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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 30, 2004

How shochu got its groove back

A young woman was seated at the counter, her long hair tumbling down to her shoulders and resting softly on her beige jacket. In a matching skirt and heels, her long slim legs were revealed. Classy and elegant, she looked like she was ready for a glass of Dom Perignon.
JAPAN
May 30, 2004

Okinawa chief wants SOFA seen as national issue

Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine called Saturday for national attention on Okinawa's wish to revise the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement.
COMMENTARY
May 30, 2004

Taming the culture of blame

LONDON -- An independent judiciary has long been taken for granted in Britain. It has been regarded down the ages as one of the majestic bastions of British liberties and a necessary pillar of the free democratic state.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
May 30, 2004

Bush could use a streak of good news

WASHINGTON -- It has not been a good two months for President George W. Bush. In mid-March, the president's men took the rubber band off their enormous roll of cash and went to work with media designed to present a softer, gentler, yet strong president while painting their prospective opponent, Sen....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 30, 2004

The Streets: "A Grand Don't Come for Free"

The music of The Streets could be seen as validating those who drink, take drugs, eat burgers and chips, chase girls, gamble and fight. Maybe it does. But no one who does all those things all the time could make something as well-observed, witty and moving as this album. Then again, it is definitely...
JAPAN
May 29, 2004

LDP election pledges to criticize Koizumi

In a rare move, the Liberal Democratic Party's campaign pledges for the upcoming House of Councilors election will feature criticism of the decentralization efforts of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, according to party sources.
MORE SPORTS
May 29, 2004

Japan's Olympic hopes disappear

Japan saw its hopes for a berth at the Athens Olympics evaporate on Friday after it fell to its fourth straight defeat in a 3-0 loss to Canada in the men's final qualifying tournament for this summer's games.
JAPAN
May 29, 2004

Court hands NCB execs suspended terms

The Tokyo District Court on Friday sentenced three former executives of the defunct Nippon Credit Bank to suspended prison terms for window dressing financial statements to conceal 160 billion yen in bad loans.
JAPAN
May 29, 2004

Koizumi employment record in 1970s called into question

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has effectively admitted that he was only nominally employed at a Yokohama-based real estate company in the early 1970s -- even though he was registered as a member of a public pension system designed to serve full-time corporate employees.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 29, 2004

Rhodes lifts Giants over BayStars

Tuffy Rhodes drove in the go-ahead run with a double to right field in the eighth inning Friday to lift the Yomiuri Giants to a 7-5 win over the Yokohama BayStars.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 29, 2004

Miyajima to Oshima: sailing back in time

"The Inland Sea is a dangerous one unless the ship has a pilot of the greatest skill and one who thoroughly knows the channels," wrote my great-grandfather on his passage through the sea in 1900.
JAPAN
May 29, 2004

Japan to cover cost of Soga's family reunion

The government will pay travel and other expenses for repatriated abductee Hitomi Soga to reunite in a third country with her American husband and their two daughters, who are now in North Korea, a top spokesman said Friday.
EDITORIALS
May 29, 2004

Reinstating a jury system

Japan is set to introduce a new criminal trial system by the end of this decade, in which professional and lay judges will deal with major cases on an equal footing. A judicial reform bill calling for the creation of the saiban-in (citizen judge) system passed the Upper House last week, making it certain...
JAPAN
May 29, 2004

LDP election pledges to criticize Koizumi

In a rare move, the Liberal Democratic Party's campaign pledges for the upcoming House of Councilors election will feature criticism of the decentralization efforts of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, according to party sources.
BUSINESS
May 29, 2004

Major life insurers show improvement

Japan's nine major life insurers are looking healthier thanks to stock-related gains made from the 47 percent jump in Tokyo stock prices during fiscal 2003, according to earnings reports released as of Friday.
JAPAN
May 29, 2004

Execs get suspended term for bribing governor

The Tokyo District Court handed two former executives of Kajima Corp. suspended prison terms Friday for bribing former Ibaraki Gov. Fujio Takeuchi to the tune of 20 million yen in 1992.
JAPAN
May 29, 2004

Court hands NCB execs suspended terms

The Tokyo District Court on Friday sentenced three former executives of the defunct Nippon Credit Bank to suspended prison terms for window dressing financial statements to conceal 160 billion yen in bad loans.
BUSINESS
May 29, 2004

Shinsei logs net profit rise of 25%

Shinsei Bank said Friday that its net profit rose 25 percent to 66.4 billion yen in fiscal 2003.
JAPAN
May 29, 2004

Two Japanese reported killed south of Baghdad

Two Japanese freelance journalists died after their vehicle was attacked by unidentified assailants in the city of Mahmudiyah, about 30 km south of Baghdad, a Foreign Ministry official in Tokyo quoted Iraqi hospital officials as saying Friday.
BUSINESS
May 29, 2004

Phoenix considers plan to rescue scandal-tainted Mitsubishi Motors

Phoenix Capital Co. is considering devising a plan to turn around the fortunes of Mitsubishi Motors Corp., according to Phoenix Capital President Yasushi Ando.
JAPAN
May 29, 2004

Locals take crime-prevention into their own hands

At the beginning of May, six security company workers started late-afternoon patrols of the Isezaki-cho district of Yokohama's Naka Ward.
JAPAN
May 29, 2004

Public turns on families of missing abductees

The Associated Press

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