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JAPAN
Sep 25, 2003

Test tube baby born using eggs frozen in 1995

A Hokkaido woman gave birth to a boy last year using fertilized eggs frozen in 1995, which may be the longest time in Japan that such eggs have been used after being in storage, according to her doctors.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Sep 25, 2003

When the grass is greener on the other side

I was starting a load of laundry, my son's dirty trousers in hand, when I sensed something was wrong. I couldn't put my finger on what was troubling me. I held up my kid's khakis, looking for a clue. It wasn't that his pants were filthy. They are always filthy. It wasn't that they were full of holes....
Japan Times
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 25, 2003

Aso questions Koizumi's timetable to privatize postal services entity

New home affairs minister Taro Aso expressed skepticism Wednesday over the timetable put forward by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to privatize the postal services entity.
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2003

Brokerages plan April 1 merger

Midsize brokerages SMBC Friend Securities Co. and Izumi Securities Co. said Wednesday they will merge April 1 to streamline operations and bolster customer bases.
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2003

Archaeology team off to Afghanistan

The National Research Institute for Cultural Properties will send a research team to Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley to check its underground archaeological remains with radar, the government-affiliated institute said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2003

Ex-night school teacher still learns from students

For Yoshikazu Kenjo, those who attended his junior high evening classes were not only his students but also his teachers.
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2003

Tertiary industry activity down 2.5%

The index gauging tertiary industry activity fell 2.5 percent in July from the previous month, marking its first drop in five months.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2003

So little done with so many

GENEVA — The outcome of the World Trade Organization ministerial midterm review in Cancun, Mexico (Sept. 12-14), was an unmitigated disaster. The United States, European Union and Japan share equal responsibility for failing to stand by the commitments they had made in the Doha Declaration of November...
EDITORIALS
Sep 25, 2003

A veiled but strong G7 message

China maintains a de facto fixed exchange rate for the yuan. Japan has continued to intervene aggressively to prevent a sharp rise in the yen. In a veiled criticism of both countries' currency policies, a communique issued last weekend by Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers called for...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDEN PATHS
Sep 25, 2003

Lush 'theme park' of the shoguns

Four hundred years ago, Edo was little more than a fishing village in the large domain of Tokugawa Ieyasu. But then, in 1603, the new shogun made this quiet spot his power base, and over the next two centuries Edo became one of the greatest cities in the world. Remarkably, the Koishikawa Korakuen garden,...
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2003

McDonald's eyes job cuts through retirement plan

will launch an early retirement program next month to cut 130 of the 880 jobs at its headquarters, its holding firm said Wednesday. McDonald's Holdings Co. (Japan) said 630 head-office employees age 40 or older are eligible for the program. The planned cut represents about 20 percent of such staff at...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Sep 25, 2003

Flatbottom Sea Star

* Japanese name: Kihitode * Scientific name: Asterias amurensis * Description: Sea stars are echinoderms, in the same family as sea urchins and sea cucumbers, though unlike those animals they are not eaten in Japan. Like all echinoderms (which means "spiny skin" in Greek), sea stars have a five-way...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / INDUSTRY TRENDS
Sep 25, 2003

Kao to take on Nippon Lever in fall shampoo war

Two major shampoo makers are expected to wage a massive marketing war in the fall, with a domestic giant preparing to battle a foreign competitor for the top spot it lost two years ago.
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2003

Government hit with black-lung suit

Sixty-five former construction workers filed a 1.37 billion yen lawsuit Wednesday against the government and general contractors for lung disease they claim they developed while digging tunnels for public works projects.
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2003

Weather still blamed for poor sales

Sales at supermarkets and department stores continued to fall in August on a year-on-year basis, primarily due to the unusually cool summer, according to industry data released Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Sep 25, 2003

Bridgestone cuts earnings outlook after fire

Tire manufacturer Bridgestone Corp. released a revised earnings outlook Wednesday that includes the impact of a fire at its Tochigi factory earlier this month, lowering net and pretax profit forecasts for the year ending Dec. 31.
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2003

Suginami drafts surveillance rules

Tokyo's Suginami Ward, which plans to establish an ordinance regulating the operation of surveillance cameras in public spaces, has decided to compel operators to report to the ward office before cameras are installed, it was learned Wednesday.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 25, 2003

Tosa may miss Tokyo Marathon

World silver medalist Reiko Tosa twisted her left ankle and may be unable to take part in the Tokyo International Women's Marathon this fall, marathon sources said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2003

Abe declares LDP will seek majority in next House of Representatives poll

The Liberal Democratic Party's goal for the next House of Representatives election is to secure a single-party majority, LDP Secretary General Shinzo Abe said Wednesday.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Sep 25, 2003

Worth fighting for

Most "greatest hits" games are too familiar. They were great when they came out last Christmas and everybody bought them, but now they're simply old.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 25, 2003

Peeved monkeys reject unequal pay on the job

Philosophers as diverse as Plato, Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill tried hard to argue that there is a rational basis for fair and just behavior. However, the best philosophy in the world is only worth so much when there is the chance to make bucket-loads of cash.
EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 2003

A bitter anniversary in Chile

Thirty years ago, Chile's elected government was overthrown by a military coup. While most of the world remembers Sept. 11 as the day that marked the beginning of the war on terror, Chileans commemorate the end of a presidency and the cleaving of their country into two, as yet irreconcilable, halves....
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2003

Child abuse cases hit record 23,738

A record 23,738 cases of child abuse were reported to child welfare centers nationwide in fiscal 2002, topping the previous year's record by 464, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2003

Koizumi will push for extension of antiterror law

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will resolve in an upcoming policy speech in the Diet to extend by two years a law permitting Japan to cooperate in the U.S.-led fight against terrorism, government sources said Tuesday.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past