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BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2003

More proposals target stock falls

The ruling coalition reached a basic agreement Wednesday over more proposals aimed at halting the stock market decline, according to coalition lawmakers.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2003

Responding to provocations

SINGAPORE -- In late February and early March, North Korea launched two antiship cruise missiles in the direction of Japan. Japan tried its best to downplay the events. In the first instance, it said the 90-km test did not technically violate the North's moratorium on ballistic-missile tests. After the...
BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2003

Work to be done in Kansai to attract cash

OSAKA -- Kansai offers great potential for foreign direct investment -- but numerous problems are deterring foreign firms from doing business in the region, according to American and Japanese participants at a seminar Wednesday in Osaka.
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2003

Death sentence for killer confirmed

The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday upheld the death sentence for a man convicted of murdering six female employees during a jewelry store raid in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, in June 2000.
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2003

Outlying regions want a piece of the action, too

Anticipating that the upcoming Visit Japan campaign will prove successful, businesses and local governments are developing strategies to draw prospective foreign tourists out of major cities and into their regions.
EDITORIALS
Apr 24, 2003

Quick action needed to stabilize Iraq

Last Sunday marked one month since the war began in Iraq. The United States and its allies have yet to declare victory, but for all intents and purposes the military operation is over. In fact, the fighting in strategic areas ended in less than four weeks, making this war one of the shortest in history....
BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2003

Shinsei Bank slashes bad loans 80%

Shinsei Bank said Wednesday that its outstanding bad loans as of March 31 will likely come to 233.2 billion yen, down 880.4 billion yen -- or nearly 80 percent -- from a year earlier.
BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2003

Nissan reports record operating profit

Nissan Motor Co. announced Wednesday a record group operating profit of 737 billion yen for the year through March, up 50.7 percent from the previous year, thanks mainly to increased car sales at home and reduced purchasing costs.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 24, 2003

Feedback

Dear readers, as you rarely get the last word, this week's column aims to put that right. Two weeks ago, I wrote about the dangers of our society's addiction to oil, and noted that much of the world still believes the primary purpose of the U.S. invasion of Iraq was to dominate its oil supplies and establish...
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2003

332 municipalities inappropriately gave SDF data on youths

More than 300 municipalities across the country have provided the Defense Agency with personal data on teenage residents that should not have been shared, Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba said Wednesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 24, 2003

Bottlenose dolphin

* Japanese name: Bandou iruka * Scientific name: Tursiops truncatus * Description: Dolphins are marine mammals, toothed whales, with a broad dorsal fin and a long snout with a characteristic "smile." They grow to between 1.9 and 4 meters long, and weigh 90-650 kg, living for up to 50 years. The dorsal...
Japan Times
JAPAN / IN WITH THE NEW
Apr 24, 2003

DPJ's Noda intent on pursuing noble cause in Diet

Before Yoshihiko Noda took over as Diet affairs chief of the Democratic Party of Japan in December, his early morning weekday schedule was set in stone.
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Apr 24, 2003

Challenging English at 65

April is traditionally the time of new beginnings in Japan, at school and at work. Novelist Sae Shuichi, however, makes it a practice to embark on a new project every five years. At 55, for example, he took up kendo. And at 65, as detailed in his latest book, "65-sai Ojisan no Eikaiwa Benkyo ga Tanoshiku...
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2003

Merger to create monster law firm

Nishimura & Partners and Tokiwa Sogo Law Offices said Wednesday they have agreed to merge Jan. 1.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2003

Getting serious about tourism -- finally

Japan is finally getting serious about attracting some foreign visitors to its shores.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2003

Tokyo should act as model, Ishihara says

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, at the outset of his second four-year term on Wednesday, stressed that metropolitan government officials should act as a model for the nation.
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2003

Koizumi mulls U.S., Mideast trips

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is considering visiting the United States in late May and the Middle East in early June to discuss postconflict Iraq with his counterparts, a government official said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 24, 2003

Happy b'day double helix

This week is the anniversary of what some have called the most important intellectual innovation in human history, the discovery of the structure of DNA. From a paper originally published in Nature on April 25, 1953, DNA has made it into the pantheon of chemical structures instantly known to all members...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Apr 24, 2003

Shooting from the soul

Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone met at a diving class when they were students. Then, after graduation, they worked on an environmental-impact assessment project in the beautiful Fal estuary in Cornwall, southwest England, where a new port was being planned. It was the love of the sea and nature they developed...
BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2003

Trade surplus up 36.6%; first rise in four years

Japan's trade surplus jumped 36.6 percent on a year-on-year basis in fiscal 2002, marking the first increase in four years, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2003

LDP mulls stiffer terms for illegal money-lenders

The Liberal Democratic Party is looking to punish unregistered moneylenders and those who engage in other illegal business practices with prison terms of up to five years and fines of up to 5 million yen, LDP lawmakers said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2003

Diet receives Matsunami resolution

Four opposition parties on Wednesday jointly presented a nonbinding resolution to the House of Representatives, urging ruling coalition lawmaker Kenshiro Matsunami to vacate his seat over a scandal linking him to a gangster.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDEN PATHS
Apr 24, 2003

Yokohama's green bower

In spring it is delightful to see, as the poet William Wordsworth described it, "the budding twigs put out their fan to catch the breezy air."
EDITORIALS
Apr 23, 2003

U.S. and North Korea to talk at last

After nearly two years of silence, the United States and North Korea are about to resume diplomatic discussions. Representatives from the two govEernments will meet this week in Beijing to discuss North Korea's nuclear-weapons program and, eventually, the entire range of relations between the two counEtries....
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 23, 2003

Marines whitewash Buffaloes in Osaka

Lefty Koji Takagi limited Kintetsu to four hits over the distance for his first shutout win since October 2002 as the Chiba Lotte Marines blanked the Buffaloes 10-0 at Osaka Dome on Tuesday.
MORE SPORTS
Apr 23, 2003

Japan beats Kiwis in Fed Cup

Japan rested Ai Sugiyama from her singles match but was still too powerful for New Zealand as it cruised to a 3-0 win at the Fed Cup Asia-Oceania zone Group One tournament at Tokyo's Ariake Colosseum on Tuesday.

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