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BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2003

Group formed to drum up support for deregulation

A government panel established a working group Wednesday to encourage deregulation measures in 12 key areas.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2003

Sleep apnea cited for two dozing train drivers

The driver of a helper locomotive on a freight train nodded off at the controls on the JR Sanyo Line in Hiroshima Prefecture last month, possibly due to sleep apnea, sources at Japan Freight Railway Co. said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2003

UNESCO wants water action

UNESCO will seek concrete action from the upcoming World Water Forum in western Japan following years of failure to seriously address global water goals, the director of the body's World Water Assessment Program said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2003

Growing number of firms feel their payrolls are inflated

Many employers simply feel they have too many workers, a government survey showed Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Mar 4, 2003

AIDS vaccine disappoints

To practically no one's surprise, the first test of an AIDS vaccine has failed. That the outcome was widely predicted -- and even anticipated -- must not deter future efforts to develop a vaccine. AIDS is one of the worst scourges humanity has suffered to date, and a combination of economics and demographics...
BUSINESS
Mar 4, 2003

Increase in overtime boosts average monthly salaries

The average monthly wage, including overtime pay, stood at 277,003 yen in January, up 0.2 percent from a year earlier, marking the first rise in 25 months, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Monday in a preliminary report.
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2003

Spring wage talks going the way of the dinosaur?

The curtain has fallen on the "shunto" wage hike negotiations that unions have conducted every spring for almost half a century amid the nation's deflationary downturn and fierce international competition.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 2, 2003

Transsexual out to change family registry law

Last month, several transsexuals petitioned some 20 Diet members for legal changes that would allow people who have undergone sex-change operations to switch their gender on official registries.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Mar 2, 2003

Robben Island's living ghosts

First of two parts The history of Robben Island is so dense with incident, tragedy, hope and despair that you can almost touch it. You can almost hear the ghosts and the slamming of prison doors.
BUSINESS
Mar 1, 2003

Household spending continues slide

Kyodo News
BUSINESS
Mar 1, 2003

Pension plan could lead to sales tax hike

The Liberal Democratic Party's committee on public pension reform will study the possibility of raising the 5 percent consumption tax as a means to finance a proposed increase in the government's contribution to the national pension program, the panel's head said Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2003

Hello Work job centers a hotbed of false listings

An increasing number of bogus job listings and unscrupulous employers are exploiting the government-run Hello Work job centers as high unemployment continues to grip the country.
BUSINESS
Mar 1, 2003

Jobless rate returns to record high 5.5%

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate in January returned to the record high 5.5 percent posted in October as beleaguered companies continued to shed jobs, the government said Friday.
COMMENTARY
Mar 1, 2003

Chirac remains on the attack

PARIS -- French Finance Minister Francis Mer has at last acknowledged that there is no chance the government will achieve its target of 2.5 percent growth in GDP this year. A steady increase in unemployment, a massive fall in stocks and plummeting car sales all indicate that France has not escaped the...
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2003

Opposition parties to call for change in budget for 2003

Four opposition parties agreed Tuesday to jointly urge the government to make changes worth 1.7 trillion yen to the 81.79 trillion yen budget for fiscal 2003 submitted to the Diet in late January.
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2003

U.S. kin of veterans eye war items' return

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has received an increasing number of inquiries from the families of U.S. World War II veterans concerning the personal belongings of Japanese soldiers taken from battlefields, officials said Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2003

Sanitary infant environment suspected for high allergy incidence

Some 86 percent of people born in the 1970s have allergies against things such as mites and cedar pollen, researchers at the National Center for Child Health and Development in Tokyo estimated Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2003

New law to lift ban on factory temps

An advisory panel to the labor minister has recommended legal revisions to lift a ban on the dispatch of workers to manufacturing plants by manpower supply companies, ministry officials said.
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2003

Needy find welfare elusive, demeaning

After living homeless in Tokyo's Katsushika Ward for seven years, a 53-year-old former leather tanner was finally helped off the street last year with public livelihood assistance.
BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2003

Japan's problems unlikely to dominate G7 meet

Japan hopes to win global support for its fight against deflation when finance chiefs from the Group of Seven major economic powers gather in Paris over the weekend, but financial experts believe that Tokyo will be hard-pressed in achieving its goal.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2003

Asahi unearths hops health benefit

Asahi Breweries Ltd. said Wednesday that hops used in beer production contain a substance that neutralizes the verotoxin that causes the deadly O-157 strain of E. coli bacteria.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Feb 20, 2003

Down by the Edo riverside

The 1830s woodcut prints by Hasegawa Settan depict an amazing panorama of Edo as seen looking southeast from Edo Castle. The unobstructed view must have been the one the shogun enjoyed from his castle in what is now the Imperial Palace's East Garden, introduced in this column last month.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2003

Flu alert issued to all prefectures

Authorities have now issued all 47 prefectures with a flu alert, as the epidemic continues to spread throughout the country, according to a report released Wednesday by the Infectious Disease Surveillance Center.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2003

Opposition calls for Moriyama to resign over prison abuse case

Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama was the focus of a Diet row Wednesday over alleged contradictions in her remarks over the death of a prison inmate that the opposition camp slammed as an attempt to cover the scandal up.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 19, 2003

Don't fear deregulation failures: Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi urged his Cabinet on Tuesday to consider the hundreds of proposals by local municipalities nationwide seeking to create special deregulated zones.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear