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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Aug 25, 2001

Kikumi Nakamura

The twists and turns that her life has taken have given Kikumi Nakamura a range of experiences that, early on, were steeped in the very traditional. Through circumstances and her own wit, she operates today at a prominent level in a contemporary milieu. "I've had many difficulties and crises, but my...
BUSINESS
Aug 25, 2001

Subsidy for new Tokyo-Narita railway to increase

The transport ministry said Friday it plans to drastically increase government subsidies for a new high-speed railway linking central Tokyo and Narita airport in its budgetary requests for the fiscal year starting next April.
JAPAN / 50 YEARS SINCE SAN FRANCISCO
Aug 25, 2001

Focus sharpens on Japan-U.S. economic relations

Staff writer While Japan and the United States exited the 20th century as the world's two largest economic powers, Tokyo and Washington had little to celebrate when they crossed the threshold into the new century.
BUSINESS
Aug 25, 2001

Itochu, Marubeni units to merge

Itochu Corp. and Marubeni Corp. said Friday they will merge their trading subsidiaries dealing in steel construction materials on equal terms on Oct. 1, simultaneous to the integration of their steel businesses.
EDITORIALS
Aug 24, 2001

ODA also needs reform

Japan's official development assistance is expected to be reduced by 10 percent in fiscal 2002 as part of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's program of "structural reform with no sacred cows." According to the budget outlines announced earlier this month, ODA will be cut by 100 billion yen from the current...
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2001

Guilty pleas entered in octopus scam

Three former officials of Maruha Corp., the top seafood producer in the nation, pleaded guilty Thursday to charges of evading customs duties at their first hearing held in the Tokyo District Court.
JAPAN / PRIVATIZING PAINS
Aug 24, 2001

Scrapping housing loan entity said threat to low-income ranks

Kyodo News A proposal by the Cabinet's administrative reform headquarters asking Government Housing Loan Corp. to effective stop extending new loans is meeting stiff opposition from the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry, promising heated debate toward the end of the year.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2001

'Two plus two' to get bilateral defense plan

A report on mutual cooperation planning under updated 1997 Japan-U.S. defense guidelines will be submitted to a bilateral defense meeting in New York next month, according to Lt. Gen. Paul Hester, commander of the United States Forces Japan.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2001

New robot skis freestyle, does stunts

A group led by a Japanese engineering professor said Thursday it has developed a robot that can perform freestyle skiing and associated aerial stunts such as midair somersaults and twists.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 24, 2001

Even a single drop of beauty can ripple the soul

It was about the middle of September, and I was far from home.
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Aug 24, 2001

Brazilian scores with high school soccer

Akita Prefecture has traditionally been famous for its rice. But, in recent years, the quality of young soccer talent coming out of the area's high schools has caught the media spotlight.
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2001

Road-building demands down

The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry plans to seek 479 billion yen for the construction of toll roads and highways in the fiscal 2002 budget, about 7 percent less that this year's budget, ministry sources said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2001

Job losses sure to increase: Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Thursday that Japan's unemployment rate will inevitably rise as a result of his economic structural reform agenda.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2001

Domestic violence shelters to see rise in number of counselors

The government plans to provide better support for victims of domestic violence by dispatching psychotherapists to shelters and women's centers across the country from April, according to health ministry sources.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2001

New stalking law brings 66 arrests and 453 warnings

Police nationwide arrested 66 people over violations of the antistalking law between November, when it took effect, and the end of May, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2001

Unemployment rate for July seen hitting 5%

Japan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is certain to hit 5 percent in an official report for July due out next week, government sources said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2001

BOJ fights for time in battle over fake inflation

Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami said Thursday that the central bank will continue to study inflation targeting but that it has qualms about achieving price levels at the expense of prudence.
COMMENTARY
Aug 24, 2001

The time for talking is over

LONDON -- Too much has been expected from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, but that is partly his own fault. There seems to have been too much "spin" and too little action. Time is not on his side as the Japanese economy splutters.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2001

Security alliance redefined after end of Cold War

Staff writer In August 1990, when then Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu telephoned U.S. President George Bush to offer a $1 billion contribution to the U.S.-led multinational forces in the Persian Gulf, Bush offered a disappointed-sounding "Thank you" before hanging up.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 23, 2001

Emigration: a Kurdish national obsession

On the face of it, the Sheikhallah bazaar is just the shabby little side street in downtown Erbil where you go to change money. But the whole of "liberated" Iraqi Kurdistan knows that another, more serious business is conducted behind those counters piled high with debased Iraqi bank notes.
COMMENTARY
Aug 23, 2001

Put U.S. retirement scam out to pasture

WASHINGTON -- Social Security is in crisis, but only a serious administration commitment will overcome the Democrats' determination to keep Americans locked in this inferior government retirement system.
EDITORIALS
Aug 23, 2001

Don't count on a U.S. recovery

The U.S. economy continues to stumble. More ominously, there are few positive signs elsewhere in the world that could give the global economy the boost it needs. The U.S. Federal Reserve did what it could on Tuesday, but that will not be enough to lift the United States out of the doldrums. Slow growth...
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2001

Lawmaker's ex-aide tied to Chinese worker scam

A former private secretary of LDP lawmaker Koki Kobayashi made inquiries to the Justice Ministry at the request of a man involved in an illegal immigrant worker scam, sources close to the case said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 23, 2001

Ten years after the Gulf War, Iraqi Kurds struggle to build a 'liberated' Kurdistan

SULEIMANIYAH, Iraq -- The Kurds have a national flag of their own. The tricolor of red, green and white, with a sun at its center, is the emblem of a people who, numbering 40 million, are the Middle East's fourth-largest ethnic group.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2001

Japan to get tough on visa checks

The Foreign Ministry plans to set up online computer systems at all overseas diplomatic missions to help prevent blacklisted foreign nationals from entering Japan, ministry officials said Wednesday.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan