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BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2001

Rise in housing starts is first since December

Housing starts rose 1.8 percent in July from a year earlier to 103,135 units, marking the first increase since December, the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry said Friday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 1, 2001

Keiko Sato and Haruko Miura

LONDON -- Japan 2001, a series of events, is being presented across Britain to show the culture of contemporary Japan to Britons who normally are not familiar with Japanese life. Last May, a full-scale Japanese festival in London's Hyde Park opened the yearlong, nationwide project. As well as concerts...
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2001

Overtime hours declined in July

Employees in Japan's manufacturing sector worked less overtime in July than a year earlier for the fifth straight month of decline, the labor ministry said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2001

Ministry to get ex-justice as adviser

Former Supreme Court Justice Itsuo Sonobe will become an inspections adviser at the scandal-riddled Foreign Ministry, Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2001

Kinki post office linked with Koso support meeting

OSAKA -- The Kinki Postal Administration Office in March paid for a meeting in Osaka of a group of special post office heads connected with an election violation case surrounding Kenji Koso, a newly elected House of Councilors lawmaker in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, investigative sources said....
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2001

14,700 Hitachi staff to be cut in IT slump

Hitachi Ltd. said Friday that it will abolish 14,700 jobs, or 4.5 percent of its 324,000-strong group workforce, by the end of March to help turn around declining earnings amid the slump in the information technology sector.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2001

Reform timetable necessary: Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Friday that it is necessary to draw up a specific timetable for reform initiatives to promote understanding and support.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2001

NTT union members slam transfer, wage-cut plans

Around 150 members of a Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. workers union took part in a sit-in and rally Friday morning in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward protesting planned restructuring moves by the company.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 1, 2001

In Dog Heaven, pee on the Pearly Gates

There is much talk these days about the first tourists to the moon and Mars. Everyone wants to be the first to go. Except me. I'm not interested in going to the moon or Mars. I have a hankering to go someplace much farther away and much more exciting. I want to be the first person to go to Dog Heaven....
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 1, 2001

Tuffy belts HR No. 47, but Fighters bash Buffs

Kintetsu slugger Tuffy Rhodes hammered his 47th homer off Nippon Ham starter Naoyuki Tateishi in the sixth inning but the Buffaloes bowed to the Fighters 9-3 on Friday night at the Tokyo Dome.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2001

Sanyo revises downward its first-half forecast

OSAKA -- Sanyo Electric Co. said Friday it has revised downward its group earnings forecast for the first half of the business year, projecting sales of 1.04 trillion yen, down 1.9 percent from previous expectations.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2001

Toll road losses rise

Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Authority, which manages three unprofitable toll roads linking the mainland and Shikoku, said Friday its accumulated losses for fiscal 2000 totaled 999 billion yen, up 75.8 billion yen from a year earlier.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2001

Debt collector handed license to speed up bad-loan disposal

The Financial Services Agency granted a trust services license Friday to Resolution and Collection Corp. to enable the state-run debt collector to speed up efforts to help banks dispose of bad loans, FSA officials said.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2001

Daiei to triple intake of graduates

Daiei Inc. plans to more than triple the number of graduating students it will hire to 400 in 2002, company officials said Friday.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2001

Spending by wage-earning households continues to fall

Japan's wage-earning households spent 0.4 percent less in real terms in July than they did a year earlier, the fourth straight month of decline, the government said Friday.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2001

Tax panel to list proposals in September

A financial affairs subcommittee of the government's tax panel plans to compile a set of tax reform proposals on stock transactions by the end of September, the head of the subcommittee said Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2001

Evacuated Miyake islanders get to grips with urban jungle

Motome Miyazawa's voice booms across rows of taro plants at a farm in Hachioji, western Tokyo.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2001

China's new envoy warns relations are at low ebb

Sino-Japanese relations are facing their "toughest situation" since the two countries normalized ties nearly 30 years ago due to issues related to history, trade and Taiwan, new Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wu Dawei said Friday.
COMMENTARY
Aug 31, 2001

New approach for N. Korea

HONOLULU -- It's time for Washington and Seoul to try a new approach with North Korea. It's time to do . . . absolutely nothing!
EDITORIALS
Aug 31, 2001

Unemployment demands quick action

Japan's unemployment rate hit 5 percent in July, the highest level since 1953, when the government started taking regular jobless surveys. Official data announced Tuesday show the jobless figure for men climbed to 5.2 percent and that for women to 4.7 percent. The number of people out of work has followed...
BUSINESS
Aug 31, 2001

Takenaka firm on tight bond policy for fiscal '02

Heizo Takenaka, state minister in charge of economic and fiscal policy, continued to push fiscal stringency Thursday, calling Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's proposal to cap government bond issues below 30 trillion yen "extremely reasonable."
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2001

AP boss looks back on eight-year stay

For foreigners who have never been to Japan, news wire services and other media often provide their only view of this country.
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 31, 2001

Buffaloes keep heat on Hawks

Naoyuki Omura doubled home two runs with the bases loaded to break open a tight contest as the Kintetsu Buffaloes won their fourth consecutive game by edging the Lotte Marines 7-5 on Thursday at Chiba Marine Stadium.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2001

Arrests of rightwing extremists jump 30%

The number of rightwing extremists arrested by police in the first half of this year jumped about 30 percent to reach 1,017, up 232 from a year earlier and exceeding the 1,000 level for the first time since the National Police Agency began keeping records in 1994, the agency said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Aug 31, 2001

Ministry expects lower tax revenues

Vice Finance Minister Toshiro Muto said Thursday tax revenues for the current fiscal year may be lower than the government's 50.73 trillion yen estimate due to the deteriorating economy.

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