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JAPAN
Sep 14, 2002

North Korea keeps NPA guessing

The first-ever Japan-North Korea summit, slated for next Tuesday in Pyongyang, has left Japanese police wondering what role they will play in the security arrangements, police sources said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MUSEUM MUSINGS
Sep 14, 2002

Romantic-era painter's works bring old-fashioned district of Tokyo to life

For anyone who enjoys the sight of old-fashioned Japanese houses and the rich culture that flourished in the early 1900s, the Nezu residential district of central Tokyo is a wonderful place for a stroll.
BUSINESS
Sep 14, 2002

Aichi Steel unit inks car parts deal

Aichi Steel Corp. said Friday its wholly owned subsidiary in the United States will begin producing sintered automobile parts in October. The special steel maker is affiliated with Toyota Motor Corp.
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2002

Corporate governance re-examined: S&P

Growing investor demand and more than a decade of economic stagnation are forcing Japanese companies to re-examine their traditional corporate governance practices, Standard & Poor's Corp. said in reports released Thursday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 13, 2002

Manager's gaffe, Petagine's bat pay off for Yakult

Wearing a T-shirt and shorts, Yakult pitcher Yataro Sakamoto was sitting back in front of the TV at the Jingu Stadium clubhouse prior to Thursday's game against the Hanshin Tigers. It was his night off in the rotation.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Sep 13, 2002

Giant hornet

* Japanese name: Oo-suzumebachi * Scientific name: Vespa mandarinia japonica * Description: This monster is the largest social wasp in the world. Workers grow to between 25 and 35 mm long, drones (males) up to 45 mm long, and queens a startling 55 mm in length. Giant hornets have wide, orange heads...
BUSINESS
Sep 12, 2002

Major builders' merger still under construction

Mitsui Construction Co. and Sumitomo Construction Co. said Wednesday progress is being made in their business integration talks but no specifics have been settled.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 12, 2002

The discord and rhyme of Japanese rules

The sea, and Mount Fuji, 'closed' for another year on Aug. 31. Is it madness, or is it just Japan. On Aug. 31, the sea closed on my local beach.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 12, 2002

Osaka city to honor Tokuyama

OSAKA -- Reigning World Boxing Council (WBC) super flyweight champion Masamori Tokuyama is to receive a special award for his contribution to sport from Osaka Mayor Takafumi Isomura.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 12, 2002

Words on Apple, more on pets and culture vultures

Last Apple bite As promised last time, Apple-man Anthony Walter of Caliburn responds to queries about Macintosh computers in Japan.
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2002

Future use of Okinawa land mulled

The government on Tuesday held its first conference aimed at discussing the use of land in Okinawa that is to be vacated when U.S. military bases, including the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station, are relocated.
BUSINESS
Sep 11, 2002

Budget requests total 86.78 trillion yen

Requests for the fiscal 2003 general account budget from government ministries and agencies stand at 86.78 trillion yen, up 6.8 percent from the initial budget for the current fiscal year, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Sep 11, 2002

New plastic optical fiber promises cut in connection costs

Fuji Photo Film Co. said Tuesday it has developed a plastic optical fiber that allows households to set up networks for broadband communications more cheaply than with conventional fiber-optic cables.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EMBASSY ROW
Sep 11, 2002

Ambassador embarks on drive to put Aussie beef back on grill

Australian Ambassador to Japan John McCarthy is spearheading a campaign to get Australian beef back on Japanese dinner plates by taking part in a series of forums across the nation this week.
BUSINESS
Sep 10, 2002

Lending by banks dropped 4.5% in August: BOJ

Lending by Japanese banks fell 4.5 percent in August from a year earlier, marking the 56th consecutive month of decline, the Bank of Japan said Monday.
BUSINESS
Sep 10, 2002

IMF official tells Japan to bolster banks

Horst Kohler, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, told Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa on Monday that Japan should bolster its financial institutions, according to a Financial Services Agency official.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Sep 8, 2002

Radio icon pulls plug on show after world-record 45 years

Her achievement is nothing special, she says. But the thing that has kept Chieko Akiyama going throughout her unprecedented career is the human energy radiating from the people she meets.
EDITORIALS
Sep 8, 2002

Bye-bye, Betamax

A t the tail end of August, a brief obituary ran in business pages around the world: The Betamax VCR format was dead. Sony had just announced that it would stop manufacturing its Betamax video-recording machines by year's end and concentrate instead on DVD and other new technologies.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 8, 2002

Judicial biases shape the American way

NEW YORK -- The first time I knew that Japan's Supreme Court was not really supreme but just another political arm of the state was when it ruled on the Sunagawa Incident. In December 1959, it reversed the Tokyo District Court's ruling that the Japan-U.S. Mutual Security Treaty was unconstitutional....
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2002

Public backs road entity privatization

A majority of the people polled by Kyodo News support privatization of the nation's four public road entities but oppose a total freeze on construction of highways that would not be commercially viable.
COMMUNITY
Sep 8, 2002

Hey Taxi!

An arm stuck out from the sidewalk and Hideaki pulled up his cab, let the customer in . . . and immediately sensed trouble.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 8, 2002

The Japanese attachment to umbilical cords

In James Joyce's "Ulysses," the hero Stephen Dedalus imagines making a telephone call to Eden using an umbilical cord as a cable. The humor of the scene derives from the wry disregard that most Westerners have for this most curious of temporary appendages, this ultimate reason for the belly-button.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 8, 2002

The 21st-century Yujiro Ishihara's brother

Several years ago, the production company that used to be headed by the late heartthrob Yujiro Ishihara staged a contest to find the "Yujiro Ishihara of the 21st Century." Among the aspiring young actors who entered the contest was Kotaro Koizumi, whose politician father was not yet prime minister. Kotaro...
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2002

More hibakusha seek recognition as sufferers of radiation sickness

Survivors of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki asked prefectural governments Friday to recognize them as sufferers of radiation sickness.
BUSINESS
Sep 7, 2002

Postal panel compiles final report

An advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday compiled a final report featuring three plans for the future privatization of the nation's postal services.
BUSINESS
Sep 7, 2002

Forex reserves break record again

Japan's foreign-exchange reserves hit a new record for the fifth month in a row at the end of August, rising $2.98 billion from a month earlier to $456.07 billion, the Finance Ministry said Friday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / FOR KIDS
Sep 6, 2002

The bittersweet business of chocolate

Rich, creamy chocolate . . . Can you resist it? If you can, you're one in a million. Most people's appetite for chocolate seems to know no bounds. Consumers can already choose from thousands of chocolate products, and yet new variants -- such as organic chocolate bars and chocolate-flavored soya milk...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Sep 6, 2002

Dung beetle

* Japanese name: Oosenchikogane * Scientific name: Geotrupes auratus * Description: Dung beetles are robust, powerful insects with an excellent sense of smell. They are metallic-green with a red tint and are 17-22 mm long. The antennae of this family of dung beetles end in a dull club-shape. * Where...

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