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BUSINESS
Oct 4, 2003

Outsourcing perceived as rural revival measure

In a bid to reinvigorate the nation's fragile rural economies, the government will review legal barriers that prevent the outsourcing of local administrative services to the private sector, economic and fiscal policy minister Heizo Takenaka said Friday.
BUSINESS
Oct 2, 2003

Vodafone chief looks for more subscribers

Vodafone President Darryl Green said Wednesday the company will take aggressive measures to increase the number of its mobile phone service subscribers.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 28, 2003

Singing in the ageless language of love

Among the rags-to-riches stories that make the annals of popular music such a colorful read, few tales are as dramatic as that of Ibrahim Ferrer, now age 76.
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2003

Koizumi promises to pummel postal services into submission

Flush with his sweeping victory in the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi vowed Friday to privatize postal services in April 2007.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2003

Aso goes postal over Koizumi's plan

Posts minister Taro Aso on Friday lambasted postal privatization plans submitted last year by an advisory group to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2003

Postal-privatization plan due by fall 2004

Heizo Takenaka, economy and fiscal policy minister, said Friday he will compile a postal-privatization plan by fall 2004.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 26, 2003

Banks told to tighten screws on debtors

Banks seeking to help turn around borrower companies should not merely extend life support to businesses doomed to fail, reappointed Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka said.
BUSINESS
Sep 26, 2003

One-off factor trims Japan's debt

Although Japan's outstanding public debt has edged down slightly from a record high, the decline was due to a one-off event that prevented it from blowing out even further, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 25, 2003

Aso questions Koizumi's timetable to privatize postal services entity

New home affairs minister Taro Aso expressed skepticism Wednesday over the timetable put forward by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to privatize the postal services entity.
BUSINESS
Sep 17, 2003

J-Phone recalls defective handsets

J-Phone Co. on Tuesday issued a recall on about 380,000 of its mobile phone handsets that have defective software. Subject to the recall is the J-SH53 model, manufactured by Sharp Corp. and launched in May. The defective handsets will be repaired free of charge.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 14, 2003

The money hole

Kumiko Morita looked down at her cell phone as it began to ring. With reluctance she picked it up and answered it. After listening to the caller, she began to speak -- not in her usual soft-spoken way, but in a loud, forceful voice.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2003

Nonaka sent 5 cm piece of metal

Veteran Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Hiromu Nonaka received a 5.5 cm piece of metal in the mail that might be a bullet at his Tokyo office, police said Thursday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 11, 2003

Putting bacteria to work in the body

Margaret Atwood's latest novel, "Oryx and Crake," is set in a future where multinational power has created a dystopia of genetically engineered organisms living in a globally warmed world.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2003

Kamei lashes out at Aoki for supporting Koizumi

As the four candidates in the Sept. 20 Liberal Democratic Party presidential election delivered policy speeches Tuesday, Shizuka Kamei stepped up his criticism of Mikio Aoki.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 10, 2003

Music of the spheres

Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. is arguably one of the most influential Japanese bands in the world at this moment.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 9, 2003

Scootering, start-ups and an update

Scooter licenses Maynard never learned to drive in Canada before moving here in 1972 ("yes, 31 years ago, sigh"). Living and working in Tokyo's Yoga district, he has had no need to drive a car, and is put off by the 250,000 yen starting price for local driving schools.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2003

Campaigning under way in LDP presidential race

Campaigning for the Sept. 20 Liberal Democratic Party presidential election officially kicked off Monday.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2003

Policy package turns out to be a collection of vague promises

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi hopes to realize a primary budget balance in the early 2010s and create more than 5 million jobs, according to his long-awaited policy package released Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / AFTER 2 1/2 YEARS
Sep 4, 2003

Koizumi half way toward reforming public firms

Can Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi live up to his pledge to save the nation's ailing economy by reforming monstrous public corporations?
Japan Times
JAPAN / AFTER 2 1/2 YEARS
Sep 1, 2003

Koizumi renews confrontational posture

When he became prime minister in April 2001, Junichiro Koizumi boasted high public support, portraying himself as a lone wolf fighting old-guard politicians in the Liberal Democratic Party.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 26, 2003

Publishing, futons and more motors

Budding author Z. has written a book he thinks is ready for publication. "Can you give me guidance or advice as to how to go about getting published?"
EDITORIALS
Aug 25, 2003

In plainer language, please

Over the past two weeks, a new type of computer virus known as Blaster and its variants have attacked hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide, including in Japan. These viruses are different from those previously discovered. They expand rapidly across the Internet without any human intervention,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 24, 2003

Slowly does it

Great works of art take time.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 24, 2003

Keeping abreast of the boob tube's favorite idols

Can we talk about breasts? Specifically, the large kind, which in the United States are affectionately (or not) called "knockers" or "hooters." In Japan, the slang is more clinical : kyonyu (giant breasts), honyu (rich breasts), and even bakunyu (explosive breasts). These words are clinical because nyu...
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2003

Don Quijote to dispense free drugs in emergency

Discount retailer Don Quijote Co. said Wednesday it will dole out free medicine to night-time shoppers in times of emergency when pharmacists are not available at any of 10 selected outlets in Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2003

Debt-collectors push professionalism, not pain

Despite popular perceptions, profanities and threats are not screamed down the phone and the receiver doesn't end up getting slammed down.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 6, 2003

Hanshin's magical season brings back memories of 1985

Sometimes history repeats itself. Eighteen years ago, in 1985, the Hanshin Tigers entered the month of August with a healthy lead in the Central League standings. The weather was as scorching as the Tigers who then, as now, played their home games at historic Koshien Stadium.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 5, 2003

NHK fees, will-writing and shipping

The NHK man Dear Lifelines: Recently my wife, who is Japanese, answered the door to an NHK rep. She was warned that not paying the monthly fee of 1,000 yen could wind her up in court. She paid.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2003

Airline clipped its own wings

The self-defeating myopia of British Airways employees and the mind-numbing ineptitude of BA management combined to produce a nightmare journey recently. I had flown flight BA 8 from Tokyo to London on Friday, July 18, landing at Heathrow's Terminal 4 around 5 p.m. I was due to catch another BA flight...
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.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past