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Nov 30, 2002

WTA drops Princess Cup

The Toyota Princess Cup, one of three official tournaments played in Japan on the women's professional tennis circuit, has been dropped off the WTA Tour calendar for next year, Japanese tennis officials said Thursday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 30, 2002

Randolph Stensen

Refugees International Japan will hold its annual ceremony "Light Up the Life of a Refugee Child" at noon on Dec. 5. The ceremony transforms Tokyo Station's north hall, the Marunouchi exit, into a glittering, pulsating Christmas scene, with the illuminating of a giant decorated tree, sales of cards and...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 29, 2002

Venables needs divine intervention at Leeds

LONDON -- Terry Venables has been in football long enough to know that his days at Leeds United are almost numbered before they have really begun.
BUSINESS
Nov 28, 2002

Vehicle exports accelerate 6.8%

Exports of cars, trucks and buses rose 6.8 percent in October from a year before to 402,608 vehicles, up for the 10th straight month, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2002

World Cup spurs South Korea exchanges

Following Japan and South Korea's cohosting of the World Cup soccer finals last summer, 36 prefectural governments have held or will hold 123 sports exchanges with South Korean teams in fiscal 2002, according to a survey conducted by the sports ministry.
BUSINESS
Nov 28, 2002

Orient plans to liquidate four more subsidiaries

Struggling consumer credit firm Orient Corp. said Wednesday it will liquidate four more financial subsidiaries to bolster the rehabilitation efforts of the parent company.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 28, 2002

Irabu close to signing deal with Hanshin

OSAKA -- Right-hander Hideki Irabu, who was released by American League club Texas Rangers earlier this month, is on the verge of signing for the Hanshin Tigers, Hanshin sources said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2002

Diet enacts law on intellectual property rights

The Diet enacted a basic intellectual property law Wednesday that the government hopes will promote the emergence of eminent scientists like Koichi Tanaka, who won the 2002 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
EDITORIALS
Nov 28, 2002

Staving off banking disaster

The latest financial reports from Japan's major commercial banks tell more of the same story: The huge overhang of nonperforming loans continues to block a return to health. To be sure, banks made a profit in their main lines of business in the first six months of fiscal 2002, as they did in previous...
BUSINESS
Nov 27, 2002

Top life insurers' results reveal inability to reverse their decline

The nation's major life insurance companies have had little success reversing a decline in business, while their capital remains under pressure by depressed share prices, according to half-year financial results posted by the firms by Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / THROUGH THE DOOR
Nov 27, 2002

Education for some refugees is ray of hope

The men in uniform white shirts and dark shorts sitting in the classroom looked too old to be junior high school students; some had gray hair, close-cropped.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 27, 2002

Wonderful Parade 2002

Every year, the pholks at Philter Records, Japan's phearless purveyors of phoreign indie pop, bring a phleet of artists to these shores for a special showcase called Wonderful Parade. Last year, the pheatured artist was Of Montreal, which has nothing to do with Canada and everything to do with the Elephant...
BUSINESS
Nov 26, 2002

Cybird chief honored by Time magazine

Time magazine has picked Kazutomo Robert Hori, president and chief executive officer of Cybird Co., a mobile Internet-content provider in Tokyo, as one of the magazine's 15 "Global Influentials" for 2002.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 24, 2002

'Dewy-eyed' U.S. no match for Japan's samurai values

BAMBOOZLED! How America Loses the Intellectual Game with Japan and its Implications for Our Future in Asia, by Ivan P. Hall. M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, New York, 2002, 324 pp., $26.95 (paper) For an enjoyable and stimulating read, one could do much worse than this thoughtful polemic on what ails bilateral...
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
Nov 24, 2002

Pulsating with rock, reality

To describe the dizzy thrill of Sleater-Kinney, one has to reach back to the bristling energy of early rock 'n' roll. Think of Chuck Berry cackling the words to "Maybelline." Think of Wanda Jackson's redemptive howl. Think of Muddy Waters' deliberate spelling of "M-A-N," each letter promising transgressive...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 24, 2002

When 'home' holds uneasy welcome

BROKERED HOMELAND: Japanese Brazilian Migrants in Japan, by Joseph Hotaka Roth. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2002, 161 pp., $16.95 (paper) The story that was once told about citizens of foreign countries who could demonstrate Japanese ancestry was that even if they had never been to...
BUSINESS
Nov 23, 2002

Budgetary funds may hold off job insurance hike

Labor minister Chikara Sakaguchi said Friday that the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry may shelve its plans to raise employment insurance premiums if it secures extra funds under the proposed supplemental budget for fiscal 2002.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 23, 2002

Dodgers closer Gagne would rather be chasing a hockey puck in NHL

Eric Gagne is a 25-year-old pitcher with the Los Angeles Dodgers. After three rather unspectacular years as a starting pitcher with the Dodgers, the Montreal native was converted to a closer prior to this past season.
BUSINESS
Nov 23, 2002

Ad slump eats into TV Asahi profit

Asahi National Broadcasting Co., better known as TV Asahi, said Friday its group net profit for the first half of the 2002 business year dove 73.1 percent to 1.46 billion yen due to a decline in advertising revenues.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2002

Extra budget to feature 3 trillion yen in fresh funds

The government and ruling parties agreed Thursday that the supplementary budget for fiscal 2002 will feature 3 trillion yen in fresh spending, with 1.5 trillion yen earmarked for both public works projects and safety net measures.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2002

Science grads shift to service sector

The service sector, especially software industries, became the largest employer of university science and technology graduates last spring, overtaking manufacturing, according to the National Institute of Science and Technology Policy.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 22, 2002

Daiei kicks off crucial nationwide sale with help from Oh

Struggling supermarket chain Daiei Inc. started Thursday a crucial yearend sale at its 271 stores across the country.
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2002

Five war-displaced Japanese return

Five Japanese left behind in China during and after World War II arrived Thursday at Narita airport in Chiba Prefecture for meetings with their possible relatives in Japan.
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2002

Sept. 11 radically shifts policy priorities for U.S.

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have radically altered the policy priorities of the United States, which could have wide-ranging international implications for years to come, according to American experts taking part in a recent seminar in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Nov 21, 2002

Mazda Atenza picked as car of year

Mazda Motor Corp.'s Atenza has been chosen by a group of auto researchers and journalists as the car of the year, the group said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Nov 21, 2002

Nissan Diesel tumbles into the red

Major truck maker Nissan Diesel Motor Co. said Wednesday that its group net balance fell into the red in the first six months of fiscal 2002 because it had to set aside large provisions for sales credits that may become uncollectible due to the anemic economy.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Nov 21, 2002

Coach Brown likely to get the nod for Team USA in 2004

NEW YORK -- USA Basketball met last week in Indianapolis and its 10-member Selection Committee convened in New York over the weekend to dissect America's lousy sixth-place finish at the 2002 World Basketball Championships and to devise an invincible game plan regarding the qualifier tournament. Specifically,...
BUSINESS
Nov 20, 2002

Four megabanks hit 2002 intraday lows

Shares in Japan's major banks tumbled Tuesday amid concerns over the nation's financial system, with the four biggest banks all hitting intraday lows for the year and Mizuho Holdings Inc. sinking below the key 100,000 yen mark.
BUSINESS
Nov 20, 2002

Major automakers increase profits

Despite a stagnant domestic economy, the nation's major automakers managed to boost consolidated profits for the April-September period, thanks to a weaker yen and cost-cutting efforts, according to earnings reports released by Tuesday.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami