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EDITORIALS
Jul 19, 2003

'Kenpo' deficit widens

Japan's health insurance system for private-sector employees (Kenpo) is sinking deeper into deficit. It is estimated that eight of 10 health insurance associations booked losses in fiscal 2002. At this rate, an increase in insurance premiums seems inevitable.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2003

Suicidal kidnapper collected nude photos

Police have confiscated photographs of naked women and a list of women's names from a Tokyo condo in which a 29-year-old man had allegedly confined four elementary schoolgirls, investigative sources said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2003

Kanda's used-book trade touts new survival ploys

Amid concerns that younger Japanese are not avid readers, like their older counterparts, Tokyo's Kanda-Jimbocho district, famed for its stores selling used books, is boasting innovative ideas to attract more customers.
EDITORIALS
Jul 17, 2003

Opening of labor market delayed

Japan is running in the fast lane of information technology, yet it has been relatively slow in one vital area: employment of foreign IT engineers. Part of the reason seems to lie in the nation's deep-seated reluctance to open the labor market wider to foreigners.
JAPAN / IN WITH THE NEW
Jul 17, 2003

Maverick Suginami mayor likes to stir things up

Until Hiroshi Yamada took control of Tokyo's Suginami Ward in April 1999, local government activity proceeded at a predictably slow pace.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 17, 2003

Fuji Photo Film develops WLAN digital camera

Fuji Photo Film Co. has developed a digital camera prototype that uses wireless local area networks to allow easier access to printers and personal computers.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 17, 2003

Japan must think outside the box if it hopes to get ahead: creativity guru

Japan needs to set up a "Ministry of Creativity" to think its way out of the economic slump it has endured for a decade, according to the world's leading authority in the field of creative and conceptual thinking.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 17, 2003

Koizumi, Howard stress pressuring North Korea and liberalizing trade

The leaders of Japan and Australia agreed Wednesday on the necessity of five-nation talks on the North Korean nuclear issue and the importance of liberalizing bilateral trade.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 16, 2003

Trendy avatars give Net users new way to impress -- and spend

"Avatar" has become the latest buzz word in the Net world, with major providers and portals launching new Web sites in their search for fresh revenue sources.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jul 13, 2003

The Cumbrian sense of fair play

For most of the year, Appleby is a sleepy little English market-town in eastern Cumbria, not that far from the Scottish border. Surrounded by green fields spotted with sheep, Appleby is dominated by a castle that overlooks a gently sloping high street flanked by small shops. It has lots of benches with...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 13, 2003

Second strings

Shin Yoshida leads a double life. And everyone, including his boss, his wife and three children, knows about it.
BUSINESS
Jul 11, 2003

Mobile phone shipments up 23.5%

Domestic shipments of mobile phone handsets, including personal handy-phone equipment, rose 23.5 percent in May from a year earlier to 4,002,000 units, logging a seventh straight monthly gain, an industry association said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jul 10, 2003

Business services see mixed results

Sales for half of the nation's six key business service industries declined in May from a year earlier, while those for the other three increased or remained the same.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 9, 2003

Japan to see first big effort to train helper dogs

The National Mutual Insurance Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives (Zenkyoren) will provide assistance for training dogs to help people with disabilities, federation officials said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 9, 2003

Dub-tropical of Little Tempo travels well

While most of Tokyo is frantically trying to cool down, Japan's prime dub outfit Little Tempo will be heating things up this summer with a series of live gigs.
BUSINESS
Jul 9, 2003

Surging Nikkei touches 10,000

Tokyo stocks closed higher Tuesday, and the Nikkei passed the 10,000 threshold for the first time since last August, but profit-taking erased much of the gains and it ended below 9,900.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2003

Web suicide sites have officials worried

The pattern has become eerily familiar. After forging a pact with strangers over the Internet, young people get together to carry out a carefully planned task -- suicide.
BUSINESS
Jul 8, 2003

Banks urge end to civil servants' cash salary payments

The Japanese Bankers Association called on the government Monday to stop paying civil servant salaries in cash and make all payments through bank transfers to help streamline public service operations.
BUSINESS
Jul 8, 2003

Nikkei posts 10-month closing high

Tokyo stocks surged Monday, driving the key Nikkei index to an 10-month closing high on active buying of blue-chip issues by domestic investors amid hopes for an economic recovery.
COMMENTARY
Jul 7, 2003

Little gain but lots of pain

Ever since his administration took power in April 2001, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has been asking the Japanese public to endure the pain associated with structural reform. This request is justified only when all Japanese equally share the pain.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 6, 2003

Small campus, big dreams

IKOMA, Nara Pref. -- While many national universities are apprehensive about being transformed into independent administrative corporations next April, Koji Torii, president of Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), sees it as a good opportunity.
COMMENTARY
Jul 5, 2003

'Neocon' recipe for disaster

BRUSSELS -- Newspapers are awash with speculation as to the likely outcome of the Korean Peninsula's nuclear crisis. Will it be the United States that blinks or North Korea? Nobody knows. What is clear is that while North Korea and the world wants and needs a solution, opinion in the U.S. is sharply...
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2003

Alarming surge seen in fatty-liver ailment

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, an inflammation of the liver associated with the accumulation of fat in the organ that is similar to a condition found in people who drink too much alcohol, is setting off alarm bells in Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 4, 2003

Little Myanmar in big Tokyo

The ongoing ethnic food boom in Tokyo has somehow bypassed some of the most interesting, savory and satisfying food in all of Southeast Asia -- the cuisine of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma before the accession of the current military government in 1989).

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight