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JAPAN / KANSAI BEAT
Apr 20, 2002

NGOs target immigration center

OSAKA -- Amid concerns over allegations of human rights abuses at the West Japan Immigration Detention Center in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, local nongovernmental organizations will form an immigration watchdog group later this month.
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2002

Upper House president quits

The president of the House of Councilors tendered his resignation Friday to take responsibility for an alleged payoff scandal in which his policy secretary reportedly received 64 million yen in connection with a public works project.
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2002

Next ambassador to Israel named by Foreign Ministry

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said Friday she will name Tadashi Imai, head of the ministry's Intelligence and Analysis Bureau, as the next ambassador to Israel.
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2002

FSA decides to investigate Mizuho over malfunctions

Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa said Friday that the FSA will look into the computer problems afflicting the Mizuho financial group's two banks and determine what administrative action to take.
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE EXTRA
Apr 20, 2002

Troussier raising more questions than answers

The only answer anyone in the press room could come up with was: "Well, he's French, isn't he."
BUSINESS
Apr 20, 2002

NTT plan includes 17,000 job cuts

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. formally announced a new three-year business plan that entails 17,000 job cuts, a 400 billion yen capital investment reduction and a shift in focus regarding Internet protocol-based services.
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2002

Three held in connection with mobile phone scam

Police said Friday they have arrested three men on suspicion of running a mobile phone scam in which victims were billed for unwittingly listening to sexual or other messages by calling back a number that appeared on their phones.
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
Apr 20, 2002

Museum in Ikebukuro holds Mideast treasures

Rather like a Pharaoh's tomb inside one of the Great Pyramids, one dark corner of Sunshine City -- a large commercial complex near JR Ikebukuro Station in Tokyo -- is filled with ancient treasures.
BUSINESS
Apr 20, 2002

Posts deregulation bills may shatter LDP, Aso warns

The Liberal Democratic Party may be torn apart if Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi goes ahead with his controversial plan to have four bills related to postal deregulation approved by the Cabinet on April 26, a top LDP policymaker warned Friday.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Apr 20, 2002

Gore begins long march to election 2004

WASHINGTON -- The Florida Democratic Convention provided the platform for the return of former Vice President Albert Gore to the national political scene last weekend. He jumped in with both feet in Florida, accusing President George W. Bush of a litany of misconceived policies, from the economy to the...
BUSINESS
Apr 20, 2002

Shiokawa to put Japan's case to G7

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Friday he will counter negative views expressed by the International Monetary Fund regarding Japan's economic prospects when he meets with his Group of Seven counterparts in Washington.
BUSINESS
Apr 20, 2002

Japan told to tame steel tariff response

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick warned Japan on Friday not to take retaliatory action against the United States over its decision to impose tariffs on a range of steel imports, Japanese government officials said.
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2002

Afghanistan faces isolation relapse: nurse

Japan and the rest of the world must stay engaged with and support Afghanistan's long-term reconstruction, according to a Japanese nurse who recently returned from the war-torn country.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 20, 2002

Salah Hannachi

From April 19 to 25 the Hilton Hotel Tokyo is hosting a culture and food promotion evocatively themed "Breeze From Tunisia." Chefs from Hilton Tunis are presenting authentic Tunisian cuisine. At a gala luncheon April 22 a raffle will be held for tickets for the Japan-Tunisia World Cup match, and for...
EDITORIALS
Apr 20, 2002

Fighting words in the Mideast

Not much happened this past week as a result of U.S. efforts to douse the flames in the Middle East. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell left the region without having brokered a ceasefire, an outcome he himself had predicted. Israel continued to ignore Washington's stern pleas that it start pulling...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 20, 2002

Japan traffic, one of life's little screams

I have always wondered why people insist on driving in Japan. This country just wasn't set up for moving vehicles. First of all, it is too small to have a portion of the population rallying around, flirting with momentum and dodging buildings. Imagine cramming 125 million people into land the size of...
BUSINESS
Apr 20, 2002

Daiei suffers 332.5 billion yen loss

Ailing supermarket operator Daiei Inc. announced Friday a consolidated net loss of 332.51 billion yen for the business year that ended in February, blaming the losses on increased restructuring costs.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 20, 2002

'Madame Butterfly' and the real Cho-Cho-san

Jan van Rij's interest in the story behind Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madame Butterfly" began on a visit to Nagasaki when he was working here in the 1980s. "I visited Glover Garden with all its confusions -- the ugly escalator, music coming out of the bushes. I could see he had a Japanese wife, with mixed-blood...
BUSINESS
Apr 20, 2002

Softbank plans 7.5 yen Web phone calls to U.S.

The Softbank group on April 25 will begin an Internet-based telephone service offering three-minute calls to the United States for 7.5 yen.
OLYMPICS
Apr 19, 2002

JOC to give athletes more freedom

The Japanese Olympic Committee has decided to give athletes broader control of their own images for commercial purposes amid growing calls for approval of their "professional" activities.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 19, 2002

Top Tiger shifts position barely an inch

NEW DELHI -- When Velupillai Prabhakaran, the rebel leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), held his first press conference after a gap of 12 years, he generated some optimism that was no sooner overshadowed by pessimism.
BASEBALL / MLB
Apr 19, 2002

Fujii, Swallows whitewash BayStars

Shugo Fujii hurled a three-hitter to pick up his second victory of the season as the Yakult Swallows defeated the Yokohama BayStars 6-0 on Thursday night at Tokyo's Jingu Stadium.
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2002

Flawed MOX likely to be shipped back to Britain in June: Greenpeace

OSAKA -- Plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel being stored at a nuclear plant in Takahama, Fukui Prefecture, will probably be shipped back to Britain in June, the environmental watchdog group Greenpeace said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Apr 19, 2002

Mazda to release 36 new models as it accelerates out of the red

Mazda Motor Corp. President Mark Fields said Thursday that the company plans to launch 36 new models over the next couple of years, following expectations that it has returned to profitability in the just-ended fiscal year.

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