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SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Oct 3, 2004

Ricoh moves atop Top League table, upsets Kobe 27-21

The heaviest back in Japanese rugby, Masato Morishima (107 kg), and one of the most frightening sights on the paddock (a rampaging Ipolito Fenukitau) helped the Ricoh Black Rams go top of the Top League following their 27-21 win over the Kobe Kobelco Steelers at Tokyo's Chichibunomiya on Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 3, 2004

Bookbite

JAPANESE: Phrasebook. Lonely Planet, 255 pp., 2004 (Fourth edition), $7.99 (cloth). For the complete beginner of Japanese, this tiny phrase book covers pronunciation, simple phrases, numbers (including some of the different ways to count in Japanese), times, dates, the usual tourist necessities and even...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 3, 2004

TBS's "Around the World! Dream and Romance and Money" and more

Popular boy band Tokio is on an economic kick this week. On the Oct. 3 installment of their weekly Nihon TV show "Tetsuwan Dash," three members are dropped off in Zurich, Switzerland. Each armed with only 10,000 yen in cash, they have to see how far that money can take them.
Japan Times
Features
Oct 3, 2004

Teddy bares all

Long before baseball's Ichiro Suzuki or soccer's Hidetoshi Nakata became stars overseas, in 1987 a 15-year-old boy from Asahikawa in Hokkaido flew to London on his way to taking the ballet world by storm just a few years later.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2004

Repair schemes can't please all nations

HONOLULU -- The proposal that Japan, India, Germany and Brazil become permanent members of the U.N. Security Council is almost certain to fail, but it may trigger sweeping reforms in a 1945 institution incapable of coping with the issues of 2005.
COMMENTARY
Oct 3, 2004

Bleak hopes for democracy

LONDON -- The U.N. secretary general recently reaffirmed that the war in Iraq was illegal in the absence of a second U.N. resolution. Last week, Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted at the Labour Party Conference that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction and that the intelligence alleging the...
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Oct 3, 2004

Koike vows to sway business sector on carbon tax

Yuriko Koike, reappointed as the environment minister, says Japan needs a carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
EDITORIALS
Oct 3, 2004

A Starbucks-saturated planet

A re we tired of Starbucks yet? Apparently not in Japan, where, after a dip into the red last year, the company reported a higher-than-expected surge in profits this past summer, fueled by cost-cutting strategies and a boom in sales of Strawberry Cream Frappuccinos. While a few unprofitable stores have...
CULTURE / Music
Oct 3, 2004

Yokohama Jazz Promenade

Yokohama is Japan's hometown of jazz, and though Kobe and Tokyo can claim bragging rights, those cities never put on as impressive a festival as the annual Yokohama Jazz Promenade, which takes place Oct. 9 and 10 this year.
EDITORIALS
Oct 2, 2004

Recommitting to nuclear safety

A government panel investigating the Aug. 9 nuclear reactor accident, which killed five workers and injured six others, has published an interim report that reveals a pattern of loose safety management. The central message is that the tragedy -- the worst in the history of Japan's nuclear power industry...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2004

Last staff exit Fuji weather station; outlook automated

The Meteorological Agency pulled out its last employees from the weather station atop Mount Fuji on Friday, automating the facility that had been regularly staffed since 1932.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2004

Japan will continue fueling Arabian Sea warships for free

Japan intends to continue providing free fuel to U.S. warships in the Arabian Sea, despite a pact that allows it to charge fees, according to government sources.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2004

Chiyoda smoking ban a blazing success

Friday marked two years since Chiyoda Ward became the nation's first municipality to enforce a "living environment ordinance" aimed primarily at prohibiting smokers from lighting up in public and throwing cigarette butts on the streets.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2004

DPJ policy chief's remarks seen as endorsing terrorism

The policy chief of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan has suggested that a car-burning incident at the Diet on Friday should have occurred at the Prime Minister's Office.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2004

New locations sought for U.S. bases

The government will work to reduce the U.S. military presence in Okinawa by searching for alternative host cities elsewhere in Japan, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2004

WFP shows how school meals fight hunger

The World Food Program opened a monthlong exhibit Friday in Tokyo that features photos of children worldwide benefiting from the WFP school meal program and relief goods they have received.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2004

Justice chief's mandate: make Japan safe, refugee-friendly

Restoring Japan's image as one of the world's most crime-free nations is a key demand of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi -- and one newly appointed Justice Minister Chieko Noono hopes to meet.
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2004

Living wills need legal recognition: conference

Living wills created by terminally ill patients need to gain greater legal recognition in order to ensure their effectiveness, participants at the opening of an international conference on the right to die said Friday.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 2, 2004

Dragons back into CL title

Koichi Ogata hit a grand slam in the top of the 12th inning Friday as the Hiroshima Carp defeated the Central League champion Chunichi Dragons 5-2.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 2, 2004

Drive into the sea, then put up guardrail

On my planet, the United States, used car salesmen have a classic line for selling a car with low mileage: "This car was driven by a little old lady who only used it to drive to the grocery store." In Japan, if I ever get rid of my lightweight pickup truck, the salesman will say, "This truck was driven...
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2004

'Tankan' rosiest in 13 years, but future cloudy

While business sentiment among Japan's large manufacturers in the July-September quarter was the highest in more than 13 years, the future looks far from rosy.
BUSINESS
Oct 2, 2004

Toyama, Ibaraki get digital TV

Terrestrial digital broadcasting began Friday in Toyama and Ibaraki prefectures, the first time for these broadcasting services to become available outside Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.
BUSINESS
Oct 2, 2004

NTT units to cut fixed-line phone fees to match rivals

Two firms in the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. group unveiled plans Friday to lower charges for fixed-line phone services to the same level as those offered by rival carriers KDDI Corp. and the Softbank group.
BUSINESS
Oct 2, 2004

Yoshinoya expands loss estimate

Restaurant chain Yoshinoya D&C Co. said Friday it expects to post a greater-than-expected group net loss of 2.54 billion yen for its current business year ending in February.
BUSINESS
Oct 2, 2004

BOJ report may forecast deflation end

The Bank of Japan might forecast in its upcoming biannual economic outlook report that the nation's deflationary pressure will end in fiscal 2005, sources said Friday.

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