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JAPAN
Jul 12, 2002

Government sees 'incipient recovery'

The government on Thursday upgraded its economic assessment on the back of brisk exports and improved production but warned that downside risks to the economy are increasing.
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2002

Fuel tank worry spurs MMC recall

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Thursday it is recalling 674 cars produced between Nov. 12, 2001, and this May 24 due to fears over defective fuel tanks.
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2002

Tax official caught evading taxes

A former head of the Sapporo Regional Taxation Bureau was sentenced Thursday to 14 months in prison for evading some 250 million yen in income tax.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Jul 12, 2002

Cultivating tradition

Seventeen boys and girls from Furusawa Elementary School are up to their shins in mud. June is the traditional rice-planting month in the Isumi area of Chiba Prefecture and for the past three years, the local fifth-graders have tried their hands at planting rice the old-fashioned way.
EDITORIALS
Jul 11, 2002

Africa asks, what's in a name?

After nearly four decades, the Organization of African Unity is no more. The OAU, founded in 1963, was dissolved this week. It was reborn as the African Union with the same membership and the same ambitions. Fortunately, there is one big difference between the new organization and the old one: The AU...
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2002

Bad loans, job woes cloud China's 'rosy' future

Hardly a week goes by these days without Japanese companies advancing into China to tap its low labor costs or to gain a foothold in the huge market.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CLOSE NEIGHBORS
Jul 11, 2002

Japan's carmakers tooling up for China

BEIJING -- Zhao Xue Bo, an international relations researcher at Beijing Broadcasting Institute, a national university, has been saving money for some time to buy a new car.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2002

Teen dies as Typhoon Chataan nears

Typhoon Chataan claimed its first victim in Japan as it threatened to strike the Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture by early Thursday, the Meteorological Agency said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Jul 11, 2002

Honda to export cars from China

The president of Honda Motor Co. said Wednesday his company will set up a joint manufacturing plant in the Chinese coastal city of Guangzhou to produce and export small cars to the rest of Asia, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2002

Bureaucrats should have free hand on memos: panel

Foreign Ministry bureaucrats' memos on their contacts with lawmakers do not have to be cross-checked by the legislators for fact confirmation, an advisory panel on reforming the ministry agreed Wednesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / GARDENS FOR ALL
Jul 11, 2002

Osaka's peaceful heart

In 1972, two years after the Japan International Exposition in Osaka, redevelopment work began on the site. The result, eight years later, was the 260-hectare Expolands Green Oasis, which has now matured into a wonderful parkland with a wide range of attractions and facilities.
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2002

EU envoy urges greater cooperation

The European Union and Japan should work together more closely on common international agendas, such as securing peace in the Middle East and reconstructing Afghanistan, to keep the the United States from taking a unilateral approach, EU Ambassador to Japan Ove Juul Jorgensen said Wednesday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 11, 2002

Permanent status and foreign driving licences in Japan

Reader AEB from Kyushu writes: "I am single, have lived here in Japan for almost 10 years, and have a stable job. I hope to apply for permanent residency. I heard that you must have lived here for 10 years consecutively, or be married to a Japanese national.
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2002

Ruptured sewage pipe floods USJ restaurant

OSAKA -- A sewage pipe ruptured in a restaurant in the Universal Studios Japan amusement park, prompting Osaka health officials to investigate, people familiar with the incident said Wednesday.
BUSINESS / ON THE FRONT LINE
Jul 11, 2002

Factors in U.S., Japan cloud stock outlook

Fears of another huge terrorist attack in the U.S. shrank after Independence Day on July 4. But terrorism is just one of many bearish factors affecting stocks.
COMMUNITY
Jul 11, 2002

Keep those cards and letters coming, folks

When customers sound off about problems, good companies listen, even in Japan
MORE SPORTS
Jul 11, 2002

Ex-WBA champ 'Celes' to retire

Former World Boxing Association super-flyweight champion Shoji "Celes" Kobayashi has decided to hang up his gloves, the head of Tokyo's Kokusai boxing gym revealed Wednesday.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 11, 2002

Sperm commit hara-kiri

Aldous Huxley is most famous for "Brave New World" (1932), but among scientists working on sperm competition and reproductive biology his "Fifth Philosopher's Song" (1920) is also well-known:
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 11, 2002

Diving and biking to eco-awareness

Excuse me for a moment if I boast, but I am delighted with the progress my backyard is making in its quest for biological diversity. No doubt my neighbors view my garden as unruly and overgrown, but as it's no bigger than a parking space, I let it have its way.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 11, 2002

Knowing the silent sense of self

At birth, an infant has only the sketchiest notion of its own body. Only from moving its arms and legs and sensing the effects on skin, muscle and joints does a baby learn what belongs to itself and what to the external world. By the age of 9, a child's body image is more sophisticated, consisting of...
JAPAN
Jul 11, 2002

Prosecutors grill Mitsui exec on Kunashiri bid-rigging role

Prosecutors have questioned a managing director of Mitsui & Co. over his alleged role in interfering with bidding for a Japan-funded power plant project on a Russian-held island in 2000, informed sources said Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Jul 10, 2002

The ugly American again

There is always something disturbing about a leader that pronounces himself above the law. That only partially explains the unease surrounding the United States' decision to oppose creation of the International Criminal Court. Just as important have been the implications of that resistance -- which were...
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2002

Tanaka faces ethics panel grilling

Former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka will be summoned to appear before a special parliamentary ethics panel during the current Diet session to answer allegations that she misused the salaries paid by the government to two secretaries, lawmakers said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 10, 2002

Continental drift worries EU leaders

LONDON -- Ever since the end of World War II, Western Europe and the United States have felt like partners, sharing a wide range of common values and bound militarily by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization alliance. There have, inevitably, been strains over the decades, and a need to re-assess the...
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2002

Husband frets over fate of wife held in China Falun Gong bust

The Chinese wife of a Japanese man has been detained for more than a month in China after she was arrested for supporting the Falun Gong spiritual movement.
BUSINESS
Jul 10, 2002

Dollar's rapid fall must be checked: Shiokawa

Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Tuesday that the rapid decline of the dollar must be checked before it reaches the 115 yen level.

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