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Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2003

Service firms in Darwinian struggle to get to top of food chain

Global food service giants are making inroads into the nation's office and hospital cafeterias, triggering mergers and acquisitions in the world's second-largest institutional meal market.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 4, 2003

Kitting out the big man in Japan

If this writer had to pick a Tom Hanks film to depict his three-and-a-half decades of life in this country, it would be a tossup between "Forrest Gump" and "Big."
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2003

Koizumi to choose new BOJ chief earlier

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said late Monday he will name a new Bank of Japan governor around Feb. 20, but stopped short of saying who would get the job.
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2003

Pay fell 2.3% in 2002

Average monthly pay in all industries in 2002 fell 2.3 percent from the previous year to 343,688 yen, marking the largest drop on record, the government said Monday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 4, 2003

Rhetoric still trumps reality

After nearly two years in office, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is increasingly beleaguered in his bid to retool Japan's dysfunctional economic system. He is sticking to his banner slogans -- "Structural reform without sacred cows" and "No reform, no growth" -- but the gap between words and deeds...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 4, 2003

Converting to a healthier bento option

It's noon on a weekday in Tokyo's posh Daikanyama district in Shibuya Ward, and 52-year-old Buddhist monk Tenkai Miki makes a conspicuous arrival in front of Daikanyama station on his scooter.
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2003

New drug application withdrawn

Pharmaceutical firm Eisai Co. and its joint venture with Italy's Bracco SpA said Monday they will withdraw a new drug application for the contrast agent code-named E7155.
COMMENTARY
Feb 3, 2003

Is the press fulfilling its role?

LONDON -- "In a democracy as stagnant as Japan's, you might expect the national newspapers to stir things up. But much of the Japanese press is adverse to change with reporters from some of the top newspapers sharing the clubby life of politicians and bureaucrats."
EDITORIALS
Feb 3, 2003

'A bad day' for us all

We have felt this before. Watching the fiery remains of space shuttle Columbia streak across the blue Texas sky Saturday was like being forced to relive the past. Didn't we experience the same disbelief, sadness and horror when a flash fire killed three Apollo astronauts during a launch pad test in 1967?...
COMMENTARY
Feb 3, 2003

Pendulum swings on China vs. Japan

DAVOS, Switzerland -- How wildly the pendulum swings whenever "the experts" start talking about Japan vs. China. One can do no wrong, and the other can do no right.
EDITORIALS
Feb 3, 2003

Slogans without sanctuary

After nearly two years in office, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is increasingly beleaguered in his bid to retool Japan's dysfunctional economic systems. He is sticking to his banner slogans -- "Structural reform without sanctuaries" and "No reform, no growth," but the gap between words and deeds continues...
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2003

Obituary: Soko Izumi

KYOTO -- Tea expert Soko Izumi, the younger brother of tea Grand Master Zabosai Sen Soshitsu XVI, died of kidney failure at a Kyoto hospital early Sunday, his family said. He was 44.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 3, 2003

Bush shifts Pyongyang to the back burner

HONOLULU -- In a subtle but unmistakable signal, U.S. President George W. Bush has shoved the American confrontation with North Korea well down the list of Washington's priorities.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 3, 2003

Davenport outlasts Seles

All it took was losing one set point for Lindsay Davenport to rejuvenate from a disgruntled player returning from injury to a former No. 1 player ready to send a loud message to the women's tennis world.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Feb 3, 2003

"The Wish List," "Winnie's Magic Wand"

"The Wish List," Eoin Colfer, Puffin Books; 2002; 200 pp. If you couldn't get enough of Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series, put this book on your wish list.
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2003

Trillions of yen needed for funds

Economic and fiscal policy minister Heizo Takenaka suggested Sunday that several trillion yen would be needed to sufficiently increase the money supply if the Bank of Japan buys exchange-traded funds on the market.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2003

Japan weighs disaster's impact on Tokyo's own space program

Japan expressed shock Sunday at the loss of the U.S. space shuttle Columbia as officials scrambled to assess the impact on Tokyo's own space program, jointly conducted with the United States.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Feb 3, 2003

Beware of the risks of inflation targeting

America borrows to keep growing. China grows to keep standing still. And Japan stands still to keep from falling apart.
EDITORIALS
Feb 2, 2003

Beware the chair

Meanwhile, in another corner of the far-flung Internet universe, there was a portent of a different kind last week. A dismal portent this time, although not one that is likely to bother the fit climbers dropping into the Mount Everest cybercafe to send a few e-mails. According to a British science magazine,...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2003

Asian bridges via Okinawa

SINGAPORE -- Earlier this month a closed-door workshop and open public symposium focused on bridging the divisions within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and those between Japan and Okinawa as well as on strengthening the ASEAN-Japan partnership through governance, human security and community-building....

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