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BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2003

666 billion yen spent to weaken the yen

Japanese monetary authorities spent almost 666 billion yen intervening in the currency market in January to stem the yen's rise, according to Finance Ministry data released Monday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Feb 4, 2003

Refunded cash for working at home and a sumo day out

Greetings Greetings from 10,000 meters -- I am beginning this week's column from somewhere high over the Pacific Ocean on United Flight 897 bound for Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Feb 3, 2003

'A bad day' for us all

We have felt this before. Watching the fiery remains of space shuttle Columbia streak across the blue Texas sky Saturday was like being forced to relive the past. Didn't we experience the same disbelief, sadness and horror when a flash fire killed three Apollo astronauts during a launch pad test in 1967?...
MORE SPORTS
Feb 3, 2003

Davenport outlasts Seles

All it took was losing one set point for Lindsay Davenport to rejuvenate from a disgruntled player returning from injury to a former No. 1 player ready to send a loud message to the women's tennis world.
EDITORIALS
Feb 2, 2003

Beware the chair

Meanwhile, in another corner of the far-flung Internet universe, there was a portent of a different kind last week. A dismal portent this time, although not one that is likely to bother the fit climbers dropping into the Mount Everest cybercafe to send a few e-mails. According to a British science magazine,...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2003

Koizumi's revenge has cost Japan dearl

Special to The Japan Times CAMBRIDGE, England -- A lot has been written about Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's third visit to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. Much of it had a high emotional content. Now that the initial furor has died down we can step back and give it a bit more thought.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2003

How the 'modern' code was cracked

The headless body of a woman in her 50s was laid on a straw mat inside a hut at Kotsukahara in Edo's Senju area. Born in Kyoto and nicknamed "Aochababa," sketchy court records indicate the woman had been convicted of killing her adopted children. She had been executed by beheading that very morning,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 2, 2003

Effects of aging on TV, film and romance

February marks the 50th anniversary of the first public television broadcast in Japan, and NHK will celebrate the anniversary with an extensive historical survey of its archives.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 2, 2003

Seles, Davenport reach final

After a dozen of unforced errors, several racket flicks and countless mumblings to herself, Lindsay Davenport could only stare down at her feet as the Toray Pan Pacific Open semifinals came to an end on Saturday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Feb 2, 2003

Getting a word in edgewise with Howling Guitar

"This is my 1958 Gibson LP-Jr. You know that Johnny Thunders played the same model. This guitar is my life and if it dies I would like to give it an honorable burial. But . . . I hope we get buried together."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Feb 1, 2003

Crystal Skulls: 'hatsumode' for the groove generation; Yokosuka joins the party

MAKUHARI, Chiba Pref. -- We plowed our way into the mass of humanity packing the Makuhari Messe event hall moments after the cheers rose to ring in the new year.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2003

Court strikes down Ishihara's bank tax

The Tokyo High Court on Thursday supported a lower court decision invalidating a controversial tax imposed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government on major banks, ordering Tokyo to return 162.87 billion yen collected from 17 banks in fiscal 2000 and 2001.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Jan 31, 2003

Reunited with past loves: Oh, how sweet they are

Like many of us, William's love of the grape began with a sip of a sweet wine, in his case a thimble-full of late-harvest Gewurtztraminer offered by his mother to a curious 12-year-old. Even all these years later, he still claims to remember that sense of sticking one's head into an armful of lilies,...
BUSINESS
Jan 30, 2003

Mizuho turns to business partners in desperate effort to boost capital

Mizuho Holdings Inc. played its final trump card last week in a bid to get rid of nonperforming loans once and for all, turning to some of its largest business partners to raise an unprecedented 1 trillion yen to boost its capital base.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2003

Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka brace as pollen blitz looms

As the hay fever season approaches, doctors, weather forecasters and local authorities are predicting that Tokyo and two other metropolitan areas will suffer above-average pollen counts.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 30, 2003

Insects simply a breath apart

Insects are the most numerous, diverse and successful group of animals in the history of the planet. They are found in almost every environment, and range from the minute (less than a millimeter long for the feather-winged beetle) to the large (more than 15 cm for the South American longhorn beetle)....
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2003

Yasukuni visit draws more flak

OSAKA -- About 120 people in Taiwan will file a lawsuit in mid-February against the Japanese government and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi over his repeated visits to Yasukuni Shrine, a lawyer involved in the case said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
Jan 29, 2003

War rhetoric leaves most Britons cold

LONDON -- A few thousand antiwar protesters gathered outside the House of Commons last week to lobby members of Parliament, to take part in a silent vigil or to attend one of several -- to the annoyance of those who would have liked unity -- antiwar meetings.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 29, 2003

Pierce bundled out in first round

Sixth-seeded Silvia Farina Elia of Italy overpowered France's Mary Pierce on Tuesday in the first round of the $1.3 million Toray Pan Pacific tennis tournament.
BUSINESS
Jan 29, 2003

Shipments of audiovisual gear rise

Domestic shipments of audiovisual equipment amounted to 2.02 trillion yen in 2002, up 0.6 percent from the previous year for the first rise in two years, an industry body said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jan 29, 2003

A true master of the art of making photographs

I remember once playing a little mind game with Tokyo-based photographer Torin Boyd. We were sitting in a Kabukicho bar, looking through his portfolio. Every time I said something about "taking pictures," in his response he substituted the verb "make" for the verb "take," as in "I made this picture last...
BUSINESS / ON MANAGEMENT
Jan 28, 2003

Habit vs. mechanics: Going from good to great can necessitate a 'Tiger Woods' overhaul

Recently an executive returned from a trip with a story about the salesman he visited. Now in his late 50s, the fellow had been a proven performer since early in his career, hitting his numbers and accumulating bonuses at a prodigious clip. His sales approach was direct to the point of being confrontational,...
BUSINESS
Jan 28, 2003

Brewers bank on heady days for nonalcoholic beer

Some of the nation's major breweries have started producing nonalcoholic beer in the hope of boosting a fledgling market helped by heightened health consciousness and steeper penalties for drunken driving.
COMMENTARY
Jan 27, 2003

The war dead deserve better

I was stunned by news reports that Junichiro Koizumi recently made his third visit as prime minister to Yasukuni Shrine. After his two previous visits drew strong protests from China and South Korea, and after he struggled to justify the visits, officials in both countries must be amazed and angered....
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2003

China leaves India in the dust

NEW DELHI -- While I was in India recently, the first phase of an underground railway was inaugurated in New Delhi. At about the same time, in Shanghai, the world's first magnetic levitation train was inaugurated between the airport and the city. This is a fitting metaphor for the two countries. China...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jan 27, 2003

Nutria

* Japanese name: Nutoria * Scientific name: Myocastor coypus * Description: The nutria, also called coypu, is a ratlike mammal with a long tail and broad, orange teeth. It has small eyes and ears, short legs and webbed hind feet that are much longer than the fore feet. The hind feet have five digits...

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