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BUSINESS
Jun 4, 2005

Softbank, eAccess to try cell phone market

Japan's telecommunication regulators said Friday they will allow two newcomers into the mobile phone market for the first time in 12 years to prompt more competition in a realm dominated by three top providers.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jun 3, 2005

Nobody believes Brown's latest charade

NEW YORK -- This farce has gone far enough.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jun 3, 2005

Miyaji, Matsunaka blast flying Hawks to win over the Tigers

Katsuhiko Miyaji hit a three-run homer in the second inning Thursday and Nobuhiko Matsunaka added a two-run blast in the third as the surging Softbank Hawks defeated the Hanshin Tigers 9-7 in interleague play.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2005

Man allegedly held women captive for months at two flats

Police served a fresh arrest warrant Thursday on a 24-year-old man who allegedly held a 23-year-old woman captive for about four months last year.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2005

Lowly loincloth making a comeback

Tartan, paisley and geometric patterns in red, blue and other colors are catching the eyes of young shoppers in the men's clothing section of Mitsukoshi Ltd.'s Ginza store.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2005

Aardvark posed as a penguin?

A runaway southern tamandua was found unharmed in a penguin enclosure at a Tokyo aquarium Thursday, some 20 hours after it had vanished, aquarium officials said.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2005

96,000 people listed as missing in '04

About 96,000 people nationwide disappeared from their homes last year, the first time in four years the figure has dipped to below the 100,000 mark, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 3, 2005

Jakarta leader backs FTA talks but balks on UNSC bid

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono agreed Thursday to launch talks for a free-trade accord as part of a comprehensive bilateral economic partnership.
EDITORIALS
Jun 3, 2005

Premise of mutual confidence

The long-standing problem of the Northern Territories has been weighing heavily on relations between Japan and Russia. Summit talks between the two countries in the past have lifted hopes for a new development toward a settlement. Each time, though, hopes waned in due course because a new Soviet or Russian...
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2005

Narita offers to cut landing fees by 20% but add new charges

Narita International Airport Corp. said Thursday that it has submitted a proposal to the International Air Transport Association to cut its landing fees by an average of more than 20 percent.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Jun 3, 2005

A bridge through time

The arched bridge highlighted in the accompanying wood-cut print is Senju Ohashi on the northern perimeter of Edo City. Built in 1594 at the head of the Sumida River, close to its junction with the Ara River, Senju Ohashi was the only bridge Shogun Ieyasu allowed to be built across a major river around...
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2005

Japan to hold major fashion event in autumn

A group of Japanese designers, apparel industry experts and textile makers will organize a major fashion event in Tokyo this fall after the Paris Collection in France, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2005

Fishing boat standoff resolved

Japan and South Korea reached an accord Thursday to end a 33-hour standoff over control of a South Korean fishing boat suspected of poaching in Japan's exclusive economic zone, the Japan Coast Guard said.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2005

Nihon Keizai hit for dodging income tax on 840 million yen

The Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau has found that business newspaper publisher Nihon Keizai Shimbun Inc. failed to declare about 840 million yen in income for three years to December 2003, sources said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jun 3, 2005

Sumitomo card unit in China tieup

Sumitomo Mitsui Card Co. said Thursday it has forged a tieup with China UnionPay Co. that will allow Chinese travelers to use UnionPay credit and cash cards in Japan, beginning in the current fiscal year.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2005

Burglary-slaying suspect extradited

Police said Thursday they have arrested a South Korean man handed over to Japan under a bilateral extradition treaty in connection with a series of burglaries in Tokyo in 2003 and his possible involvement in a robbery-murder.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2005

Koizumi cites 'creed' as defense for remarks on shrine visits

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Thursday brushed aside criticism of his earlier remarks urging other countries not to interfere with his contentious visits to Yasukuni Shrine and said the trips are based on his "creed."
BUSINESS
Jun 3, 2005

Itochu plans major Iran investment

Trading giant Itochu Corp. announced Thursday that it will launch a partnership with two Thai firms in a bid to begin producing polyethylene in Iran in 2008 in a deal that would make it the first Japanese company to invest in Iran since 1989.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2005

Hamauzu censured for false charge

The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly adopted a motion Thursday to censure Vice Gov. Takeo Hamauzu for falsely accusing a metro vocational school of mismanagement.
BUSINESS
Jun 3, 2005

Ruling bloc bill to put card theft onus on banks

The Liberal Democratic Party and coalition partner New Komeito agreed Thursday to a bill that would require financial institutions to compensate depositors for losses incurred from stolen or forged cash cards unless the users are mainly at fault, officials from the two parties said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2005

Koizumi dismissals stir up Kasumigaseki

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi last month abruptly dismissed two senior Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry officials he believes were not cooperating with his effort to privatize the postal services.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2005

High court upholds 14-year sentence for gang-rape leader

The Tokyo High Court on Thursday upheld a lower court-imposed 14-year prison term for a former Waseda University student who led a group that gang-raped three college students.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jun 3, 2005

Da Pasquale: Premium pizza in a spiced-up setting

The hunt for the perfect pizza, much like the surfer's search for the ultimate wave, is an unending quest. That doesn't mean we are never satisfied. On occasion we have come tantalizingly close to achieving our goal. And for that we must thank the good folks at Isola.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2005

Suicides top 30,000 for seventh year

Suicides in Japan topped 30,000 for the seventh straight year in 2004, with men accounting for more than two-thirds of the number, according to a report released by the National Police Agency on Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2005

223,000 homes stop paying fees to NHK; many cite neighbors' refusal

An additional 223,000 households have elected to no longer pay their NHK fees since the end of March, the public broadcaster announced Thursday.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight