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BUSINESS
Nov 6, 2002

No growth without reforms, report says

Persistent deflation and massive bad loans in the nation's banking system have weakened Japan's economy and no improvement will be seen until structural reforms are implemented, according to an annual government white paper released Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Nov 6, 2002

Mekons: "OOOH!"

Many bands will admit to being politically minded, but the Mekons are one of the few who put their politics ahead of their music. It's not so much that the band, formed by art students in Leeds, England, in the late '70s, want to advance an agenda, but rather that they believe art and commerce are inseparable...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Nov 6, 2002

Feminist charts no-woman's-land between peaceniks and the SDF

On Sept. 3 and 4 this year, soldiers at a Ground Self-Defense Force base in Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu were joined by an improbable guest: Japan's premier feminist and antiwar artist, Yoshiko Shimada.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 6, 2002

Lemper takes lyrical leap

NEW YORK -- "I don't find inspiration in harmony, but in the darker corners of life," says actress and cabaret singer Ute Lemper at her home in New York City, where I caught up with her last week. On Nov. 9, she will be singing at the Akasaka Act Theatre in Tokyo, which will be the entertainer's fourth...
JAPAN
Nov 6, 2002

Tepco in hot seat as inspectors move in

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency launched special safety inspections Tuesday at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s three nuclear plants as part of punitive administrative steps over recent revelations it tried to coverup faults in its reactors.
JAPAN
Nov 6, 2002

Alleged killer says he stalked lawmaker

A rightwing extremist arrested over the murder of Lower House member Koki Ishii has told police that he staked out the victim's office and home for several days, intending to kill the lawmaker as soon as the chance arose, investigative sources said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 6, 2002

A message of tolerance set in stone

History is never short on irony. The Indian subcontinent, now one of the world's most unstable nuclear hotbeds, once cradled a religion founded on nonviolence. And what is today a breeding ground for sectarian fundamentalism was the birthplace of a rich artistic heritage that drew deeply on the tolerant...
JAPAN
Nov 6, 2002

Defense chief gives missile program with U.S. push toward development

Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba said Tuesday he hopes to see a bilateral missile defense initiative with the United States enter the development phase soon.
BUSINESS
Nov 6, 2002

Execs expect to adopt IP phones: poll

More than half of small businesses expect to adopt discount Internet Protocol phones in the near future, according to a survey released Tuesday by a developer of information technology equipment.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 6, 2002

Blanche the tormented focus of a fractured world

In this production of "A Streetcar Named Desire," the classic Tennessee Williams drama of human relationships, gone are all the hues and shades of human relationships bar one -- the relationship of its "heroine," Blanche DuBois, to the fragmented and fragmenting world she inhabits. As staged by director...
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2002

Serious temblor shakes Kyushu

An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 5.6 hit wide areas of Kyushu and parts of western Japan on Monday afternoon, the Meteorological Agency said.
BUSINESS
Nov 5, 2002

Two major bank groups look to cut bonuses 10%

Mizuho Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. have proposed that their labor unions accept cuts in winter bonuses of up to 10 percent on a year-on-year basis, industry sources said Saturday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2002

Scavengers' woes in Manila retold

More than two years after a tragedy at a garbage dump in Manila that took the lives of more than 230 Filipinos, many people living in and around the site still earn a living by scavenging there, a Japanese aid worker said Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2002

Akashi, veteran of Cambodia effort, vows to work for peace in Sri Lanka

Yasushi Akashi, who oversaw the U.N. transitional administration in Cambodia in the early 1990s, vowed in a recent interview with Kyodo News to try his best as Japan's representative to Sri Lanka to help broker peace and reconstruction there.
BUSINESS / ON MANAGEMENT
Nov 5, 2002

Dealing with staff who are making money on the side

This is a story about your most delightful headache. Or perhaps your company's Achilles' heel. Why is the spectrum so wide? Because we're talking about the inner drive that made America great, and its consequences when it manifests itself in inappropriate places.
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2002

Employers spurn hepatitis carriers

Many central and local government bodies as well as private-sector firms reject job applicants who, according to blood tests and health checkups, carry hepatitis viruses, according to a national association of people with liver diseases.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Nov 5, 2002

Trapped in a cold tent by a strong wind outside

As readers may recall, our last Halloween horror story left us in Chobe national park, Botswana. Not the northern part of Chobe: the part with easy access, good roads, fantastic riverbank campsites and glorious views over the game-rich flood plain to the distant forests of Namibia. No. That would have...
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2002

53 of top 100 firms have whistle-blower section

Fifty-three of the nation's top 100 companies have created sections for accepting in-house whistle-blowers' reports about wrongdoing in their companies, according to a Kyodo News survey released Monday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 5, 2002

Need a franchise player? Top scout says take Matsui over Ichiro

A year of speculation was brought to a sudden end on Friday when superstar slugger Hideki Matsui announced he was ending his 10-year career with the Yomiuri Giants and heading to the major leagues in search of a bigger challenge.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2002

Welcome weapons cutbacks

WASHINGTON -- According to recent reports, Pentagon officials are considering cuts in several weapons programs as they develop their 2004 budget proposal. If defense spending is to be kept within reasonable bounds, these are exactly the sorts of reductions that will be required.
COMMENTARY
Nov 5, 2002

Testing Koizumi's commitment to change

Last week was likely the most important in the tenure of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Three events -- by-elections, the unveiling of his economic plan and the start of normalization talks with North Korea -- tested his commitment to bringing about change in Japan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 4, 2002

America's way not always the best way, economists say

Although U.S. and British-style capitalism has prevailed throughout the world, Japan should fight to preserve the positive aspects of its traditional economic systems, scholars and economists said at a recent seminar in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Nov 4, 2002

Magnitude-6.1 quake jolts northeastern Japan

An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 6.1 shook a wide area of northeastern Japan early Sunday afternoon, the Meteorological Agency said.
JAPAN
Nov 4, 2002

Road entity raided over bid rigging

OSAKA -- Police searched on Sunday the headquarters of Hanshin Expressway Public Corp. for evidence to support allegations that the company illegally favored a particular bidder for road-related work.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person