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Events
Dec 7, 2003

KANSAI Who & What

Osaka district lights up its streets for Christmas: The Nakanoshima district of Osaka's Kita Ward is being illuminated every evening until Dec. 27 as the city celebrates Christmas.
BUSINESS
Dec 6, 2003

Key economic gauge at 100% for October

A key gauge of the current state of Japan's economy stood at 100 percent for October, way above the boom-or-bust line of 50 percent, the government said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Dec 5, 2003

Wiretap charges clip highflier

Takefuji Corp., Japan's largest consumer finance company, is at the center of an unfolding wiretap scandal. Earlier this week, the Metropolitan Police Department arrested the company's founding chairman, Mr. Yasuo Takei, on charges of ordering his employees to wiretap a freelance journalist who had criticized...
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2003

Bagabandi submits war internee info

Visiting Mongolian President Natsagiin Bagabandi on Thursday handed over documents on about 110 Japanese transferred to Mongolia after being detained by the Soviet Union after World War II.
BUSINESS
Dec 5, 2003

Drastic improvement seen in business sentiment

The key gauge for business sentiment among major companies swung into the plus column in the October-December period for the first time in 11 quarters, thanks to improvement in the domestic economy, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Dec 5, 2003

Fiscal 2002 GDP data downgraded

The Cabinet Office said Thursday it has revised downward the nation's gross domestic product data for fiscal 2002, with real growth lowered to 1.2 percent from the 1.6 percent estimated in November.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 4, 2003

Learning the finer points of this, that and 'nani'

Like the Japanese economy, the Japanese conversation has dwindled. Our words have lost their luxurious sheen, our sentences have been reduced to short strings of blah. We no longer need the metaphors of Osamu Dazai to convey our emotions, since a handful of familiar phrases have been encoded to cover...
COMMENTARY
Dec 4, 2003

Chirac still feeling the heat

PARIS -- France has not finished paying for the August heat wave and its 10,000 deaths. Vegetable and beef prices have risen, tourism has declined, forest fires have devastated wide areas and the financial impact on the budget has postponed an economic upswing.
EDITORIALS
Dec 3, 2003

A victory for hardliners

Hardliners from both ends of the political spectrum are the winners of elections held in Northern Ireland last week. The polarization of politics is a sign of weariness and wariness on the part of voters and is another blow to the tattered Good Friday peace accords.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2003

Koreans fail to collect condolence cash

The Associated Press Far fewer Koreans or descendants of Koreans conscripted to fight for Japan during World War II are coming forward to claim "condolence money" than the government had expected, leaving billions of yen unclaimed, officials said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Dec 3, 2003

Take a closer look

Contemporary art sure can be divisive. Every year, the British press fills with angry opinion pieces lambasting the finalists for that nation's Turner Prize. In the United States and elsewhere, citizens' groups regularly mobilize against the controversial in art exhibitions -- be it Robert Mapplethorpe's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 3, 2003

In between art and life

"Gokann," the umbrella name given to three exhibitions of contemporary Finnish art now showing in Kyoto, is an accommodating term. The Japanese title was chosen for its multiplicity of meanings, all derived from typing in "g-o-k-a-n-n" on a computer then pressing the kanji-convert key. Those varied meanings...
MORE SPORTS
Dec 2, 2003

Fukuhara moves up in rankings

Ai Fukuhara placed the third highest among Japanese players in the international rankings, the International Table Tennis Federation announced Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2003

Kimpo, Haneda shuttles take off

Japanese and South Korean airlines began shuttle flights Sunday between Tokyo's Haneda airport and Seoul's Kimpo in a bid to boost tourism and exchanges between the two capitals.
COMMENTARY
Dec 1, 2003

LDP's diminishing appeal

In the Nov. 9 Lower House election, the governing Liberal Democratic Party lost 10 seats while the opposition Democratic Party of Japan gained 40. New Komeito added a few seats thanks to its cooperation in the election with the LDP, its ruling-coalition partner. The Social Democratic Party and the Japan...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2003

Cross-strait tensions build as one-China principle fades

HONOLULU -- The "one-China" principle that has been the mainstay of relations between the United States and China for 30 years is steadily fading. Curiously, a critical chapter in the fate of the principle is being played out now on the tiny mid-Pacific nation of Kiribati.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 30, 2003

Family first for 'Little' Matsui

Free-agent infielder Kazuo Matsui said Saturday he prefers to play for a major league team either on the East or West coast as both areas would be a comfortable environment for his family.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 30, 2003

Power and glory of temple ruins

ANGKOR: Celestial Temples of the Khmer Empire, text by Ian Mabbett, Eleanor Mannikka, Jon Ortner, John Sanday and James Goodman; photos by Jon Ortner. New York: Abbeville Press, 2003, 289 pages, $95 (cloth).
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2003

Probe ties WWII poison gas to 138 sites

Poison gas may have been abandoned at 138 sites in 41 prefectures at the end of World War II, according to the results of a nationwide study released Friday by the Environment Ministry.
BUSINESS
Nov 29, 2003

Growing jobless ranks rain on recovery parade

Japan's jobless rate was 5.2 percent in October, edging up 0.1 percentage point from the previous month.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2003

Ailing, apathetic Osaka plods to the polls

OSAKA -- Osaka goes to the polls this Sunday to elect a new mayor. But Satomi Ando, 43, who runs a small printing business in the Tenma district, could care less.

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