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EDITORIALS
Jul 30, 2003

Wanted: clear view of Japan Highway

In recent weeks, Japan Highway Public Corp. has come under intense scrutiny because of its financial status. The pivotal question is whether the corporation, set to go private in 2005, is solvent or not. The answer remains unclear. Two different sets of financial statements -- one "official," the other...
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2003

Household spending logs first rise since September

Spending by households of Japanese wage earners rose a real 0.4 percent in June from a year earlier, marking the first rise since September, the government said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2003

Snow Brand sales in first quarter exceed forecast

Snow Brand Milk Products Co. on Tuesday reported group sales of 80.82 billion yen for the April-June quarter, about 8 percent more than its earlier projection.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Jul 30, 2003

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists

New Jersey native Ted Leo, who learned his trade in the East Coast hardcore scene of the late '80s, has been toiling as an indie idol in the Washington D.C. underground for more than a decade, first fronting Chisel, which prefigured the current mod-punk revival, and then the Sin Eaters, a power-pop band...
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2003

Tsujimoto loaned out illegal cash

Arrested former lawmaker Kiyomi Tsujimoto used some 40 million yen of her office's illegally pooled funds to loan to her friends, sources alleged Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2003

Major firms searched for bid-rigging clues

The Fair Trade Commission on Tuesday searched more than a dozen companies, including major machinery makers, in Tokyo and Osaka for evidence of bid-rigging in connection with local government construction contracts for sewage pumps.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2003

June jobless rate falls to 5.3%, but outlook remains murky

The nation's seasonally adjusted jobless rate was 5.3 percent in June, edging down 0.1 percentage point from the previous month, the government said in a preliminary report released Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Jul 30, 2003

Unwise cuts in Japan studies

LONDON -- Information about Japan and Japanese culture was regrettably limited and unsophisticated for many years after World War II. Influential people in Britain, such as the late Sir Peter Parker, realized that the ignorance and prejudices of British people about Japan were damaging British interests...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 30, 2003

Drawn to the simple life

The French artists of the Barbizon School effectively colonized the small village of the same name in the mid-19th century; some 100 artists watched -- and painted -- every step taken by the few hundred peasants as they went about their daily tasks. However, an earlier group of German and Austrian artists...
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2003

Wakayama curry poisoning raises questions over judicial fairness

A teacher at a private high school in Kawasaki was surprised earlier this year to find that two-thirds of his social science class had negative views concerning defendants' right to silence during criminal trials.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2003

Indicted prison guards to receive pay, benefits

The Justice Ministry will pay five Nagoya Prison guards accused of taking part in fatal assaults on inmates in 2001 and 2000 part of their salaries and allowances, ministry officials said Monday.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2003

Social recluses age in isolation as help elusive

The average age of those who shun interaction with society and hole themselves up inside their homes stands at 26.7, with some 14 percent aged 35 or older, according to a health ministry study released Monday.
EDITORIALS
Jul 29, 2003

Beijing bids farewell to Beidaihe

It is going to be a hot summer for the Chinese leadership. The new leadership, headed by President Hu Jintao, has reportedly decided to end the annual summer meetings at the seaside resort of Beidaihe, where top-ranking officials swam, relaxed and held "informal discussion sessions" that set policy for...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 29, 2003

Foreign mom chases after deadbeat dad

Jessica Lankester is furious. She's so angry she can barely get her story out fast enough as she pulls court documents from her bag and spreads them on the table. One letter from her lawyer reads like something from the pages of Joseph Heller's famous satire "Catch 22":
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FRONT-RUNNERS
Jul 29, 2003

Winds of change mean big profits for Eco Power

When Eco Power Co. President Toshio Katano joined the firm in 1998 from its parent, Ebara Corp., a Tokyo-based industrial machinery manufacturer, he doubted whether the nation's largest wind power firm would turn a profit.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2003

Tokyo bike couriers pedal their wares

Tokyo's perennial gridlock first prompted the birth of motorbike messenger services, but bicycle courier businesses are fast establishing themselves as viable.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 29, 2003

In search of senbei and more culture

Senbei fan Randall writes from California, reporting that around 1900 a Japanese gardener in San Francisco started serving cookies with thank you notes inside at that city's Japanese garden.
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2003

SARS fears still hurting flights to Asia: JAL head

Japan Airlines System Corp. President Isao Kaneko said that although flights to the United States and Europe are recovering from the effects of the Iraq war, SARS fears continue to affect flights to the rest of Asia.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo