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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 19, 2001

Satellite radio: a commuter's best friend

Ever wonder how Japanese people can sleep on trains? Ever wonder how they know exactly when to wake up at their stop? I've finally figured it out: They're not really sleeping. They're listening to satellite radio. Satellite-radio stations offer a variety of programs, many of them designed with Japan's...
EDITORIALS
May 18, 2001

Poisoning the air and the airwaves

The Saitama District Court has ruled in favor of TV Asahi in a damage suit filed against the network over its report that high levels of dioxin, a toxic substance, had been found in vegetables in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Farmers in the area claimed that the report spread rumors that vegetables...
BUSINESS
May 18, 2001

NTT group's pretax profits tumbled 12% in '00

Declining profits from fixed-line services -- once the mainstay of the telecom sector -- bit into the pretax profits of the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone group in fiscal 2000.
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2001

Beijing masters tit-for-tat trade policy

CAMBRIDGE, England -- China is on a steep learning curve. There is a tendency to forget that only 20 years ago, China had none of the institutions of a market economy -- nor the trained personnel to operate them.
BUSINESS
May 18, 2001

Sony, Toshiba to make thinner chip technology

Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. will jointly develop processing and design technology for producing system large-scale integrated circuits with widths of 0.07 micron to 0.1 micron, the two announced Thursday.
JAPAN
May 18, 2001

Group aims to help stalking victims

KYOTO -- In an effort to provide more effective help to stalking victims in the Kansai region, a six-member network, including lawyers, public notaries and a security firm, was formed Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2001

Tokyo ready to beat the drum for IAEA nuclear arms protocol

In a rare diplomatic initiative toward curbing the global proliferation of nuclear weapons, Japan will host an international conference next month to step up efforts to prevent the spread of the deadly weapons in the Asia-Pacific region.
COMMUNITY / THE PARENT TRIP
May 18, 2001

A journey with two routes

Like every other woman crammed into the waiting-room couches at the infertility clinic, I was desperate to conceive a child. Trying to become pregnant through artificial means had consumed my emotional and physical energy for over three years. Every time a heavily pregnant woman, often with another child...
JAPAN
May 18, 2001

Expelled doctor explains plight of North Koreans

A German physician who worked as a volunteer doctor in North Korea for 18 months until being expelled at the end of last year has called for action to help suffering children in the country.
BUSINESS
May 18, 2001

Dollar-yen rate awaits Koizumi's delivery

The currency market remains caught in the crosscurrents of optimism about the structural reforms advocated by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and fears of their deflationary impact.
BUSINESS
May 18, 2001

Months-old Japan-Brazil triangular aid deal is almost ripe for harvest

Well over a year after plowing the field, Japan and Brazil have finally begun to sow the seed in hopes of reaping their first crop as early as autumn.
JAPAN
May 17, 2001

Tanaka apologizes to bureaucrats

Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka apologized Wednesday to bureaucrats in her ministry, saying some of her comments during Tuesday's session of the Lower House Budget Committee may have been "misunderstood."
COMMENTARY
May 17, 2001

Ukraine says 'yes' to missile defense

KIEV -- The Bush administration is reviewing U.S. security policy, including deployment of a national missile defense. Washington's decision should be made easier by Ukraine's offer to help turn NMD into a reality.
EDITORIALS
May 17, 2001

Hanging up on 3G

Information anytime, anywhere: That is the promise of the IT revolution. The next step in the march toward the networked world was supposed to take place this month, when NTT DoCoMo and British Telecommunications launched the world's first third-generation (3G) cellphone services. We are marching in...
JAPAN
May 17, 2001

Japanese firms strive to ride out global IT tsunami

With the global economy becoming increasingly Net-oriented, leading Japanese companies are trying to ride out the information technology wave in a desperate bid to survive ever-intensifying competition.
JAPAN
May 17, 2001

Softbank chief No. 3 taxpayer

Softbank Corp. President Masayoshi Son ranked as Japan's third-largest individual taxpayer in 2000, up from 16th in 1999, the National Tax Administration said Wednesday in an annual report listing the top 100 taxpayers.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2001

Promise chief invited to share wisdom at Harvard University

Harvard Business School last month invited Hiroki Jinnai, president of major Japanese consumer moneylender Promise Co., to field student questions in a forum on the firm's growth strategy.
MULTIMEDIA / SPORTS SCOPE
May 17, 2001

Time for the young ones to leave the nest

Philippe Troussier on the J. League: "The Japanese are soft and the players are soft and the referees are soft. One little bump in a game and it's a foul. These would never be fouls in Europe, in Spain or England."
JAPAN
May 17, 2001

Princess has first outing in a month

The Crown Princess made her first public appearance Wednesday since the official announcement the day before of her long-awaited pregnancy, joining the Crown Prince on a morning visit to a shrine dedicated to his grandmother.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2001

Optimism, foreign investors fuel rebound

The initial trigger for the Tokyo share price rally in recent weeks was foreign investors' stepped-up purchases.
JAPAN
May 17, 2001

Japan, South Korea seek tourism boom

Tourism officials from Japan and South Korea, looking to capitalize on the 2002 World Cup soccer finals, are mulling ways to double the number of tourists from overseas.

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’