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BUSINESS
Aug 5, 2003

Sweden to get Toshiba mail-sorters

Toshiba Corp. said Monday it has won a $12 million contract to supply the Swedish postal service with advanced mail-sorting equipment.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2003

When hemlines start rising, don't sell short

NEW YORK -- Short skirts are in the news again. Hemlines are rising and, if you believe in statistical correlation, whenever hemlines go up, so do profits and business activity. No one has a logical explanation for this phenomenon, but it has held true for the past 30 years.
EDITORIALS
Aug 4, 2003

LDP leadership race heating up

With the end of the regular Diet session, the political focus has shifted to the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership contest in September. The LDP ballot is attracting all the more attention because it is expected to be followed by a general election, possibly in November.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 4, 2003

Abductees cite coercion in kids' letters

Yasushi and Fukie Chimura, who were abducted to North Korea 25 years ago and repatriated last October, said Sunday that North Korea appears to have told their daughter in the reclusive state that her parents are being detained in Japan.
EDITORIALS
Aug 3, 2003

Season of mellow mindlessness

It's August, which means that, technically, we are well into summer's decline. The days are getting shorter, and September is next up on the calendar. But that is not how it feels. September seems as far off as New Year's.
COMMUNITY
Aug 3, 2003

Greg's compassion with a camera was thousands of words

Big and burly, Greg Davis could walk into our club wearing his customary boots, windbreaker, open-necked shirt and wide grin, and we would be transported to some dusty Central Asian dictatorship or clawing Cambodian jungle -- a remembrance that the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan started off as...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 3, 2003

SDF bill provides ammo for DPJ bid for power

The photos and footage of opposition lawmakers trying to prevent a July 25 vote in the Upper House on a Liberal Democratic Party-sponsored bill to send Self-Defense Forces to Iraq were all over the media last week, which is understandable considering how action-packed the Three Stooges-like melee was....
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2003

Economy, deficit least served by budget caps

Although the government faces two important goals -- shoring up the fragile economy and cutting its enormous budget deficit -- the cap on core fiscal 2004 budget outlays the Cabinet endorsed Friday only increases concern that neither can be achieved anytime soon.
MORE SPORTS
Aug 2, 2003

North Korea will compete in Osaka

OSAKA -- North Korea will compete in the World Judo Championships to be held in Osaka in September and plans to send a contingent of four men and four women athletes, judo sources told Kyodo News on Thursday. It will be North Korea's fourth straight World Championships appearance since the 1997 Paris...
MORE SPORTS
Aug 1, 2003

Triumphant Kitajima returns home

Japanese swimming sensation Kosuke Kitajima, who returned to Japan earlier Thursday, vowed gold meals in next year's Athens Olympics when he met education minister Atsuko Toyama. Reporting to Toyama at her office on his dazzling performance at the recent World Championships in Barcelona, the 20-year-old...
BUSINESS
Aug 1, 2003

RCCJ enlists six banks for revival bids

Resolution and Collection Corp. of Japan has concluded contracts with six banks to farm out corporate rehabilitation efforts under a trust system, the president of the government-backed loan collection body said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2003

Prisons told to end dodgy job schemes

The Justice Ministry ordered correctional institutions in mid-July to put an end to deceitful manufacturing-work schemes, including disguising the country of origin of products, according to documents obtained Wednesday by Kyodo News.
BUSINESS
Jul 31, 2003

Koizumi denies postal plan report

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi denied Wednesday he plans to set up an official committee on privatizing Japan's postal services to boost studies that his private panel conducted in 2001 and 2002.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2003

GDP growth could exceed forecast

The nation's gross domestic product growth in fiscal 2003 may exceed the government forecast of 0.6 percent, with stronger economic activity coming in the latter half of the year, Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2003

June jobless rate falls to 5.3%, but outlook remains murky

The nation's seasonally adjusted jobless rate was 5.3 percent in June, edging down 0.1 percentage point from the previous month, the government said in a preliminary report released Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2003

Koizumi says reformers to make up new Cabinet

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi defied his foes Tuesday, stating that if he wins re-election in the Sept. 20 LDP presidential poll, the subsequent Cabinet he forms will be made up of individuals who support his policies.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2003

50% emergency beef, pork tariffs to start

Japan will impose emergency tariffs on foreign beef and pork in response to an increase in imports amid waning concern over mad cow disease, the government said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2003

Koizumi appears set to stay on by default

With the extended 190-day Diet session having closed Monday, lawmakers' attention is shifting to the Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election on Sept. 20, the new Cabinet that will immediately follow it and the expected House of Representatives poll in November.
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2003

Crystals for lasers to be made in space

In a move that could lead to the realization of "space factories," Japan's space agency said Saturday it will make the world's first attempt to manufacture in space photonic crystals to be used in commercial laser equipment.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 27, 2003

Time, place of dispatch still hazy

Despite Diet approval of a bill to allow the dispatch of Self-Defense Forces personnel to Iraq on Saturday, the government continued to wrestle with exactly when and where the SDF should be sent.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 27, 2003

So much to soak up in Yamagata

OK, let me put this out there: Yamagata-ken, just like any sensible prefecture in Japan, loves tourists. But you get the feeling that Yamagata Prefecture Tourist Division tries a little harder to promote its treasures. They even occasionally invite journalists up for a spin around the countryside.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 27, 2003

Just go with the flow

You know the summer routine: The sun comes up, the mercury goes up . . . and the heat and humidity get you down, down, down.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2003

Power outages unlikely: Hiranuma

The Tokyo metropolitan area will probably be spared summer power shortages because four nuclear reactors have been reactivated and various energy-saving efforts have proven effective, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2003

Hiranuma stresses import of WTO meeting

An upcoming informal World Trade Organization ministerial talk in Montreal is important for the success of a full ministerial meeting to be held in Cancun, Mexico, in September, trade minister Takeo Hiranuma said Friday.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2003

Chongryun tax breaks face hard scrutiny

OSAKA -- For nearly half a century, the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryun) has been the primary voice of the North Korean community in Japan, representing nearly 200,000 people.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2003

Killers in U.S. rely on mercy of Mexico

LOS ANGELES -- Anabella Vara was pregnant at 14 and married at 15, and by the time she was 21 she was living in fear. On Valentine's Day 1999 her husband, Daniel Perez, looped a rope around her neck and tried to strangle her. She and her 5-year-old son fled to her parents' house, but two months later...

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan