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BUSINESS
Feb 15, 2002

Investors swap stocks, MMFs for gold

Japanese individual investors are increasingly shying away from financial products with potential risk, especially after the sudden collapse of U.S. energy giant Enron Corp. dealt a severe blow to popular money management funds.
BUSINESS
Feb 15, 2002

G7 view of reform plans turns skeptical

Although the weakened yen did not come up for discussion at the latest meeting of finance leaders from the Group of Seven nations, Japan's planned economic measures met with skepticism.
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2002

BOJ not planning to raise long-term bond purchases

Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami said Wednesday there is no immediate need to increase the central bank's outright purchases of long-term government bonds to boost liquidity in the money market.
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2002

Antideflation steps to be devised

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Wednesday formally instructed his Cabinet ministers in charge of the economy to compile a comprehensive package of antideflation measures, following the launch Tuesday of such discussions by a key government policy panel.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 13, 2002

Northwest expansion on track despite Sept. 11

The business expansion plans of Northwest Airlines tied to the opening of a new runway at Narita airport and a new terminal at Detroit Metropolitan Airport have been largely unaffected by the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a Tokyo-based executive of the airline.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 13, 2002

A traveler possessed by light

Part of the game of art nowadays is for artists, whatever their influence or orientation, to avoid classification. Once this happens, their work often devolves into well-worm cultural cliche. One 20th-century artist who escaped this process, though, was Paul Klee (1879- 1940), whose work is as hard to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Feb 13, 2002

An art collector's dream on display

"In the mid-1950s, I saw an irresistible inflow of Western culture, mostly American, into war-devastated Japan. I witnessed a fading of our culture, which had been passed to us from generation to generation. As I watched the change, I felt a sense of fear that our next generation might not know what...
SOCCER / J. League / ON THE BALL
Feb 11, 2002

Wrong time to be in the wrong place

Naohiro Takahara's Argentine adventure with Boca Juniors came to a suddenly and unhappy end a few days ago when the Argentine club decided to cut short the one-year-loan deal of the Japan striker.
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ARCHIPELA-GO
Feb 11, 2002

Cold lands but warm hearts

The literally hang out the flags for visitors to the small town of Nishikawa in the snowy foothills of Yamagata's Dewa Sanzan mountains. A large British Union Jack was crossed with a Japanese Hinomaru over the entrance to Tamaki, a riverside restaurant famous for its Hina ryori (Doll's Festival food),...
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2002

Takenaka outlines four-pillar package to battle deflation

Economic and fiscal policy minister Heizo Takenaka said Sunday the government will draft a comprehensive package for combating deflation in the near future that includes steps aimed at accelerating the disposal of nonperforming loans at commercial banks.
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2002

Transplant expert rues cadaveric donor, social charity dearth

Surgery is an art founded on science, or so says University of Tokyo professor Masatoshi Makuuchi, who specializes in transplants and is one of the nation's leading liver surgeons.
COMMUNITY
Feb 10, 2002

A true poet of the people ...

Coming soon to a sidewalk near you is one of Japan's most original street artists, Hiromitsu Noriyasu, along with his growing cult of fans. The spirited 34-year-old has covered more than 16,000 km over the past seven months on his bicycle tour of Japan, raising funds to finance a film by composing poems...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 10, 2002

Love in a time of decline for homegrown literature

Is there a future for Japanese literature? That is the question posed by an article in the February issue of Bungakukai. Writer Akira Nagae visited various bookstores and publishers in search of an answer. The manager of a bookstore near an arts university in Tokyo feels authors and publishers are deceiving...
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2002

Kawaguchi reaffirms ties with China, South Korea

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi held separate phone conversations Saturday with her Chinese and South Korean counterparts to reaffirm relations with the neighboring countries, a Foreign Ministry official said.
EDITORIALS
Feb 9, 2002

Lackluster debate hinders reform

Japan faces an urgent need to make a sweeping transition comparable in magnitude to the periods that followed the Meiji Restoration and the end of World War II. But judging from the plenary debates conducted in both Houses of the Diet this week, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's program of national...
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2002

Farm ministry begins beef testing

The farm ministry, responding to the revelation that Snow Brand Foods Co. abused a government beef-buyback program implemented after the discovery of mad cow disease in Japan, began random inspections Friday of beef it bought from across the nation.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 9, 2002

Ueda-san: busy staying home no more

On our island, the passage of time is measured in lives. With the passing away of my neighbor Ueda-san, I feel like a part of Japan has gone with her.
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Feb 8, 2002

Making a big difference in little places

Rachel Rawlings was surprised when she ran into two famous Japanese comedians in the parking lot outside her local village office. The popular television stars, Shofukutei Tsurube and Kazuki Enari, were astonished, too. Why was a young Australian woman living in a fishing village in Kochi Prefecture?...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Feb 7, 2002

Snowboarding: street cred or Olympic discipline?

For many of the dudes and dudettes that flock to the ski resorts every winter, one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City will be the snowboarding parallel slaloms and half-pipe freestyle competitions.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2002

Sept. 11 didn't change everything: e-symposium

The second e-symposium on conflict prevention got under way Wednesday with a number of presenters stressing that although the events of Sept. 11 had far-reaching consequences, a number of issues remain virtually unchanged.
LIFE / Travel / FLOWER WALK
Feb 7, 2002

Bloomin' good fortune in winter

A Greek myth tells of the beautiful youth Adonis, beloved of Aphrodite, who was killed by a wild boar while hunting. A flower growing on the spot where he fell was stained crimson by his blood and was named Adonis aestivalis.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Feb 7, 2002

Precipitate beauty of nature's own ice sculptures

"The sky has holes to let rain in; the holes are small, that's why rain is thin." So wrote the zany British comedian Spike Milligan. Rain. Some hate it; I love it. It's a gift (thin though it may be) from the heavens.
EDITORIALS
Feb 6, 2002

The only viable choice

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's policy speech to the Diet on Monday could not have come at a worse time. The week before, he had invited public anger by firing Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka, the most popular member of his Cabinet and the staunchest supporter of his reform plans. It was an "agonizing...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 6, 2002

This could be Year of the Homer in PL

At first glance, you might think the new Japanese strike zone will benefit pitchers and be a hindrance to batters this coming season. The zone has been raised more than the diameter of one baseball, but I believe it will be the hitters -- not the hurlers -- who will get the most advantage out of the...

Longform

"Shake hands with Lima-chan," a statue that shares the name of the Peruvian capital looks in the direction of Peru, where a sister statue, "Sakura-chan," is located. Erected in Yokohama's Rinko Park in 1999, it commemorates Peruvian-Japanese friendship.
The journey of Peru’s Nikkei: Finding identity in Japan