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Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 17, 2004

Offshore fever grips heavy equipment auctions

YOKOHAMA -- On a scorching mid-July day, hundreds of huge hulks were slowly paraded along a 30-meter tarmac in front of a circus tent packed with sweaty buyers.
BUSINESS
Aug 17, 2004

Firms to set up hotel investment trust

Chuo Mitsui Trust & Banking Co. and the Japan unit of Creative Renovation Group, a Canadian hotel consulting firm, will set up an investment trust next summer to invest exclusively in hotels, company officials said Monday.
BUSINESS
Aug 17, 2004

Equity fund might invest in Daiei

A private equity fund headed by a former executive of the Fast Retailing Co. casual clothing chain has emerged as a possible investor in troubled retailer Daiei Inc., the Financial Times reported Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2004

'Cat paradise' sad gloss for pet dumpsite

"Please do not mention the name of this place in your article," the woman begged during an interview. "Please."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2004

Pill now legal for five years but still finds few takers

Five years ago, Japanese women's rights advocates won their battle to legalize the birth control pill. Now they are waging an even tougher fight -- getting women to use it.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2004

Sex with teens puts director away

Film director Akiyoshi Imazeki was sentenced Monday to a 28-month prison term for buying sex from two girls, aged 12 and 14.
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2004

Fischer's next moves: renounce U.S. citizenship and marry a Japanese

Fugitive former world chess champion Bobby Fischer appealed to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday to help him renounce his U.S. citizenship as he announced plans to marry a leading Japanese chess official, his lawyer said.
EDITORIALS
Aug 16, 2004

North Korea must move first

It is deeply disappointing that last week's working-level talks in Beijing between Japan and North Korea produced no substantial progress on the question of whether Japanese abductees remain in North Korea. Pyongyang should reverse its backward-looking attitude and sincerely work to settle this issue....
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2004

Mihama accident latest in long string of nuclear plant woes

OSAKA -- In early 1999, a group of German nuclear scientists and engineers had just returned to Osaka after visiting nuclear power facilities in Fukui Prefecture. Sitting in a bar in the Hotel New Otani, they were deeply disturbed.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2004

Sumitomo Trust head raps bank-merger ruling

The head of Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co. on Sunday rapped the Tokyo High Court's decision last week giving the green light to full-fledged merger talks between UFJ Holdings Inc. and Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc.
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2004

U.S. wants to begin moving I Corps HQ in November

The United States has told Japan it wants to begin transferring the headquarters of the U.S. Army's I Corps from Washington state to Camp Zama in Kanagawa Prefecture in November, sources close to Japan-U.S. relations said Sunday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2004

Old, young attend war ceremony

Michiko Okamura said it feels like yesterday.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Aug 16, 2004

A fairy tale warning for financial giants

Oscar Wilde is the spinner of some of the finest tales in literary history. He wrote for a very wide-ranging public, including children. His fairy tales are truly fine. It is a characteristic of Wilde's fantasy tales for children that they contain profound insights into the very real world of adult folly...
OLYMPICS
Aug 16, 2004

Kitajima, Hansen spar in pool

URGENT: Japan's Kosuke Kitajima beat his American rival Brendan Hansen to win the gold medal in the men's 100-meter breaststroke final at the Athens Olympics early Monday, Japan time.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2004

Koizumi renews Japan's no-war pledge

Marking on Sunday the 59th anniversary of the end of World War II, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reiterated Japan's pledge not to repeat the tragedies of war.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2004

State debt no boon for financial markets

PRAGUE -- There is a palpable schizophrenia concerning public-sector debt. On one hand, a high proportion of public-sector debt relative to gross domestic product is seen as a warning sign that a country is suffering from macroeconomic imbalances. Similarly, a high ratio of government debt to total debt...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 16, 2004

Challenging Canberra's march to war

On Aug. 8, a group of 43 former top Australian officials -- department heads in foreign affairs and defense, military chiefs, ambassadors -- published an open letter calling for "truth in government." This was without precedent in Australia, although it follows earlier British and American examples....

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