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BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2003

Confidence down in third quarter

Business confidence in Japan worsened for the second consecutive quarter in the October-December term, reflecting heightened geopolitical tensions and sluggish domestic stock performance, according to a government survey released Thursday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2003

Toray Industries chief puts faith in technological research

Sadayuki Sakakibara, president of Toray Industries Inc., is confident there are researchers at his company who have the potential to win a Nobel Prize, just like Shimadzu Corp.'s Koichi Tanaka.
JAPAN
Feb 13, 2003

Ishihara to run again in Tokyo

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara signaled his intention Wednesday to seek re-election in the April 13 gubernatorial poll.
EDITORIALS
Feb 13, 2003

Helping 'refugees' from the North

North Korea is creating a new headache for the Japanese government: the plight of North Korean residents and their Japanese spouses who have now returned secretly to Japan from that impoverished communist state via China. The problem came to the fore last month when a Japanese woman who had gone to the...
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

Unions plan to rally around seniority-based pay increases

The "shunto" spring wage talks got under way Wednesday with several major automotive unions submitting demands related to job security and wages.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 13, 2003

Time for a Japan-Chile free trade accord

Chilean President Ricardo Lagos is currently visiting Japan at the official invitation of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. I suppose that one of the aims of his visit is to ask Japan to begin a joint study with Chile on the possibility of a free trade agreement, or FTA, between Japan and Chile. I say,...
JAPAN
Feb 13, 2003

Public handed in 2.4 billion yen in lost cash to police in 2002

Some 2.4 billion yen in cash was handed in to the Metropolitan Police Department's lost and found center in 2002, down 1.2 percent from the previous year, MPD officials said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 13, 2003

New probe of abductee cases urged

The National Police Agency and the Justice Ministry's Public Security Investigation Agency were handed lists Wednesday of about 200 Japanese who vanished under mysterious circumstances and are suspected of having been abducted by North Korea.
BUSINESS
Feb 13, 2003

WTO spotlighted as trade chiefs gather for Tokyo meeting

Trade ministers from 25 nations will enter three days of intense negotiations in Tokyo on Friday as part of a new round of World Trade Organization trade liberalization talks. Here is a roundup of some basic facts on the organization and issues to be discussed.
COMMENTARY
Feb 13, 2003

No shortage of reasons why South Koreans dislike the U.S.

WASHINGTON -- Opinion polls from around the world show increasing numbers of people believe that the United States is arrogant, unilateralist and indifferent to key concerns of other nations -- even friends and allies. There is a rising belief that the U.S. has become a source of international tension...
JAPAN
Feb 13, 2003

Governors call for revision to SOFA

Governors of prefectures hosting U.S. military bases urged the Liberal Democratic Party on Wednesday to revise the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NETWISE
Feb 13, 2003

Japanese get real on 2 Channel

It was 1975 when University of North Carolina graduate student Steve Bellovin developed a handful of short programs to facilitate communication via UUCP (Unix-to-Unix Copy) between the University of North Carolina and Duke University. The scripts were later rewritten in the computer language "C" and...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 13, 2003

Ensuring age is the crown of life

The English scholar John Bailey said his wife Iris Murdoch, a prolific, perfectionist novelist and lecturer, became like "a very nice 3-year-old" as her Alzheimer's disease progressed. The disease made the proteins in her brain "misfold" and collapse, forming clots called amyloids that disrupt normal...
BUSINESS
Feb 13, 2003

Takara Bio links up on gene therapy

Takara Bio Inc. said Wednesday it has agreed in principle to tie up with Italian drug venture MolMed S.p.A. to develop and commercialize three gene therapy techniques. Two of the treatments are for cancer, the other is for AIDS.
COMMENTARY
Feb 12, 2003

Koizumi shirking top duty

Over the past year, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi appears to have all but lost his enthusiasm for military contingency legislation. Protecting the lives and property of the Japanese people from armed attack is the most important duty of the prime minister as the supreme commander of the Self-Defense...
EDITORIALS
Feb 12, 2003

New Europe squares off against old

The debate over Iraq has made painfully clear the growing rift between the United States and Europe. Typically, the image pits the Bush administration against its German and French counterparts, while Britain remains the loyal American ally. This simple characterization does not tell the whole story....
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2003

Nepal man balks at murder rap pinned on brother

The Tokyo High Court in 2000 convicted Govinda Prasad Mainali for the 1997 robbery and murder of a Tokyo woman, but his brother believes he is innocent and is pushing to have him acquitted -- again.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2003

Pollen set to make hay fever while the sun shines

Some people don't have to witness the days getting longer to know spring is just around the corner. Their sneezing and runny noses are proof enough.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 12, 2003

Starting all over again

Gowasan means "call off," "start again," or "bankruptcy." The term is originally derived from abacus calculation, where it refers to the shaking of the abacus to return all beads to their starting point after completing a calculation.
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 12, 2003

Taking a chance on Vegas

LAS VEGAS (AP) The beach is out back by the wave pool. Sports betting and a nightclub are nearby. And in a small theater past the slot machines and gaming tables, a Broadway production of "Mamma Mia!" is trying to lure tourists away from gambling to settle in for more than two hours of ABBA tunes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 12, 2003

Kathleen Edwards: Failer

Singer-songwriters who take the confessional route run the risk of alienating listeners when they invite them into their psyches. Personality problems and moral inconsistencies are bound to be noticed. That's why so many artists hide their nakedness behind self-deprecation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Feb 12, 2003

Bright white, big city

Something interesting I recently learned about anatomy: There are 26 bones in the human foot, and if you break just one of them, your entire leg is basically useless.
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2003

Nissho Iwai targets bonuses to shape up ahead of merger

Nissho Iwai Corp. has proposed to its union that it pay no bonuses to nonmanagement staff in the business year starting April 1, a move that would effectively cut their annual salaries by about 20 percent, company officials said Monday.

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