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JAPAN
Aug 17, 2001

Koizumi received religious purification at Yasukuni

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi received ritual purification when he paid homage to the nation's war dead at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on Monday, an act that critics believe may violate the Constitution, a shrine official said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2001

Travelers abroad report more crime

A record 8,347 Japanese nationals sought assistance or advice at overseas embassies and consulates in 2000 after becoming victims of crimes, up 10 percent from the previous year, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2001

Robbers tie 10 up in bar, kill manager

A group of men stormed a hostess club in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on Thursday morning, fatally stabbing the manager and tying up the other 10 people in the establishment during a robbery, police said. Investigators believe the culprits may be Chinese.
BUSINESS
Aug 17, 2001

Free up assets by renting warehouses: ProLogis

The conventional practice of maintaining warehouses as corporate assets may be a thing of the past as asset prices fall and companies face fierce competition, according to Stuart Gibson, vice president of ProLogis Japan.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2001

Revision of GDP shows gain of 0.1%

The government on Thursday revised economic growth upward for the January-March quarter to a real 0.1 percent growth over the previous quarter, following its preliminary prediction of a 0.2 percent contraction.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2001

Population decline not all bad news

Japan's population is charting a downward trajectory.
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Aug 17, 2001

Fire-bellied newt

* Japanese name:Imori * Scientific name:Cynops pyrrhogaster * Description: Fire-bellied newts have rough, blackish-brown skin and a vibrant, crimson-orange belly. This is the most common salamander in Japan, found from Honshu to Kyushu. Females grow to between 8 and 14 cm (including the tail);...
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2001

Yamasaki heads to Southeast Asia

Taku Yamasaki, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, left Japan on Thursday morning for a nine-day visit to five Southeast Asian countries.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2001

Strong yen slaps down Nikkei 225

Tokyo shares plunged Thursday as the strong yen dragged down the earnings prospects of major exporters in the manufacturing and high-tech sectors.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2001

Postal connection widens in Koso vote-rigging case

OSAKA -- Vote-rigging charges surrounding the election of Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Kenji Koso, a former senior official of the posts ministry, continued to widen Thursday with the arrest of a former head of the general affairs bureau of the Kinki Postal Administration Office.
BUSINESS
Aug 17, 2001

Dollar, yen both seen being weighed down

Last week's U.S. Federal Reserve report on stagnant regional economic conditions has weighed on the dollar's value.
BUSINESS
Aug 17, 2001

DoCoMo's 3G service disappoints users in trial

At the end of May, Kazunori Hagiwara was thrilled to be chosen to try out NTT DoCoMo's next-generation cellphone system.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2001

Numerous problems slow efforts to safely scrap retired Russian nuclear submarines

BOLSHOI KAMEN, Russia -- Propped up onshore amid heaps of scrap metal at the Zvezda shipyard is one of the largest vehicles ever to cruise the planet -- the five-story hulk of a submarine that once carried intercontinental ballistic missiles targeting the United States.
EDITORIALS
Aug 16, 2001

Rome's unseemly retreat

Determined to avoid another bloody fiasco like last month's Group of Eight summit in Genoa, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has asked the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization to move the World Food Summit, which is scheduled to be held in November in Rome, to Africa. That would be a mistake:...
COMMENTARY
Aug 16, 2001

Missed chance at Yasukuni

Japan's neighbors are expressing great indignation over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Aug. 13 visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, where the spirits of 14 convicted World War II war criminals are enshrined among some 2.5 million of Japan's war dead over the past two centuries. His decision to go early,...
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2001

Koizumi makes amity pledge at annual surrender day rites

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pledged that Japan will never again isolate itself from the world but will seek only amity with its neighbors, during a secular ceremony Wednesday marking the 56th anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender.
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2001

Stores battle loss of foreign tenants

With Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Hermes and other famed foreign fashion brands launching their own shops in Tokyo, department store chains are seeking ways to attract customers other than depending on foreign names.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2001

Trilateral talks on North Korea set for September

Japan, South Korea and the United States are planning to hold expert-level talks early next month in Tokyo to coordinate policies regarding North Korea, a Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2001

Government hopes to mend ties at APEC

The government plans to have Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi hold talks with his Chinese and South Korean counterparts on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in Shanghai in October to try to mend soured relations, government sources said.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2001

Bon finishes; return rush begins

The return rush from Bon midsummer holidays started Wednesday as vacationers jammed roads, railway stations and airports on the way back from hometowns and tourist resorts. According to airlines and Japan Railway companies, this summer's return rush is expected to last several days, and congestion will...
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2001

Ikeda school gets new building after June stabbings

OSAKA -- The elementary school in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, where eight children were fatally stabbed in June, completed construction of a temporary schoolhouse Wednesday for the resumption of classes this month.

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