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ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Aug 7, 2003

A tale of two Afans reborn

Two thousand years ago, my native Wales had 98 percent forest cover. By 1950, when I was a little lad, woodland in Wales was down to 5 percent. I was born in Neath, where coal-mining wasn't particularly heavy, and where there were still wooded parks and groves of wild trees so I didn't really feel the...
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2003

FSA kicking banks out of bed, demands results

In a move suggesting further deterioration in the cozy relations between banks and regulators, the Financial Services Agency slapped banks with a business improvement order Friday for failing to meet pledged targets in fiscal 2002.
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2003

Prisons told to end dodgy job schemes

The Justice Ministry ordered correctional institutions in mid-July to put an end to deceitful manufacturing-work schemes, including disguising the country of origin of products, according to documents obtained Wednesday by Kyodo News.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 31, 2003

Residents of SARS-hit areas targeted in tourism drive

Japan is now welcoming residents of the once SARS-infected areas of Taiwan and Hong Kong to its shores in a bid to revive its tourism industry.
COMMENTARY
Jul 30, 2003

Unwise cuts in Japan studies

LONDON -- Information about Japan and Japanese culture was regrettably limited and unsophisticated for many years after World War II. Influential people in Britain, such as the late Sir Peter Parker, realized that the ignorance and prejudices of British people about Japan were damaging British interests...
BUSINESS
Jul 28, 2003

Chinese currency system must face step-by-step liberalization

We recently hear a lot about the need for China to adjust the exchange rate of its currency, the yuan. In fact, Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan, during the U.S. Senate Banking Committee hearing July 16, said it is "increasingly evident" that China should allow its currency to trade freely...
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2003

Civil-servant reform bill delayed

State reform minister Nobuteru Ishihara said Friday he will give up trying to present a bill to reform civil servant employment practices to the current session of the Diet, which ends Monday.
EDITORIALS
Jul 24, 2003

Danger lurks for unwary young teens

Central Shibuya, one of the trendiest districts in Tokyo, is a magnet for young people. "It's exciting like New York," says an American junior high school student on home stay here. But it is also a dangerous place for naive teenagers, as illustrated by last week's kidnapping of four school girls.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2003

Iraq's long-suffering people desperately need the international community's help

"From now on it is each man for himself." Having said that, our colleague from UNICEF Iraq quietly locked our car's doors. We had just passed the final checkpoint between Kuwait and Iraq.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2003

Wanted: men to cook, clean, care

Growing numbers of single Japanese women are looking for a mate who can do housework and raise children, according to the latest government survey on singles' attitudes.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2003

Unemployment benefits to be cut

Basic unemployment insurance benefits will be reduced from Aug. 1 in response to a 0.8 percent fall in average pay in fiscal 2002, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2003

Suicidal kidnapper collected nude photos

Police have confiscated photographs of naked women and a list of women's names from a Tokyo condo in which a 29-year-old man had allegedly confined four elementary schoolgirls, investigative sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jul 19, 2003

Insurance policyholders warned to wise up, do their homework

In a bid to prevent frailty in the life insurance sector from potentially exploding into the political and banking scenes, the House of Councilors on Friday enacted legislation allowing troubled life insurers to lower their promised payouts to policyholders.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2003

Town hopes wind bells ring in some new vitality

The tinkling of some 3,000 glass wind bells in a small mountain town in Aichi Prefecture is not just a sign of summer but a sound of hope for community revitalization.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2003

Missing girls, dead man found in condo

Four girls missing since the weekend were found unharmed Thursday at a condominium in Tokyo's Akasaka district, police said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 13, 2003

Opportunity knocks for women in Japan's climate of change

With the days of the Asian Tigers long gone, and Japan Inc. now more of a pussy cat gone belly up, the talk is no longer about the world's second-biggest economy taking over the world, but about the profound structural changes that will be necessary just to keep it afloat.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jul 13, 2003

Out of the way, but never too far

After S'ayak has the disadvantage of being somewhat difficult to find. It is tucked away in a dark alley off a relatively well-patronized neighborhood shopping street lined with many cool little sake bars and eateries. You have to know it's there to find it.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2003

Students test corporate waters as interns

Like many college students who gathered at a Tokyo forum earlier this month, Tomoe Yoshida believes becoming an intern at a company will help her find out what career she wants to pursue.
JAPAN
Jul 5, 2003

Immigration procedures to be faster for foreign visitors

The government will speed up entry procedures at immigration for foreign visitors and support training for tourism personnel to attract more sightseers to Japan, government sources said Friday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jul 4, 2003

Little Myanmar in big Tokyo

The ongoing ethnic food boom in Tokyo has somehow bypassed some of the most interesting, savory and satisfying food in all of Southeast Asia -- the cuisine of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma before the accession of the current military government in 1989).
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2003

Homeless group works to show its worth

YOKOHAMA -- Every morning at JR Yokohama Station, people show up armed with brooms and dustpans to clean up litter on nearby streets left by the previous night's carousing throngs.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jul 3, 2003

Who says all factories have to be eyesores?

Earl in 1995, a friend of mine, a journalist I first met back in the 1970s, asked me to have dinner and drinks with him in a cozy, noisy izakaya in Shinjuku. There, he introduced me to a very friendly, well-traveled man called Masayoshi Ushikubo, the executive manager of a company that made electrical...
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2003

Three firms deemed eligible for public aid

Local corporate turnaround committees have mapped out rehabilitation plans for three small and midsize companies, making them eligible for public support, industry minister Takeo Hiranuma said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2003

Unemployment stuck at 5.4% for third consecutive month

The national unemployment rate stood at a near-record 5.4 percent for the third straight month in May, suggesting the deflation-stricken economy is weighing heavily on the job market.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 26, 2003

Shrimp farms: pawns in ecosystem destruction

Look just about anywhere in Japan and you'll find prawns. Fried, boiled, baked, frozen and fresh, they fill acres of shelves in department stores and supermarkets and are staples in sushi and tempura shops -- as well as being found in even the most unlikely bowl of noodles.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2003

Diet begins debate on sending SDF to Iraq

The House of Representatives on Tuesday began deliberating a government-proposed bill to send the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2003

Kanto power shortage fears loom despite energy-saving push

As Tokyo begins to swelter in the summer heat, the government and industries are stepping up efforts to avert major power shortages in the Kanto region centering on the bustling capital.
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2003

Kanto power shortage fears loom despite energy-saving push

As Tokyo begins to swelter in the summer heat, the government and industries are stepping up efforts to avert major power shortages in the Kanto region centering on the bustling capital.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan