

As the Democratic Party of Japan's presidential election campaign has passed the halfway point, the differences in political style between the two candidates — Prime Minister Naoto Kan and former DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa — have become clear. On some points, however, they both remain fuzzy.
Mr. Kan appears to favor a setup that takes into account various opinions from within the DPJ before the Cabinet makes a final decision. Mr. Ozawa clearly favors a system in which the Cabinet would monopolize power to make decisions, with the prime minister playing a central role.

Teikyo University Hospital said Wednesday four more people have died among inpatients infected with Acinetobacter, an antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and it will not receive any new admissions for an indefinite period to prevent more infections.
The hospital in Itabashi Ward, Tokyo, said 53 inpatients have been infected, seven more than the 46 already announced. The hospital is currently looking into the cause of the deaths to determine whether Acinetobacter was to blame.

MIYAZAKI (Kyodo) Cow auctions resumed Wednesday in the major livestock center of Miyakonojo, Miyazaki Prefecture, for the first time in about five months, after the prefecture declared late last month an end to the foot-and-mouth epidemic.
The Miyakonojo livestock market shipped the third-most cows in fiscal 2009 among domestic markets and the production value of its beef and pork topped all municipalities in 2006.

McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan) Ltd. says its sales in August hit the highest level for a single month since the company's founding in 1971, rising 5 percent from a year earlier to ¥51.39 billion.
The introduction of new chicken dishes in July and a discount on Big Mac hamburgers as well as brisk sales of iced coffee and other drinks amid the scorching summer helped boost overall sales, the fast food chain said.

The land ministry will promote infrastructure investments in selected areas in a bid to enhance the international competitiveness of the nation's cities, according to officials.
While 65 locations in Hokkaido, Miyagi, Tokyo, Aichi, Osaka, Hyogo, Fukuoka and 10 other prefectures are currently designated as areas for special urban redevelopment projects, the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry will narrow the number to less than half for the new investment program, the officials said.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa is seeking international support for his initiative to protect a national park in an oil-rich area of Ecuador's Amazon rain forest, saying coordinated action is needed to share the "public goods" of a clean environment.
In a speech Tuesday at United Nations University in Tokyo, Correa issued a call for financial contributions to help leave untouched an estimated 850 million barrels of crude oil lying under the country's Yasuni National Park.

The head of the U.N. effort to deal with HIV and AIDS praises Japan for its commitment to the global battle against the pandemic but says domestic organizations need more support in raising awareness here.
Michel Sidibe, executive director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), was in Japan last week to discuss the international and domestic situation surrounding HIV and AIDS with government officials and nongovernmental organizations.

Democratic Party of Japan heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa said Wednesday he will offer Prime Minister Naoto Kan a key Cabinet post if he is elected party leader and thus the next prime minister.
During a news conference in Tokyo ahead of Tuesday's DPJ presidential election, Ozawa also noted that two of his key allies — former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Azuma Koshiishi, who heads the party's Upper House caucus — would also be given key posts to keep the party united after the poll, which many fear could deeply split the DPJ regardless of the result.

A Liberal Democratic Party panel on Wednesday thrashed out its own stimulus package, featuring a ¥5 trillion extra budget for this fiscal year to address the surging yen and falling stock prices, LDP lawmakers said.
The package includes steps to front-load public works projects, expand employment adjustment subsidies for companies and extend the Eco-point subsidy program for environmentally friendly home appliances.

Japan-China diplomatic tensions threatened to boil over Wednesday over collisions between Japan Coast Guard patrol boats and a Chinese fishing vessel near the Senkaku Islands and the ensuing arrest of the trawler's captain.
Both Beijing and Tokyo lodged protests over the incident. According to media reports, about 50 people staged a protest rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, holding up banners, one of which read "Japan get out of Diaoyu Island," using the Chinese name for the disrupted territory.

BEIJING (Kyodo) Visiting Japanese business leaders urged China on Tuesday to drop plans for deep cuts in rare-earth export ceilings for the second half of this year, saying such cuts would have a global impact.
The cuts "will also affect Chinese companies that import components and parts using rare earths (from Japan)," Mitsuo Ohashi, an adviser to Showa Denko K.K., said at a meeting with senior Chinese Industry Ministry officials in Beijing.

Typhoon Malou made landfall in Fukui Prefecture on Wednesday, bringing heavy rain to the central and eastern regions of the country, the Meteorological Agency said.
The typhoon, which hit near Tsuruga on the Sea of Japan coast shortly after 11 a.m., was expected to barrel through eastern Japan on Thursday, with heavy rain likely mainly in the eastern and northeastern regions, it said, warning of possible landslides and strong winds.

Machinery orders and current account surplus figures released Wednesday exceeded forecasts in July even as the yen appreciated, supporting the Bank of Japan's decision to hold off from further monetary easing the previous day.
Orders rose 8.8 percent from June, the biggest gain this year, the Cabinet Office said. July's current-account surplus widened 26 percent from a year earlier to ¥1.676 trillion, a separate report showed.

The yen rose to a new 15-year high against the dollar Wednesday as investors continued to buy the Japanese currency as a safe haven for their money amid uncertainty about the global economic recovery.
The yen climbed to 83.32 in afternoon trading in Tokyo and rose to 83.79 overnight in New York trade. Last month, the yen tested the 83 range for the first time since June 1995.

Major nonfinancial companies expect to boost their combined group pretax profit in fiscal 2010 by 57.5 percent from the previous year on robust exports to emerging countries, a private research institute said in its latest survey report.
The forecast growth for the 353 firms in the year to next March is up only 0.1 percentage point from the previous projection made in June, said Nomura Securities Co.'s Financial & Economic Research Center.

Empress Michiko apparently has cough-variant asthma but will proceed with her official duties as scheduled while receiving medication, the Imperial Household Agency said Wednesday.
The agency said the Empress will be treated with medication for at least two to three months in order to prevent the ailment from developing into bronchial asthma.