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BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2004

DoCoMo to halt prepaid services

NTT DoCoMo Inc. plans to discontinue offering prepaid mobile phone services as they are increasingly being used to commit crime, DoCoMo President Masao Nakamura said Thursday.
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2004

Bank need not replace stolen cash, court rules

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday rejected a demand from two theft victims that Chiba Bank replace money withdrawn from their accounts with stolen passbooks and personal seals.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2004

Tax increases on the table: Tanigaki

With the economy relatively steady, Japan is ready for debate on tax increases and government program cuts to put the nation's finances in order, according to Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Oct 1, 2004

Up and down the byways of Yotsuya

Koshu Kaido, one of the five official highways laid by Shogun Ieyasu in Edo (present-day Tokyo), which is now known as Route 20 or Shinjuku-dori, runs west from Hanzomon, the rear gate of the Imperial Palace, formerly Edo Castle, heading straight toward the Province of Koshu (now Yamanashi Prefecture)....
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2004

Rain forest advocacy NGO notes decline in ramin wood imports

OSAKA -- An Osaka-based environmental nongovernmental organization fighting to save tropical rain forests says both legal and illegal imports of ramin wood to Japan have been greatly curbed in recent years.
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2004

Asahi Breweries shelves plan to sell beer in plastic bottles

Asahi Breweries Ltd. said Thursday it will abandon a plan to sell beer in plastic bottles later this year following objections from environmental groups.
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2004

Pay phones vanishing as mobile use spreads

Pay phones have been disappearing as mobile phone use spreads.
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2004

Plea to start Diet session next week ignored

The ruling coalition proposed Thursday that a 53-day extraordinary Diet session be opened Oct. 12, brushing aside the opposition's demand that the session begin next week and run for more than two months.
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2004

Mitsukoshi to shut down 10 unprofitable outlets

Department store chain Mitsukoshi Ltd. said Thursday it will close 10 unprofitable outlets across the country in 2005 in an effort to boost profitability amid weak sales.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2004

End of an era as Haneda hotel shuts its doors

The only hotel operating on the premises of Tokyo's Haneda airport and the scene of many historic events shut down Thursday after four decades of operation.
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2004

Sales at overseas units grow 15.5%

Sales at the overseas subsidiaries of Japanese manufacturers grew 15.5 percent in dollar terms in the April-June period from a year earlier for the ninth consecutive quarterly rise.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 1, 2004

Rhodes: Short strike 'useless'

Though the Japanese pro baseball strike of two weeks ago appears to have won the players a legitimate chance for the entry of a 12th team in time for next season, one veteran player wonders what, if anything, was really gained.
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2004

Industrial output up 0.3% -- but rising oil prices worry experts

Industrial production rose a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent in August from the previous month for the first gain in three months.
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2004

Housing starts up 10.5% in August

A total of 102,070 housing starts were recorded in Japan in August, up 10.5 percent from a year earlier for the second consecutive monthly rise.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Oct 1, 2004

Top tapas made the Tio Danjo way

Tio Danjo is not a large place, and it's hard enough at the best of times to reserve a table at short notice. At the end of last month, though, it was nigh on impossible. Owner-chef Keita Danjo had just come back from one of his regular visits to Madrid, and the word was out among regular customers....
EDITORIALS
Sep 30, 2004

Plug loopholes in political funds law

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office has indicted former Chief Cabinet Secretary Kenzo Muraoka over a political-donation scandal involving the Liberal Democratic Party's largest faction. This seems to confirm the widespread public suspicion that a number of influential members of the faction...
SOCCER / J. League
Sep 30, 2004

Two JFL clubs apply for J. League entry

Japan Football League clubs Tokushima Vortis and Ehime F.C. filed applications on Wednesday for entry into the J. League in a bid to join its second division next season.
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2004

MHI, Rolls-Royce to make jet engine

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. said Wednesday it has signed an accord with Rolls-Royce PLC to jointly develop a new engine for the Boeing 7E7 midsize jet.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 30, 2004

Aso wants private-sector input on postal reform

Ideas from business leaders should be invited when crafting plans to privatize Japan Post to ensure it is profitable from the get-go, according to Taro Aso, minister of internal affairs and communications.
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2004

Retail sales slipped 1.8% in August on slackening demand

Japan's retail sales slipped 1.8 percent in August from a year earlier to 10.13 trillion yen, following a 1.0 percent rise in July, as strong demand for digital consumer electronics in connection with the Athens Olympics peaked, the government said Wednesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 30, 2004

New finance chief extols 'Takenaka vision,' bank reforms

Newly appointed Financial Services Minister Tatsuya Ito plans to continue pushing banking-sector reforms, the biggest task he worked on as a deputy to his hardline predecessor, Heizo Takenaka.
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2004

Sumitomo Metal opens new furnace

Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. began using a new blast furnace Wednesday at its Kashima steelworks, the first time a Japanese steelmaker has started a new large blast furnace in 25 years.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Sep 30, 2004

Japanese baseball owners approve interleague plan

The owners of professional baseball clubs approved a plan Wednesday to hold interleague regular-season games next year for the fist time ever.
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2004

Nikon, ASML settle patent disputes

Nikon Corp. said Wednesday it has agreed to a settlement with ASML Holding NV of the Netherlands over patent disputes, with ASML paying Nikon $87 million.
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2004

MMC likely to near sales forecast

Struggling Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Wednesday its global sales for fiscal 2004 will probably approach its 1.45 million-unit target because strong overseas sales are offsetting plunging domestic figures.
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2004

Insurers to boost travelers' coverage

Japanese nonlife insurers will expand their travelers' insurance coverage in October to include medical expenses for bird flu and other infectious diseases, as well as coverage for travel cancellations attributed to terrorist attacks.
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2004

Japan Post seeks fresh bite of parcel-delivery pie

Japan Post said Wednesday it will base charges for its Yu-Pack parcel service on size rather than on weight, effective Friday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 30, 2004

Deaf school phenomenon points to innate language origins

So there's this deaf American visiting Russia, and he's thirsty. Using American Sign Language, he says to his deaf-guide, "I really want a soda." But in Russian Sign Language, the gestures he used correspond to, "I really want to have sex." Guessing at some linguistic problem, the Russian guide diplomatically...

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