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BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2001

Footwork group firms file for court protection

Midsize trucking firm Footwork Express Co. and two of its affiliates said they have filed for court protection from creditors under a year-old law designed to make it easier for troubled firms to win court protection.
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2001

Matsushita to boost overseas output

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Monday it plans to produce 3.4 trillion yen worth of products at its overseas plants in fiscal 2003, a 1.7-fold increase over fiscal 2000 ending March 31.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 6, 2001

Kyon Kyon's leap in the dark

Pop idols are not only a Japanese phenomenon -- Britney Spears sells from Zurich to Zimbabwe -- but Japan produces more idols, of both sexes, than anywhere else in the world and has refined the idol aesthetic to an extreme. Japanese idols must be not only cute enough to make your teeth hurt, but everlastingly...
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2001

Subscribers to i-mode top 20 million

The number of subscribers to NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s i-mode mobile phone service has topped 20 million, reaching the mark only two years after it began, NTT DoCoMo said Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2001

Notes on debts link Obara to Blackman

Notes apparently written by Lucie Blackman, a British woman whose dismembered body was discovered last month, have been seized at a Tokyo condominium owned by the prime suspect in her case, police sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2001

Fujimori moves into posh digs

Deposed Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori moved into a plush condominium Monday in downtown Tokyo after moving out of the home of a novelist friend, as Peruvian authorities moved to try him in court.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2001

Controversial history text under revision

The authors and publisher of a controversial junior high school history textbook being screened by the government are ready to comply with all of the revision requests made by an education ministry panel, sources close to the group said Monday.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Mar 6, 2001

High voltage rock 'n' roll

"I need oxygen," gasps singer Yuda, and there's little of that in Shimokitazawa's Yaneura live house tonight. One of the smallest venues in Tokyo is packed to the rafters to see Electric Summer, a band reaching for the stars and demonstrating they have the rocket fuel and never-say-die adventurous spirit...
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2001

War-displaced Japanese meet potential kin

Two war-displaced Japanese from China looking for family in Japan met with possible relatives in Tokyo for about two hours Monday but failed to find decisive evidence to determine any definite link, according to Japanese government officials.
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2001

Period of calm should follow trading storm

Tokyo stocks have been exhibiting chaotic movement over the past month.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2001

Man indicted over pill smuggling

OSAKA -- A 48-year-old Singaporean man has been indicted by prosecutors on suspicion of bringing about 5,200 pills of illegal drugs into Kansai airport, including a new kind of pill containing three illegal drugs, prosecution sources said Monday.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 6, 2001

Two perspectives on a gray tomorrow

CARING FOR THE ELDERLY IN JAPAN AND THE U.S.: Practices and Policies, edited by Susan Orpett Long. Routledge: London, 2000. 358 pp., $100. By the year 2025, some 26 percent of Japan's population will be over 65 years old, meaning that society and families will need to cope with the various needs of...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 6, 2001

Carefully controlled exoticism

THE ORIENT STRIKES BACK: A Global View of Cultural Display, by Joy Hendry. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2000, 256 pp., 40 illustrations (16 color). 42.99 British pounds (cloth), 14.99 British pounds (paper). A century ago, the West used to entertain and educate itself with random views of the East. World's...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2001

Proceed cautiously in Irkutsk

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is scheduled to visit Irkutsk, Russia, on March 25 to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. What will happen if Mori steps down before then?
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2001

BOJ discussed rate cuts in January

Some policy-setting board members of the Bank of Japan called for interest rate cuts in January to deal with downside risk factors to the nation's economy, according to the minutes of the Jan. 19 Policy Board meeting released Monday.
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2001

State may redefine 'deflation'

The central government is considering relaxing its definition of deflation amid continuing falls in consumer prices, government sources said Monday.
COMMUNITY
Mar 6, 2001

Utsunomiya brings 'gyoza' lovers into fold

UTSUNOMIYA, Tochigi Pref. -- At the bottom of the steps leading out of JR Utsunomiya Station is a statue of Venus quite unlike any other.
COMMUNITY
Mar 6, 2001

Students give technical edge to volunteer activities

TOCHIGI -- It might seem strange that a group of students at a rural Japanese high school would be concerned about the culinary habits of Zambia's wildlife or the conditions of India's walkways.
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
Mar 5, 2001

Bush works on tax cuts while Clinton dodges more controversy

WASHINGTON -- "Beauty and the Beast" was on television Monday night -- the movie, not the continuing news saga of our current president and the most recent former one. That show seems to be a never-ending saga.
COMMENTARY
Mar 5, 2001

Are falling prices that bad?

LONDON -- Economists like limited inflation. They reckon it helps growth. Perhaps it may in some circumstances. It also benefits those who have borrowed against assets, which rise in value in an inflationary environment. But even limited inflation can be damaging, especially to those on fixed incomes,...
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2001

Miyake island left to ravages of nature

Six months have passed since the mass evacuation of Miyake Island's 3,800 residents in September, and conditions on the volcanic island are deteriorating with each passing month.
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2001

Salmonella detected in imported heart sacs

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has detected salmonella in unused U.S.-made heart sacs -- products suspected of causing inflammation in some 70 heart patients in Japan, ministry sources said Sunday.
BUSINESS
Mar 5, 2001

Mitsubishi Motors raises net loss forecast to 250 billion yen

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. has revised its consolidated net loss figures for the year through March 31 to around 250 billion yen due to slumping sales, recalls and restructuring spending, MMC officials said Sunday.

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