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Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2002

Forum mulls nuts, bolts of Kyoto aims

Global warming poses a formidable challenge to the world.
BUSINESS
Jul 4, 2002

RoboNavigator to offer accurate parts assembly

Trading house Marubeni Corp. said Wednesday it has developed with two business allies a control system capable of recognizing the spatial location of industrial parts to be picked up and assembled by robot arms.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 4, 2002

Ruling bloc submits diluted postal bills to chamber

The ruling coalition parties on Wednesday submitted a watered-down version of a postal services deregulation bill to the House of Representatives.
BUSINESS
Jul 3, 2002

Matsushita unit's first-half profits plunge 83.2%

Matsushita Electric Works Ltd. said Tuesday its group net profits for the first half of this business year plunged 83.2 percent from a year earlier to 1.84 billion yen.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 3, 2002

This year's model

Having evolved over the past 25 years from an angry young man to a well-fed totem of artistic integrity, Elvis Costello would seem to have little left to prove. He started wandering outside the perimeters of rock in the early '80s, and several years ago hinted that he was through with rock. Then, in...
BUSINESS
Jul 3, 2002

Recent interventions show concern: Shiokawa

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Tuesday last week's intervention in the currency markets, which the Bank of Japan conducted through its accounts at the European Central Bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of New York, showed the economies' shared concerns about the weakening of the dollar....
COMMENTARY
Jul 3, 2002

South Korea and Japan emerge victorious in World Cup

Listening to the South Korea fans cheering "Dae-han-min-guk" (Republic of Korea) after their World Cup match against Germany on June 25 and watching fireworks light up the Seoul skyline, it was hard to realize that the South Korean team had lost its semifinal match.
BUSINESS
Jul 3, 2002

Lufthansa to nourish JAL-ANA ties

The Lufthansa group will maintain and strengthen its partnerships with both Japan Airlines Co. and All Nippon Airways Co., the chief of the German airline said Tuesday in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 3, 2002

Bill Frisell: 'The Willies'

Bill Frisell, who is ostensibly a jazz guitarist, has been poking around with other forms of traditional American music for long enough now that "The Willies," a collection mainly of bluegrass tunes, comes as no surprise. But as with anything Frisell lays his hands to, this album is not without its quirks....
EDITORIALS
Jul 2, 2002

Cup filled to the brim

It is a truth not quite universally acknowledged that interest in the World Cup diminishes sharply once one's country's team has been eliminated, unless one is actually hosting the affair. There were thus, by Sunday night, probably just four countries in the world still tuned in to the 2002 proceedings:...
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2002

Koizumi backs Kim's stance on shootout

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday told South Korean President Kim Dae Jung that he supports his demand that North Korea apologize for starting the recent maritime shootout near their border in the Yellow Sea.
BUSINESS
Jul 2, 2002

Toyota to market fuel-cell car by end of year

Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday it will begin limited marketing of its fuel-cell hybrid car by the end of this year, a year earlier than originally planned, in order to raise social awareness of the clean-running vehicle.
COMMENTARY
Jul 1, 2002

Carbon tax is long past due

The global environment is deteriorating. I saw this firsthand on my trip to China several years ago. The plane arrived a few hours behind schedule because of blowing dust. As I disembarked, I noticed the jetliner was covered with black particles of "yellow sand."
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2002

40 Afghans deported in 2001

Last year, 40 Afghans were ordered to leave Japan, according to Justice Ministry immigration statistics made available Saturday. No Afghans were ordered to leave between 1992 and 2000, according to the statistics.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 30, 2002

Beers all round!

Vast quantities of it have been consumed during the World Cup, but thousands of liters more will be drunk as the heat and humidity of summer kick in. Nothing beats a cold beer on a hot summer day.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jun 30, 2002

I brewed it my way

In 1994, within months of microbreweries being legalized in Japan, two began operation, followed by around 50 the next year. Although the general public took little notice back then, this regulatory rejig was to reshape my life.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2002

Tsuruhashi, home of 'exotic' Korea in Osaka

OSAKA — You can always tell when your train reaches Tsuruhashi Station. Unlike the other, mostly nondescript, stops on the JR Osaka Loop Line, the district has an atmosphere, flavor and aroma that makes it one of the city's most interesting neighborhoods.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2002

Cup cohosts' ties thaw, at least on individual level

OSAKA — When the excitement over the World Cup finals subsides, many may wonder whether cohosting the event actually helped improve relations between Japan and South Korea.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
Jun 28, 2002

Who'd have thought that Shinagawa was once a coastal gateway town?

Take a trip back in time and sample a taste of the ebb and flow of life in premodern southern Tokyo.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2002

Kawaguchi launches ODA reform panel

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi on Thursday launched a new standing panel of outside experts tasked with mapping out country-by-country strategies for official development assistance as part of the government's reform of ODA.
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2002

FSA punishes Barclays Capital

The Financial Services Agency took administrative action Thursday against the Tokyo branch of Barclays Capital Japan Ltd. over failure to follow proper procedures in conducting securities and nonsecurities transactions.
EDITORIALS
Jun 28, 2002

Peace without Mr. Arafat

U.S. President George W. Bush has finally laid out his vision of Middle East peace, and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat does not seem to have a place in it. That is one of the few details in Mr. Bush's speech, which is long on "vision" and short on specifics. The call for a new Palestinian leadership...
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2002

LDP postal reform panel criticizes deregulation bills

A Liberal Democratic Party panel on postal reforms has drafted a six-point report criticizing four postal service deregulation bills currently being debated in the Diet, a senior LDP lawmaker said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2002

Diet enacts law on consolidated tax

The Diet enacted a consolidated tax law Wednesday under which the losses of one group firm can be offset by the profits of another.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2002

Economic gloom just adds to illegal workers' plight

Practically every working condition endured by 36-year-old Sajidur Rahman during his 4 1/2-year stint at a Yokohama factory is illegal under the Labor Standards Law.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 27, 2002

Swimming against the tide of marine good sense

Several years back, the Fisheries Agency of Japan began claiming that whaling is necessary to protect valuable fisheries. The agency argues that if we do not kill whales, they will eat millions of tons of fish that are rightfully destined for human consumption. Since some whale populations are increasing,...
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2002

SESC to revamp inspection system

The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission will undergo a revamp in July in which its inspectors will be assigned to one of three groups of brokerages -- major domestic brokerages, Internet transactions and smaller domestic brokerages, and foreign securities houses.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 27, 2002

Japan's farmers start to go green

Hardly a week goes by without the emergence of some new scandal in the Japanese food industry. But whether it's the use of illegal additives or the mislabeling of imported meat as domestic, the outcome is the same: further breakdown in trust between consumers and the farmers and companies involved in...
BUSINESS
Jun 26, 2002

Reforms lead to reduced budgets at public firms, report says

Reforms have reduced by some 32 percent the estimated amount of funds the government needs to inject into 31 public corporations from its fiscal investment-and-loan program to complete existing projects, according to a government-commissioned report released Tuesday.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan