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JAPAN
Nov 20, 2002

Tokyo, Seoul to team up on spy ships

The heads of the Japanese and South Korean coast guards agreed Tuesday to strengthen information-sharing on suspected North Korean spy ships should they be spotted off the two countries' coasts, Japanese officials said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Nov 20, 2002

Getting emotional as the Sagacho closes its doors

Last Friday evening, as a waxing moon arced low across a clear autumn sky, more than 600 people made what for most would be their final pilgrimage to the Mecca of Tokyo's contemporary art scene. Alone or in clans -- some boisterous, others silent -- they crossed the Sumida River, wound their way through...
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2002

Nicos president quits consumer credit group

Yoji Yamada, president of Nippon Shinpan Co., resigned Tuesday as chairman of the Japan Federation of Consumer Credit Companies to take responsibility for a racketeer-related scandal at his company.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 20, 2002

The Sugarman Three: "Pure Cane Sugar"

The Sugarman Three is a retro-funk jazz unit that caramelizes its sugar over a high flame. Their latest release, "Pure Cane Sugar," is their best album yet. Track two, "Take It As It Come" could be mistaken for a long-lost James Brown-Jimmy Smith collaboration. It's that good. Sugarman Three's sound...
BUSINESS
Nov 20, 2002

Nokia, Matsushita agree on mobile, appliance data link

OSAKA -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Finnish cell phone maker Nokia Corp. said Tuesday they have agreed to cooperate in exchanging data and content between mobile terminals and home electronics devices.
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2002

Government overspent in resort development

The government grossly overestimated demand and unnecessarily invested large sums in designated resort areas in 41 prefectures based on a law to promote and develop resort-related industries, according to a draft report by a study group of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry.
BUSINESS
Nov 20, 2002

Mexico expects access to fruit, vegetable marts

Mexico expects Japan to open up its fruit and vegetable markets under a bilateral free-trade agreement for which the two countries have just begun negotiations, a senior Mexican official said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 20, 2002

The dangerous art of living quietly

Oriza Hirata's 1995 Kishida Drama Award-winning "Tokyo Notes" opened in Japan for the first time in four years Sunday, after touring overseas to critical acclaim. Now being staged at the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Kinshicho by Seinendan, the company Hirata founded in 1983, this portrait of...
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2002

Group calls for end to flight drills

A group of local governments neighboring the U.S. Air Force Yokota base on Monday asked the national government to take measures to suspend all flight drills from the base, local government officials said.
BUSINESS
Nov 19, 2002

Furukawa Electric posts net loss

Fiber optics maker Furukawa Electric Co. said Monday it posted a group net loss of 101.54 billion yen in the fiscal first half, primarily due to hefty appraisal losses linked to subsidiaries in the United States.
BUSINESS
Nov 19, 2002

Asia Global Crossing selects buyer

Financially troubled Asia Global Crossing Ltd. will sell its business and assets to Asia Netcom Corp., a planned joint venture to be set up by a group of investors, Asia Global Crossing's Japanese unit said Monday.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2002

Air-cleaner maker just blowing smoke

The Fair Trade Commission has warned air-cleaner maker Tornex Inc. about misleading consumers, sources close to the case said Monday.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2002

Pair of wetlands added to list of important areas

The Miyajima marshland in Bibai, Hokkaido, and Nagoya's Fujimae tideland were listed Monday by the Swiss-based Ramsar Convention Bureau as wetlands of international importance.
EDITORIALS
Nov 19, 2002

Mr. Hu at the pinnacle of power

Now that the Chinese Communist Party has completed a smooth leadership transition, the world is watching how Mr. Hu Jintao, the new party chief, will navigate his one-party socialist state of 1.3 billion people through the treacherous waters of globalization. Predicting his future course is complicated...
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2002

Chongryun HQ receives death threats via phone

The head office of a pro-Pyongyang Korean residents' group in Japan received a call from a man over the weekend who threatened to shoot at the office as well as students of Korean schools in Japan, sources close to the group said Monday.
COMMENTARY
Nov 19, 2002

Pyongyang's deadly gamble

North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programs pose a serious security threat not only to Japan but also to all of East Asia, injecting a new element of instability into the international situation following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2002

Nicos failed to sever 'sokaiya' ties

Nippon Shinpan Co., mired in allegations that its executives paid off a racketeer to expedite proceedings at the firm's general shareholders' meetings, had failed to sever ties with a number of racketeers in the late 1980s, a former company executive said Monday.
BUSINESS
Nov 19, 2002

Snow Brand to partially sell stake in Yukijirushi Access

Snow Brand Milk Products Co. said Monday it will sell part of its stake in Yukijirushi Access Inc. to transport equipment maker Toyota Industries Corp. and four other firms later this month.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 19, 2002

Tanzanian triumphs in Tokyo race

Tanzania's Banuelia Mrashani knocked almost five minutes off her personal best to edge Japan's Rie Matsuoka for her first-ever victory in the Tokyo International Women's Marathon on Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2002

Protectionism threatens global economy

LONDON -- Japan's current row with China over steel exports is symptomatic of a growing retreat from the free trade aims that underpinned international growth in the last two decades of the 20th century. It is now a year since members of the World Trade Organization set themselves the task of reducing...
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2002

Major firms report huge combined loss

Mired in a prolonged economic slump, major companies reported a record combined loss of 16.571 trillion yen over the one-year period through June, the National Tax Agency said Monday.
BUSINESS
Nov 19, 2002

Questions over industrial revival scheme answered

The government plans to establish an industrial revival mechanism as part of a comprehensive economic package seeking to accelerate the disposal of bad loans.
BUSINESS
Nov 19, 2002

S&P gives major banks a break on share prices

Standard & Poor's Corp. said Monday it will not revise its ratings on most of Japan's major banks in response to sharp declines in their share prices.

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