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JAPAN
Dec 4, 2003

Grand vision touts rejiggered cities to suit aging population

The infrastructure ministry unveiled action plans Wednesday to revise city planning measures to concentrate welfare, medical and other facilities near stations and municipal offices to meet the needs of the rapidly aging population.
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2003

New highs forecast for imports, exports

Imports and exports are expected to rise to new highs for a third straight year in fiscal 2004, a trade industry association said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2003

Canada to lift ban on Japanese pears

Canada has told Japan it will lift a ban on imports of Japanese-grown pears that began in 1997 due to a quarantine problem, officials of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2003

Pension levels to stay above 50% of income

Cabinet ministers and ruling party executives agreed in principle Wednesday to maintain future pension levels at 50 percent or more of workers' incomes when reforming the public pension system.
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2003

Sony PSX 'for people who want to buy DVD recorders'

The Sony Corp. PSX that goes on sale next week is an audiovisual product and not a new PlayStation video game console, according to the firm and industry watchers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Dec 4, 2003

"Lionboy," "The English Roses"

"Lionboy," Zizou Corder, Puffin Books; 2003; 352 pp. How old do you have to be to write your first book? Thirty years old? Twenty? How about 10? If you're Isabel Adomakoh Young, 10 is as good an age as any.
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2003

Survey finds firms short of manpower

Companies short of manpower in November outnumbered those with too many workers for the first time in almost six years.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Dec 4, 2003

Alarm mars a runaway success story for salmon

In October, I spent some time in Vancouver. I have grown-up children there, as well as grandchildren and a lot of old friends, most of whom I met while working for the Environmental Protection Service. Even though I left Canada in 1978 to come to Japan and pursue the often dubious course of a writer,...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 4, 2003

Learning the finer points of this, that and 'nani'

Like the Japanese economy, the Japanese conversation has dwindled. Our words have lost their luxurious sheen, our sentences have been reduced to short strings of blah. We no longer need the metaphors of Osamu Dazai to convey our emotions, since a handful of familiar phrases have been encoded to cover...
EDITORIALS
Dec 4, 2003

Returning a bank to health

The collapse of Ashikaga Bank, a major regional bank in Tochigi Prefecture, shows that Japan's debt-heavy banking system is not yet out of the woods. The government, which has nationalized the bank temporarily, is expected to provide a cash injection of more than 1 trillion yen. The bank will be sold...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2003

Game-console makers cut prices ahead of yearend showdown

Makers of video game consoles are gearing up for the all-important yearend shopping season.
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2003

Postal service shop for kids to open in May

Japan Post and the operator of Tokyo Disney Resort said Wednesday they will launch a postal service shop for children in May.
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2003

Mergers expected to halve number of municipalities

Mergers will bring the number of cities, towns and villages in Japan to half the current figure by March 2005, according to a Kyodo News survey made available this week.
COMMENTARY
Dec 4, 2003

Ethnic cleansing on the Jordan River

WASHINGTON -- Israel can push even U.S. President George W. Bush too far. The Bush administration says it will cut $290 million of $3 billion in promised loan guarantees because Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government continues to construct settlements and a security fence in the West Bank,...
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2003

Teacher loses battle over 'Kimigayo'

The Tokyo District Court ruled Wednesday against a teacher who refused to play "Kimigayo" on the piano during a public elementary school ceremony in 1999 and later sought to repeal an education board reprimand.
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2003

60% want to call the shots when the end is near

A record 60 percent of people recently surveyed by the health ministry said they favor preparing advance documents to refuse artificial life-support in the event they become terminally ill.
COMMENTARY
Dec 4, 2003

Chirac still feeling the heat

PARIS -- France has not finished paying for the August heat wave and its 10,000 deaths. Vegetable and beef prices have risen, tourism has declined, forest fires have devastated wide areas and the financial impact on the budget has postponed an economic upswing.
CULTURE / Books / THE BOOK REPORT
Dec 4, 2003

Living on 3 million yen a year

Is there a conspiracy among Japanese politicians, economic experts and elite bureaucrats to destroy Japan's egalitarian postwar social and economic systems and replace them with an American-style, dog-eat-dog type of capitalism typified by a society of haves and have-nots? In his best-selling "Nenshu...
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2003

Ex-Tiger unveils campaign platform

OSAKA -- With promises ranging from shrinking the local bureaucracy to having Osaka host an annual Asian Series for baseball, former Hanshin Tigers pitcher Takenori Emoto unveiled his gubernatorial campaign platform Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Dec 3, 2003

A victory for hardliners

Hardliners from both ends of the political spectrum are the winners of elections held in Northern Ireland last week. The polarization of politics is a sign of weariness and wariness on the part of voters and is another blow to the tattered Good Friday peace accords.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2003

Tents left idle in storage as refugees fail to turn up

Most of the tents sent by the government to Jordan as relief aid for Iraqi refugees are gathering dust in storage, according to aid agency officials.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2003

NTV admits airing staged news footage

Nippon Television Network Corp., already reeling from a previous scandal, revealed Tuesday that a Nov. 5 news show contained footage of a bogus lobster catch off the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture.
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2003

War in Iraq not finished yet, government tells lawmaker

The war in Iraq is not over even if the major battles have ended, the government said Tuesday in a written response to an opposition lawmaker.
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 3, 2003

Tuffy Rhodes released

Tuffy Rhodes was formally turned loose from the Pacific League club on Tuesday after the Japan pro baseball commissioner's office released a list of 79 players who were not put on reserve by their respective clubs.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’