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JAPAN
Jun 4, 2003

Professor embezzled research grants

The University of Tokyo decided Tuesday that Osamu Tsutsumi, a gynecology professor who serves as Crown Princess Masako's chief doctor, should be suspended from duty for a month for embezzling state research grants.
MORE SPORTS
Jun 4, 2003

Youth soccer school set to open

A weekly soccer academy for kindergarten and elementary school children will be held every Thursday afternoon beginning Sept. 11 at Komazawa Olympic Park in Setagaya, Tokyo, organizers have announced.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 1, 2003

Black Ships of 'shock and awe'

Whatever Washington would have the world think, many people will only ever believe that the recent U.S. invasion of Iraq was for oil. However, U.S. power diplomacy of the Bush administration's "neoconservative" type is neither a new phenomenon, nor one confined to the Muslim Middle East.
EDITORIALS
May 30, 2003

Self-help is the best help for banks

The latest earnings reports from Japan's top banks confirm what everyone already knows: They are still heavily burdened with bad loans that won't be paid back. In the financial year that ended March 31, the seven largest lenders chalked up a combined deficit of 4.6 trillion yen, in large part because...
BUSINESS
May 28, 2003

Citizen Watch recovers to post profit

Citizen Watch Co. reported Tuesday a group net profit of 5.82 billion yen for the year that ended March 31, a turnaround from a loss of 12.61 billion yen the previous year.
BUSINESS
May 27, 2003

Kumagai Gumi falls deep into red

Ailing construction firm Kumagai Gumi Co. fell into the red in fiscal 2002. The general contractor blamed poor sales and massive extraordinary losses, including appraisal losses on its fixed assets.
EDITORIALS
May 27, 2003

Stage set for Iraq's reconstruction

With last week's almost unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution lifting economic sanctions against Iraq, the stage is set for a multilateral drive to rebuild the war-shattered country. The effort will be led by the occupying powers, the United States and Britain, but the international community will...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 25, 2003

Kansai rides the onsen wave

It's a sunny Saturday afternoon, and Spa World in Osaka's Naniwa Ward is crowded with people of all ages drawn to its 16 different kinds of baths. True to its name, it's an onsen theme park with a global approach.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / PLAY BUTTON
May 25, 2003

Classic country without the hair spray

Neko (pronounced like Nico) Case certainly has the tresses to make it in Nashville. Her long luxurious auburn locks would need only a little coaxing and a lot of hair spray for a Loretta Lynn do.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 24, 2003

Dancing hands are guides along path of healing

Ray Baskerville is tall, lean, articulate and easy to talk to, and his hands weave mysterious patterns in the air as he heals clients back to physical and spiritual well-being.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
May 22, 2003

Katydid

* Japanese name: Sesuji tsuyumushi * Scientific name: Ducetia japonica * Description: Katydids (also known as bush crickets) belong to a family of grasshoppers and crickets called the Tettigoniidae. The insects in this family have very long antennae, like threads, sometimes two or three times the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
May 21, 2003

Who, what, when, where -- why?

My good friend Tatsumi Orimoto, now one of Japan's best-known artists, has made his mother a central subject in his work for the last several years. This, he once explained to me, is because she always supported him in his creative efforts -- efforts that are, in a word, unorthodox: in one, he famously...
BUSINESS
May 20, 2003

BOJ pumps 1 trillion yen into financial mart

In an effort to maintain stability in the financial system, the Bank of Japan on Monday provided financial institutions with 1 trillion yen via purchases of discount bills.
BUSINESS
May 20, 2003

Medical firm pins hopes on skin-graft technology

Masaharu Inami received a call in 1996 from a Nara doctor desperate to save the life of a 17-month-old girl who had fallen into a bathtub of boiling water and had been scalded over 65 percent of her body.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 18, 2003

Top-floor Tokyo

It was 10:30 on a cloudy weekday morning in May, and 40-year-old Masakazu Meguro and his coworkers who make up Calcio Atleta las Manos were happily spending the morning of their precious day off to playing "futsal."
COMMENTARY
May 17, 2003

Let Asia resolve the North Korean crisis

WASHINGTON -- The Iraq war is over, but the Korean Peninsula is growing hotter. Obvious disagreement over policy toward the North has clouded South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun's visit to the United States, while Washington's recent nuclear talks with North Korea ended in acrimony. U.S. President George...
BUSINESS
May 17, 2003

JAL expects revenue to fall by 162 billion yen

Japan Airlines System Corp. revealed Friday that it could lose revenue of 162 billion yen during the current fiscal year due to a drastic fall in passengers on international flights.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2003

Kawasaki Heavy chief gets new role

Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. will have managing director Takashi Sugo concurrently serve as chairman of scandal-hit affiliate Nippi Corp., Kawasaki Heavy sources said Friday.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2003

Fuji Heavy's profit tumbles 23.7%

Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., maker of Subaru vehicles, reported Friday a consolidated operating profit of 67.52 billion yen for the year through March 31, down 23.7 percent from fiscal 2001.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 17, 2003

Defensive perfume: to use, just fling it

It was a bad Japan day. After a full day of teaching into the evening, the train was too crowded to find a seat on the way home, and just as I was taking up the old Japanese horse tradition (sleeping while standing), a drunk "salaryman" sidled up and accosted me with bad English for an entire 30 minutes....
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
May 14, 2003

Get your tickets for Diamondbacks Day

The Pacific League Nippon Ham Fighters will hold their second annual Arizona Diamondbacks Day promotion on Sunday, June 15, at Tokyo Dome.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
May 14, 2003

A 'smashing' place for pots

It was 20 years ago today . . . that the famous Kikuchi Collection of Modern Japanese Ceramics was shown to "smashing" reviews at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. The 300-piece collection sparked a great interest in modern and contemporary Japanese ceramics that has continued to this day. The...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 14, 2003

Grrrls grrrls grrrls

A few weeks ago, Courtney Love placed an ad in the Village Voice for a new set of backing musicians. She not unreasonably specified that they had to be able to play their instruments. Not just that, but they had to be female. And not just female -- but "goddesses."
BUSINESS
May 13, 2003

IC tags may displace book bar codes

Publishers and bookstores are considering replacing bar codes on books with ultra-thin integrated circuits combined with flat antennas, called IC tags, to prevent shoplifting and facilitate market research.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 13, 2003

Fingerprint IDs touted as leading security option

Have you ever forgotten your PIN number when attempting to withdraw cash from a bank ATM? If so, you are a target user for fingerprint identification systems.
EDITORIALS
May 11, 2003

Myanmar's gestures are not enough

Once again, the military government in Myanmar has made a symbolic gesture to placate international critics. The release of political prisoners is always welcome, but the government in Yangon does not question its right to use the opposition as pawns. The game must stop; nothing less than systemic reform...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 11, 2003

Koreans make good moves

THE KOREAN DIASPORA IN THE WORLD ECONOMY, edited by C. Fred Bergsten and Inbom Choi. Washington D.C.: Institute for International Economics, Special Report 15, January 2003, 180 pp., $25 (paper) In recent years, increasing attention has been given to the social and economic role of diasporas -- communities...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 11, 2003

Moon over Matsushima

"God made me the messenger of the new heaven and the new earth of which he spoke in the Apocalypse . . ."
BUSINESS
May 10, 2003

Lending falls 64th month in row

The balance of loans by banks fell 4.6 percent in April from a year earlier, the 64th straight month of decline, the Bank of Japan said Friday in a preliminary report.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 10, 2003

Law unto himself meets Japanese country singer

Hearing a great cover of the country song "All You Ever Do Is Hurt Me" as he descended into Kenny's Country Music Station one Saturday evening in 2001, Chicago-born Dan Rosen wondered who the American woman singing it was. Imagine his surprise, then, when he looked at the stage and heard "this big, really...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years