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JAPAN
Sep 14, 2002

Test satellite fails to enter correct orbit, NASDA says

The National Space Development Agency of Japan said Friday the data relay test satellite released by an H-IIA rocket on Tuesday has failed to enter geostationary orbit due to engine failure.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 14, 2002

Gold-medalist Ikeda dies of cancer

Former freestyle wrestler Mitsuo Ikeda, who won a gold medal at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, died of esophagus cancer Thursday, his family said. He was 67.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2002

Osaka Gas takes part blame for fire

OSAKA -- The head of Osaka Gas Co. admitted Friday that an error in a gas-pipe map the firm prepared is partly responsible for the fire that gutted Nakaza theater in the city's Dotonbori district.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2002

Agency named Tepco informant

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency leaked the name of the whistle-blower at Tokyo Electric Power Co. long before the utility's nuclear coverup scandal came to light, according to informed sources.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 14, 2002

Capt. Robert Guy

LONDON -- The Japan Society, founded in 1891, is the oldest organization in Britain concerned with Anglo-Japanese relationships. It grew out of a meeting a decade earlier of the International Congress of Orientalists. In over 90 events each year, and largely through a cluster of groups that focus on...
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2002

Abduction issue 'most important': governor

Niigata Gov. Ikuo Hirayama on Friday urged Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to put the abductions issue at the top of the agenda at next week's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
BUSINESS
Sep 14, 2002

Fee change eyed for NTT units

An advisory panel to the telecommunications minister recommended Friday that NTT East Corp. and NTT West Corp. set different interconnection fees to promote competition between them.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 14, 2002

Rip Van Twinkle: awake for 100 years

You all know the story of Rip Van Winkle, who slept for 20 years. But how many of you know the story of Rip Van Twinkle, who stayed awake for 100 years?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 14, 2002

Silver, socks make Afghan refugees independent

Shahnaz Akhtar arrived in Tokyo from Pakistan on Sept. 3, a guest of Global Village's Fair Trade Co. in Jiyugaoka, which distributes and sells leather and silver work and embroidered, woven and knitted goods crafted by Afghan refugees under her guidance. The purpose in being here? "To gather information...
EDITORIALS
Sep 13, 2002

Loophole or slipknot?

I f Mr. Supachai had any idea of easing into his new job, that fantasy was recently put to rest. On Aug. 30, the WTO ruled that tax breaks offered U.S. export companies violate international trade rules. In response, the European Union can impose billions of dollars in sanctions against the United States....
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2002

Health problems afflict 36% of night-shift staff

One in three people who work night shifts complains of bad health, including gastrointestinal disorders, illnesses associated with high blood pressure, or sleeplessness, according to a government survey.
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2002

Supply of new Tokyo condos jumps 42.1%

The number of new condominiums put on sale in the Tokyo metropolitan area in August jumped 42.1 percent over the previous year to 4,715, a record high for the month, the Real Estate Economic Institute said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2002

Takenaka urges inflation-targeting debate

Liberal Democratic Party elements appear to be ratcheting up the pressure on the Bank of Japan to start cranking out more yen.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2002

Business leaders plan investment proposal

A forum set up by business leaders to help attract more foreign investment agreed Thursday in Tokyo at its first meeting to present a proposal to the government in December.
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2002

Nippon Yusen to buy overseas firms

Shipping company Nippon Yusen K.K. said Thursday the Nippon Yusen group will purchase two overseas container-handling firms by the end of October in an effort to bolster its international port terminal business.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2002

Political fundraisers collected record high 13.7 billion yen in 2001

Political parties and related organizations, including support groups for individual politicians, collected a record 13.7 billion yen through fundraising events in 2001, according to a government report issued Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2002

Better traffic lights protect pedestrians, NPA finds

The number of traffic accidents involving pedestrians fell to less than one-third what they had been at intersections equipped with a new pedestrian-friendly traffic light system, the National Police Agency said in a study released Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2002

Former Yakult executive sentenced to seven years

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday sentenced a former vice president of Yakult Honsha Co. to seven years in prison and fined him 60 million yen for engaging in illicit transactions of "Princeton bonds" over the past decade.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2002

Foreign performers both young and old help keep traveling big top alive

KANAZAWA, Ishikawa Pref. A glimpse of the giant tent reveals that a traveling circus is in town.
SUMO
Sep 13, 2002

Taka tumbles again

Takanohana suffered a setback in his comeback from injury as the yokozuna went down to his second defeat against a rank-and-filer at the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament on Thursday.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2002

Farm ministry files complaints

The farm ministry filed criminal complaints Thursday against the former chiefs of three sales offices of a Nippon Meat Packers Inc. subsidiary on suspicion of defrauding the government out of nearly 10 million yen.
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2002

Hubbard tells Shiokawa about tax-cut benefits

Glenn Hubbard, visiting chairman of U.S. President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, offered a tip to Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa on Thursday, telling him that lowering the corporate tax rate helped stimulate economic activity in the United States.
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2002

Current account surplus soars 58.1%

The country's current account surplus in July rose 58.1 percent from a year earlier to 1.14 trillion yen, according to a preliminary report released Thursday by the Finance Ministry.
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2002

Writer slams Iraq attack via petition

OSAKA -- Writer Makoto Oda is waging a petition drive, seeking people who support his opposition to the threatened U.S. attack on Iraq and his call for the Japanese government to act as an intermediary to prevent a war.
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2002

Corporate governance re-examined: S&P

Growing investor demand and more than a decade of economic stagnation are forcing Japanese companies to re-examine their traditional corporate governance practices, Standard & Poor's Corp. said in reports released Thursday.

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