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JAPAN
May 12, 2001

Foreign Ministry officials begin sniping at Tanaka

With Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka flexing her muscles over the ministry's personnel affairs, bureaucrats have begun a counterattack, questioning her diplomatic judgment.
JAPAN
May 10, 2001

Tanaka again reverses a personnel transfer

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka kicked up some more dust Wednesday by ordering the former chief of the Financial Affairs Division to return to his post despite being named minister to France earlier in the week.
JAPAN
May 9, 2001

Shinmachi takes lead in sports for kids

Kyodo News Shinmachi, a small town of about 13,000 people in Gunma Prefecture, has drawn the attention of several municipalities because of its comprehensive regional sports club -- a concept common in Europe but relatively new to Japan.
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2001

North Korea seeks 4 billion yen for its atomic bomb survivors

North Korea has asked Japan for 4 billion yen in compensation for victims of the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, government sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Apr 23, 2001

Dollar likely to stay firm against yen

The U.S. dollar is likely to be firm against the yen in Tokyo next week as uncertainty over Japan's politics and economy continues to restrain the currency, dealers said.
COMMUNITY
Apr 22, 2001

Fashion cuts above and shapes to come

The offerings by over 40 designers at the recent Tokyo collections mapped out the direction for next autumn/winter: bias or asymmetrical cuts, draping and wrapping, patchwork, fringing and quilting, and lots of stripes (both vertical and horizontal).
BUSINESS
Apr 22, 2001

49% of leading firms plan increased recruiting in spring '02

About half of Japan's 150 leading companies plan to hire more new graduates in spring 2002 than they did this spring, according to a Kyodo News poll.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 22, 2001

All together now: Let's all shill for Universal!

Before Universal Studios Japan opened on March 31, media commentators were asking why the new Hollywood theme park wasn't called Universal Studios Osaka. After all, Tokyo Disneyland isn't called Japan Disneyland. Here's the punch line: If they called it Universal Studios Osaka, the acronym would be USO,...
BUSINESS
Apr 18, 2001

Stock market incentives won't be considered until May

The Tax Commission, an advisory panel to the prime minister, agreed Tuesday to establish a subcommittee in mid-May to discuss proposed tax revisions that would encourage individuals to invest in the stock market, panel chairman Hiromitsu Ishi said.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 14, 2001

Sylvie Gramegna

"Small and beautiful" is the description people use when they speak of Luxembourg. This little country, tucked between Belgium, Germany and France, has for centuries been a meeting place of Germanic and Latin cultures. It is known for being open to the movement of people and the different influences...
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2001

Diet seeks to curb domestic violence

The Diet passed into law Friday a bill to combat domestic violence that will allow courts to impose restraining orders to keep perpetrators away from their victims.
BUSINESS
Apr 5, 2001

Tokyo to defy import claims

Japan is preparing to counter a recent U.S. government report in which Tokyo is accused of not opening up its markets sufficiently to imports, a senior official of the Fair Trade Commission said Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Apr 1, 2001

A crime for the times

Italy, a country we are celebrating this year in Japan, is at the cutting edge of all sorts of things: food, fashion, fast cars, films and some interesting criminal practices. Oh, and bizarre opera plots. Sometimes it seems as if those last two get a bit entangled.
COMMENTARY
Mar 19, 2001

U.S.-South Korea summit a good start

South Korean President Kim Dae Jung's Washington summit meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush was not the unqualified success Kim had hoped for, but he did accomplish his primary objectives. As expected and desired, Bush endorsed Kim's Sunshine Policy of reconciliation and cooperation with North...
MORE SPORTS
Mar 18, 2001

Sports arenas upgrade to draw fans

KOBE -- With the weather gradually warming, outdoor sports fans are again starting to rejoice. J. League soccer teams kicked off a new soccer season last week and professional baseball games will get under way later this month. And this year, fans living in or near Kobe should be more motivated than...
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2001

Osaka to emphasize dangers of lighting up

OSAKA -- Forget the bid for the 2008 Olympic Games or the opening of Universal Studios Japan. For those Osaka residents who have long suffered in the presence of cigarette smokers, a recent announcement by the city came as some of the best news in years.
BUSINESS
Feb 23, 2001

Return to 'zero rate' not ruled out

UTSUNOMIYA, Tochigi Pref. -- The Bank of Japan should not completely rule out the possibility of a return to its "zero-interest-rate" policy, a member of the central bank's Policy Board said here Thursday.
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2001

Murakami may have pushed questioning

Upper House lawmaker Masakuni Murakami, who is suspected of receiving financial benefits from KSD, a scandal-tainted industrial insurer, may have urged fellow members of the Liberal Democratic Party to promote a KSD project during sessions of the Diet, according to informed sources.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2001

KSD ally held concerts to aid LDP's Murakami

An official at an affiliate of the scandal-tainted mutual aid foundation KSD staged "enka" concerts in 1995 and 1996 on behalf of Masakuni Murakami of the Liberal Democratic Party, sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2001

KSD ally held concerts to aid LDP's Murakami

An official at an affiliate of the scandal-tainted mutual aid foundation KSD staged "enka" concerts in 1995 and 1996 on behalf of Masakuni Murakami of the Liberal Democratic Party, sources said Wednesday.
LIFE / Travel
Feb 7, 2001

Saved from the 'bitter sea'

XIAN, China -- When "Black Bean" was 4 years old, his mother and her lover stabbed his father to death. The lover was executed for murder and the mother was sentenced to 15 years in prison as an accessory to the crime. Yet the little boy's nightmare had only just begun. Reviled by the whole village,...
COMMENTARY
Feb 4, 2001

Globalization's saddest victim

LONDON -- I wish to draw to your attention a group of workers who are in a sorry plight. The use of their skills is in decline; where once they commanded our attention, they are now held in low esteem; the buildings in which they once worked are half deserted; their future does not look good. It is,...
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2001

16 politicians admit KSD donations

A total of 16 Diet members, including former Cabinet ministers, have admitted receiving donations from scandal-tainted mutual-aid foundation KSD, a Kyodo News survey found.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic