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JAPAN
Aug 9, 2001

Public service seeks longer leave for caring

The National Personnel Authority submitted a report to the government Wednesday requesting that public servants be granted leave to care for children aged up to 3, officials of the organization said.
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2001

Maid, machinist get life for murder

OSAKA -- A former maid and her male acquaintance were sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for robbing and strangling her employer in 1999 in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, and dumping his body in Aomori Prefecture.
BUSINESS
Aug 9, 2001

Shiokawa vows to prevent negative growth

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa reiterated Wednesday that the government will take all necessary measures to prop up the economy if it falls into negative growth on an annual basis.
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2001

War criminal kin's widow on peace quest

Shizue Sugano, 60, a relative by marriage to Class-A war criminal Koki Hirota, embarked on her antiwar pilgrimage in 1994.
BUSINESS
Aug 9, 2001

Civil servants may face second year without a raise

For the second year in a row, the National Personnel Authority has recommended withholding a pay raise for employees of the central government in a belt-tightening move reflecting the severity of the economic downturn.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 9, 2001

Injunction process hopeless; fate of Bullfrog Pond sealed

The fate of Bullfrog Pond now rests in the hands of a Tokyo District Court judge, but the wheels of justice turn slowly in Japan. The court has yet to grant a crucial injunction, and hearings have dragged into their third month. Meantime, the pond in Tokyo's Minato Ward, known as Gama-ike, is being destroyed....
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2001

Eyes wide open

French auteurs rediscover the human condition French cinema has long been identified with auteur filmmaking of a certain kind. While the idea of a highly personal cinema shaped by obsessions and concerns of the director is a good one, for too long this has been used to justify overly intellectualized,...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2001

'Victor . . . pendant qu'il est trop tard'

Rating: * * * *Japanese title: Victor -- Chiisana Koibito Director: Sandrine Veysset Running time: 88 minutes Language: FrenchNow showing Realist cinema, even at its best, tends to have a very flat view of reality, one that involves merely capturing the world around us as we perceive it. But there's...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2001

Director Veysset knows her characters by heart

Sandrine Veysset has only made three films so far, but it would be no exaggeration to call her one of France's most talented directors. Her debut, "Will It Snow for Christmas?" took a Cesar (French Academy Award), her follow-up "Victor . . . pendant qu'il est trop tard," grabbed a Critics' Award at Rotterdam,...
BASEBALL / MLB
Aug 8, 2001

Giants to Tigers: sayonara

Yoshinobu Takahashi blasted a game-tying solo homer and Akira Eto singled home the "sayonara" run in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Yomiuri Giants picked up a 7-6 comeback victory over Hanshin and ended a five-game losing skid against the Tigers on Tuesday at the Tokyo Dome. With the score tied...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2001

'Louise (Take 2)'

Rating: * * * * Director: Siegfried Running time: 110 minutes Language: FrenchOpens Aug. 18 at Shibuya Cinema Society 'Louise (Take 2)" is a "road movie" in the most truthful, undiluted sense of the term. And yet it is far, far removed from the liberating buoyancy of ordinary road movies in which...
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2001

Tokyo schools for disabled to get contentious history text

The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education voted Tuesday to use a controversial history textbook at three public schools for disabled children.
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2001

Siegfried finds a home on streets with no name

In an industry where self-advertisement is practically a prerequisite, filmmaker Siegfried is amazingly reticent about his personal background. From his refusal to disclose his last name to his disdain of promotional tours and interviews, Siegfried is and remains a mystery.
BUSINESS
Aug 8, 2001

Daiei to sell off Printemps Ginza

Supermarket chain operator Daiei Inc. announced Tuesday it will sell its full stake in subsidiary department store Printemps Ginza SA to reduce its own debt.
BUSINESS
Aug 8, 2001

MHI, GE in talks on diesel engines

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. is in negotiations with General Electric Co. to supply its U.S. rival with diesel engines used to generate electric power, company sources said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 8, 2001

Household spending drops 3.8%

Average household spending dropped an inflation-adjusted 3.8 percent in June from a year earlier to 284,471 yen, marking the third consecutive month of decline, the government said in a report Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2001

Tanaka to delay own punishment

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka said Tuesday that she will wait until a fuller picture emerges of the embezzlement scams enveloping her ministry before imposing punitive measures upon herself.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2001

Cabinet trio plan to visit Yasukuni on surrender day

Three of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's 17 ministers confirmed Tuesday they will visit Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 15, the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2001

60-year-old new mom says she is ready to raise her child

A 60-year-old woman who successfully gave birth in late July following fertilization treatment in the U.S. says she is ready to take on the challenge of raising her child, sources close to her said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2001

Cleaning up roadside litter cost state 328 million yen in '00

The government spent 328 million yen in fiscal 2000 to remove garbage that was either dumped deliberately or had fallen from moving vehicles from beside national highways, according to a Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry report.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2001

Girl gang held in attack on defector

Five teenage girls were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of assaulting another girl who tried to quit a motorcycle gang they had set up by soliciting members via the Internet.
BUSINESS
Aug 8, 2001

Nissan Diesel to tutor China firm

Nissan Diesel Motor Co. said Tuesday it will provide China's largest diesel engine maker, Dongfeng Chaoyang Diesel Co., with its diesel engine manufacturing and assembling technology starting in September.
BUSINESS
Aug 8, 2001

Deflation to stay for a few years

A team of private-sector economists and financial market participants agreed Tuesday that Japan will not be able to shake off deflation for a few more years, a government official said.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2001

Low rainfall points to water shortage

The Meteorological Agency on Tuesday warned of possible water shortages due to low precipitation levels in Tokyo and areas west of the capital.
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2001

Are the fishing fools running out of line?

Tsuri Baka Nisshi 12 Rating: * * 1/2 Director: Katsuhide Motoki Running time: 111 minutes Language: JapaneseOpens Aug. 18 Some sequels make sense, but a "3" or "4" after the title of a Hollywood movie is generally a good reason to stay away unless you happen to be feeling charitable toward a studio...
MORE SPORTS
Aug 8, 2001

Westhead hired by JBL team

The Matsushita Electric Panasonic Super Kangaroos of the Japan Basketball League announced Tuesday they have hired Paul Westhead as their new head coach.
BUSINESS / ON THE FRONT LINE
Aug 8, 2001

Is Tokyo ready to call for devalued yen?

The pros and cons of a weak yen continue to be debated.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Aug 8, 2001

Sonicmania

The music world is going ape for apes. Nigo, of fashion label A Bathing Ape, has just issued the latest installment of his Ape Sounds hip-hop project; Cornelius (named after the leading simian of the original "Planet of the Apes") will release the highly anticipated follow up to his "Fantasma" album...

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic