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JAPAN
Dec 31, 2003

Yoshinoya 'gyudon' may vanish over U.S. beef ban

Yoshinoya D&C Co. became one of the first casualties in Japan of the mad cow disease case in the United States, announcing Tuesday it will stop serving its mainstay "gyudon" beef-over-rice at its outlets in early February if there is still an import ban on U.S. beef.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2003

High-rise denizens wage effort to regain sense of community

Tokyo, for many of its inhabitants, is a faceless concrete jungle lacking any sense of community, unlike the days when close-knit row-house neighborhoods were the norm before the capital exploded into a soaring, postwar urban sprawl.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / A GAIJIN'S TALE
Dec 30, 2003

Postal service

Customer service in Japan never fails to amaze. The scene is Hiroshima Central Post Office.
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2003

Koizumi eyeing Aug. 15 visit to Yasukuni Shrine, aides say

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is considering paying his annual visit to Tokyo's controversial Yasukuni Shrine this Aug. 15, the anniversary of the end of World War II, in a move likely to prompt an outcry from China and other Asian nations, according to his aides.
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2003

Unmarried couple attempted in vitro

A general hospital in western Japan attempted to fertilize ova from a woman who was to undergo cancer treatment with the sperm of her fiancee, it was learned Sunday.
EDITORIALS
Dec 29, 2003

The year politics turned a corner

Looking back on Japanese politics in 2003, two events stand out from all others: One is November's general election, which brought the two-party system a step closer to reality. The other is the government's decision earlier this month to send Self-Defense Force troops to Iraq on a humanitarian mission....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 28, 2003

Vacationers pack stations and airports

Airports and bullet train stations were packed in Japan on Saturday with travelers leaving for the annual New Year's holiday period.
EDITORIALS
Dec 28, 2003

Behind the veil in France

Sometimes when we read about a political decision being taken in another country, the response seems both easy and obvious. Chechen independence, an Iraqi trial for toppled leader Saddam Hussein, approval of the Kyoto treaty to slow global warming, disapproval of the Israelis' land-gobbling border fence:...
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2003

Homegrown embryonic stem cells in offing

Beginning next month, a national institute will start providing domestically produced human embryonic stem cells -- a move likely to accelerate Japanese research into the production of tissue and organs for medical use.
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2003

Ministry urges overseas travelers to get insurance

The Foreign Ministry is urging Japanese planning trips overseas, including ministry bureaucrats, to take out travel insurance to cover damage they may incur as well as inflict.
JAPAN
Dec 27, 2003

Mori calls for caution over Taiwan referendum

Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori urged Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian to exercise caution on a proposed referendum on Chinese missiles in order to avoid exacerbating tensions between Taiwan and China, according to Japanese members of his entourage.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 27, 2003

No panic over latest BSE scare

Japanese consumers are taking the news of the first case of mad cow disease in the United States with relative calm, with restaurants and supermarkets reporting none of the tumbling sales they experienced two years ago.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 26, 2003

Tuffy inks two-year, $10 million pact with Giants

Reigning Pacific League home run king Tuffy Rhodes signed a two-year contract with the Yomiuri Giants carrying an annual salary of $5 million (about 543 million yen), officials of the Central League club said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Dec 26, 2003

RCC expected to get lawyer named as its next president

Attorney Yoshihiko Okuno is expected to succeed Akio Kioi as president of the Resolution and Collection Corp.
BUSINESS
Dec 26, 2003

Koizumi tapes foreign-investment ads

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has taped TV and DVD advertisements as part of a government campaign to attract more foreign direct investment to Japan, government officials said.
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2003

SDF to aid Iraq in democratization, Koizumi tells Qatar's Al-Jazeera TV

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Thursday he informed the Al-Jazeera Arabic TV network of Japan's peaceful intentions in dispatching Self-Defense Forces units to Iraq, hoping the mission will help the Iraqi people create a democratic government.
BUSINESS
Dec 26, 2003

Industries told to curb accidents

Three government agencies on Thursday urged industries, and company chiefs in particular, to do more to prevent plant fires and other accidents of the kind that occurred in a string this year, government officials said.
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2003

Rightist group head implicates self, fellow suspects in shooting incidents

Investigators questioning members of a rightist group arrested in connection with a series of shootings earlier this year have identified the actual triggermen in some of the incidents, police said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Dec 25, 2003

Government to cut ODA by 4.8% in fiscal 2004

The government is cutting foreign aid for the fifth consecutive year by approving a 4.8 percent reduction Wednesday in fiscal 2004 from the initially allocated amount for the current fiscal year.
BUSINESS
Dec 25, 2003

Banks to receive green light to enter securities business

Banks are set to be allowed into the securities business following a recommendation Wednesday by a government panel that banks and other financial institutions be given the ability to act as sales agents for brokerage houses.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2003

Security agency focuses on terror attacks, North Korea

The Public Security Investigation Agency will bolster surveillance of the Islamic community in Japan following threats of terror attacks in connection with the dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq, it said in an annual report released Tuesday.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 24, 2003

Kazuo Matsui dropped the Big Egg for the Big Apple

Kazuo "Little" Matsui is set to be the next Japanese star to make a huge splash in the major leagues and become the latest toast of the town in New York.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2003

Emperor turns 70, greets well-wishers

Emperor Akihito greeted the public Tuesday on his 70th birthday, waving to crowds of well-wishers from an Imperial Palace balcony together with members of the Imperial family.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2003

Lawyers backing Hansen's patients in South Korea

Some 40 lawyers in Japan have decided to support South Korean Hansen's disease patients seeking compensation from Tokyo for the compulsory quarantine policy pursued under Japanese colonial rule.

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers