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BUSINESS
Apr 23, 2002

Argentine losses to cost Sony Life

Sony Life Insurance Co., the insurance unit of Sony Corp., is expected to post an appraisal loss of 7 billion yen to 8 billion yen on its Argentine government bond holdings for the fiscal year to March 31, company officials said Monday.
COMMENTARY
Apr 22, 2002

Role remains for British royalty

LONDON -- On March 31, the Saturday before Easter Sunday, Elizabeth, the queen mother, passed away peacefully at the age of 101.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 22, 2002

Nutritional company targets a 'priceless' market

Nature's Sunshine Products, the Utah-based company that revolutionized the nutritional supplement industry, this month celebrated its 30th anniversary with a convention in Fukuoka that brought together top executives and its Japanese "family."
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 21, 2002

Tireless fighters and flightless invaders

Truth may not be stranger than fiction, but it's usually more dramatic, as proven in a series of best-selling memoirs by Mayumi Takeda. The 32-year-old writer has lived what some people have described as a "roller-coaster life," and Monday night on Nippon TV's "Super TV" documentary program, this life...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 21, 2002

A superstar rises to the advertising occasion

I guess it's supposed to set up a connection between athleticism and potency, but I was still slightly taken aback last week while watching a broadcast on NHK of a major league baseball game. Behind home plate there was an advertisement for Viagra.
JAPAN / KANSAI BEAT
Apr 20, 2002

NGOs target immigration center

OSAKA -- Amid concerns over allegations of human rights abuses at the West Japan Immigration Detention Center in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, local nongovernmental organizations will form an immigration watchdog group later this month.
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2002

Obituaries

Shigenobu Sakano Shigenobu Sakano, a House of Councilors lawmaker from the Liberal Democratic Party and former home affairs minister, died of a stroke Wednesday at a Tokyo hospital, his family said. He was 84.
MORE SPORTS
Apr 18, 2002

Olympians Shimizu, Satoya receive awards

Olympic speedskating silver-medalist Hiroyasu Shimizu and women's moguls bronze-medalist Tae Satoya and a host of other Olympians received awards from the education ministry on Tuesday for their performances in the Salt Lake City Olympics and Paralympics.
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2002

Team makes placental-cell breakthrough

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have successfully cultured nerve and bone cells from special placental cells, a breakthrough that could lead to the treatment of incurable diseases such as bone cancer and Parkinson's disease, the daily Yomiuri Shimbun reported Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Apr 16, 2002

Tip of the 'bad debt' iceberg

The results of special bank audits announced last week by the Financial Services Agency confirm that Japan's banking sector is still saddled with large amounts of bad debt. The message is that banks remain heavily exposed to the risks of default despite stepped-up efforts to improve the situation.
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2002

FSA's bank probe sparks downgrades for large borrowers

The Financial Services Agency on Friday officially disclosed the results of its latest inspections of major banks, downgrading credit assessments of 71 of the banks' 149 large corporate borrowers.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2002

Vested-interest policymakers irked over report that pulls few punches

Lawmakers within the ruling coalition were left aghast by a scathing report submitted last week by a panel investigating the government's handling of mad cow disease.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / INTERNATIONAL RATIONALE
Apr 11, 2002

Domestic, foreign insurers engaged in turf war

The deregulation of Japan's insurance sector last year has set domestic and foreign-affiliated companies squarely against each other in the cancer and medical insurance battlefield.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2002

Man killed in front of school

A 40-year-old unemployed man beat another man to death with an iron bar Tuesday morning on a street outside a school in Adachi Ward, Tokyo, as students were arriving for classes, police said.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2002

Lower House approves Kato's resignation

The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved the resignation of scandal-tainted Koichi Kato.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2002

Transsexual to lecture at medical university

A transsexual activist will serve as a part-time lecturer at the medical school of Mie University, a public school, in November to educate students on sexual identity disorder.
EDITORIALS
Apr 8, 2002

New hard line against Pyongyang

I t has always been difficult to understand the thinking of the leadership in North Korea. The rhetorical blasts that Pyongyang unleashes against the United States, Japan and South Korea are usually balanced by sotto voce assurances that dialogue will continue. The schizophrenia has been especially pronounced...
MORE SPORTS
Apr 8, 2002

Arrow Carry bags jewel

TAKARAZUKA, Hyogo Pref. -- The 62nd running of the Okasho (Japan's equivalent of the 1,000 Guineas) went to longshot Arrow Carry, which turned the tables on the top picks to win by 1 1/4 length.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2002

Bush's foreign aid revolution

WASHINGTON -- Just as U.S. President Richard Nixon was able to use his conservative credentials to fend off critics and go to China, President George W. Bush has just announced a policy change that Republicans have opposed for years, but that is long overdue. Over a period of a few years, Bush would...
BUSINESS
Apr 6, 2002

Key gauge of economy stays well below 50%

The key gauge of the state of the economy remained below the boom-or-bust line of 50 percent in February for the 14th straight month, but the index of leading indicators topped the threshold for the second consecutive month, the government said Friday.
BUSINESS
Apr 5, 2002

Asahi Mutual's new policy contracts see 17% increase

Struggling Asahi Mutual Life Insurance Co. said Thursday the number of new policy contracts in the 2001 business year is estimated to have grown 17 percent due to brisk sales of new products.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 4, 2002

Tony Blair struggles to fill Margaret Thatcher's giant shoes

LONDON -- She has been out of power for a dozen years, but former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has remained a formidable political force while her contemporaries on the world scene have faded from view.
BUSINESS
Apr 4, 2002

Mitsubishi Chemical sets up medical ethics think tank

Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. said Wednesday it has set up in Kawasaki the nation's first private think tank to specialize in the ethics of life and medical care.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 4, 2002

U.S. lawmakers see close midterm races

While President George W. Bush continues to enjoy extremely high popular support, the U.S. midterm elections later this year will be hard-fought and could swing the narrow balance of power in Congress, according to a group of U.S. lawmakers who gathered at a March 26 symposium in Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Apr 3, 2002

Not an enduring recovery

A ray of sunlight is breaking through the clouds. That may be one way to describe the state of Japan's economy, judging from the latest "tankan" quarterly survey of business sentiment. The March report from the Bank of Japan, released Monday, says the confidence index for major manufacturers has stopped...

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