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LIFE / Digital
Feb 7, 2001

Post-Dreamcast, Sega set to become world's top game publisher

SEATTLE -- With its recent decision to abandon the 128-bit Dreamcast video game console and to publish games for PlayStation2 and other gaming platforms, Sega appears to be leaving the game hardware business permanently. Sega Enterprises cofounder David Rosen says it's about time.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 7, 2001

She can't find her way, but she found me

My wife looks normal, both at a distance and up close -- though, like with most people, if you draw too close, all you can see is a blur.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2001

State to rethink Civil Code

The Justice Ministry said Tuesday that it plans to consider revising the Civil Code to legally recognize the parentage of babies born with the use of sperm or ova donated by close relatives.
LIFE / Travel
Feb 7, 2001

Saved from the 'bitter sea'

XIAN, China -- When "Black Bean" was 4 years old, his mother and her lover stabbed his father to death. The lover was executed for murder and the mother was sentenced to 15 years in prison as an accessory to the crime. Yet the little boy's nightmare had only just begun. Reviled by the whole village,...
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2001

State to rethink Civil Code

The Justice Ministry said Tuesday that it plans to consider revising the Civil Code to legally recognize the parentage of babies born with the use of sperm or ova donated by close relatives.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2001

Police question air controllers involved in JAL's near miss

A trainee air traffic controller and his supervisor were questioned Monday in connection with a near miss involving two Japan Airlines planes on Wednesday, police said.
BUSINESS
Feb 6, 2001

Suntory brewing up momentum in Chinese beer market

OSAKA -- Struggling to survive in the saturated domestic market, Suntory Ltd. has stepped up its operations in China in a bid to capture the hearts of beer lovers in the world's most populous country.
COMMENTARY
Feb 6, 2001

Civil servants are not serfs

The "shunju" (spring and autumn) column on the first page of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun often contains comments that are right on target. The Jan. 27 column commented on the sometimes arrogant and unwarranted demands made by Japanese politicians on Japanese diplomats in missions abroad.
BUSINESS
Feb 6, 2001

Keidanren gears up for mission to Russia in June

Japan's most powerful business lobby is planning to send a mission of up to 150 representatives to Russia between June 1 and June 8, the group's head said Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2001

10% of kids suffer psychological woes

Some 10 percent of children visiting pediatric hospitals as outpatients are suffering psychological problems, mostly girls aged 15 and boys aged 14, according to the results of the first nationwide survey on children's mental health.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2001

Kabuki debuts at middle school

It is nothing new for kabuki actors to go out of Tokyo to perform, but Nakamura Kichiemon recently took an unprecedented step to provoke interest among young schoolchildren in the traditional theater.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 6, 2001

Trauma in a sepia-tinged Kyushu

It's not easy filming the inner lives of human beings. Novelists can go on at length about their protagonist's stream of consciousness (see "Ulysses") while filmmakers cannot show scene after voiced-over scene of that same stream without inducing audience catatonia. See Joseph Strick's misbegotten 1967...
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2001

Embassies said to have fingers in pie

The Japanese embassies of countries officially visited by the prime minister customarily received part of the so-called secret funds controlled by the Cabinet Secretariat as a "bonus" for their services, informed sources said Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2001

Inefficient public works projects creaking under debt burden

KOBE -- The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, the world's longest suspension bridge, looks superb as it spans the Akashi Strait, linking Kobe and Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture.
BUSINESS
Feb 6, 2001

Index shows brighter outlook in December after bleak November showing

The diffusion index of coincident economic indicators, a key gauge of Japan's economic activity, topped the boom-or-bust line of 50 percent in December, after falling below the line in November, the government said Monday.
BUSINESS
Feb 6, 2001

Index shows brighter outlook in December after bleak November showing

The diffusion index of coincident economic indicators, a key gauge of Japan's economic activity, topped the boom-or-bust line of 50 percent in December, after falling below the line in November, the government said Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2001

Bomb blast rocks city hall men's room

OSAKA -- Two explosions ripped through a first floor restroom in Osaka City Hall Monday afternoon, forcing the evacuation of some 3,000 employees for about an hour.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2001

Bomb blast rocks city hall men's room

OSAKA -- Two explosions ripped through a first floor restroom in Osaka City Hall Monday afternoon, forcing the evacuation of some 3,000 employees for about an hour.
BUSINESS
Feb 6, 2001

Nomura group profit plunges in latest quarter

Nomura Securities Co. said Monday its group pretax profit for the October-December quarter plunged 87.2 percent from a year earlier to 14.2 billion yen, hit by lower revenues amid a weaker domestic stock market.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2001

Mori apologizes again, denies LDP is corrupt

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori offered a fresh apology before the Diet on Monday for recent corruption scandals involving LDP members and a Foreign Ministry official.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2001

Mori apologizes again, denies LDP is corrupt

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori offered a fresh apology before the Diet on Monday for recent corruption scandals involving LDP members and a Foreign Ministry official.
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Feb 6, 2001

The boys are smokin', the girls are on fire

All-girl trio Thug Murder have been making pals quicker than most in the underground with their upbeat brand of melodic punk rock. So it was no surprise that they were able to pull together one of the best lineups I've seen for ages for the release party of debut album "13th Round" last week at Shimokitazawa's...
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2001

City hall restroom blast forces evacuation in Osaka

OSAKA -- Two explosions ripped through a first floor restroom in Osaka City Hall Monday afternoon, forcing the evacuation of some 3,000 employees for about an hour.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 6, 2001

Japan must open the doors if it is to survive

JAPAN AND GLOBAL MIGRATION: Foreign Workers and the Advent of a Multicultural Society, edited by Mike Douglass and Glenda Roberts. London: Routledge, 2000, 306 pp., 63 British pounds. Japan's demographic time bomb is ticking away. In the coming decades, the nation faces a labor shortage and insolvency...
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2001

City hall restroom blast forces evacuation in Osaka

OSAKA -- Two explosions ripped through a first floor restroom in Osaka City Hall Monday afternoon, forcing the evacuation of some 3,000 employees for about an hour.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2001

Prosecutors to investigate leak from district office

The Fukuoka High Public Prosecutor's Office said Monday that it will launch a criminal investigation into the leaking of investigative information by the deputy chief of the Fukuoka District Public Prosecutor's Office.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years