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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 4, 2001

In love with the Harley legend

It's Sunday afternoon in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, and the local Harley-Davidson shop, American Street, is playing host to a stream of visitors in black leather jackets.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 4, 2001

Cities that go with the flow

LEARNING FROM THE JAPANESE CITY: West Meets East in Urban Design, by Barrie Shelton. London: E. and F.N. Spon/Routledge, 2001, 210 pp., profusely illustrated, 42.50 British pounds (cloth) In this interesting study of Japanese urban space, the author writes that when he thinks of the Western city he envisions...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 4, 2001

Thrift store retail that wags the dog

WASHINGTON -- Jeanie Naumann, manager of Wagging Tails Thrifts and Gift, says she can hardly believe it herself. It seems she just had to open the store, and the donations, volunteers, customers and profits started rolling in.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 4, 2001

Isabella Bird's letters from Japan

UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN: An Account of Travels in the Interior Including Visits to the Aborigines of Yezo and the Shrines of Nikko, by Isabella L. Bird. New York: ICG Muse, 2000, 1,700 yen, 342 pp. (paper) "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan" documents the journeys of Isabella Bird, an extraordinary woman for...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Nov 4, 2001

When everyone gets in on the act

The father of a good friend told me a story about coming to Japan for the first time in the mid-'80s to attend a large conference. On their last day in Tokyo, he and several colleagues decided to splurge at a traditional fine-dining restaurant and experience true Japanese fare.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 4, 2001

Sushi that fits the bill in attitude and price

Shinbotchi's take on the ancient art of sushi is much the same approach that the rag trade of back-street Harajuku adopts toward the world of fashion.
BUSINESS
Nov 3, 2001

Tobishima cuts earnings forecast

General contractor Tobishima Corp. said Friday it has revised downward its group earnings forecast for the first half and the full year of fiscal 2001, due largely to deteriorating profit margins in private-sector construction jobs.
JAPAN / JOB JITTERS
Nov 3, 2001

Retirement not always time to relax

The red, blue and green flags of labor unions fluttered in front of the towering headquarters of a major bank in Tokyo's Marunouchi business district in early September as about 200 workers shouted, "The bank ought to carry out its social responsibility" and "We don't forgive the bank for dismissing...
BUSINESS
Nov 3, 2001

Takebe hits back at criticism from Washington over WTO

Farm minister Tsutomu Takebe rebuked U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick on Friday for criticizing Japan's "narrow minded" attitude toward the launch of a new round of trade liberalization negotiations under the World Trade Organization.
BUSINESS
Nov 3, 2001

Reform of public entities wins little ministry support

Government ministries and agencies are showing little enthusiasm for abolishing or reducing the amount of subsidies to public corporations under their jurisdiction, according to their individual reform plans released Friday.
BUSINESS
Nov 3, 2001

Tire maker to build China plant

Yokohama Rubber Co., the nation's second-largest tire maker, said Friday that it will set up a joint company in China in January to make and sell car tires.
BUSINESS
Nov 3, 2001

LDP wants to set target for inflation

An amendment to the Bank of Japan Law endorsed Friday by a Liberal Democratic Party working group includes a provision to set an inflation target, according to LDP officials.
BUSINESS
Nov 3, 2001

Economy deteriorating, government confirms

Economic and fiscal policy minister Heizo Takenaka said Friday that the economy is deteriorating further, signaling that the government plans to downgrade its assessment of the state of the economy in a report later this month.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2001

Health ministry to start rubella vaccination drive

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has decided to take steps to assist people who were not vaccinated against German measles, a dangerous illness for pregnant women, due to an amendment of the Preventive Vaccination Law, ministry sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2001

Palau banks on environment to bring in the tourist dollars

The president of the Republic of Palau said Thursday that his island nation will protect its environment through education and the selective admission of foreign capital, while promoting tourism as its major industry.
BUSINESS
Nov 3, 2001

Trade groups to lobby for new talks

Japanese and European business lobbies will contrive to put a wide range of issues on the agenda at a new round of World Trade Organization talks, officials at the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2001

Delegates shape Kyoto Protocol's future

Conventional wisdom has it that the devil is in the details. It is exactly devilish details that are waiting for climate-change negotiators trying to put the finishing touches on the Kyoto climate accord at negotiations in Marrakesh, Morocco that will run until Nov. 9.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2001

Tokyo ready to introduce hotel tax

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government on Friday announced it will introduce a hotel tax of up to 200 yen per head for each overnight stay at a hotel or other lodging facility in the nation's capital.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2001

U.S. policy crucial to stability

U.S. President George W. Bush has injected potentially destabilizing dynamics into the domestic political arenas of many nations by pressuring all countries essentially to swear loyalty oaths to the United States and to work with him in going "after terrorism wherever we find it in the world . . . getting...
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2001

Japan offers judge for Khmer Rouge trial

Japan plans to nominate Kuniji Shibahara, a professor of law at Gakushuin University, to serve as a judge at a United Nations-assisted tribunal to be set up in Cambodia to bring leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime to justice, government sources said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Nov 3, 2001

Settling the CDJ suits out of court

As with many similar cases in the past, negotiations between the state and other parties for an out-of-court settlement to lawsuits in which former medical patients and bereaved family members are seeking compensation from the importer of dried dura mater have been making little progress. The plaintiffs...
SOCCER / World cup
Nov 3, 2001

Second chance to buy World Cup tickets

A unique pre-registering system has been introduced to purchase World Cup tickets when the second round of ticket sales starts on Nov. 19, the Japanese World Cup Organizing Committee announced Friday.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2001

Applications to universities increase 1.6%

A total of 3,461,591 people applied for enrollment at Japanese universities in April, up 1.6 percent from a year earlier, according to a recent education ministry poll.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2001

Kamei becomes new head of death penalty abolitionists

Shizuka Kamei, a former policy chief of the Liberal Democratic Party, on Friday became head of a group of 76 Diet members who want to abolish the death penalty in Japan.
BUSINESS
Nov 3, 2001

British unit of Nifco changes name

Elta Plastics Ltd., a British subsidiary of Nifco Inc., the leading industrial plastic fastener maker, changed its name to Nifco U.K. Ltd., effective Thursday.

Longform

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