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Japan Times
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
May 4, 2002

Shibuya museum links tobacco, salt past and present in curious harmony

To the uninitiated, the combination of tobacco and salt in a museum is a curious one.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
May 4, 2002

Marie and Kelly Gray

When the House of St. John USA brought out its fragrance White Camellia, St. John founder Marie Gray thought of it as a celebration of a relationship. The relationship, special and cherished, is between herself and her daughter Kelly. Marie said she could "think of no better way to celebrate something...
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 2002

U.S. homeland still insecure

Half a year after the creation of the Office of Homeland Security, how well is the Bush administration doing in its efforts to improve protection of the United States against terrorist attacks? No major attacks have occurred since Sept. 11, giving a first impression that the effort is going well. But...
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 2002

IMF is backing the wrong horse again

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Oh dear, oh dear! The International Monetary Fund supports the Hong Kong dollar's peg to the dollar. In Hong Kong recently, a senior representative of the IMF applauded Hong Kong's decision not to break its fixed link to the greenback, saying that the IMF believes that "the peg...
MORE SPORTS
May 3, 2002

Ogiwara to retire from international Nordic meets

Former world champion Kenji Ogiwara, who led the Japanese Nordic combined skiing team to a pair of Olympic gold medals, will retire from international competition, informed sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN / KANSAI BEAT
May 3, 2002

Pilot project to use Internet to link doctors, foreign patients, translators

KOBE -- For foreigners who cannot communicate in Japanese, having an interpreter is important when seeing a doctor.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 3, 2002

A cocoon of grandeur and propaganda

PYONGYANG -- Is change really in the air north of the Korean Peninsula's 38th parallel?
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 3, 2002

Vacated banks seeing new tenants

At an intersection in Tokyo's Nihonbashi financial district, a wholesale supermarket with a bright yellow sign and outdoor fruit bins draws the curious eyes of people passing by.
MORE SPORTS
May 3, 2002

Close, but no cigar

Ryan Kuwabara is a key member of Japan's national ice hockey team currently playing at the Pool A World Championships in Sweden. Kuwabara, a Japanese-Canadian who was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens and now stars for Japan Ice Hockey League champion Kokudo, has agreed once again to keep a journal chronicling...
BUSINESS
May 3, 2002

Donors working on IDA deal

With the clock ticking on the end-of-June deadline for a final agreement, the world's major industrialized countries appear to be nearing a compromise on fresh funding for the International Development Association.
EDITORIALS
May 3, 2002

Flawed bills need rewriting

Two pieces of legislation that could restrict the media's freedom of activities are being debated in the Diet. One bill lays out ground rules for protecting personal data. The other, designed to protect human rights, would create a human rights commission affiliated with the Justice Ministry.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 3, 2002

Kawasaki finds cultural assets among industrial blight

A year ago, a ward along Kawasaki's waterfront launched a campaign to rediscover the district's attraction and dispel its negative image as a pollution-plagued home to smokestack industries.
BUSINESS
May 3, 2002

Matsui Securities' profits up 20.7%

Matsui Securities Co., a leading online securities house, said Thursday it had defied the overall stock market slump in fiscal 2001, boosting its consolidated net profits by 20.7 percent to 1.87 billion yen.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 3, 2002

Just your average, run-of-the-mill salaryman sings the blues

So let me introduce myself. I'm your futsu (run-of-the-mill), heikin (average) salaryman, nothing special. What's wrong with that? I can remember a time when this particular jiko-shokai (self-introduction) at company functions and karaoke parties was perfectly acceptable -- even welcomed.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 3, 2002

Ailing Japan looks to World Cup to spark a spending spree

While the nation continues to struggle with weak consumer spending amid the protracted economic slump, the World Cup soccer finals, which Japan and South Korea will cohost from May 31 to the end of June, seem to be loosening the purse strings of some consumers.
JAPAN
May 3, 2002

Japanese children want to visit U.S. the most: survey

Japanese children named the United States as the country they most want to visit and said they are more interested in the U.S. and its people than any other foreign country, according to a recent survey.
JAPAN
May 3, 2002

NPA regrets inability to solve journalist's murder

The chief of the National Police Agency said he regrets police have been unable to make an arrest before the statute of limitations for the 1987 murder of an Asahi Shimbun reporter was to expire at midnight Thursday.
BUSINESS / ON THE FRONT LINE
May 3, 2002

Factors weigh on dollar but big fall unlikely

The dollar has come under fresh downward pressure against all other major currencies.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 3, 2002

Water strider

* Japanese name: Himeamenbo * Scientific name: Gerris latiabdominis * Description: Water striders are common, semiaquatic insects, with bodies that are brown on top and silver-white underneath. They have three pairs of long legs, the front pair being well-separated from the others. Water striders use...
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
May 3, 2002

When one-size-fits-all schooling doesn't fit

There's a boy in our building who doesn't go to school. Ever. Nine-year-old Kenji missed 40 days of school last year, then refused to go back at all after the spring break. He says that he "can't breathe" at school and that his stomach hurts whenever he's in the building.
BUSINESS
May 3, 2002

Nintendo buys out U.S. software unit

Game-machine maker Nintendo Co. said Thursday it has bought out its U.S. software-developing affiliate, Retro Studios Inc., making it a wholly owned subsidiary.
JAPAN
May 3, 2002

New version of M-5 rocket in works

Japan plans to develop a new model of its M-5 solid-fuel rocket by 2007, officials of the Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science said Thursday.
SOCCER / World cup
May 3, 2002

Hondurans hold Japan

KOBE -- If Japan manager Philippe Troussier needed to be reminded of his side's defensive frailties, then he should be grateful to Honduras, which pushed the home side to a 3-3 draw in the Kirin Cup at Kobe Wing Stadium on Thursday.
LIFE / Language
May 3, 2002

Never too young to start making a difference

You don't have to wait until you're grown up to be counted. In fact, if you're between 10 and 12 years old, you're the perfect age to take part in the International Children's Conference on the Environment. And to start thinking of how to preserve and improve the world that you are living in.
EDITORIALS
May 2, 2002

A positive note from Pyongyang

The latest meeting of Japanese and North Korean Red Cross officials, held in Beijing this week to discuss the long-pending issue of the alleged abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korean agents, ended on a positive note. The North Korean side confirmed they had resumed the search for the "missing...

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