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Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2003

Former Eitai execs held for taking doomed loans

Police on Thursday arrested four former executives of the failed credit union Eitai who allegedly had their firm take over 7.8 billion yen in bad loans extended by an affiliated company to ailing borrowers, even though they knew the loans were unrecoverable.
JAPAN
Feb 13, 2003

Opposition bill would freeze ruling coalition's plan to hike salaried-worker medical fees

Hoping to drive a wedge into the ruling coalition, four opposition parties submitted a bill Wednesday to freeze a planned 50 percent increase in the fees salaried workers pay for outpatient medical care.
BUSINESS
Feb 13, 2003

JT sees tobacco sales slide 4.9%

Japan Tobacco Inc. said Wednesday it sold 60 billion cigarettes nationwide during the quarter that ended Dec. 31, down 4.9 percent from a year earlier. The company attributed the decline to:
BUSINESS
Feb 13, 2003

Okuda tells workers to endure pay hardship

The chairman of the country's largest business association told workers Wednesday to suck it up.
JAPAN
Feb 13, 2003

Essay contest for Japanese-language students

Graduates and undergraduates studying the Japanese language overseas are being invited to take part in an essay contest organized by the nonprofit Japan Return Program, with the winners earning themselves a trip to Japan.
COMMENTARY
Feb 13, 2003

The 'vision thing' still matters

LONDON -- In the ideal Middle East "dream scenario," U.N. weapons inspectors, gently prompted by American and British intelligence information, stumble on stores of chemical and biological weapons hidden in Iraq.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2003

Boutiques feast on Valentine's frenzy

St. Valentine's Day is a key occasion for confectioners as consumers snap up an estimated 50 billion yen worth of sweets to give to friends and loved ones on Feb. 14.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2003

79% in Japan oppose U.S. offensive in Iraq: survey

Nearly 79 percent of those who responded to a recent Kyodo News phone survey said they oppose a U.S.-led military attack on Iraq, the news agency said Monday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 11, 2003

Bond sales to individual investors

The government is set to sell long-term bonds exclusively to individual investors beginning in March -- the first time it will have issued such debt in Japan. On Feb. 3, it started accepting subscriptions at private financial institutions and post offices. Subscriptions for the first week reportedly...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 11, 2003

Kawaii sea lion back in spotlight

Celebrity sea lion Tama-chan is causing a flap yet again.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2003

Recovering Emperor returns home early

Emperor Akihito, who underwent a prostate cancer operation last month, was released Saturday afternoon from a Tokyo hospital, the Imperial Household Agency said.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 9, 2003

Titillating tales from China's perfumed city

SHANGHAI: The Rise and Fall of a Decadent City, by Stella Dong. Perennial/HarperCollins, 2001, 318 pp., $15 (paper) Great cities deserve the attentions of writers who combine the historian's pursuit of accuracy with the willingness to be swayed by impressions, prejudices, anecdotes and flawed opinions....
EDITORIALS
Feb 9, 2003

Newer, smarter sentinels

There is no new thing under the sun, said the quotable author of Ecclesiastes a few thousand years ago. Won over by its pith and poetry, we have always regarded that statement as self-evidently true. Lately, though, we have begun to wonder if the exact opposite isn't the case. Sometimes it seems as if...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 9, 2003

In search of lost worlds

Most Westerners have heard about the legend of Atlantis, but how many have heard about the lost kingdom of Nan Mador? Like Atlantis, Nan Mador was supposedly as big as a continent, and stretched from Micronesia in the South Pacific all the way to Easter Island off the coast of Chile.
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2003

DPJ loses politicians to local races

Several Democratic Party of Japan politicians have either announced plans to run in gubernatorial or mayoral elections or are contemplating doing so ahead of nationwide unified local elections scheduled for April.
COMMUNITY
Feb 9, 2003

How green is your green?

What a difference a decade makes.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2003

'Bereavement industry' in flux

Most of the businesses providing funeral and other services pertaining to the dead are mom-and-pop operations catering to local needs.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2003

Place your money where your mouth is: Takenaka

Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka called on other Cabinet ministers Friday to buy investment trust products linked to stock market indexes to encourage people to shift their money from savings to investments.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2003

Japan says goodbye to last land mine

By disposing of its last 25 antipersonnel mines Saturday, Japan becomes the 38th country to rid itself of the deadly devices.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2003

Kansai Economic Summit 'a festival without substance'

KYOTO -- The Kansai Economic Summit came to a close Friday amid calls for general changes in Japan's economic, political and social structure, but little progress was made over the most pressing macroeconomic issues affecting the Kansai region.
EDITORIALS
Feb 8, 2003

Aum must prove itself 'harmless'

Three years' surveillance of the Aum Shinrikyo cult (now called Aleph) by the Public Security Investigation Agency, in accordance with the Antisubversive Activities Law, expired at the end of January. But the Public Security Examination Commission, or PSEC, has decided that surveillance should continue...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 8, 2003

Walk-in freezer homes breed brutes

If you have never been inside a Japanese house, just imagine throwing a bunch of furniture, your computer and your TV into a walk-in freezer. Inhabitants walk around in special thick socks and "chan-chanko," traditional Japanese-style overcoats made for wearing inside the house. Walk into the bathroom...
BUSINESS
Feb 7, 2003

Cuts to guaranteed yields only hope for insurance industry

Keiko Horikoshi, 41, sought out a financial planner last month to make sense of her and her husband's life insurance coverage.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2003

Koizumi provides tacit support for U.S. attack

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi hinted Thursday that Japan would support a U.S.-led military offensive against Iraq "as an ally of the United States."

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes