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BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2004

Government looks to hike sales tax while still honoring Koizumi's pledge

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government could decide to raise the 5 percent consumption tax rate for implementation after the fall of 2006, when Koizumi's tenure expires, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2004

Recovery ongoing despite June output fall: METI

Although industrial production fell a seasonally adjusted 1.3 percent in June from the previous month, the recovery trend remains unchanged, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2004

Pork import surge draws tariff hike

Japan will raise its tariffs on imported pork from Aug. 1 to March 31 following an import surge in the April-June period, farm ministry officials said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2004

Activist sees Japan as war addict, like U.S. in comic

The Japanese people should learn from their World War II defeat and put pressure on the government to stop the country from sliding back into militarism, the author of an American antimilitarist comic book says.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2004

493 punished for pension info misuse

The Social Insurance Agency said Thursday it has punished 493 officials over a scandal involving unauthorized access to pension-related personal information, such as premium payment records.
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2004

Investors turn up heat on struggling Kanebo

Struggling Kanebo Ltd. faced a storm of questions and criticism Thursday during an extraordinary meeting of shareholders aimed at raising new capital and changing its auditing corporation.
COMMENTARY
Jul 30, 2004

Drawing the line with China

NEW DELHI -- India and China have held regular border-related negotiations since 1981 in the longest such process between two nations since the end of World War II. Yet, after 23 years of negotiations, the two Asian giants have not achieved the bare minimum -- a mutually defined line of control separating...
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2004

Matsushita sees 12-fold rise in profit

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Thursday its net profit for the April-June quarter soared 12-fold to 32.82 billion yen on strong sales of plasma display-panel TVs and cost-cutting efforts.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2004

Supporters seek asylum for chess legend Fischer in Germany

Supporters of fugitive chess legend Bobby Fischer said Thursday in Tokyo that they are asking several nations, including Germany, to offer the American political asylum.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 29, 2004

Tuffy cracks 35th as Giants roll

Tuffy Rhodes and Toshihisa Nishi each homered to drive in five runs and Koji Uehara limited the damage to three runs over seven strong innings as the Yomiuri Giants stomped the Hiroshima Carp 13-3 in the Central League Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2004

Fischer's deportation appeal rejected

Immigration officials have rejected former world chess champion Bobby Fischer's appeal of their decision to deport him for attempting to travel on an invalid U.S. passport, an adviser to Fischer said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2004

Another round of warrants served in dental group scandal

Tokyo prosecutors served a fresh arrest warrant Wednesday on a former Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker suspected of buying votes with money from a scandal-tainted dentists' association before November's House of Representatives election.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2004

Mayors fight Zama troop increase

The mayors of Sagamihara and Zama in Kanagawa Prefecture lodged a joint petition with Tokyo on Wednesday opposing a reported plan to increase the number of U.S. troops at Camp Zama, which stretches across the two cities.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2004

High court upholds death sentence for two culprits in subway gassing

The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday upheld the death sentences meted out to two Aum Shinrikyo figures over their roles in the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2004

FTC moves on bid-rigging

The Fair Trade Commission on Wednesday ordered 113 construction companies to stop rigging bids on public works for the Niigata Municipal Government.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 29, 2004

Who prefers concrete and cars to Tokyo's natural gem?

With its oddly ear-shaped black-and-white striped body, the hammer-size mimigata tennannsho, a grass that grows in the depths of Mount Takao's forests, has long been an object of fascination and loathing to hikers in the western Tokyo quasi-national park, where it's not just its grotesque shape that...
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2004

Pension delinquency down -- nominally

The delinquency rate for national pension premium payments fell to 36.6 percent in fiscal 2003 from a record 37.2 percent the previous year, with the number of people required to pay having declined, the Social Insurance Agency said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2004

Accused deserter Jenkins reassigned to the U.S. forces based in Japan

The United States has reassigned accused U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins to the U.S. forces based in Japan from South Korea, where he was posted when he apparently defected to North Korea in 1965, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Jul 29, 2004

The sustainable whaling option

I t has been just 100 years since Norway began hunting whales in the Antarctic seas, but celebration seems hardly warranted. The International Whaling Commission is effectively paralyzed because its 57 members, split almost equally between prowhaling and antiwhaling nations, are unable to assemble a...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2004

Migrants' remittances home exceed ODA

Elisa Rey puts a wad of yen into a small, brown envelope at her home. Far away in Peru, her monthly remittances -- set aside from her job in an electronics factory south of Tokyo -- have already built a house that few could dream of in her poor suburb of Lima.
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2004

Aozora to boost overseas operations

Aozora Bank, the privatized successor of the nationalized Nippon Credit Bank, plans to expand lending and investing operations in foreign markets, mainly the United States and Europe, an Aozora Bank official said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 29, 2004

UFJ fights to keep MTFG merger hopes alive

UFJ Holdings Inc. said Wednesday it has filed an appeal against a court order to suspend its merger negotiations with Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc., stressing it plans to go ahead with the merger.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jul 29, 2004

Nozaki proposes interleague play

Hanshin Tigers President Katsuyoshi Nozaki said Tuesday he has proposed a two-league system that would involve intensive interleague play as an "ultimate" plan to settle the dispute over realigning the professional baseball system.
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2004

Ministry again maintains upbeat economic assessment

The Finance Ministry on Wednesday kept its upbeat assessment of the economy for the May-July period, bolstered by strong sales of air conditioners and beverages amid the hot summer.

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