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BUSINESS
May 31, 2001

IMF chief urges expanded disclosure of bad loans

International Monetary Fund chief Horst Koehler encouraged the Financial Services Agency on Wednesday to step up disclosure of its assessments of banks' problem loans.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2001

Balance of shares on credit rises for third week in a row

The balance of shares bought on credit rose for the third consecutive week last week.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2001

Kamisu picked as fifth LPG site

The governmental Japan National Oil Corp. said Wednesday it has picked the town of Kamisu, Ibaraki Prefecture, as the site for a storage tank it will build to store liquefied petroleum gas under the nation's 1.5-million ton LPG stockpiling program.
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

Work of Canada's 'tragic historian' now regaining spotlight in Japan

The life and work of Edgerton Herbert Norman, a Canadian diplomat and researcher of modern Japanese history who committed suicide in the 1950s amid allegations that he was a communist sympathizer, is now being spotlighted.
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

Time ripe for collective defense: panelists

Panelists at a symposium on Japan-U.S. relations held in Tokyo this week agreed that Japan should lift its ban on engaging in collective defense as both nations seek to strengthen security ties.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2001

Kumagai Gumi stays in red despite loans being forgiven

Struggling construction firm Kumagai Gumi Co. said Wednesday it remained in the red for the year ended March 31, with a group net loss of 2.65 billion yen after the previous year's loss of 4.62 billion yen.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2001

Disappointing euro's effect on markets has been tangible

While the beleaguered euro has been a real letdown, there can be no denying that its January 1999 launch has had a significant impact on the world's currency markets.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2001

U.N. forum cautions against globalization's impact on poor

The advance of economic globalization should improve the life of people in developing countries and bring about sustainable development, according to Carlos A. Magarinos, director general of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2001

NHK enjoys 11th straight profit year

Japan Broadcasting Corp. reported Wednesday its operations in fiscal 2000 were in the black for the 11th consecutive year, with revenue exceeding costs by 22.3 billion yen.
COMMENTARY / World / GUEST FORUM
May 31, 2001

Globalization leaves too many casualties in its wake

The forces and processes of globalization -- increased trade liberalization, improved environmental standards and "universal" human rights -- have disillusioned a majority of the world's population. Thanks to the Seattle fiasco and street demonstrations in Prague, it is clear that no matter how hard...
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

Cultist gets life for role in deadly '94 gas attack

The Tokyo District Court sentenced an Aum Shinrikyo figure to life imprisonment Wednesday for his part in four crimes, including a 1994 nerve-gas attack that killed seven people in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2001

Computer firms embrace Linux

IBM Corp., Fujitsu Ltd., Hitachi Ltd. and NEC Corp. said Wednesday they have agreed to develop a computer operating system for corporate use by enhancing the open source Linux operating system.
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2001

Smokers' deadly paradise

For Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Hal Boyle, it wasn't too difficult to tell a man from a woman. "If it always offers you a cigar, it's a man," he quipped. "If it always is asking for a cigarette, then waits for a light, it's a woman."
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

Tanaka family villa seized in '99, asset report shows

The government in December 1999 seized a villa owned by a firm operated by the family of the late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

NGOs urge allegiance to Kyoto pact

In a rare meeting Wednesday with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, representatives from environmental organizations urged the government to go ahead with an international agreement to cut greenhouse gases with or without the participation of the United States.
COMMENTARY
May 31, 2001

India reverses course again

DELHI -- With its continuing "war of a thousand cuts" against India, military-ruled Pakistan poses the single biggest challenge to Indian foreign policy. Yet Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has changed course on Pakistan often in the past three years. The unending policy dance, with its monkey-like...
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

DoCoMo launches trial of high-speed service

NTT DoCoMo Inc. on Wednesday launched a trial run of its third-generation mobile phone service that promises to eventually allow users to watch video transmissions on their handsets.
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

Tobacco industry 'Insider' takes his campaign to Japan

Educational and grassroots activities will be crucial if Japan is to successfully reduce the nation's relatively high number of smokers and incidence of lung cancer -- one of the leading causes of death in this country, said scientist and tobacco educator Jeffrey Wigand.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2001

Taxpayer numbers viewed as solution to stop tax evasion

Hoping to cut down on tax evasion, a government advisory panel on economic and fiscal affairs will probably call for introduction of a taxpayer numbering system, panel sources said.
SOCCER / J. League
May 31, 2001

France shows no mercy, blasts South Korea 5-0

DAEGU, South Korea -- You have to admit the French are fair. After thrashing Japan 5-0 in Paris two months ago, they opened the Confederations Cup with a similar scoreline over Japan's fellow-World Cup host South Korea on Tuesday.
COMMUNITY
May 31, 2001

Cure me with your laser beam

Christchurch is known for its beautiful parks and gardens, English heritage and access to adventure sports, but there's another reason to join the 96,000 Japanese who visited the largest city on the South Island of New Zealand last year. If you're unhappy wearing glasses or contact lenses, it's also...
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2001

Europe seeks more equality with the U.S.

Relations between Europe and the United States are at a watershed. The post World War II global settlement is no longer anchored in contemporary economic and political realities. The Soviet Empire has crashed and burned. Emerging from the ashes, Russia is barely more than a Third World country with nuclear...
JAPAN
May 31, 2001

ODA to be reviewed for '02 budget

The government will review its official development assistance when compiling the fiscal 2002 budget, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday.
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
May 31, 2001

Baseball and junk food

www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/index.html "Professional baseball is played at the edge of biological time," the Exploratorium says, "just within a human's ability to react." The pages then go on to demonstrate, not explain, how the pros cope with earning a living on the edge. Games allow you to learn...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 31, 2001

Drop your drawers and give me 20 (ml, that is)

Mark Heppelle is a 37-year-old Canadian currently living in Japan with his wife and two kids where he runs a small English school. But that's not his only source of income. Heppelle also has a rather unique sports-related job, the results of which can be seen almost daily on sports pages across the globe....
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 31, 2001

White lines, blowin' through my brain

Until 1903, a bottle of Coca-Cola contained around 60 mg of cocaine -- enough, it has now been shown, to trigger long-lasting changes in brain activity. According to a report in today's issue of Nature, giving a single dose of cocaine to mice changes the way that nerve connections transmit signals in...
BUSINESS
May 31, 2001

More Gucci stores, brands coming

Italian fashion giant Gucci Group N.V. will open more stores in Japan and introduce new brands this year, Gucci Group President Domenico De Sole said Wednesday at a news conference in Tokyo.

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