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COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2004

Labor is game but Howard forges on

SYDNEY -- It is fitting that an Australia-U.S. free-trade agreement should be signed the day Prime Minister John Howard celebrated 30 years in Federal Parliament. Both events mark historic steps in Australian politics and in a firm alliance with the United States.
BUSINESS
May 26, 2004

Japan Telecom sale precipitates loss for Vodafone

Vodafone Holdings K.K. on Tuesday reported a net loss of 100 billion yen for the year that ended March 31, due mainly to losses stemming from the sale of its fixed-line unit.
EDITORIALS
May 25, 2004

Mr. Singh's promise

The selection of Mr. Manmohan Singh as prime minister designate in India is a welcome development. Mr. Singh is a known quantity, committed to continuing the positive legacies of the former government while smoothing their rough edges. Equally important, his appointment represents the healing of one...
OLYMPICS
May 25, 2004

Japan spikers fall to China in qualifier

Japan suffered its first defeat at the men's final qualifying volleyball tournament for this summer's Athens Olympics in Tokyo on Sunday after going down 3-2 to China.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / A GAIJIN'S TALE
May 25, 2004

Return to spender

Popping into a convenience store one day, I collected all the stuff that I needed to buy and went to the cash counter to pay. However, as the store clerk computed my bill, I put my hand in my pocket to get out my money but there was none there. My husband had given me 10,000 yen that morning and I had...
JAPAN
May 25, 2004

70% positive on Koizumi trip: poll

Nearly 70 percent of respondents to a latest Kyodo News poll gave a positive assessment of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's one-day visit to North Korea on Saturday, but as many as 83.9 percent said they think the abduction issue remains unresolved.
BUSINESS
May 25, 2004

Sumitomo Trust's group net balance back in black

Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co. said Monday its group net balance last business year returned to the black at 79.63 billion yen, partly due to a plunge in its loan-loss charges.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 25, 2004

More pension information and hiking

Pension I I am a foreign national living and working in Japan. I have heard that when I leave Japan, I will be reimbursed for my contributions to the national insurance , unemployment insurance or national pension plans.
JAPAN
May 25, 2004

Koizumi's Pyongyang trip: Was it politically motivated?

Many high-ranking officials of the Foreign Ministry and Prime Minister's Official Residence had urged caution, saying the idea was too risky and too early.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 25, 2004

Viewers upset over digital TV taping restrictions

Measures implemented by NHK and private TV broadcasting companies to control the copying of digital television programs have drawn a flood of complaints from TV users, with some saying they have been deprived of certain editing freedoms.
BUSINESS
May 25, 2004

Shinsei to settle 'fraudulent' sale of resort property

Shinsei Bank said Monday it has agreed to pay 21.8 billion yen in damages to a failed resort developer to settle a legal dispute over sales of the developer's properties by the bank's predecessor.
JAPAN
May 25, 2004

North Korea aid depends on abductee probe

Japan will not restart normalization negotiations with North Korea unless Pyongyang fulfills its promise to reinvestigate the cases of 10 missing Japanese nationals, the government's top spokesman said Monday.
JAPAN
May 25, 2004

Fewer firms inclined to donate to political parties: poll

More than one in four major companies have no plans to make political party donations this year, a Kyodo News survey has reported.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
May 25, 2004

Was Prime Minister Koizumi's trip to North Korea an opportunistic move?

Michio Tajima Accountant, 32 I'm not totally satisfied with what he's done. The pension scandal could be one of the reasons he decided to go, but even so, it's a good thing that he went.
JAPAN
May 25, 2004

70% positive on Koizumi trip: poll

Nearly 70 percent of respondents to a latest Kyodo News poll gave a positive assessment of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's one-day visit to North Korea on Saturday, but as many as 83.9 percent said they think the abduction issue remains unresolved.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 25, 2004

Resona racks up 1.66 trillion yen net loss

Resona Holdings Inc. on Monday reported a group net loss of 1.66 trillion yen for the year that ended March 31, with the bailed-out banking group having spent some 1.41 trillion yen on bad-loan writeoffs.
JAPAN
May 25, 2004

Government, naval base workers fail to settle suit over lung disease

The Japanese government and 22 former workers at the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, failed to agree Monday on a court-recommended settlement of a damages suit filed by the ex-workers, who claim they developed lung disease due to poor health safety measures.
JAPAN
May 25, 2004

Crown Prince returns from trip; reckoning with agency awaits

Crown Prince Naruhito returned home Monday after a 12-day European tour and might publicly explain what he meant by earlier remarks that his wife's personality had been "denied."
BUSINESS
May 25, 2004

Drugmakers ink merger accord

Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co. and Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co. said Monday they have signed a definitive agreement to merge April 1, 2005, to create the nation's second-largest drugmaker in terms of group sales.
JAPAN
May 25, 2004

Harassment issue untouched

News of the successes and failures in the reunification of the families of five Japanese who were repatriated after being abducted to North Korea have been plastered across the front pages of Japanese newspapers in the wake of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Pyongyang on Saturday.
COMMENTARY
May 25, 2004

Iraq and the end of history

U.S. President George W. Bush says often that the American aim in Iraq is to promote something called "democracy." But what is this democracy?
JAPAN
May 25, 2004

Koizumi's Pyongyang trip: Was it politically motivated?

Many high-ranking officials of the Foreign Ministry and Prime Minister's Official Residence had urged caution, saying the idea was too risky and too early.
JAPAN
May 25, 2004

Banking giants log black ink as stocks rise, bad loans fall

All but one of the nation's four major banking groups returned to the black in fiscal 2003, according to their financial reports released Monday.

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