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BUSINESS
Jun 20, 2002

Financial giant announces punishment for its top staff

Financial giant Mizuho Holdings Inc. on Wednesday officially announced punitive measures for 117 senior employees responsible for the massive computer glitches that marred the April launch of two new banks under the banking group.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2002

Hiranuma repents for comments on Botswana rating

Takeo Hiranuma, head of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, apologized Tuesday for earlier stating that Japan's sovereign bonds are improperly rated because they are ranked below those of Botswana, where a large portion of the population has AIDS.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2002

China gives permission to salvage 'spy ship'

Beijing gave the go-ahead Tuesday for Japan to salvage a suspected North Korean spy ship that sank in China's exclusive economic zone in December after a running gunbattle with Japan Coast Guard vessels.
BUSINESS
Jun 19, 2002

Spending cuts will finance tax reduction, Shiokawa says

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Tuesday that proposed tax cuts for the current fiscal year will be carried out boldly and will be financed by spending cuts.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2002

Diagnostic options seen skewed by dearth of autopsies, probes

Recent controversy over a diagnosis of sudden infant death syndrome has exposed deep-rooted divisions among Japan's SIDS researchers.
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 18, 2002

Troussier ready to take on Turkey

RIFU, Miyagi Pref. -- Japan coach Philippe Troussier warned his players on Monday not to get cocky ahead of their Round of 16 game against Turkey.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2002

Tax relief, deregulation featured in new package

The government and the three ruling parties compiled an additional package of antideflation measures Monday that includes tax cuts in fiscal 2002 and the creation of special deregulation zones to promote private-sector activities.
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 16, 2002

Inamoto focuses on the job at hand

MORIMACHI, Shizuoka Pref. -- While the whole nation seems to have reached boiling point with Japan's success in advancing to the second round of the World Cup, Japan midfielder Junichi Inamoto has remained calm and focused.
COMMUNITY
Jun 16, 2002

The trickle down effect

Ever year around June, the high-altitude air current known as the jet stream lunges into the Himalayas, whose towering 8,000-meter peaks slice it into two branches that soar eastward over Asia toward the Pacific. Near Japan, they finally reunite and embrace between them a colossal mass of cold oceanic...
COMMUNITY
Jun 16, 2002

A torrent of words

Ame may mean rain, but it's never been just rain in Japan; it's been dissected and categorized under a multitude of names that, sadly, few Japanese are in touch with anymore. Still, the fact that many people casually refer to Japan as ame no kuni (country of rain), where water perpetually seeps from...
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 15, 2002

Red Devils win game of Russian roulette

SHIZUOKA -- The Red Devils of Belgium qualified for the Round of 16 as runnersup of Group H after a dramatic 3-2 victory over Russia at the Shizuoka Ecopa Stadium on Friday. The seesaw battle revived memories of Belgium's 4-3 extra-time win over the same team in Mexico '86, with Belgium again gaining...
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2002

New Kansai runway faces delay

The transport ministry on Friday sharply lowered its forecast for passenger demand at Kansai International Airport off Osaka, indicating that the scheduled opening of a second runway in 2007 could be delayed.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2002

Nakatani says he takes full responsibility for Diet furor

Defense Agency head Gen Nakatani said Friday he is taking full responsibility for the turmoil in the Diet following the suspected attempt by senior ruling party members to withhold a report of a probe into the information disclosure scandal.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2002

Suzuki faces arrest over lumber bribe

Public prosecutors may question senior lawmaker Muneo Suzuki next week on allegations he received 5 million yen in bribes from a Hokkaido lumber firm when he was deputy chief Cabinet secretary in 1998, and seek his arrest, law enforcement sources said Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 15, 2002

Phil Richardson

Long, long ago, in a preflight age, diplomats and expatriate businessmen in Japan expected their lives to be leisured until the arrival of the next ship with its communications from home offices. Phil Richardson does not belong to such a remote past, but his timing places him at the end of another era...
BUSINESS
Jun 15, 2002

Tax Commission policy advocates stiffer burdens

The government's Tax Commission on Friday compiled its basic policy for fundamental tax reform over the medium and long terms, aiming for fiscal reform by securing tax revenues.
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2002

Sports bars tap into new thirst for soccer

As Japan screamed into the second round of the World Cup with a win over Tunisia on Friday, sports bars in Tokyo lapped up a surge in customers.
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2002

American scientists win 11th Blue Planet Prize

The Asahi Glass Foundation announced Thursday it has awarded two American scientists with the 11th Blue Planet Prize, an international environmental award.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM MOSCOW
Jun 14, 2002

Moscow's bloody Sunday

MOSCOW -- The Bloody Sunday of June 9 took Moscow by surprise. Nobody expected a mob of soccer fans, upset by the performance of the national team, to launch a drunken rampage barely 100 meters away from President Vladimir Putin's Kremlin residence. The outburst of violence lasted for several hours,...
LIFE / Digital
Jun 13, 2002

Hoofs, heroes, horrors on the siege

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien began publishing his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy in 1954, and people have been trying to escape into his fantasy ever since.
BUSINESS
Jun 12, 2002

Shiokawa to fill in G7 on tax-cut plans

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Tuesday that he will tell Japan's Group of Seven partners that the nation is ready to bolster its fragile economy by cutting taxes and accelerating the disposal of bad loans held by Japanese banks.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2002

Prosecutors grill Togo on funds scandal in Europe

Japanese prosecutors in Europe have repeatedly quizzed former elite diplomat Kazuhiko Togo over a breach of trust case involving two Foreign Ministry officials now under arrest and a government-funded committee on aid to Russia, investigative sources said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jun 12, 2002

Hiranuma to urge happy ending to steel tariffs drama

Trade minister Takeo Hiranuma said Tuesday he plans to urge U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick during telephone talks this week to strive to avert Japan's planned retaliatory action against a range of steel import tariffs imposed by Washington.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jun 12, 2002

Kona Records: 'Deep Funk Africa'

With a title like "Deep Funk Africa," this CD compilation had better deliver. And deliver it does -- 14 steaming slabs of rough-hewn funk from Ghana, Mobutu's Zaire, Sierra Leone and beyond.

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