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BUSINESS
Oct 7, 2003

Tokyo to get world's first IP mobiles

IP Talk Corp. said Monday it will start providing Internet-protocol mobile telephone services in March, allowing free calls between subscribers and extremely low rates for calls to fixed-line numbers and overseas.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Oct 7, 2003

Do you think the foreign population in a major contributor to the rising crime rate?

Arisa Yokoyama Real Estate, 28
BUSINESS
Oct 7, 2003

Mizuho outlook brighter following Nikkei surge

Mizuho Financial Group Inc. said Monday it has raised its earnings forecast for the fiscal first half, citing the recent stock market advance, lower-than-expected credit costs and special tax returns.
BUSINESS
Oct 7, 2003

Fuji Heavy unveils powerful hybrid engine

Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. unveiled a new gasoline-electric hybrid engine equipped with a more powerful motor at a technology workshop held Monday by the General Motors Corp. group in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Oct 7, 2003

1 trillion yen cut planned for local subsidies in '04

The Finance Ministry plans to cut subsidies to local governments by 1 trillion yen in the budget for fiscal 2004, ministry officials said Monday.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 7, 2003

Lions ask Matsui to stay next year

Seibu Lions infielder Kazuo Matsui, who became eligible for free agency this season and has drawn the interest of several major league clubs, has already been asked to return to the Pacific League club next season, general manager Kenji Ono said Monday.
BUSINESS
Oct 7, 2003

Over-39 crowd out of luck at SMBC

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and Sumitomo Mitsui Card Co. said Monday they will jointly issue automated teller machine cards with credit functions targeting people in their 20s and 30s, starting Nov. 10.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / A GAIJIN'S TALE
Oct 7, 2003

Taking stick

Hanging around on matsuri day in my town in Akita-ken, these two old guys invited me to a pre-matsuri party. Sensing a great opportunity to meet the locals, I sat around a table guzzling massive amounts of hot sake with about 20 old geezers.
COMMENTARY
Oct 7, 2003

Japan's diplomatic needs

In his second Cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi retained both Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and Defense Agency Director General Shigeru Ishiba. This promises continuity in Japan's foreign and defense policy, at least for the next three years in which Koizumi is likely to serve as...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 7, 2003

Time to come clean on foreign crime wave

For those who read and watch the Japanese press, these are scary times. Foreign crime is allegedly on the rise, members of the new Koizumi Cabinet are making clear policy statements against it, and the National Police Agency is ready for a new push.
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2003

FTC to issue 'Star Wars' warning

The Fair Trade Commission is planning to issue a warning to a movie distributor for discouraging sales of discount tickets for "Star Wars Episode 2," in violation of the Antimonopoly Law, industry sources said Sunday.
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2003

Rash of rice burglaries continues

Rice was stolen in three separate incidents Sunday morning in Niigata, Ibaraki and Chiba prefectures amid a rising number of thefts following this autumn's poor harvest.
EDITORIALS
Oct 6, 2003

Can Rengo stand up for the weak?

Over the years the image of Japanese trade unions as labor's standard bearer has become steadily tarnished. Their activities no longer hit the headlines except during annual labor-management negotiations. Even the name "shunto" -- the spring labor offensive -- now seems almost irrelevant because the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2003

Tanaka delays declaring, disappointing supporters

Former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka, despite the strong urging of her supporters, stopped short Sunday of officially announcing her candidacy in a general election to be held in November.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2003

Japan Highway president is sacked

Land, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Nobuteru Ishihara told Japan Highway Public Corp. President Haruho Fujii on Sunday to hand in his resignation Monday to take responsibility for the semigovernmental firm's controversial balance sheet.
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2003

Industry sounds out of key in its campaign against P2P

WASHINGTON -- The recording industry seems to believe that there is no greater enemy of all that is good and wonderful than peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing technologies. Thus the Recording Industry Association of America's campaign to sue grandkids and grandparents who violate copyrights by swapping...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2003

Taiwan trying to shake off the old labels

HONOLULU -- In ancient China, a rational sage named Hsun Tzu fashioned what came to be a principle of Chinese thought, the rectification of names. It was vital to clear thinking, Hsun Tzu said, that things be called by the right name.
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2003

Japan's priority: offsetting pull toward jobless recovery

U.S. President George W. Bush's military unilateralism has destabilized the world order to such an extent that, facing a dearth of low-risk, high-return investments, Western investors have descended on the Japanese stock market.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2003

DPJ adds five pledges to election manifesto

Pledging to take power in the upcoming general election, the Democratic Party of Japan and the Liberal Party celebrated their merger Sunday at a national convention in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2003

Temperatures fall around nation

Mount Hakkoda in Aomori Prefecture was capped with snow Sunday for the first time this year as temperatures around Japan fell to levels usually seen in mid-October, the Meteorological Agency said.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2003

British National Party must be stopped

BRUSSELS -- There has been a step-change in the activity and success of the British National Party. It is now a serious element in electoral politics. Driven by new ways to attract voters, party members no longer cry "repatriation." Instead, their slogan "pensioners before asylum seekers" is aimed at...

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