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BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2001

FSA issues bank licenses to IY, Sony units

The Financial Services Agency on Wednesday formally issued banking licenses to IY Bank, a subsidiary of Ito-Yokado Co., and to Sony Bank, a subsidiary of Sony Corp.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2001

G7 finance meeting to test caliber of Koizumi's reforms

New Liberal Democratic Party President Junichiro Koizumi, set to become prime minister today, will see his resolve toward fiscal and economic structural reforms tested this weekend in Washington by the world's major economic powers.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2001

Producer Tetsuya Komuro to marry singer

Tetsuya Komuro, a popular musician and producer of a number of gold disks, will soon marry a vocalist in his group "Kiss Destination," sources close to the musician said Wednesday.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Apr 26, 2001

Japan looking for a little respect at hockey World Championships

Call them cannon-fodder if you like, but Japan's national ice hockey team doesn't plan on just rolling over at the IIHF World Championships.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2001

Tentative trading set to dominate markets

Nervous trading appears likely to continue on the currency market, keeping the dollar-yen rate moving between 120 yen and 125 yen.
COMMENTARY
Apr 26, 2001

Antiglobalism guarantees poverty for all

WASHINGTON -- Despite the worst efforts of violent protesters in Quebec, Canada, leaders of countries throughout the Western hemisphere concluded their Summit of the Americas by proposing a broad free-trade agreement. Bringing more of the world's poor into the global economy is the best hope for raising...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 26, 2001

New land law still ignores public voice

Owning property in Japan is a constitutional right, but it has its limits. The government can take private property for uses that advance the public welfare.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2001

Auto output tops 10 million

Auto production in Japan topped 10 million vehicles in fiscal 2000 for the first time in three years, helped by favorable sales at home and overseas, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2001

Koizumi's choices break from norm

Junichiro Koizumi, newly elected president of the dominant LDP, broke with tradition Wednesday and awarded the top three party spots to lawmakers outside of the largest faction.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2001

Snow Brand raided in negligence probe

OSAKA -- Osaka prosecutors searched the Sapporo head office of Snow Brand Milk Products Co. on Wednesday in their probe of suspected professional negligence that resulted in one consumer dying and some 140 others falling sick from last summer's food-poisoning outbreak.
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENING FOR ALL
Apr 26, 2001

Monument to 800 years of daimyo power

Sengan'en, a garden and former residence of the Shimazu lords of Kagoshima, is located on the shores of Kinko Bay, the innermost part of Kagoshima Bay. Officially called Sengan'en, it is also known as Iso Gardens. It was designated a national scenic landmark in 1958.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2001

Fresh fraud charges leveled against logistics chief Matsuo

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office on Wednesday indicted Katsutoshi Matsuo, a former Foreign Ministry logistics chief, on fresh charges of swindling the government out of 119 million yen.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2001

Three nonlife insurers to merge in fiscal '02

Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Co. and two other nonlife insurers due to merge April 1, 2002, inked a deal Wednesday to merge into a single entity on April 1, 2002.
ENVIRONMENT / IN BLOOM
Apr 26, 2001

Tsutsuji (azalea)

Presently two nuns clad in dark robes were seen making their way slowly and painfully down through the rough rocks of the mountainside. The Priestly Sovereign asked who they were, and the nun replied, "The one carrying a basket of mountain azaleas on her arm is the former Empress and the other,...
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2001

Pasteless toothbrush shocks teeth clean

A toothbrush innovation may make messy toothpaste obsolete within a couple of years, according to the firm that developed the new tool.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 26, 2001

Vaccine theory of HIV debunked

A tempest that has been raging in the outwardly dignified world of academia is set to die down with the publication today of three papers in Nature and one in Science. The story -- about the origin of AIDS -- is one of intrigue, mystery and death. Mostly, however, it is about death.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2001

Ill economy, July election may dilute new leader's reform goals

Junichiro Koizumi, the newly elected Liberal Democratic Party president who is set to become prime minister, faces a rough road in trying to deliver the economic reforms he promised in his campaign.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2001

Court upholds Nakamura ruling

The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling in which former Construction Minister Kishiro Nakamura was handed an 18-month prison term and fined 10 million yen for accepting a bribe of the same amount from a construction company.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2001

Kobe quake magnitude revised up to 7.3

The Meteorological Agency on Monday upgraded the magnitude of the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, which devastated Kobe and surrounding areas, to 7.3 from 7.2 based on a revision in its method of determining magnitudes.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2001

'01 Japan Prize laureates visit for award presentation

Laureates for the 2001 Japan Prize on Tuesday expressed joy that their achievements in the areas of environmentally benign materials and marine biology were recognized as having contributed to the public good.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 25, 2001

Hidden Gems

'Straight-to-video" is a term that carries a stigma, and deservedly so. So much of what emerges without theatrical release is either slasher, sleaze or sly made-for-TV imitations of a bigger-budgeted film (e.g., "Asteroid," released just prior to "Armageddon"). But here in Japan there is a surprisingly...
CULTURE / Film
Apr 25, 2001

Reel world

When "based on a true story" flashes on the screen, many moviegoers are left cold, knowing that Hollywood obliterates so much of the truth in pursuit of dramatic arc and tried-and-true narrative formulas. Documentary film allows a much smaller margin for manipulation, and the best ones prove that truth...
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2001

Hospitals hurt by competition

Medical institutions are struggling to survive in the wake of a government policy to curb national medical expenses from the current 30 trillion yen a year.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2001

Caribbean, Latin American envoys meet local media

Diplomats from Latin American and Caribbean countries met with a group of Japanese journalists on Tuesday to discuss perceptions of the Japanese media toward countries in the region.
BUSINESS
Apr 25, 2001

Moody's may cut Itochu, Marubeni credit ratings

Moody's Investors Service Inc. on Tuesday took rating action against two of Japan's giant trading houses, Itochu Corp. and Marubeni Corp., in a move that could cut their credit ratings.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2001

Municipalities could be pared to 622

The current 3,228 cities, towns and villages nationwide could conceivably be merged into just 622 entities, according to the Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb