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JAPAN
Feb 21, 2002

Online music trade riles labels

The battle between online music-swapping service providers and the Japanese music industry is intensifying, with the industry vowing to crack down on what it calls illegal sharing of digital copies of music.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2002

Nomura Securities loses discrimination lawsuit

Nomura Securities Co. was ordered Wednesday by the Tokyo District Court to pay 56 million yen in consolation money to 12 female employees for the mental pain inflicted by the securities firm's discriminatory employment system.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2002

Team discusses fuel-cell promotion

Vice ministers from three government ministries on Wednesday held their first meeting on promoting fuel cell technology in Japan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2002

Chino cements image as ADB's best chief ever

MANILA It was the most important night of the year. As "Show 2001" got off to a start, the hall was packed to standing room only, and talented employees -- mostly Filipinos -- strutted their stuff in aid of local charities.
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2002

Tepco may muscle in on Tohoku power turf

Tokyo Electric Power Co. may submit bids for three electricity retailing contracts in the Tohoku region, threatening to muscle in on Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s territory, industry sources said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2002

Matsushita managers to learn sales

OSAKA -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. will send midlevel managers to large-scale household appliance retailers for about a month this spring to give them firsthand experience with sales of the company's product range, company officials said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2002

Cooking oil producers set to merge

A joint holding company to be formed April 1 by Honen Corp. and Ajinomoto Oil Mills Co. will merge with another cooking oil producer, Yoshihara Oil Mill Ltd., to create the largest domestic entity in the field, according to the three firms.
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 21, 2002

Ancient mariners' survival in the balance

Terrestrial turtles, and their cousins that ventured into the oceans around 130 million years ago, are among the oldest groups of reptiles on Earth. At one time, millions of these creatures roamed the ancient seas, but today, only a tiny fraction remain.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Feb 21, 2002

'Rainbow Warrior' talks rugby, politics, life

Francois Pienaar is best known as the man who unified a nation.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 21, 2002

Living under pressure

Life, as we knew it only a few decades ago, needed sunlight and warmth. No one imagined that anything could survive in extreme environments -- in intolerable places such as high-pressure, high-temperature deep-sea vents or under Antarctic ice sheets.
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Feb 21, 2002

Xbox gets a bit 'Wreckless'

Xbox is coming to Japan on Friday, and by all accounts, Japanese game players are pretty excited. Microsoft's new video game console is clearly the most advanced and most powerful video game console on the market. It is more powerful than Nintendo's GameCube. Sony's PlayStation2 is not even in Xbox's...
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2002

Accused killer Hayashi wins redress

OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court has ordered Shinchosha Co. and its president to pay 6.6 million yen in compensation to Masumi Hayashi, who is on trial for mass murder in a 1998 curry poisoning incident, for running a photo and drawing of her without permission.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2002

Fake bills land three on Interpol list

Police on Wednesday put three people from Taiwan on an Interpol wanted list for allegedly using fake 10,000 yen bills in Asakusa, Tokyo.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2002

Mitsubishi Materials Kenzai, Nozawa suspected in price cartel

The Fair Trade Commission searched about 30 Mitsubishi Materials Kenzai Corp. and Nozawa Corp. outlets Tuesday on suspicion they ran an illegal sales cartel for construction materials.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2002

Fence-mending with Megawati trumps failure by Howard to meet with Bush

SYDNEY -- Two weeks of hard-sell diplomacy in New York and Jakarta have left Australian Prime Minister John Howard feeling a little cheesed off. Back home, his wins are being downplayed. And as Parliament opens its autumn sitting in Canberra, his mind is strictly on urgent domestic problems.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2002

Miyazaki delighted to win Berlin Golden Bear

Film director Hayao Miyazaki expressed delight Tuesday about winning the top prize for his animated film "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" ("Spirited Away") at the Berlin Film Festival.
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 20, 2002

Master of life's joys and sorrows

Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724), Japan's foremost playwright, was born Sugimori Nobumori, the second son of a samurai of the feudal lord of Yoshie in Echizen (now Fukui Prefecture). Because he could not inherit his father's samurai status, Nobumori resolved to be a playwright, and took the pen name...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 20, 2002

From 'kimono as canvas' to modest couture

What is so fascinating about royal dress? Clearly, in the case of Diana, Princess of Wales, her fame and glamour set the style for millions of people worldwide. But for countless centuries, the dress of the ruling classes has been about far more than just setting a trend: It has confirmed the high status...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2002

Woman calls British ex-POWs to Japan

LONDON -- Keiko Holmes had expected hostility, but when she attended the annual conference of the British Far East Prisoners of War Association in London in 1991, the bitterness harbored by the more than 1,000 veterans and their families present nearly erupted into violence.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 20, 2002

The mind has mountains

"It's true," a friend who has lived here for more than a decade insisted. "Because for them it's the most important mountain in the world, Japanese schoolchildren don't draw Mount Fuji the sloping shape it really is, but as incredibly tall and pointed."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Feb 20, 2002

Views from a place you've been before

It's always a pleasure to discover an exhibition space in Tokyo that you've never been to before, especially during these difficult economic times when old favorites are closing down. My latest find is Gallery Senkukan, tucked into a tiny Yoyogi side street, which opened a little more than a year ago....
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 20, 2002

Sam Phillips: 'Fan Dance'

Nonesuch, America's premier record label for modern music (Kronos Quartet, Steve Reich), has recently become a place where high-minded pop artists can make mid-career course corrections. Emmylou Harris found a sympathetic outlet for her burgeoning Gothic-country tendencies, and the label let Duncan Shiek...
BUSINESS
Feb 20, 2002

Officials say Bush gave tacit warning on economy

Economic ministers said Tuesday they understood U.S. President George W. Bush had issued "tacit" calls for Japan to revive its economy during his summit with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 20, 2002

Onward klezmer voyager

Like people, music travels. How else could a handful of Japanese musicians have come to embrace klezmer, a centuries-old Eastern European folk music historically associated with traditional Jewish weddings?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Feb 20, 2002

And that really burns me up

If, like me, you do a lot of your work at home, I imagine you may like to listen to music as you labor through a translation, write a story or put together a PowerPoint presentation. And you probably find it convenient to listen to CDs on your computer.
COMMENTARY
Feb 19, 2002

Koizumi fast losing his luster

The entire affair involving Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's dismissal of Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka on Jan. 29 reminded me of an old saying that "nothing is predictable in politics." Following Koizumi's move, his government's public-approval rating plummeted to about 50 percent after remaining...
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2002

Tochigi elementary, junior high schools tops in boosting women

Tochigi Prefecture has topped the nation in the percentage of female administrators at public elementary and junior high schools in a nationwide survey of women's status in teaching, where a wide gender gap prevails.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’