search

 
 
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 11, 2003

Restructuring costs slam Ito-Yokado

Ito-Yokado Co. posted a group net profit of 21.02 billion yen for its business year through Feb. 28, a plunge of 59.8 percent from a year earlier, Japan's largest retailer said Thursday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 11, 2003

Tarlum: The big breakfast

Tokyo is not big on breakfast. Granted, there's no shortage of places to grab a sandwich or a Danish with your long latte mochacino. A kissaten "morning set" should furnish a boiled egg with a slab of faintly browned igirsu-pan (they blame white bread on the English, here). And a family restaurant can...
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2003

Diet member indicted for fraud

House of Representatives member Takanori Sakai was indicted Thursday on a fresh charge of defrauding the government of some 24 million yen as salary for his policy secretary.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Apr 10, 2003

Right time for Bulls owner to dump Krause

PHILADELPHIA -- Who would have thought Jerry Krause's regime would topple before Saddam Hussein's? In power since March of 1985, the bellicose Chicago Bulls GM took a well-deserved, long overdue hit Monday -- five games before his five-year-old rebuilding permit (following six championship Michael Jordan-emblazoned...
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2003

LDP seen doing well in weekend elections

The Liberal Democratic Party is likely to secure nearly 1,400 of the 2,634 seats up for grabs in 44 prefectural assemblies in local elections on Sunday, according to a Kyodo News survey released Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / IN WITH THE NEW
Apr 10, 2003

Japan needs spine to stand up, cut its losers: Koike

ITAMI, Hyogo Pref. -- While many Japanese politicians claim knowledge of or interest in Middle Eastern affairs, few if any can match the credentials of Lower House member Yuriko Koike of the Liberal Democratic Party.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2003

Japan fetes Matsui grand slam

Japan wasted little time in celebrating Hideki Matsui's first home run as a Yankee.
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2003

More firms turn to 401(k) programs

The slump in the stock market and other unfavorable investment conditions prompted 291 companies to adopt 401(k)-style pension plans in fiscal 2002 to reduce their financial burden, up from 70 the previous year, according to a government report compiled Wednesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2003

Japan Post to cut procurement costs by 10% to stay in black, Ikuta says

Japan Post aims to slash procurement costs in its mail delivery operations by 10 percent this fiscal year, according to Masaharu Ikuta, president of the new government-affiliated corporation that took over the Postal Services Agency on April 1.
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2003

China firm, Toyota pen production deal

Toyota Motor Corp. and FAW Group Corp., China's largest automaker, signed an agreement Wednesday to jointly manufacture four Toyota models in China to cash in on the world's fastest growing auto market.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2003

$100 million in Iraq aid pledged

Japan unveiled Wednesday a framework for humanitarian aid to Iraq that sets a limit of $100 million on financial support for international organizations.
EDITORIALS
Apr 10, 2003

The SARS toll mounts

Concern over severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, continues to rise. Two weeks ago, we reported 350 cases of the disease worldwide that had resulted in 10 deaths. At the beginning of this week, the World Health Organization reported more than 2,600 cases, with 100 deaths, in 18 countries; it is...
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2003

Dial-up 'adult' services soaring under new law

The number of "adult entertainment" telephone services registered with the government has grown 4.5-fold in three years, and such businesses are believed to involve prostitution and provide income for organized crime, the National Police Agency said.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2003

Options in Korea after Iraq

SEOUL -- The war in Iraq is casting a long shadow over the impending crisis on the Korean Peninsula and, in particular, on North Korea's nuclear ambitions and intentions. Last month in Seoul, antiwar protesters succeeded in delaying a vote in the National Assembly on dispatching 700 noncombat engineers...
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2003

Core machinery orders surrender 9.6%

Core private-sector machinery orders fell a seasonally adjusted 9.6 percent in February from January for the first dip in three months, but the decline is largely a reaction to gains of 12.2 percent over the previous two months, the government said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2003

Aozora Bank slapped with reprimand

Aozora Bank has been reprimanded by the Financial Services Agency for giving information on its customers to its major shareholder, Cerberus Group, a U.S. investment fund bidding for greater control of the bank, FSA officials said Wednesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Apr 10, 2003

Close encounters with 'the world's rarest gull'

CHENGDU, China -- Li Shang-yin, a writer of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), is said to have kept five species of birds in his garden, including a graceful gull whose head and bill were black, and which had a distinctive semicircle of white behind its eye.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2003

War fuels Saudi fears and anger

RIYADH -- You won't find the newly published "Hatred's Kingdom" in any Saudi bookshop, but it is in such demand among high officials that the government has brought out a reprint of its own. Its author is Dore Gold, a hardline Israeli spokesman. According to him, the "hatred" in question is rooted in...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2003

U.N. must control Iraqi relief operations

NEW YORK -- Even before the war against Iraq has reached its climax, the U.S.-British invasion of that country had already provoked a humanitarian crisis that is proving to be a nightmare for international relief agencies. Although much has been done by relief agencies in preparation for this emergency,...
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2003

HIV group defends SARS patients' rights

A group of people with HIV urged the government Wednesday to protect the rights of patients diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2003

Mazda's new RX-8 to hit the streets in May

In a bid to boost its image, Mazda Motor Corp. next month will release the RX-8 sports car, its first rotary engine model in 12 years, the company announced Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / GUBERNATORIAL ELECTIONS '03
Apr 10, 2003

Popular Mie reformist tough act to follow

Third in a series ASAKO MURAKAMI Staff writer TSU, Mie Pref. -- Mie Gov. Masayasu Kitagawa's sudden announcement last November not to seek a third term ruffled political feathers both at the local and national levels.
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2003

Mizuho to cut long-term prime rate

Mizuho Corporate Bank said Wednesday it will cut its long-term prime lending rate by 0.1 percentage point to a record low 1.4 percent.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2003

Fashion world takes aim at breast cancer

Supermodels smile as they don T-shirts with a bull's-eye logo, the trademark of an international charity campaign to battle breast cancer.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Apr 10, 2003

Can our kids get a healthy meal for less?

Would you pay 2,500 yen for a simple lunch on a battered tin tray? Of course not. For that kind of money, you could get a three-course luncheon served on fine china. But believe it or not, 2,500 yen is the cost of the lunch my kid eats at school every day. It's no wonder so many local governments have...
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2003

School texts cite 9/11, toe line on SDF

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States and subsequent war in Afghanistan are included in most high school textbooks that survived the latest round of screening by the education ministry.

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