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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 3, 2002

Abductees watch fate unfold through TV

Fuji TV, the Asahi Shimbun and the Mainichi Shimbun received unanimous disapprobation for their Oct. 25 interview with Kim Hye Gyong, the 15-year-old daughter of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Korean agents in 1977 at the age of 13 and is presumed dead. The three media companies apologized,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Oct 9, 2002

A celebratory cake to get your teeth into

The good news: Sensational Swiss video artist Pipilotti Rist, 40, is doing but a single gallery show this year, and it is happening here in Tokyo, right now, at the Shiseido Gallery on the Ginza strip.
COMMUNITY
Jul 4, 2002

Seeking a foreign channel

A movement to keep the channel is developing throughout Japan in reaction to the announcement by News Broadcasting Japan that the 24-hour news service Foxnews will cease operations at the end of July.
BUSINESS
Jun 25, 2002

U.S. station CNBC buys into TV Tokyo

Japanese broadcaster Television Tokyo Channel 12 Ltd. (TV Tokyo) said Monday it has formed a strategic alliance with U.S. business news broadcaster CNBC.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 9, 2002

Japanese tradition that violates privacy rights

The current Self-Defense Forces scandal provides a glimpse into the mechanics of how such stories get reported. It appears that an insider at the Maritime Self-Defense Force sent information to the Mainichi Shimbun about personal data that an officer was compiling on people who made requests to the MSDF...
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2002

Measuring China's pulse online

The spread of the Internet in China is turning out to be a boon for China watchers in Japan. The Web now serves as an outlet for news not found in newspapers or on television but that can be deemed important and valuable. It also offers an opportunity to learn about the real feelings Chinese people have...
JAPAN
May 5, 2002

49.8% say bills to counter foreign attack needed: poll

Just under half the respondents to a recent poll said new legislation governing Japan's response to a foreign military attack is necessary, according to Kyodo News.
EDITORIALS
May 3, 2002

Flawed bills need rewriting

Two pieces of legislation that could restrict the media's freedom of activities are being debated in the Diet. One bill lays out ground rules for protecting personal data. The other, designed to protect human rights, would create a human rights commission affiliated with the Justice Ministry.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 14, 2002

It's spring and renewal is in the air

English teachers will definitely want to check out Sunday's two-hour "SmaStation Spring Berabera Festival" (TV Asahi, 6:56 p.m.). "SmaStation" is the latest SMAP-related hit variety series, normally broadcast Saturday nights at 11 p.m. Taking its name from TV Asahi's influential nightly news program,...
SOCCER / J. League / SPORTS SCOPE
Apr 9, 2002

J. League to help newcomers and retirees

The J. League this season has launched two new projects. The first is to help players look for a job when they retire from the game. The second is the J. League Academy -- a developing program for players aged five to 21.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2001

Coast guard ships retrieve bodies of two suspected spies

The Japan Coast Guard on Sunday recovered two bodies believed to be crew members of a suspected North Korean ship that sank off Kyushu after exchanging fire with Japanese patrol boats Saturday night, coast guard officials said.
BUSINESS
Dec 20, 2001

BOJ to further ease its monetary policy

The Bank of Japan decided Wednesday to further ease its ultra-loose monetary policy, despite its past assertions that the move will do little to allay fundamental fears about the economy.
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2001

Long wait over for royal couple

The waiting is now over for the Crown Prince and Crown Princess, who celebrated the birth of their first child -- a girl -- on Saturday, 8 1/2 years after their wedding.
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2001

Computer virus hits Japan

A newly detected computer virus was confirmed as being present in Japan on Wednesday, affecting computer servers of the farm ministry, travel agencies, hospitals and news organizations, including Kyodo News.
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2001

Official says he padded bills for 20 years

An assistant director of the Foreign Ministry who was arrested Thursday on suspicion of defrauding the state out of some 423 million yen by padding hotel bills for international meetings in 1995 has admitted padding accommodation fees for the past 20 years, investigative sources said Friday.
JAPAN
May 15, 2001

Surname rigidity frustrates

Kyodo News Before Akiko Orita got married in the fall of 1998, she planned to have an equal partnership with her husband, rather than, in her words, "an absorbed merger."
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 13, 2001

Public participation aids media more than police

Prior to Thursday's arrest of a suspect in the April 30 murder of a 19-year-old woman in Asakusa, hundreds of people had called the police with information. The majority of these calls were not made until several days after the murder, when police found some items that they believe the killer discarded...
BUSINESS
May 3, 2001

Vodafone cements local foothold

Britain's Vodafone Group PLC announced Wednesday that it will purchase rival British Telecommunications PLC's shares in Japan Telecom Co., making it the top shareholder of the Japan's third largest telecommunications operator.
LIFE / Digital / CYBERIA
Mar 21, 2001

Unfit to print

I was planning to write about the rivers of blood that are running through world stock markets. Paper losses of $4.5 trillion have a way of drawing the eye and demanding an explanation. But the world intervened. (Devoted cybernauts may get that column yet; stay tuned, kids.)
LIFE / Digital
Dec 20, 2000

Government, industry reassess potential harm of video games

SEATTLE -- Can games desensitize children and teach them how to kill? Video and computer game violence is such a hot topic in the United States that the U.S. Senate has held two sets of hearings on the matter, and several senior senators each year host a conference in which they discuss problems with...
BUSINESS
Dec 6, 2000

Bridgestone head denies Firestone may go under

Bridgestone Corp. President Yoichiro Kaizaki on Tuesday dismissed a news report that its U.S. subsidiary, Bridgestone/Firestone Inc., may go bankrupt under massive damage claims sought against the U.S. unit over a tire recall scandal.
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2000

No dispute over interpretation of 1956 pact: Kono

Japan believes its interpretation of a 1956 joint declaration with the then Soviet Union that stipulates two of the four disputed islands off Hokkaido be returned to Japan after a peace treaty is signed is the same as Russia's, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono said Friday.
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2000

Museum buffs image of newspapers

YOKOHAMA -- A museum visit is not likely to raise the pulse rates of children these days, and a museum dedicated to newspapers seems certain to draw only yawns.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2000

MSDF officer arrested, admits spying for Russia

The Metropolitan Police Department and Kanagawa Prefectural Police arrested Lt. Cmdr. Shigehiro Hagisaki, a researcher at the Defense Agency's National Institute for Defense Studies, on suspicion of violating the Self-Defense Forces Law, which prohibits SDF members from divulging classified security...

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami