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JAPAN
Apr 16, 2003

Ministry steps up campaign on public works bid-rigging

The land ministry is planning to open a new front in the fight against bid-rigging on public works projects.
BUSINESS
Apr 16, 2003

Ishihara banking plan welcomed

Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka welcomed on Tuesday plans by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara to establish a new type of bank to help spur the local economy.
COMMUNITY
Apr 15, 2003

Shintaro Ishihara on North Korea

"Japan's support for the war is special," believes Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara.
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2003

Privacy debate held in Diet despite opposition boycott

The ruling coalition defied an opposition boycott to hold on Monday a question-and-answer session over a new set of privacy-protection bills and a counterproposal lodged by the opposition.
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2003

Japan lags behind in e-government programs: report

Japan still lags behind in terms of the maturity of e-government programs for the implementation of online services by state agencies, according to a recent survey by U.S. consulting firm Accenture.
EDITORIALS
Apr 13, 2003

In search of the real al-Jazeera

The war in Iraq hasn't been easy for nonparticipants such as Japan to sort out. The most obvious villains were also technically the victims, and the perpetrators of hostilities have looked like invaders one minute, liberators the next. Perceptions and judgments could, and still do, shift like the wind....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 13, 2003

Making a stanza for life

HOW TO HAIKU: A Writer's Guide to Haiku and Related Forms, by Bruce Ross. Tuttle Publishing, 2002, 167 pp., 1800 yen (paper); TAKE A DEEP BREATH: The Haiku Way to Inner Peace, by Sylvia Forges-Ryan & Edward Ryan. Kodansha International, 2002, 129 pp., 1,800 yen (cloth); THE NICK OF TIME: Essays on Haiku...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 13, 2003

Laying the ghosts of doubt in Laos

LOST OVER LAOS, by Richard Pyle and Horst Faas. Da Capa Press, 2002, 239 pp., $30 (cloth) In American hands, the deadly serious business of warfare, the very way war is conducted, can seem at times more like an extension of its own pop culture, a cartoon warp of the real grotesqueries.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 13, 2003

New heroines: women at work

The spring television season has arrived, and with it a new crop of dramas. Most of the leading characters are women, but whereas heroines once meant romance or family themes, this year the theme is work.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 12, 2003

Daw Aye Mi

This year's chairwoman of the Asia-Pacific festival and charity bazaar is Daw Aye Mi, wife of the ambassador of the Union of Myanmar to Japan. She fills her rule appropriately, as charity for her is imperative. A pious lady who likes to play table tennis, she reads a lot, especially religious books....
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2003

Technology school to be built in Onna

A planned technology graduate school in Okinawa will be located in the village of Onna on Okinawa island, Hiroyuki Hosoda, the state minister in charge of Okinawa affairs, said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2003

Nuclear attack response bill drafted

The government has drafted a bill stipulating how it should respond to an attack involving nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2003

Medical facilities ordered to secure SARS masks

The health ministry on Thursday ordered medical institutions and distributors of surgical masks to secure adequate supplies of a certain mask in an attempt to limit the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome should the epidemic hit Japan.
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2003

Bank plans women-only home loan

Chuo Mitsui Trust & Banking Co. will launch on Wednesday a housing loan exclusively for women, featuring a special discount in interest rates when a recipient gives birth.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2003

Futility felt by journalist drives him to show war's true face

Hearing U.S. bombs find their targets and feeling the ground shake under his Baghdad hotel, Kosuke Tsuneoka was struck by the futility of his plan to serve as a "human shield" and stop the war.
BUSINESS
Apr 11, 2003

Exports to Asia help account surplus grow

Japan's current account surplus rose in February for the first time in three months due to strong exports, particularly to other parts of Asia experiencing robust economic growth, the Finance Ministry said Thursday in a preliminary report.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2003

Japan fetes Matsui grand slam

Japan wasted little time in celebrating Hideki Matsui's first home run as a Yankee.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 10, 2003

Field cricket

* Japanese name: Enma korogi * Scientific name: Teleogryllus emma * Description: The field cricket is a black to dark-brown insect, about 25 mm long. Crickets are orthopterans, in the same group as grasshoppers. They have large heads and wings that are folded flat against the back, except when the...
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2003

SARS behind hospital reshuffle

The government will upgrade the classifications of some medical institutions that have low air-pressure sickrooms to deal better with any outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, health minister Chikara Sakaguchi said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Apr 8, 2003

Foreign-exchange reserves at record $496.18 billion

Japan's foreign-exchange reserves at the end of March hit a new record for the fourth straight month, rising $10.92 billion from a month earlier to $496.18 billion, the Finance Ministry said Monday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Apr 8, 2003

Cancer testing, Takkyubin and foreign appliances

Testing for cancer Jeremy S. is seeking a dermatologist with a lot of experience working with Caucasians. Being exceptionally light-skinned, he has been told by dermatologists in America that he needs six-monthly check-ups to catch any possible cancer early.
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2003

Fans celebrate Astro Boy's 'birthday' in Tokyo parade

Wearing red boots and pointy black hats, Japanese revelers paraded down a Tokyo street Sunday as a brass band played "Happy Birthday" in honor of a fictitious robot boy.
EDITORIALS
Apr 7, 2003

A sensible option in Iraq War

With U.S. forces closing in on Baghdad, internecine street-to-street fighting remains a possibility. One can only hope this does not happen. The war reached a decisive stage on Friday when the 3rd Infantry Division seized control of Saddam Hussein International Airport on the outskirts of the capital....
JAPAN
Apr 6, 2003

State duped over 104 tons of beef

Around 104 tons of beef the government purchased through a program to help farmers cope with mad cow disease did not meet eligibility requirements, farm ministry officials said Saturday.
JAPAN
Apr 6, 2003

New environment tax to begin in fiscal 2005

The Environment Ministry hopes to introduce a temporary tax on coal, gasoline and other fossil fuels in fiscal 2005 in an effort to reduce the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, ministry sources said Saturday.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan