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BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2003

Lawson unveils banking tieup

Lawson Inc. will begin providing limited banking services at some of its convenience stores in July in cooperation with Hokuriku Bank, the two firms said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2003

With Hu comes a hint of interesting times

HAINAN, China -- The 3,000-plus delegates to the annual two-week meeting of China's National People's Congress, or NPC, have packed their bags and gone home. It was an unusually important meeting this year. In addition to the usual rubber-stamping of the Chinese Communist Party's policy proposals for...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2003

Musical is well-suited to the times

"Can we sing a song of peace in a world that's full of fear?"
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2003

Japan patents fail to set world alight

Japan had a 119.5 billion yen deficit in the external balance of revenues and expenditures in licensing regarding intellectual property rights such as patents and trademarks in 2002, according to a survey released Thursday by the Japan Patent Office.
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2003

Sony robot upgrade can sing and feign dialogue

Sony Corp.'s toddler-size singing and dancing robot has expanded its vocabulary and musical repertoire and now avoids pinching human fingers with its metal joints.
EDITORIALS
Mar 28, 2003

A dirty war in Thailand

Last month the prime minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, declared war on drugs, vowing to rid his country of the scourge within three months. The goal is ambitious, if not impossible. Human rights groups reportedly express fear that the campaign has become reckless and dangerous; they claim that...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2003

46 vie for governorships; economy, war emerge as key issues

Forty-six candidates applied Thursday to run in 11 gubernatorial elections April 13 in Tokyo and 10 other prefectures, marking the official start of campaigning that is expected to focus on the economy and support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2003

Wholesale, retail sales edge up 0.5%

Japan's combined wholesale and retail sales rose 0.5 percent in February from a year earlier to 44.9 trillion yen, showing the first increase in 25 months, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Thursday.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 28, 2003

Japanese on final roster

Linebacker Masafumi Kawaguchi and three other Japanese have made the final roster on the Amsterdam Admirals for the 2003 season of the European affiliate of the NFL, NFL Japan officials said Wednesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Mar 28, 2003

Goodness gracious, great balls of rice

Just 60 years ago, preparing food was a time-consuming process that for some — mainly the suburban housewife — could occupy much of the day. Though we had long since progressed from hunter-gathering and industrialization had created a class of consumers rather than producers of food, keeping the...
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2003

2002 saw fewer bureaucrats landing private-sector jobs

The number of retired national government officials who landed jobs in the private sector in 2002 was down from the year before, according to data released by the National Personnel Authority.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 28, 2003

Afternoon Tea Baker and Diner: More than just a pour

What's in a name? Since last year, and especially over the past month, the most in-demand dining spot in Ginza has been the one with the most unwieldy misnomer. Afternoon Tea Baker and Diner hardly trips off the tongue. It also disguises the fact this is no mere tea room: It's a proper restaurant, contemporary...
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 27, 2003

Furuta on roster despite injury

Yakult Swallows catcher Atsuya Furuta has been put on the roster for Friday's season opener against the Hiroshima Carp despite breaking his right ring finger in a recent preseason game, club officials said Tuesday.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Mar 27, 2003

Moves by Clippers on free agents not as bad as they seem

NEW YORK -- Being that I like to consider myself a public-spirited citizen, every so often I feel duty-bound to call out some of those in the same virtuous vocation as yours truly.
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2003

Five Wal-Mart execs join Seiyu's board

Struggling supermarket chain Seiyu Ltd. said Wednesday that five representatives of Wal-Mart Store Inc. have joined its board of directors, formalizing the U.S. retail giant's involvement in Seiyu's management.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2003

25,296 without homes: survey

The number of homeless people in Japan stood at 25,296 earlier this year, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2003

68 prison deaths warranted autopsy in decade

Of the 1,592 deaths in Japanese prisons and detention houses in the 10 years to 2002, only 68 required autopsies because of questions over the circumstances of death, according to a Justice Ministry official.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2003

Shiokawa vows not to charter jets

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Wednesday he will no longer charter flights for overseas trips after being criticized by an opposition lawmaker for wasting public funds.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2003

Spy satellites part of intelligence quest

Intelligence can be the key to a military triumph. In assessing an enemy's strengths and positions, as well as adjusting strategies in line with fluid scenarios, accurate intelligence plays a vital role.
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2003

Okuda snubs post at Japan Post

Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), on Wednesday turned down the post of absentee director at Japan Post, a public postal body to be launched next month, the Postal Services Agency said.
COMMENTARY
Mar 27, 2003

Warfare that stymies protest

LONDON -- This, we were promised, would be the most politically correct war in history. Harlan Ullman, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, says the strategy of conquering Iraq by "shock and awe" bombing, was devised simply because this is the most unpopular...
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2003

Raising access fees would hurt NTT as well as rivals: telecom expert

A fierce battle is raging within the telecom sector over whether the access fees charged by NTT firms for use of their telephone infrastructure should be raised.
EDITORIALS
Mar 27, 2003

Local election campaigns start today

A round of local elections will take place next month in Japan, with the issues of autonomy and decentralization setting the tone. Campaigning for gubernatorial elections, including the one in Tokyo, will kick off today. A total of more than 2,370 elections, including mayoral and prefectural assembly...
BUSINESS
Mar 27, 2003

Soft approach touted for regional banks' bad loans

A government advisory panel has come up with a soft approach to bad-loan problems at regional banks, government sources said Wednesday.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person