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Japan Times
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
May 18, 2002

Pieces at Tokyo furniture museum all miniature history lessons: curator

A piece of furniture speaks volumes about history, lifestyles and people's sense of beauty, according to Masashi Saito, curator of the Furniture Museum in Tokyo's Harumi district.
BUSINESS
May 18, 2002

Nippon Yusen group profit down

Major shipping firm Nippon Yusen K.K. said Friday its group pretax profit for fiscal 2001 fell 29.7 percent from the previous year to 50.11 billion yen, as the firm was hit by a sharp reduction in freight charges.
BUSINESS
May 18, 2002

Output revised up; capacity falls

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on Friday upwardly revised the nation's industrial production figures for March by 0.3 of a percentage point to 92.8.
BUSINESS
May 18, 2002

Ajinomoto net balance in the black

Ajinomoto Co. said Friday its group net balance returned to the black in the year that ended March 31 due mainly to increased sales of pharmaceuticals and dietary supplements. Consolidated net profit in fiscal 2001 came to 31.44 billion yen, a turnaround from the previous fiscal year's loss of 11.55...
Japan Times
JAPAN / WHALE WATCHING
May 18, 2002

Arguments of whalers, opponents both have merit, writer believes

Hiroto Kawabata is one of the few people who bring a measure of equanimity to the whaling debate, where knee-jerk reactions are often the rule and reasoned debate the exception.
JAPAN
May 18, 2002

Student climber sets world record

A 23-year-old Japanese university student became the youngest person to scale the tallest peak on each of the world's seven continents when he conquered Mount Everest on Friday, his supporters said.
BUSINESS
May 18, 2002

Yasuda in final talks on tieup with Saison

Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Co., the nation's third-largest nonlife insurer in terms of assets, is in final talks to turn Saison Automobile & Fire Insurance Co. into an affiliate, Yasuda Marine said Friday.
BUSINESS
May 18, 2002

Showa Shell turns focus toward customers' needs

With most of its restructuring completed, Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K. is now focusing on stimulating customer demand by improving its products and services, according to John S. Mills, the new president of the country's fourth-largest oil wholesaler.
SOCCER / World cup / COHOSTING
May 17, 2002

A history of hate thy neighbor

Like most Asian countries, South Korea had never really considered bidding for the World Cup.
COMMENTARY
May 17, 2002

Iranians-in-exile mull return of the shah

BEVERLY HILLS, California -- These days the animated chatter in this storied city's sun-splashed cafes and deep-carpeted restaurants is not about the aftermath of 9/11, or the fall of Enron, or even the Middle East imbroglio. It's about the coming revolution in Iran.
SUMO
May 17, 2002

Maru remains tied for Summer lead

Ozeki Tochiazuma must have prayed to the sumo gods to avoid his second straight loss Thursday but yokozuna Musashimaru was as calm as the Buddha as he remained undefeated at the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament.
JAPAN
May 17, 2002

73% use Net at work for nonwork

Some 73 percent of Japanese workers have used the Internet for personal purposes in the workplace, according to a recent survey by research firm Macromill Inc. The survey shows only 27.5 percent of the respondents said they have never used the Internet for personal reasons at work.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 17, 2002

Swallows blank Giants

A solo home run from Akinori Iwamura was all Yakult needed as the Swallows shut down the Yomiuri Giants' powerful offense with a 1-0 victory Thursday night at the Tokyo Dome.
COMMENTARY
May 17, 2002

Japan at its inconsistent worst

Japan's overheated reaction to the May 8 North Korean refugee incident at the Japanese consulate-general in Shenyang, northeast China, is worrying.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

Trading house Nissho Iwai's net profits plunge 94%

Trading house Nissho Iwai Corp. said Thursday that its group net profit plunged 94.1 percent to 1.18 billion yen in the year to March 31, due chiefly to a 28 billion yen cut in interest income and a string of special losses.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

DIC paid 308 billion yen for bad loans from Shinsei, Aozora

The Deposit Insurance Corp. bought 113 bad loans worth 444.4 billion yen from Shinsei Bank between August and the end of March at a cost of 286.9 billion yen, the Financial Services Agency revealed Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WHALE WATCHING
May 17, 2002

Ecotoxicologist warns of pollutants hurting whales, dolphins, humans

While whaling experts and negotiators debate the future of whaling, some specialists worry that whale health and the safety of whale meat are not getting enough attention.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

Nissin logs 21.5% fall in net profits

Nissin Food Products Co. said Thursday it posted a group net profit of 11.94 billion yen in fiscal 2001, down 21.5 percent from a year earlier due to appraisal losses on its securities holdings and growing sales costs.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

JR Tokai says revenues up 2.5%

Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) said Thursday its consolidated operating revenues grew 2.5 percent to 1.37 trillion yen in fiscal 2001, due to increased traffic on its Tokaido Shinkansen Line bullet train services.
JAPAN
May 17, 2002

Diplomats to be held 10 more days

Veteran Russian affairs expert Masaru Sato and fellow Foreign Ministry employee Akira Maejima, under arrest on suspicion of misusing ministry funds, will be kept in detention until May 25, the Tokyo District Court said Thursday.
JAPAN / THE OKINAWA FACTOR
May 17, 2002

School taps into popularity of jobs at U.S. facilities

NAHA, Okinawa Pref. -- Growing up near Kadena Air Base and witnessing the rough antics of American soldiers, Yasuhiko Toyozato could be forgiven if he harbored negative feelings toward U.S. forces here.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

Foreign companies slightly optimistic, survey shows

Most foreign companies in Japan expect business confidence to remain flat over the next six months, although there are signs of improvement on the horizon, according to a joint survey recently released by foreign chambers of commerce.
JAPAN
May 17, 2002

Unimat chief tops taxpayer list in 2001

Yoji Takahashi, head of the Unimat group, which operates major office coffee vendor Unimat Offisco Corp., was Japan's top individual taxpayer last year, according to a report listing the nation's top 100 taxpayers in 2001, released Thursday by the National Tax Agency.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

New auto industry chief to steer Japan toward cleaner technologies

The new chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said Thursday he will work to promote fuel cells and other technologies less harmful to the environment than the combustion engine.
JAPAN
May 17, 2002

Prosecutors give Kato a break

Prosecutors are unlikely to establish a tax-evasion case against Koichi Kato, a former Liberal Democratic Party power broker, because they don't believe he had any malicious intent, sources close to the case said Thursday.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2002

Corporate failures rack up 1.48 trillion yen in liabilities

Liabilities left in the wake of corporate failures surged to 1.48 trillion yen in April, marking a year-on-year rise of 21.8 percent, credit research institute Teikoku Databank said Thursday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
May 17, 2002

Dinosaurs walking the earth once more

A full-length model of the skeletal structure of the seismosaurus will make its world debut at "The Greatest Dinosaur Expo 2002" to be held this summer at Makuhari Messe in Chiba.
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2002

Rude awakening for East Timor

JAKARTA -- The world's youngest democracy will have to stand on its own feet from Sunday. On this day East Timor will become the first newly independent nation of the 21st century. After more than 400 years of colonial rule by Portugal, 25 years of Indonesian occupation and over two years under U.N....

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