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LIFE / Food & Drink / NIHONSHU
Dec 9, 2001

It used be the case for all kinds of sake

You don't hear much about the tanks used for brewing or storing sake. In many other beverages, the type, age and source of the wood used for the tanks often contributes a major component to the flavor. Although sake is now independent of these factors, this was not always the case.
ENVIRONMENT
Dec 9, 2001

Sustainability begins at home

OSAKA -- As an official of the Yasu Town Government in Shiga Prefecture, Yoshitaka Endo knew it would be easy to draw up a plan of action for improving the local environment. But from experience, he also knew such a plan would not work unless the townspeople viewed it as their own. So he called on local...
EDITORIALS
Dec 8, 2001

A first step toward Afghan peace

Afghan factions and the United Nations have managed to sign an agreement stipulating the composition of an interim administration, or Cabinet, to replace the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The official inauguration of the interim administration on Dec. 22 -- after the Ramadan month of fasting ends --...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2001

Death penalty: an ineffective shortcut

A state-sponsored killing cannot be condoned under any circumstances. It is as barbaric and brutal as the one that an individual or a group of people may have committed. It is in this context that some U.S. doctors' willingness to help execute those prisoners condemned to die by giving them a lethal...
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2001

Women in business eye support base

KYOTO -- Business leaders from 11 countries agreed Friday to create a network to help women entrepreneurs around the world.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2001

Latest numbers spell recession

Japan sank into recession with its ailing economy shrinking 0.5 percent in real terms in the July-September period from the previous quarter, the Cabinet Office said Friday. The drop translates into an annualized rate of 2.2 percent.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2001

Chinese activist expresses delight at refugee status

A Chinese democracy activist who has been granted refugee status expressed his joy Friday at the Justice Ministry's decision, 11 years after he first applied following the Chinese government's crackdown on demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989.
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2001

Reduction in state's JT stocks sought

The Finance Ministry said Friday that the mandatory percentage of shares held by the government in Japan Tobacco Inc. should be cut to 50 percent in fiscal 2002 from the current 66.7 percent.
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2001

Foreigners net buyers

While the nation's industrial web of cross-shareholdings continued unraveling, foreign investors were net buyers of Japanese stocks for the fifth consecutive week last week.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2001

Defending the Khmer cultural heritage

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- When discussion involves Cambodia, a natural reaction is to recall horrendous images of ruthless genocide. While this is true, one should nonetheless not exclusively equate this small country with immense suffering and torment. Cambodia is also home to a precious cultural heritage...
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2001

International transition team works out details of global AIDS fund

With a yearend target date approaching, the multibillion-dollar Global AIDS and Health Fund is taking shape through discussions among major countries and international organizations.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2001

Newborn princess given name Aiko

The girl born Dec. 1 to the Crown Prince and Crown Princess has been named Princess Aiko, the Imperial Household Agency said Friday.
COMMUNITY
Dec 8, 2001

East meeting with West carves history into wood

Reiko Yamanouchi remembers clearly how wood engraving entered her life. "Soon after joining my husband in Cambridge in 1968 -- he was a research student at the university -- I was given a book to help me get a feeling for the city, a memoir by Gwen Raverat, the granddaughter of Charles Darwin.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2001

U.S. code said cracked in '41

KOBE -- In mid-1941, as tensions between Japan and the United States mounted, Washington took extreme precautions to protect coded diplomatic messages between the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and the State Department from being intercepted by the Japanese.
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2001

China starts dumping probe of firms

China began an antidumping probe Friday into imports of raw nylon material from Japan, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Russia, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said.
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2001

Growth forecast at minus 0.3%

The government is likely to set its official growth forecast for fiscal 2002 at minus 0.3 percent in the wake of news that the economy contracted a real 0.5 percent in the July-September quarter, government sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2001

10,000 Matsushita workers apply for retirement scheme

OSAKA -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Friday that more than 10,000 workers, or over 10 percent of its group workforce, have applied to take part in an early retirement plan.

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers